C.O.W. - #092: The Architect - Voting!

[Fozzybar]

ROUND #092 VOTING

Topic: The Architect

Deadline for the voting: Tuesday, 31st July 2007

Posting thread (closed):
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/sho...d.php?t=101697


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OK - before voting/posting read this!!!

1. Please give c&c or a reason why you voted for the image!

2. Feel free to comment on any or all entries, the artists will appreciate it!

3. No voting for your own entry!!! If a participants votes for his own entry, every member has the right to call him a stupid lame moron in this thread! And i will delete his/her vote anyway...

[Fozzybar]

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artist: Snarfevs
concept: Rainbow Bower Pseudoshrimp
These graceful flying crustaceans raid nearby forests for a supply of trees, which they deposit upside down into coastal mudflats to form the circular nests/follies they use to attract mates. They cement trees in place against the tide through a combination of mud, a secreted resin and the powerful drying effect of blowing hot air through their hyponomes. They embellish their bowers with any appealing objects they can carry away, including but not limited to small vehicles and important pieces of infrastructure. The webs of resin strung between trunks tend to be geometrically significant and replete with representations of pentagrams, platonic solids, logarithmic spirals and so on. Unfortunately droves of wiccans, christians, neo-hermeticists, mathematicians, kabbalistic scholars and indeed people who just want to get their bicycles back have severely stressed populations worldwide in recent decades.


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artist: Sovereign
concept:
Dearest Uncle Ludus,
We have just now reached the plains of Rothien after our caravan was led astray though the scrublands south of the Hindar empire. What an adventure that was, I can tell you! Enyd was very nearly run down by a duo of duelling Ghak on the first evening, and spent the night up a tree that could barely hold her slight weight, you can imagine the look on her face I’m sure. Anyway, the expedition has proved more successful than I could ever have imagined, and there was a further surprise today when we lucked upon a herd of the fabled Banoks. Fearsome and majestic they are my dear Uncle, the head of the male is heavily armoured and the tallest must stand at ten metres high! From what we have seen, the horns are rarely used and seem more a means of intimidation or defence, especially against any attack on the gland beneath the chin. This gland secretes a type of resin which the male weaves his long hairs into to form a type of cage to protect his harem’s eggs. The largest one is the dominant, to be sure, as he has the largest set of horns with which to ward off rival males, and his creations are the most beautiful of all. The books I have read do not do justice to the beauty of these gentle grazers, and I can see now why the monks at the Sipang temples call them “the architects”. The landscape around us is littered with the giant cages of their making. Some are broken and abandoned, but it would have taken a mighty blow to damage them, as they are incredibly strong. I suspect some of those surrounding us have stood for thousands of years. It is said that the Banoks have no natural predators, however the tenacious rock vultures are a great danger for the eggs and young. Banoks only produce one clutch of two eggs per year, and so protection of the offspring is crucial for their survival. I only hope we get to see some of the young ones up close! Will be writing again soon,
Your favourite Nephew,
Issale


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artist: Goog
concept: The Poop architect
Due to living on the grass plains, and their shortness, the females of these creatures use their own feces to construct towers to signal the males that they are ready for baby-making. These towers attract the males through means of smell, as well as their height over the grass plains. The more poop, the smellier and higher the tower, thus increasing the females chance of attracting a mate.


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artist: Gorromog
concept:


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artist: RebornBacon
concept: Morbid Architekt (female)
The morbid architekt lives in shallow swamps, using it's long tail to steer itself through the mud it digs it's claws into the floor allowing it to move forward slowly. Although it's an incredibly cumbersome creature and only able to move at around 10kmp/h that's a hell of a lot faster then people can move through it's habitat. Despite the danger there is no shortage of human prey as the muddy swamps are full of important ingredients for food and medicine.
The architekt has a cannon that sprays its prey with a klaggy paste that hardens in seconds located on it’s face plate which is a thick piece of bone. The goo can be fired around 20 meters with a good level of accuracy, suffocating the prey and preserving it. The creature then pushes multiple corpses together to make a large mound in the swamp before injecting larvae directly into the pile. The larvae then eat the preserved people over the period of three months before they’re able to break out of the crust, which will have slowly corroded.


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artist: Lazy
concept: http://img522.imageshack.us/img522/4808/thearchitectsoc3.jpg
The Roobs are comical race of small sluggish creatures who can be distinguished mainly by their different wooden masks that they carry and that is only one if their many "technical achievments". They are also funny in a sadistical way for their odd method of building new homes, they take random objects lying around and throw into a pile without any thought and then enter with the hope that it wont fall apart instantly. This method leads to many sad deaths among the Roobs but ironically they are called "the architects" by all other creatures as a running joke, but still they stand proud of their craft.


