IDW #92: Baba Yaga - An IDW/CHOW cross-over

[yoitisi]

Topic: Baba Yaga - An IDW/CHOW cross-over

Background: This round is another cross-over event with CHOW, this time the topic is Baba Yaga: Baba Yaga - wikipedia.

The topic for IDW is to design either Baba Yaga's flying mortar & pestle, or to design her house on chickenlegs. Doing both is encouraged but not necessary

The corresponding CHOW thread can be found here: CHOW #147: Baba Yaga - IDW Crossover. Combining your CHOW entry with your IDW entry is allowed, but make sure the design of the mortar and/or the hut is clear enough in your entry. The focus of IDW is after all on the objects rather than the character itself!

Brief:
1. Design and draw Baba Yaga's house on chicken legs and/or her flying mortar and pestle!
2. Including your Baba Yaga design for CHOW in your IDW entry is not necessary but encouraged.
3. That's it... now draw!

Deadline: Sunday, February 15

Post your final entries here: Finals Thread

[Moai]

Maybe this one. Maybe.

[yoitisi]

Moai: I be watching you...

[Ionic]

I can post this here right? someone in Chow said we should very early sketch...







Still in the works...

[Legato]

it is unfortunate that she does not ride upon a MORTOR and PISTOL...

but regardless - i am probably going to be afk until after the rigors and terrors of GDC, moving, making stupid life decisions etc... but i watch with keen interest!

[Smashed_Pumpkin]

This topic reminds me of the old Monster In My Pocket series.

[Artofinca]

Huhuhu I am going for Baba Yaga the semi steam-powered!
still not sure about the composition and the starting media
maybe pencil will be good?

[Tetrodotoxin]

Damn, the CHOW is getting ridiculous. People already have their stuff finished, before I even read the topic. Sooooooooo...
I might as well take a look at the IDW, right? Don't know, if I'm gonna finish this... we'll see...

Here's my sketch for the mortar... The skull is the mortar and the bone is the pestle. I'll have to figure out some more stuff to personalize it as Baba Yagas. And maybe something that indicates it's flying ability. Got the chickenleg there, at least...

[yoitisi]

Wasn't originally planning on doing either the CHOW or the IDW of this week, but I got inspired when someone send this link over IRC: http://www.oldrussia.net/baba.html so I started doing some research into old Russian architecture and got even more inspired

Quick sketch of Baba Yaga's chickenleg hut, I went for the unlikely but fun real chickenleg version rather then two sawed off treetrunks. Just having fun with it so far, it's very rough needs a bit more design elements like a proper chimney for her to fly out of with her mortar and stuff (also: dead bodies). Am thinking of doing the mortar & pestle too, and bind them together with a sort of design sheet graphic layout thingy, which also needs work...and I'm hoping to do Baba Yaga herself too, actually. Portfolio time!

Blah, here's the image so far:



Edit: Thumbnailing more stuff. Mortars and pestles are actually incredible boring products, since mostly they have a pure practical shape...having a hard time coming up with anything that is both practical (as I imagine Baba Yaga is) and more interesting than the usual mortars . Think I'm running with one of the lower right ones for now. Oh, and forgot to add skulls and stuff for now..hm..

[Ionic]

yoitisi: Super AWESOME image... only one thing... I remember the description saying its windows were almost eyes looking for intruders

[yoyomon]

The character description for Baby Yaga is just...Wow...It's the trippiest one that I've heard of in a long time.

[Cyberman]

Yoitisi: nice suprise , my second idw overall this is going to be detailed up more so the house , mortar and pestle are more defined, still not sure if I will end up posting this in
final burning.

[yoitisi]

Added some more stuff in my previous post

JOHNGRELLO: Awesome image so far dude, but since this is IDW after all I got to say I'd like to see you do something a bit more special with the mortar and pestle. It's part of her character, and right now they're just plain wood and simple shapes, a bit too standard to be really special. Oh and you're right about the windows of the hut, there's lots of details to add to it yet.

Artofinca: I like that sketch of the chickenleg hut in yours. Hope you get around to finishing it The mortar for Baba Yaga is a bit too far from the original idea for though. Originally, the mortar and pestle is used to grind grains and stuff, which I suspect has a certain link to the culture the character comes from. Does that machine have the same function or is it just to propel the Baba Yaga?

Tetrodotoxin: One thing to worry about here is scale. If she's flying around in a skull, where does that skull come from (or how tall is the witch actually? ).

Darknight: Welcome back, hope you get to finish this one a suggestion would be to stay away from the real blacks in your image until a bit further up, so you can put the darkest tones in the areas that can use it (either for more contrast or to push things away in the fore- or background). Also, keep an eye out for your brushstrokes even at the very beginning. It's very tempting to start adding detail right from the start, but by starting out with the most basic outlines (large brush!) you ensure a better and more cohesive overall image/compostion/lighting.

[siiilon]

Hi guys, that's gonna be my debut in here. I'll leave CHOW in favour of IDW and hope te come up with something valuable. Looking forward to all your beatufull entries.

yoitisi: I admire your clean style. I understand it's a lot of experience needed, so let's rock >

[riotorange]

i've never tried to really draw a house/structure before,but i would like to try this out.
i read that this chicken leg house might be based on some houses built to store grain that have these big tree trunks for support and the roots are what resemble chicken legs.
Anyway,is it cool if i base my image off one of these? i am not outright copying it, but using it for an idea of how to put this house together as im not really that developed in imagining/executing a believable structure just yet.
here is a link to what i am using : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fileami_Storehouse.jpg

will post what i have so far after work tonite if this is OK to for me to be doing. Thanks!

