Chow 129 :: "It's Elementary ..."

[Carnifex]

although i most probably won't participate,i'm throwing in this idea for fun...good work from you guys.

[duckyfeets1]

Update. Havent had much of a chance to do too much atm. Freehand Drawing decided to dump the Pumpkin Project of Doom on me on thurs.

Added pants and started to shaddow more. Hope to have time to fit in Watson with this notes to the side.

[Blaise]

Update-

[Aly Fell]

Just out of interest, my partner is a Sherlock Holmes obsessive, and she tells me the first time Holmes is seen wearing the familiar 'deerstalker' hat and 'Inverness' coat is in a story called Silver Blaze and is illustrated by Sidney Paget who gave us the 'Holmes' look. Holmes rarely dressed like this as it was a country look and not for the town.

[AFC4LIFE]

I'm going on holiday and aren't going to have time for a finished piece so I just thought Id show you a quick monochrome paint I did which would have hopefully developed into a full colour final!

[madhatter106]

Just out of interest, my partner is a Sherlock Holmes obsessive, and she tells me the first time Holmes is seen wearing the familiar 'deerstalker' hat and 'Inverness' coat is in a story called Silver Blaze and is illustrated by Sidney Paget who gave us the 'Holmes' look. Holmes rarely dressed like this as it was a country look and not for the town.

Very true - I guess it's a testament to the power of illustration, to create a look which becomes iconic in the public eye. Makes me think of any interpretation of the Mad Hatter from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - the original Teniel drawing has paved the way for so many versions afterward.

Funny that you posted that picture - there is an almost literal homage to this very image in the Jeremy Brett version of "The Adventure of the Speckled Band" which aired on the BBC/PBS, when Holmes and Watson are travelling to the estate. I had it playing in the background as I was working on the CHOW this afternoon, and your post jumped out at me when I saw it.

[Gaczar]

Very late start...try to have something ready for Monday.
Everyone doing a great job but hope Posh finishes his.


Update:
Left myself too little time to finish.....not that I knew where I was going.
MAX MARTELLI....thanks for the crit, I bent his leg as you suggested and it is better, thanks!

Good night all!

[Clochette]

You're right Poshpiece!
There is only few stories where Holmes and Watson leave London "intra muros". We can imagine that he had clothes for the town, and different one for the country. It's funny to see how an illustration can stay in the collective memory! It's powerful...

Thanks all for the crit and help! I feel like I'll never be able to finish it in time!
Update.

[MJ_Alcazar]

First time I tried to color completely with GIMP. Needs a lot of work. Thanks for all the crits guys. Hopefully, I'll be able to finish this

[vineris]

Improved the arms, considering putting feet in. Still need to tilt the violin and get some lighting reference.

[Max Martelli]

No time for crits at the moment but I will definitely get to them tomorrow.

I've been playing around with what I want in the background for a while now and I relly can't decide. I've tried different scenes involving Watson walking in on him shooting up while he is sitting at his desk. I'm not feeling them though.

Originally I wanted to have an abstract emotional background emphasizing his depression and then salvation from depression through cocaine. I think this one is something along the line of what I wanted but then again it is really late and I'm pretty tired so I'll see whether I like it in the morning.

Let me know what you think.

[Adele]

well...i will not be finishing my entry...have to go to ikea for the day. I wish you all the best and look forward to the voting.

[mcmatz]

I notices some awkward poses of Sherlock playing the violin.

Here's a reference of a violinist to help out.

--Madeline

[Hideyoshi]

lol, can't believe I forced myself through rendering him out in the end
But it was good practice.
thanks a lot for latest c&c!

[Windsrock]

Well, still one day to think about this, but now is time to leave it for the night. I have tried to work those sausagefingers...

[mcmatz]

WIP.

Struggling as usual.

--Madeline

[Max Martelli]

Crits

VampireHungerStrike: Looking good. I like the pose and how he is searching the ground for clues. I can't wait to see it more fleshed out and in color. The onlt thing I would watch is the shape of the bricks swooping on the ground. It looks distracting but this could just be because it is only in an outline form and hasn't been colored yet.

mcmatz: I think that in addition to working on the feet you should elongate his legs. He is looking a little too stumpy and disproportionate. Also his hands are a bit small. The face is looking good.