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artist: yocibox
concept:
The Jungle Architect is a Wyvern that has developed a curious symbiotic relationship with humans. Knights are often sent to deal with dragon problems, a highly dangerous, but lucrative career, wherein every slain elderly or juvenile dragon is seen as a mighty blow against the flying lizard plague, when in reality, the vast majority of knights are easily defeated by healthy adult dragons, at which time the unfortunate would be hero for a day is brought deep into the jungle so his or her copper and or bronze armor can be welded with dragon fire into a massive ball nest high in the Baogeuse tree. The carcass of the human is discarded as the Jungle Architect is an omnivorous pescetarian, eating only fish for meat, as well as a large amount of vegetation. It is unkown what their nesting behavior was before the influx into their territtory, but it is safe to say that the humans have become completely integrated into the local ecosystem


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artist: White Wolf
concept:
"The giant insectoids of Omega 23 were used as slaves for building new infrastructure and cities on planetary outposts.
Abusing their fast hardening construction-liquids they produce in-body for building their own hives on their homeplanet, combined with the ability to spread over large areas and cities with their long legs, these creatures were used to build new infrastructure below their bodies at an incredible speed.
Controlled by enslaving headgear and equipped with state-of-the art technoid building-extremities, they gave every colony or military project the needed edge in speed."


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artist: Mj0lnir
concept:
This creature lives in cave. It decorates the cave.
Also the form with cave inside was similar and it could not it got dividing.


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artist: Michael Jaecks
concept:
When the arch-fiend, Abromalatech, finally wrenched control of his new realm, Nesstis, from his rival, Beeteldimhor, things were not as he hoped. Beeteldimhor, near defeat, used the last iota of his infernal power to utterly flatten the landscape of Nesstis, obliterating every shred of natural vegetation, technology and topography. Even the sulfuric clouds in the sky vanished. Nesstis was flat, featureless, and dreary.
Beeteldimhor knew his enemy well. Abromalatech could not tolerate the voided lands, having a particular taste for twisted mountain grottoes, baroque obsidian towers and lavish ornamentation. At great expense to his own diabolical mana, Abromalatech began reforming Nesstis by creating the Igneoids... lithe, four legged demons with an endless supply of molten rock in their foul bladders. The Igneoids were charged with the first order of business... building up the landscape to better suit their master's aesthetics. Igneoids seek out flat surfaces throughout the realm and secrete their lava, building towers, catacombs, caverns and canyons of twisted rock. They gracefully negotiate the deformed terrain, climbing spires and arches, tip-toeing around atolls and islands, occassionally repairing parts that have eroded or weathered over time.
Nesstis is vast, well nigh infinite, and the work of these demonic landscape architects is never complete.


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artist: blue-mayonnaise
concept:
it is an insect-like creature. they have habit of collect the dead body.
they lay out a nest made by dead body.
its breeds own larva on that "body tower", and larvas are live in that body's hole.


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artist: Nightmare28
concept:
An ancient species, "the architect", lived throughout the ancient world. A large bird of prey, its horned bill was commonly mistaken for its head or a different creature. This huge bird would eat large obsidian rocks, which contributed to its beak and claws being razor sharp. So sharp they could cut solid granite. Using these tools, the creature would cut, break, and carry large squares of rock and build its "nest". These "nests" had a sophisticated labyrinth so that predators could not get to the young inside. Once the young matured it would break out of the nest flying straight upwards. Sightings of these creatures commonly refer to them as "pheonix, Griffins, Nuit, Shu and Seraph . Eventually humans used the old nests as coffins for their kings, hoping they would rise again like the phoenix.


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artist: rubberman
concept:
This creature builds his nest like the ants or the bees.
The wings that are attached on their legs make their hands more comportable to make something like... their nest.


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artist: SprayNation
concept: Lavrakka
These beetle-like Rhino's tuilds intricate cave cities out of stone. The Lavrakka's use their large arms to chisel and carve out buildings in the Earth. The Lavrakka's will sometimes use magma as mortor to reinforce large columns or pillars. The Lavrakka's are also exceptional fighters. Every few years a civilized human metropolis will collapse into a Lavrakka city. The Lavrakka's, being very resourceful creatures, use parts of the human city to their cave dwellings.