[Moai]

Here are my two primary sources of inspiration for the hut. The dinosaur skeleton is from here: link. I'm unsure about whether I want the legs to move via magic, some sort of lever/pulley system, or a combination of the two.
Still unsure about the mortar and pestle.
I'll have at least a sketch of these up these evening. I'm liking your stuff, Yoitisi!

[yoitisi]

Riotorange: Yep the topic is rather free for interpretation. If you want to do a more down-to-earth version of Baba Yaga's hut that's okay

Moai: Could've expected you to come up with some anatomical reference for the creature part of the hut Curious what you're going to make of it.

[timothee]

Nice start peoples. I've been busy with other things lately, but I had an urgent itch to paint, so i'm gonna try and finish this one up by Sunday. I still have some work to do on the porch, not trying to overpower the design with too much background. Can't wait to see everyone's finals.

[FerrousJack]

I wasn't going to do much with the ID part of this, but then I changed my mind and did a sketch of the mortar and pestle. Here it is. I think I'll incorporate this design into the finished piece, but I'm still going to emphasize the character I think.... or not... we'll see...

[siiilon]

I am doodling all at once, but everything is just so new for me...
Here's my first exloration. I think it should be something more creepy, not so dreamy or cute (as this my post) - maybe rather old, heavy, rusty ...
Good posts all of you >

[Tetrodotoxin]

Yeah, Yoitsi, I've been thinking about that too.

Have been thinking about how to make it clear that it's a huge skull... So I've added the broom and a real-sized skull... But it doesn't seem right yet, though. I also considered adding chicken skulls.
What else can I do, to make it more exiting...?

The rendering isn't finished either, obviously...


Already getting tired of it... But we'll see... ^^'

[chaosrocks]

tetrodotoxin_
if you added a BG for a frame of reference you can make your scale read better.

since I am not doing this (due to large numbers of pink bridesmaid dresses , but thats another story.) I jst wanted to pass along an idea I had

you know it says the hut has chicken legs.... but it doesn't say how many. we asume that it has 2 like a chicken... but why should it? has any one considered a centipede like mass of chicken legs?

[riotorange]

so here's my lil cartoon so far, decided i liked the idea of actual chicken looking legs. gonna make it like the house might be a lil bit of a..GIR/Pinky/Beeker..sidekick type character, and made it scampering through the forest during its Babayaga-less freetime. hope i posted right, its only the second time i've ever tried to here. lol

[dwinbotp]

My First IDW entry, be gentle I'm doing this since i'm doing the CHOW as well, I apologize for my simple rough, but I will definitely post my finished Mortar along with the character Baba Yga. I'm looking forward to learn more as the days progess

Love your sharp crisp lines and designs yoitisi

[daestwen]

haha, dwinbotp, after seeing your post in the chow thread i was going to demand that you post here, since I really liked the mortar design. you can use the same image for both, you know, since the design is so clear in your chow image. :]

[dwinbotp]

hehe, yup daestwen it's gonna be posted here now, but I'm aiming to try the house out and it's good practice as well, if I don't finish my concept, then I'll succumb and submit the mortar and pestle instead. hope I can finish this though, I suck at enviros or architectural designs in general. As an incentive to do this house justice, I've included Baba inside the damn thing lol

[Pixie Trick]

Here's something that's relatively unimaginative and bland. Trying something a little different which I'm not sure i like or don't like. Overall it's making me go meh. It looks happy to me, something about the composition's off, and there's no windows. A hobo shack on legs. And it's got a waist. Bleh. I might start something else, but I'm not sure I'll finish because of life anyways.



Several of the wips here look very much like log cabins. And here's some more crits in no particular order.

yoitisi: Love your sketches. If you are going to use the triangular house, I would go with a mortar/pestle that's triangular or made of triangular parts. Having two equal triangular parts on top of each other looks rather like an hourglass however. In terms of interesting ideas, designs from the past are things like: a rock and another rock, a curved rock and a not curved rock,...gasp... a deep bowl!!! and a stick!!!! OMG it's a break through. Hmmm... no you say?

Tetrodotoxin: I see ground up poisonous seeds falling out of eye holes.

Moai: Thanks for the refs.

siiilon: Legs? Cabin has promise. Depending on the colours, it could be quite cheery however.

Dwinbopt: I like that the bird is implied but not actually there. Your mortar and pestle ideas are great too, but looks a little close to a cauldron.

riotorange: Nice start. What are those things hanging off of the trees? Also, scampering is just so...... cute. And then swoops down baba yaga eats you. ...or whatever she feels like that day.

Timothee: Looks a bit English countryside. White washed buildings are kind of happy.

Darkknight: Nice to see you again. Too early for me to say anything that's particularly useful.

[riotorange]

pixie trick i rather like your drawing, the house looks like its doing that runway walk...hehe.
as for composition,really..working with a long, thin area can be tricky sometimes but i think it's close to working fine.What makes me think it "off" is probably just because of the the placement of the house.Its right in the middle,which makes it feel kinda cramped .You can fix that easily by moving it down and to the left/right slightly to add some space and weight, or just adjusting your canvas size if you're not set on the one you have.Maybe thats all that is bugging you?



oh yeah.. and what is on the trees are lil markers so that i remember that
i wanted skulls hanging off the trees.there has to be some sort of sinister ness to go along with a scampering house,neh?

[Adam Schumpert]

First time I've had something I could post over here.
First time I've had something I could work on while I was working on a CHOW actually.
When I start really working on the mortar and pestle I'll add it in as well.
This has been a lot of fun. I like these crossover challenges

[Artofinca]