DECYPL: I like it so far. It has a good feel to it. The only other thing I could suggest to make him look more like Holmes would be his hat but I don't think its terribly necessary. Keep going with it and I can't wait to see the rest.

BludHund: The faces are looking good so far. I like the very bony look you have for Holmes.

DeeLock: It looks better with him being taller and having clothes but I would watch how he is standing. He doesn't look grounded. He looks like he's floating. This can be fixed perhaps by adding a floor plane to make it appear that he is standing or to position his feet so that they are not so vertical and look more like they would if someone were standing.

Cowboy_Surfer: I like the more animated pose better than the more static one but he seems like he is running from something rather than too something. Perhaps you can add elements that suggest he is running from someone?

Blaise: I love the mood of this piece and the color. It looks very ominous which works very well. I love his coat. Good job and I can't wait to see the next step.

Gaczar: I like how he is running but he seems a little stiff in his running. Perhaps you can bend one of his legs a little more (probably the back one). His ahnds are looking a bit small as well. Keep it up.

Clochette: Looking good. I like the relaxation. To me it seems to me that he is more musing over some kind of memory rather than going through depression (if that was your original intent) also the colors are warm and inviting which also is a departure from depression (again, if depression was your original intent). I hope you finish it and I can't wait to see it complete.

MJ_Alcazar: The drawing is looking good. The coloring on the other hand looks a little blotchy.

vineris: It's looking pretty good. The violin looks like it is at an awkward angle. The body needs to be angled back a llittle more as the face of it is pointing too far towards us. Also I think that you should put in the rest of him (legs and feet). This will help ground the figure.

Hideyoshi: Looking really good. I like it alot. It has a very nice dreary quality to it that characterizes his surroundings very nicely. It not only gives life to Holmes but to his world as well.

Good job everyone and I'm sorry if I didn't get to you. Good luck.

[madhatter106]

MJ Alcazar - Sherlock looks like David Niven, heheheh. Not sure if I like the red for the vest underneath...green with red and some white, it makes me think of Christmas, teehee.

Hideyoshi - awww, I liked the real rough and painterly version you posted earlier. The vest is missing buttons - it looks like it has an invisible zipper running up the center front, there doesn't appear to be an overlap of one side over the other. I think you should have the watch fob originating from the vest, rather than how it appears to be hooked to his waistline/pants - I bet nine times out of ten, if you look at photographs of gentlemen of the period (as posted earlier in the thread), you'll find the watch residing in a pocket on the vest, with the fob running to one of the vest buttons. The background is beautiful! And I never imagined a version of Holmes with facial hair or glasses...very unique.

Blaise - very evocative and painterly, as always. I love the low angle from which you've depicted him. Not so sure about the gun, though - in cases like "The Speckled Band," it was Watson (IIRC) who brought a gun along, and not Holmes. The only other thing that bugs me is the way you painted the one side of the coat, with what appears to be the lapel running all the way down to the bottom hemline...I think you were going for the look of the coat folding open, but it just looks like one really super duper long lapel.

[duckyfeets1]

I cant finish this one, yet again. Project due on Tuesday and I spilt tea on it. >.<;;;;


Look foreword to votage. Good luck and great job all!

[Hideyoshi]

thanks a lot for the crits, madhatter: you're totally right! Didn't give much thought to how the watch is attached etc.
I intentionally left the buttons out on the vest though, for aesthetic reasons...
Won't bother changing anything anymore though, just moving on..
Kinda hate going back to a piece...

thank you, too, Max Martelli!

[Dan!]

damn hideyoshi- nice piece

[Blaise]

Hideyoshi - Very nice job.