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[Fozzybar]

not accepted entries:

All WIPs/sketches/not finished yet/placeholder/yaddayaddayadda images...AND (if not mentioned further) all entries which didn't pass the quality check

ENBE
Well...your creature isn't building something actually...its shells are only growing for themselves...i can't accept that as an architect, otherwise all slugs, antelopes, turtles etc could be called architects as well...nice idea though

-Food]-
concept?

indus
Love the rendering skills...but actually a simple funnel which on top is known already from the real life is too less as a qualification for the poll

zenichi
i thought about this entry a long time....at the end i decided not to accept it...the reasons are that i can't spot a proper creature (design)....also the architect part confused me, it is too far away from what was supposed to make...still it looks rather complex and i can see a lot work invested, which is a good thing



close to rejection:

RebornBacon
hmm...try to invest more time to polish the artwork

White Wolf
Actually the creature was supposed to build something for its own purpose and not used as a building machine, but well, i think i can't add all thoughts i have to the requirements



special note:

none

[Fozzybar]

VegasMike
I see you lurking....ENTER THE DOME MAN!!!!

[Fozzybar]

new (bloody) round is online:

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/sho...d.php?t=102493

[Michael Jaecks]

I really love SprayNations painting, but when it came down to it, I thought rubberman's creature was a little better built for building. Moving the wings to the back legs and giving them the sticky tongue for gluing made them better designed for arts and crafts, building and creating. Plus the illustration itself is still very nice.

Again, really liked SprayNations painting, color, light... but the critter looks more built for war and destruction than building or designing.

[Sovereign]

Have to go rubberman. Great concept and stunning execution, really love it.

Other entries I liked, spraynation, one of the coolest looking creatures have seen in a while, just amazing.

Michale jaecks - I think this one was my runner-up, really great image and the concept is interesting. Can I please steal your writing talent?

Mjolnir - I like the creature and environment, but the description could have had more!

Snarfevs - I like how yours turned out, especially the geometric design part of your description.

[zenichi]

Snarfevs:- nice graceful creature, the architecture seems to pale in comparison to the creature for attracting mate. would be difficult to imagine they hav a different set of aesthetic rules since they are themselves built with such beauty!

Soveriegn:- was going to be my runner-up, but decided to vote for you, sorry spraynation. for me, you manage to capture the essence of an architect, creation that serves more than its functional needs or requirements (we have the engineers for that) normally this goes against nature in attracting attention towards protective hatchings, but since they have no natural predator, they have the luxury and time, to thrive in creating aesthetically pleasing things!!

as for the imageseems , at first it didnt look as stunning as some of the other entries, but it kinda grows on you with its illustration quality (hope that make sense), almost can see the slow, methodical weaving motion of the creature. somehow the human perspective gives me a stronger feel that the creature deserve the title "the architect".

Goog:- maybe at a grander scale? sex and the city? whole city full of shXt from pass mating seasons? the mouth to perfectly formed to shot pooh to higher grounds, thus ingreate structures for attention in a city full of towering pooh, the tiny hands are an extra burden that could have evolved out.

Gorromog:- had to strained my eyes to read the text... having developed such unique limbs to tackle the environment, why must these creature still use a pair of hands to build? i think michaeljaecks's creature is one of the good example of a creature with a completeness to its design based on its concepts.

RebornBacon:- intriguing concepts. but the action of "piling" corpse up is just not engaging enough, maybe arrange the corpse using their "unique" posture (escaping, screaming etc), cemented when captured to from interesting structures?

Lazy:- hmmm... you are describing human architects (& engineers)? was that satirical or coincidental?

yocibox:- for a creation that dwell mostly in the air, maybe they would have a more ambitious architectural vision? maybe the idea and the image would be more powerful if the "nest" would standout from rather than blend in to its surrounding, serves as a reminder of the death-toll!!

whitewolf:- enslaving an architect? sob... sob...
maybe the head piece is a kind of optical mask, tricking the architect into thinking its creating something out of its design intend (design illusion) but actually controlled by others... very much like how an architect operates in our real world.

mj0lnir:- interior architecture!! i'm trying to guess from your description that it is re-creating/ decorating it surroundings to camouflage itself? nice concept. maybe the image would be more powerful if looking at a different angle, maybe like one of those horror movie where you can see shadow moving in the foreground and looking down at the unwary visitors...hmmm, reminds me of aliens movie series.

MichaelJaecks:- dream job, commissioned by one of the arch nemesis of a world!! being the only architect, hopefully the other one will want to commission you for a job to go one up (ring any bells of the race between the 2 prince for the highest tower in abu-dabi?) but would think Abromalatech's immediate commissioning of work to be done to his palace/ throne/ stronghold etc. before the changing the landscape.

