C.O.W. #250. Aristotilian Elementals - WIPs Thread

[Si_Swe]

For more info and details about the rules go here:

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/sho...d.php?t=110879


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ROUND #250: Aristotilian Elementals

topic:

ROUND#250 - Aristotilian Elementals


Creature of the week is turning 250, and to celebrate we’re going to do a topic that’s been in high demand for quite a while, for this 2-week round. Elementals have been represented in many ways over the course of fantasy. Some as humanoids, some as amorphous or even semi-abstract. Creature of the Week forbids both of these things, but that doesn’t make the task impossible in the least. Your task is to create between one and four elementals for the basic Aristotilian elements (sans Aether): fire, water, earth and air. The creatures should retain a certain logic to them, and while they need not be made of flesh and bone, they should have form to some degree. If you are planning on making more than one, try to keep an internal logic to your designs; the design of your earth elemental is obviously not going to be the same as the fire elemental, but there should be qualities that identify them as elemental parallels.


Requirements:
- The creature must represent a singular element. That element MUST be one of the four basic elements: Fire, Water, Earth and Air

- Each creature must be at least partially comprised of it’s particular element

- The elemental should have a singular form, which is in a mostly-stable state

- There should be a sense of cohesion between a set of elementals

Deadline:

March 7th, 9:00pm PST (GMT -8 )

[SpiralHorn]

Oh man. Oh man oh man. I think I might literally put my blood, sweat and tears into this one, haha.

[sony]

yummmmmmmmmy.......
if you know what i mean?

found this article guys http://www.cellularuniverse.org/AA3AetherHistory.pdf

[Bertling]

As a game developer this is so much fun!

[spyhopping]

Good and versatile! Love the theme.

And I've noticed this on time, so two whole weeks! I'll be able to give this one a proper shot.

[Urötskidoji]

Great topic!

[SpiralHorn]

I spent the last few hours brainstorming this...now that I have all the details, I can spend the next two weeks figuring out what I want these things to look like :p

I know, I know, I need to make sure that they don't just look like the animals I have here. These guys are just my springboard.

So yeah. I like patterns and symmetry and for things to "fit", so this was a lot of fun. My theme, or connecting element, is the cosmic spiral. I'm taking from different Indo-European traditions, and kind of injecting my own spirituality.

The colors I chose for each element have been used before, but they aren't very common. So I didn't just, you know, make them up so I could use complimentary color schemes or anything...

[Pixeltuner]

Cool ^_^ Nice braintraining exercise to get a cohesive group of designs

[SpiralHorn]

Yeah, it helps to get this kind of stuff figured out first, at least for me.

[SeverdHead]

this one will require a lot of planning, that means i actually have to use my brain

[Flashback]

http://www.iep.utm.edu/aris-met/
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ar...e-metaphysics/

Read up on Plato too because they build on each other.
Socrates
Plato
Aristotle

[Ironbyte]

Fun subject. A couple of ideas to start with, tried not to make these too amorphous and shape them for moving around within the element.

[Rob Powell]

Started working on the fire elemental, for a (hopefully) future project I had an idea of this cobra-like serpent of fire. This is a good oppurtunity to render it out. Design is painfully boring at this point, but I will add stuff as I go, hopefully making it more interesting. This is only like a twenty minute rough so nothings really where it should be. Still have no idea what to do with the tail. I'm still brainstorming the others, but might as well get started on this one.

[SpiralHorn]

Awesome start Rob. Maybe if you had the tail in a curl on the right side of the painting, pointing back towards the serpent? Or moved the canvas down a bit and had it wrapped around the rock.

[peace--out]

Still very rough... But given that I'm just really figuring out ArtRage on my iPad and this is the first time I'm tossing anything on CO, it's a start.

Concept's an earth based Bolas Spider that hunts by tossing rocks at birds.

[DefiledVisions]

cool!

[Eclectix]

I may jump into this one, but if I do I'm tempted to do elemental dragons. Not terribly original I know, but sometimes old school is the best school. We'll see.

[DefiledVisions]

Got some ideas aswell.. in the middle of studies so don't know how much sparetime I have inbetween freelance work and homework, but.. I hope to be able to sneak in atleast one concept during these two weeks.

Eclectix, hey.. I was thinking Draconian too.. damnit

[Forgemaster]

It's good to see so much interest in a subject. If y'all do make dragons, promise me some bad-ass design!

[Si_Swe]

I won't go insofar as to forbid doing dragons, I love dragons as much as the next guy, and more than some. What I would like to point out is that it is not "elemental dragons", so try and see what you can do to branch out from that, thing more abstractly than existing creatures given an element. You're not just making elemental creatures, but a creature which itself represents that element. I think it's important to note that your creature, while it must have a consistent form, need not be made from stable materials like flesh and bone.

[Flashback]

Maybe knowing some Greek fauna would help.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fauna_of_Europe
http://www.club100.net/index.html (Snakes, lizards, turtles, so on)

Would it be a motif rather then being completely fire, or water, or earth, or air?

[DefiledVisions]

Thanks for pointing that out Si_Swe, what I had in mind regarding dragon-ish wasn't a firedragon, airdragon, waterdragon and so forth.. but rather pure flame with a head reminiscent of that of a dragon, earth in a form that reads similar to a dragons and so on.

[Firith]

Here is my wip for a fire elemental, not sure if I m going through with it maybe if I get some inspiration from your wips I ll change it!

[Forgemaster]

Firith with your current upper body design the creature looks very humanoid. Perhaps a varied location of the shoulder apparatus, or quantity of varied arms will give it a more beastly appearance?

[Stephane Perez]

Here is a little earth sketch i made, I'm still trying to get a feel for this ill probably play with the shape a bit and make some silhouette sketches

[Jager]

hello cow, an idea for earth

[Forgemaster]

That is a really nice palette Jager and multi-eyed mammals have a special place in my heart. The rear leg design looks a little awkward and uncomfortable in function - it leaves me with the impression of the critter cowering. Hope that helps!

[ToddBushman]

Here's my initial take on the subject with a dragon tornado. Very rough still, just working out the idea of my air elemental.

[Rob Powell]

Progress on my fire elemental, and started working on the air elemental...concepts really need to be pushed a bit at this point, but still indicating my ideas and composition. I see some potential in both of them, now to come up with an idea for earth and water...hrmmm

^changed the pose a bit to push the serpentine qualities a little further, still needs some extra details so it's more than just a charcoal cobra with arms

^thinking of the possibility of adding something to indicate scale for the air elemental, like a mountain top with some kind of building or something, cuz this bird is supposed to be pretty big.

[ToddBushman]

Rob: looking very cool. I was thinking about a Phoenix/bird for an air elemental before I went with what I'm working on, I really like the direction of that.

Here's my WIP #2...