Max Martelli - Thanks man.

madhatter106 - Thanks very much for the crit. Reading through the Wikipedia page on Holmes, it says under the weapons and martial arts section "In four stories Holmes has a pistol but does not fire it". That struck me because it's not a common image of Holmes (personally, I have very little knowledge of Holmes myself, so hey, what do I know). After reading that I wanted to include the pistol just to depict Holmes in a different way than how he is usually seen, and since he does carry a pistol in at least some of the stories, I feel it's legitimate. As for the coat lapel, I was referencing this photo from your earlier post. But you are right - it looks odd. I've gone ahead and changed it. Thanks for pointing it out (and thanks for posting all of that reference in the first place!).

Another update - I see a few more things I need to work on -

Edit - fixed right arm and left hand. I think this is the final -

[Max Martelli]

Blaise: How do you get that look to your work, It looks amazing. Great job.

Here's another update. Fooling with the background some more, also fixing things I see here and there about the figure. I'm thinking of giving the inside of the magnifying glass more color but then again I'm thinking about doing something completely different with it as well.

I'll see what time permits me to do.

Let me know what you think.

[mcmatz]

Update:

--Madeline

[Clochette]

Update.

I think it's done. Will try to comment each entry soon!

[MJ_Alcazar]

Well, for some reason GIMP won't bring up my last save. It doesn't even have the saved version that I put on here, which I find very odd. So, there goes days of work.
Oh well, wasn't turning out really great anyway. But I did learn a whole lot about the time period and got to practice with drawing guys. So, I'm still happy.
I have a pen and color pencil version, that I may put up, but I don't know. I had already done the whole green and red thing and now it looks silly after someone pointed out the whole christmas colors.
Good luck everyone! looking forward to voting. Thank you ever so much for the crits, I'm looking forward to applying them to the next chow.

[Clochette]

Ooh ><' sorry to hear!
It's always so frustrating when you loose some days of work!

[Flipnastywebby]

thank you to everyone who provided helpful CCs.
so I will try and finish this piece, i messed around with the pose a bit more and was ready to paint it Friday when i lost a fight with a turkey sandwich and ended up in the hospital. Lucky the laceration wasn't to my drawing hand but it has consumed a good part of my and my wonderful girl friends free time. shes taken great care of me but now its what 4:30 pm and i havent been able to start painting. we will see how far I get.

Hideyoshi big props man, loving the out come of your piece, great story telling.


Max Martelli I've seen that look before in work like Blaise. You might want to try wet edges with the flow turned down a bit. It gives a really nice painterly stroke when using photo shop. If you're using corel painter IX and above you can use the smeary oils brush, and set the nib to circular. same effect, different program. I like personally using the wet gauche brush with the same setting changes.

hope that helps

[Aly Fell]

Couple of thoughts before I toddle off to bed. I'll try and do some more tomorrow... it's late here!

Hideyoshi - great image. Love it! A different take on Holmes. One thing, I'm not getting a Victorian or Edwardian London vibe from the setting though. It looks like a midwest town, but I don't suppose it HAS to be London!

Blaise - Nice take on Holmes, and kudos for not doing the deerstalker/Inverness coat. He is definitely a 'man of action'. I don't have too much of a problem with him having a gun, but it looks like he has a flintlock or percussion pistol. Revolvers were pretty much the norm at the end of the 19th century. The coat's great.

mcmatz - His profile is spot on. Very Holmes. One thing with the background... maybe split the wallpaper with paneling to the bottom rather than all wallpaper. It kind of smothers it a bit. And don't forget a skirting board!

Clochette - Truly atmospheric. I know it's geeky, but well done for not giving him a meerschaum pipe. Holmes generally smoked clay or briar pipes. Most of the imagery commonly associated with him is from the movies, not the books. One thing - the fire looks a bit flat, like he's looking at the picture of a fire. Maybe setting it back in the grate might help.

Max Matelli - You've gone for something really different, but I don't get Sherlock Holmes from him. However, you've got the emotion and the expression of what he is doing spot on, and compositionally it works.

More tomorrow...

TTFN

[Blaise]

Max Martelli - Read Flipnastywebby's post. Experiment with different brushes and don't be afraid to change the settings to get the look you want.

Poshspice - Thanks for the crit. You're right about the pistol. I'm gonna do a quick fix and edit my final. Thanks again!

Edit - fixed pistol.