Blue-mayonnaise:- another painting that almost make me lost my ability to think rationally and press the button, what a rush... take a deep breath. but the architectural creation not powerful enough (refer to RebornBacon)

Nitghtmare28:- the concepts almost beg for a horus/rah with stimpack creature much like what you've hinted. just cant see how the creature's going to use its organically formed razor sharp claws and beaks to carved out those granite cubes.

rubberman:- the nest look very "basic" and "utilitarian", i think this is because there are holes located almost at a regular interval, analogy- flat/apartment.

SprayNation:- my runner-up. the painting got to me, swiss-knife creature, but what the heck, the image blurs my ability to think.

i commented mostly on the concept, i dont think i can comment on the paintwork as i really dont know much about painter and how it works (assuming most guys here use painter) but just what i like and see, not the technique.

enbe:- fozzy got the crit spot on.
Indus:- another nice image. architecture as bait! i think showing the intended "food" creature other than human would reflect better on the "Architecture" cos human wont be attracted by that, then again maybe some would and deserve to be food (i would be more attracted to the creature than its architecture, eat me )

didnt made it to the poll... the process itself was rewarding enough, but making it to the poll gets a lot more crit will try harder next time! thanks fozzy for the crit (more would be nice), learn something there, powerful idea is one that is simple, clear and gets the message across!!

[RebornBacon]

Fozz whitewolf's creature does build for itself, it's just seen in the image building a human city.

Abusing their fast hardening construction-liquids they produce in-body for building their own hives on their homeplanet

I was going to redo the corpse pile and put in a background but with homework and a t-shirt company to work on I couldnt find the time. If I enter again i'll keep it in mind... The monster itself is the best i can do.

cheers mate take it easy.

EDIT: I voted whitewolf because i like the image plain and simple. I could imagine being in the city while that thing lumbers about building, love it.

Nightmare: I gotta say that's probably the coolest pyramid theory I've ever heard bar none. The monster didn't do a lot for me though... I don't like gryphins and The head made me trip out and i had to put my thumb over it's horns on the screen before i could see it as an eye. I like your messy style thought a lot, keep it up man.

SprayNation: I would've voted for you but for some reason i just really love whitewolf's. close second for you, it's beautiful.

[Goog]

MJ, Rubberman, Spraynation, Blue-mayonnaise, all great entries, but I had to vote for Mj0lnir. good concept, good execution = +1 vote.

[yocibox]

Snarfevs: The nest still seems a bit haphazard, though the additional details are hilarious, I'm not sure if I'd immediately assume these creatures were graceful, actual shrimp don't seem that graceful in their natural habitat either though, if they were surprisingly graceful despite their awkward (and I don't mean in terms of the image which is very well rendered) appearance, I think I could buy that. I am personally a touch over making non flying creatures into flying ones with no logical means of maintaining altitude, but that just may be me having watched too much anime

Sovereign: The back legs are working much better, I can't tell how different they are since you replaced your WIP image, but they do seem to function as power versions of the other limbs a bit more effectively. The only thing that's awkward is the horizon line. We seem to be eye level with the elbows based on the perspective on the objects, but the feet are lined up as if we were eye level with the bottom of the image, which would necessitate a seeing the rest of the picture from the underside. This might have actually been a good thing as it would have emphasized the massive scale of the creatures more effectively.

Goog: There seems to be no spec in your picture. The abundance of green grass and haze in the sky imply a certain level of humidity and moisture, the entire thing feels hot, like a summer day in Georgia, Subsequently the creature would seem to need more pronounced highlights, or if the haze is covering the sun, less defined cast shadows. In either case the poop mound doesn't seem to be casting any shadows which is disconnecting it from the scene. I really like the dry patch, it has a very good thirsty dessicated earth feel, but it also presents a problem. If it is some sort of creek bed or game trail (bigger more abundant game than the shown creature) and its that dried out, the grass around it shouldn't be so vibrantly green. It'd force you to push the creature's shading a bit more (a good thing) but having the grass match the dry feeling of the cracked ground by making it yellower and less lush would make the scene a bit more coherent. Finally the poop doesn't read as poop, it looks more like rocks to me.

Lazy: Clearly my favorite since I voted for it. I'm enamored by the idea of creatures that uses the detritus of human civilization to construct the artifice of their own. It serves as an interesting parallel given our own propensity for constructing highly elaborate architectural achievements that, as thought out as they may seem, will eventually crumble around us.

Mine: The scale is somewhat difficult to read, a second dragon interacting with the back nest, as well as more intricate details therein (as well as acknowledgment of a secondary light source to better define the forms of the individual pieces of armor would help, also I made the head feel too squishy. I did however want them to feel integrated, not ostentatious and attention grabbing, which is one reason I specifically chose Copper/Bronze armor for the humans, the nest is not a monument to their kills, it is merely a nest, made out of a material sturdy enough to keep their young safe. Too the dragons its not about how many knights they've killed, its just about getting enough breast plates, shields and weapons to stitch together a good nest

White Wolf: My only problem with it is, as stated by Fozzy, we don't see the structure They build, instead of their tools, we see it as a tool, though the strength of the image goes a long way towards making up for this.

Actually MjOlnir, Michael Jaecks, blue-mayonnaise, and SprayNation all have this same difficulty in their images. Really awesome pictures (much better than mine by far), questionable architectural involvement by the creature. Reborn Bacon had a similar tower of victims concept to blue-mayonnaise's, and while his overall picture isn't quite as fully realized, his tower of bodies has a more constructed feel, rather than appearing to just be a half wrapped cow corpse.

Nightmare28: I know the design is intentionally confusing, the way eyespots on a moth are, but the mouth of this creature does not appear to have a way to open as per the specs in the description. The render seems a little too loose (in contrast to my own entry which feels tightened to the point of stiffness and distraction) and the perspective is a bit off on the pyramid/people in the second part. Finally, where is the river? Pyramids were pretty universally next to the river, which could have helped in defining the space a bit more

Rubberman: even though I voted for Lazy, I'm betting on you winning. I think this piece most effectively manages to combine the concept and the rendering, (I went with Lazy because I dug the concept itself that much, and it was still well rendered). I think the idea of rear leg wings is really intruiging, but I don't think you thought through the anatomy fully. In order to have legs that move in the directions depicted by the background creatures, they could not have bone structure/musculature shown in the foreground creature. This is the main reason most fantasy creatures that have wings tend to have them as arms/sprouting out of their back as secondary arms, the shoulder/shoulder blade anatomy is well suited to the morphological structure of a wing and the physical act of flapping, whereas the hip/leg construction is built primarily for front to back motion. So, really cool picture, really cool concept, wish there was more thought put into the anatomical requirements of rear limb wings.

[Sangmort]

My vote went to Lazy. I can just picture the little guys running off with various objects from my house to build their own house. [ I can see them carrying off my tablet pen...since it's the thing that always seems to vanish...haha ]

[dragon4lunch]

rubberman That's sweet. You got my vote!
MichaelJaecks: Man, you're really getting good! I like the crispness of your piece. I sure see improvement. Keep on rocking!
Sovereign: Quite a lovely image, very children's book-like. Major props to you. If I had to guess - you're a girl, yes? Style-wise it looks like it. And if you're not a girl, don't be offended man! It looks great either way!
Mjolnir: Hey there hammer of Thor, sweet entry! One of my three favourites!

[White Wolf]

Ok here are my 50 cents to everyone... these are the thoughts that popped to my mind first when lookin at it/reading the concept:

Snarfevs: Great dynamic, there is a lot of interesting movement in the picture... the red sky in the back is awesome... very good, special creature design.... --- the overall picture looks a little flat...perhaps use some easy textures on the creatures skin...

Sovereign: Nice idea with the letter concept... VERY good colors & colorcontrast, this blue and yellow/gold works awesome... -- Sky could have used some more time... try to achieve some depht in your picture (with depth i think of perspektive, perhaps add a small foreground or something...)

SprayNation: Well, your painting just blew me away...really bombastic! Great everything, I bow to you on my knees I whish I can paint that good one far day...
But I thought your concept was miles behind the quality of your picture. You could have used this image to a lot of other concepts (hell guardian , whatever...) and it wouldnt change a thing, the architect part was not emphasized in the picture enough... that is why i didn't give you my vote... but again...your art really rocks big time!!!

Goog: Try using some warm/cold contrast... try using the air-perspective (background is cooler= more blue and less saturation/more grey due to the air, foreground is warmer, more saturation/color etc...try google it up...)
you used a little there but try to emphasize it more...

Gorromog: love the creature...very freaky and fresh... nicely drawn...get yourself a tablet and do this in color..now!!


RebornBacon: I like the idea of the hives made of corpses...(who doesnt?) one of my first ideas was similar to yours! Try to sharpen the edges, use textures and try showing your creature not from a perfect sideview.

Lazy: Funny concept...picture is very closed in itself (meaning the colors and brushstrokes are workin good within the picture)... Would have liked to see more of the creatures...from a visual standpoint I can't really recognize them like they are now...

yocibox: I really like they idea of the armor being used.. perhaps you could have done more with it than just "the unfortunate would be heros" (you know, some freaky way to lure them into a trap so they loose their armor or something)... picture could use more contrast (color-contrast AND dark/bright-contrast)...try to use more colors (meaning: a dragon isn't just green, the armor ist just bronze-colored, the trees are not just brown....there should be lots of colors within those seperate parts, think how yellow light affects a green surface for example, reflections on the bronze armors can have different colors...and so on...)

White Wolf (Selfcritique) Man, this foregroud is really ugly..tends to take away the focus of the creature... some near city parts would have probably been better... headgear could look cooler and is perhaps painted too sharp compared to other parts... I like the colors in the left upper part (sky combined with fading legs)... note to myself: explain concept better the next time (that is mind-controlling cybertek on that insect-head!!)

Mjolnir: Great rendering of the creatures skin...good depth, really has a lot of distances to look into (background/foreground relation is good)... but I think you could have done more with the light source (the torch), more reflections, bigger lightcontrasts, highlights... the concept-text is not really understandable ("Also the form with cave inside was similar and it could not it got dividing."--WTF?)

Michael Jaecks: Great as always. Great idea (love the thought of the "devils architect" instead of advocate...)...perhaps the overall composition is not so catchy and lacks some dynamic....(have you flipped it horziontally?)

blue-mayonnaise: welcome...another great artist to come.. I look forward to see your next pieces of art... like it...nice rendering of the shiny scales....picture could use some sharpening at some spots (the dead animal is hardly recognizable).... the light and light-sources are not very clear to understand at certain spots...

Nightmare28: I really like the combination of that creatures red with the green of the background in the upper picture .. like I said to some others above too, the picture could use some sharpening..really looks blurry at some spots were it shouldn't... The creatures body is not really understandable (how can it fly with so many wings getting in the way of themselves?)

rubberman: just awesome...the right part of your picture just blew me out of my socks..the creature looks great, it's skin is painted so good and gritty, I can almost feel at my fingertips how that skin feels...really, really good work... but the left part (aka the creature to the left & background) is not matching the quality of the creature in the foreground, don't get me wrong -> painting quality can be a very powerful thing to make a dynamic and rounded picture..(like frazetta does were some parts are very detailed/sharp and some parts are very rough and loose within the same picture) but in this case I think the balance is not there...the left part of the picture definitely needs something..(more depth, perhaps?)... whatever..but I think the foreground-creature (right-part of the picture) is so good, you deserve to win, so you will get my vote...


Btw, Fozzy: There are insects wo build their hives with their bodyliquids or stuff they digest an use it as building material...my idea was, that you could use such a creature with mind-controll (or wathever) to build basic infrastracture. the final idea emerged from this thought...thats all hope you did uderstand it now, i probably should have explained it better or as you said, included a small image of their original hives..

Thnx to RebornBacon for explaining it..and thanx for your vote too!

So, thats it..hope some of you guys can perhaps agree with my thoughts on your pictures..like I said, its just my opinion, so perhaps I am just talking crap

KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK EVERYBODY..I am out for a week (holidays..yeeeehaa....)

[Goog]

Thank you sooooo much for the crits everyone, I'm learning sooooo much from cow. Ill try to do my part, although I don't have much time...:

snarfevs: great great peice, but hard to tell exactly where the dominant lightsource is.

sovereign: great piece, could use some darker shadows though.

gorromog: cool creature, would love to see some color!

rebornbacon: nice concept, but the values on the creatures arm is off, his shoulder needs more light on it.

lazy: great piece, love it!

yocibox: can't see yours

white wolf: cool stuff, just seems a little unfinished. And maybe have one of his legs coming straight toward the viewer for added dynamism.

mj0lnir: great stuff mate

mj: great entry, but it lacks a bit in composition, my eye tends to wander about.

b-mayonnaise: love the way you incorporated light there.

nightmare: great entry, but the wings seem a bit small there to support the anything carrying big blocks, let alone the bird.

rubberman: no comment man, great stuff.

spraynation: epic peice, but seems rather unfinished in someplaces, still its an amazing entry.

[ENBE]

Great work Rubberman, nice complete piece that shows the creature and its form of 'architecture'.

Good spotting Fozzybear on my piece, appreciate the explanation cause thats why i post... for the crits.

[Gorromog]

i voted for rubbermans... simply because his kicks the most butt. it was a close call with spraynations (looks amazing, but there is less of an architect) and michels jeacks' piece

[NightMare28]

rubber wins this one... great piece, good contrast, good focal points.

thanks for all the crits, i can say that I definitely don't spend enough time thinking about all the points that I should cover, hopefully I'll be able to take all these crits into consideration on my next entries. All these activities really do help! I recommend them to anyone thats interested in improving.

[Michael Jaecks]

Hey guys thanks for the kind words:

Sovereign: I'm a writer in spite of myself. Sometimes I can be can be tricked into writing for others in payment with cookies.

zenichi: I don't think I know that story. Mine was pure AD&D tongue in cheek, really.

goog: ten q. But your right about the comp, it's pretty straight on sideways. I tend to have this need to see the creature's design clearly with these things and don't always try interesting perspectives or wacky horizon lines. Something to think about.

yocibox: you might be right about mine, though personally I know more landscape architects than regular ones.

dragon4lunch: thanks, kind COW veteran. I'm glad to hear it. On crispness, you know I tired a Supervlieg trick for that this time. Duplicate layer. Sharpen filter. Some parts too sharp? Erase back down to the unsharpened version. Bake together, and then perhaps tweak the sharps and the blurs a little. It actually works! One more way to keep the hot stuff hot and the cool stuff cool.

White Wolf: thanks and yes, I agree the comp isnt the most original or dynamic. The focal point is actually placed in one of the classic, cut the canvas in thirds each way and pick one of the four places they intersect as the sweet spot, but the overall comp is pretty straight on and not so interesting. One of these days I'll get over the need to see the creature design so plainly

Gorromog: thanks man.

Good heavens, I even got one vote. I didn't think that would happen ... there's two really kick ass contenders this round, IMO. Very nice work guys, all the way around.

Thanks again guys.

[BANNED_For_POOPY_PANTS]

This was a hard round to vote for. MJ gets my vote this round because besides the piece being incredible on a technical level, it's one of the few pieces where I didn't have to read the description to realize that these bad boys were architects of some sort (even though the description is really good too btw).

Everyone else did a phenominal job as well. 2nd place would have to go to Gorromog for the amazing pencil work, 3rd to Lazy and Goog for originality.

[Sovereign]

Thanks everybody for the critiques, I promise I am taking it all in and I feel I am getting better. Even over the last few rounds of COW I have noticed things about my style that before I wasn’t seeing, it’s amazing how blind we are sometimes to our own work.
Yocibox, thanks for the input on the perspective, I have to say, probably like a lot of other people I am a bit scared of perspective but I intend to work on it.
dragon4lunch, yes I am a girl, well spotted!

[Snarfevs]

I voted for yocibox, I love the colouring style and the concept is just fantastic.
Runners up were Rubberman for great colours and solid design, SprayNation for great style and palette (though I think 'The Architect' wasn't articulated very strongly in the image itself) and Michael Jaecks for beautiful details and brush work, as well as a very solid concept.

Breakdown of other entrants:

Sovereign: Cool style, has an appealing granularity to the linework. Makes me think of MikeC. This pic could have probably used a second creature wandering around somewhere to reinforce the idea that it is a species as at first glance the ornamentation of the creature looks like it could be clothing. I'm a little worried about the center of mass on those spindly legs, but hey my creature levitates so I'll stop talking

Goog: Unfortunate turns of evolution I think some stronger atmospheric perspective on the plains behind the creature would have made it pop a bit more.

Gorromog: Cool concept and solid drawing, so small though! I like the idea of something constructing habitats for its food source.

RebornBacon: Creepy concept, let down a bit by the severe values on the colouring side of things and the absence of a background (not that it's a requisite)

Lazy: Very cute, nice colours. Nice painterly feel. I can't really say much about this but I do like it a lot.

White wolf: One of my friends saw your entry and said "That's gonna look so cool when it's finished". Which I suppose is a rather salient critique at this point - it looks great but many areas look really rough.

Mj0lnir: Really sweet rendering on the creature. I realise that you're probably writing English as a second language - could you please re-phrase the second line of your description? I'm interested in it but I cannot work it out.

blue-mayonnaise: Cool speed-paint feel, nice colours. Not really any size cues, looks very much like a modified mosquito.

Nightmare28: The top pic looks cool, but the bottom one feels really unfinished. Nice concept.

---

Replies:

Sovereign: hehe, that bit was added as an afterthought and has gotten a few laughs

Zenichi: A friend and I thought long and hard about this and we were not able to think of any real creatures that aesthetically resemble their nests. That said, I did read your comment in the posting thread and complexified the nest a bit more than it was before, adding the collected junk and the geometric figures. I didn't want to take it too far however as the structure was starting to encroach on the creature. I'm glad I managed to carry across some feeling of gracefulness in the creature. I imagine these things doing lazy loops around in the sky picking up and artfully dropping stuff, and generally looking quite pleased in themselves as they incidentally wreck small towns.

Yocibox: "I am personally a touch over making non flying creatures into flying ones with no logical means of maintaining altitude, but that just may be me having watched too much anime" Yeah, I know, I was looking at the thing about half way in and thinking to myself 'man, inexplicable levitation, you are so cheap!' I was thinking about perhaps having it fly through blasting hot air through the hyponomes near the head (and sticking others around the body for balance), which is a rather energetically unfavourable prospect. In the end I just thought 'goddamn it I'm doing a magical creature for once!' Believe me, I'm normally a pedant for explicable and self-consistent design.

White Wolf: I'm glad I seem to have articulated some movement, as my pics usually suffer from looking incredibly static. I agree on it looking flat - I didn't pick a consistent lighting direction / make my shadows strong enough. And yeah, it needs texture.

Goog: Guilty as charged!

Also, someone asked how I did the background in the submission thread: I used the photoshop gradient tool, with that blue/yellow chrome reflection gradient preset, which I then desaturated and recoloured. I added a sun and some haze, and the islands/coastline were done with a hard round brush painted behind the haze layer. The trees were done cheap with one of inetgfx's brushes.

Damn this is a long post.

[SprayNation]

Cool entries guys!

I wonder if I would have illustrated my creature digging and building, would it have looked more like an architect? I feel like since I gave him an axe, he appears more like a war-animal. Anyway, I had a distinct idea of this guy being an architect, but I can see how it throws people. I think any creature that builds momuments out of stone, it better be pretty massive and have limbs for grinding and chiseling. I rarely ever defend myself, but since the critique is on concept, I felt I had an explanation since most of my choices were premeditated. Thanks guys, I'll work more on concept next time.

I wish I had time to talk about everybodies, but I'm moving today and I have to be brief.

I voted for Blue-Mayonaise. Cool concept and creature. Beautiful palette. Michael Jaecks and Rubberman were a close second. That's one of your best MJ. Nice work guys.

[Michael Jaecks]

SprayNation: First, good luck on the move and hope it goes quick.

Second, thanks for the compliment. I'm glad people like this one.

Third, since you asked about the concept, and I did mention the war like aspect previously, certainly the axe contributes to the warrior look. But he's also really big and really armored all over. He just looks like he can take a serious beating and keep plowing through a phalanx of orcs or something. The glowing eyes hint at an internal engine of extra might or constitution or mana or whatever you want to call it.

On the subject of being big and therefore equipped to build monuments, I guess I might reason that the opposite is really true. Even if the pyramids were built by aliens, they were probably little and great in number. Many animals that build large structures (bees, wasps termites to name a few) are dwarfed by the monuments they build and do the job en masse as a team effort. Later, when you want to raze the monument to the ground, then you bring in the big muscle.

But it's just one point of view.

[rubberman]

So much good works in here, I was very impressed so much.

especially blue-mayonnaise, SprayNation, Michael Jaecks, Snarfevs, Mj0lnir 's works were very photorealistic, and I like it.

Sovereign, yocibox, Lazy, their works just stunning.(very creative-oriented design/ideation!! I really love it.)


Anyway, I appreaciate all of you, thanx for your crits.

Thanks to INDUS(your hosting service^^ was good.)

[SMILEFACE]

I really like them all but i like the dinamics of bluemayonnaise your all way to good

[indus]

Sovereign's work has grabbed my eyes since this thread began.
I like your design and imagination.

[Ira_Melanox]

Lazy, Goog: great sense of humor guys
White Wolf: really love your creature man, and the depth in your painting
Mjolnir: congrats for the cave amtosphere, looks great !
Rubberman: great use of colors. I like the sharpness in your painting, it's obvious you know what you're doing, and not just seeking some creature in a blurry shape
SprayNation: what can I do, I'm a sucker for orange and fiery beasts :p you got my vote, even though I would have loved some more ground definition.
Great job everyone !

Cheers,
Raluca

[Lazy]

Thanks to everyone who voted for me!
Great entries!, i voted for blue-mayonnaise, maybe not the most original idea but great rendering, especially with the light, i love the atmosphere.