Conceptual Portrait Assignment

[lysgaard]

Here's my final.

A big thanks to blau, the teachers, and everyone else who helped me. It would have looked crap without you.
Gotta go now, see you all in class!

[JHuntsman]

Onisan - THANKS!!!

Your NPH came out really great!!! I love NPH (ever since Doogie Howser - I had a crush on him when I was a younger girl ). Great work!

Jamie

[nance]

Holee crap....im just starting on my final! Freaking out....hopefully i can have something by 3:00 Houston time

[Sterling Hundley]

What a great community. This is the type of thing that happens in an open creative environment where everyone is pushing to improve. I'm inspired, and looking forward to the critique today with Chris Payne on DISCOVERY.

Liquid- I have often been confused about design. It was never explained to me in school, and when I began teaching, I had to find a way to communicate much of what was innate.

Here is my overly simplified way of explaining the fundamentals of design:

Next time that you head out to eat with someone, watch them. When people sit down, they begin arranging the objects in the space around them. Why? To make themselves more comfortable. This is what great design does. I believe that this need to feel comfortable in a space is inherent in all people, even those who are not Visual.

How does this translate to your work? Take a look at your composition and stop thinking of the objects as your subject matter- portrait, cityscape, chair, cup, etc., and begin thinking of them as shapes. Not circles, squares, etc., but in terms of a silhouetted shape.

Is there a space in your composition that makes you feel uncomfortable? This space either needs to be activated or deactivate. If it feels to congested or busy, take something away. If it feels too empty, add something.

This is an oversimplified explanation, but simple is sometimes better. Hope that it helps!

[Liam Harvey]

My subject selection for The TAD conceptual portrait:
Andrew "Android" Jones.

Compiled Reference:

[Liam Harvey]

Some rough ideas. Working on more as i type.

All Nighters rock!

[Craz]

Nance: RELAX. The finals DO NOT have to be done before the class. This assignment is about process and learning.

BRINKMAN!: Oh, you rule, dude! Damn great to see one of the students commitedly critting everyone like that.
As for the advice you gave me, it seems great.
You're very right about his personality. I'd been thinking about it, I even touched on my solution in my thinking, but I just needed you to push me into putting that glint in his eye.
The helmet is a good suggestion too. He's actually tried a huge variety of crackpot methods "Just in case", so I might try to include something from a several of them. I'm probably going to try to get rough drawing for the 'jumping' option and one of the facial compositions. Don't have long though. Yay!

[CrimsonSnake]

Good stuff so far Liam, I know this might be too obvious but why don't you just make him an android.

[nance]

Craz: Thanks for the heads up

Heres where im at, some reference and a couple thumbs

[nance]

now that i look at it, it kinda looks like sandra bullock right now, but i'll fix it

[Adam Watts]

Done for now and ready for critique.

You guys are mega inspiring! Love these!!! Osama Big Foot registered instantly. awesome AWESOME concept.

[Φ]

my process, wanna keep it in one post:

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/sho...&postcount=175

[Jasonai]

Well, here's what I got. Kinda having trouble coming up with a good idea so i think i'll just keep up with the thumbnails until i figure out something I like. I chose Jason Statham, and I'm trending towards him being a sort of.. adrenaline dealer/track suit knight. But yeah, here's all my work so far.

[Thyname]

Finished. Kanye West at dusk in Miami. Complete with retro blue

This was SOOO much fun.

[bolow]

Everyone has done an amazing job. Doing this i realise I need more practise painting digitally :/

More thumbs & reference, looks like i ran out of time.
The concept is Mr King with a bloody rose. A rose is the symbol used through out the dark tower books

EDIT-- Sorry for the Size :/

[Liam Harvey]

OK.

Forgot to state intention and to post thumbnails.

Crimson Snake: i really didnt dawn on the idea to make Andrew an Android, immediately but i decided to make a subtle connection or to alude to the Android within, just by his connection with the electronic tools he uses to create. (I did however and give a glowy eye.)

My intent with the piece, was to show Andrew Jones working, to either be surrounded or emanating an ebb or flow of creative energy, minifested by visuals that match those known in his art.

I also wanted to show his Wacom tablet and workstation, as not only did most of my reference contain the two, but it seemed proper to add them in for narrative purposes.

Thumbs:

Most complete so far:

[Liam Harvey]

OK.

Forgot to state intention and to post thumbnails.

Crimson Snake: i really didnt dawn on the idea to make Andrew an Android, immediately but i decided to make a subtle connection or to alude to the Android within, just by his connection with the electronic tools he uses to create. (I did however and give a glowy eye.)

My intent with the piece, was to show Andrew Jones working, to either be surrounded or emanating an ebb or flow of creative energy, minifested by visuals that match those known in his art.

I also wanted to show his Wacom tablet and workstation, as not only did most of my reference contain the two, but it seemed proper to add them in for narrative purposes.

[smash.rs]

So, at first i tried Jack Black, but when i saw that Jamie`s was doing JB, and my idea was pretty much like her (it was JB as Monalisa, but the same kind of idea).
Then i started over and went for Rainn Wilson, and showing him as one of my favorite characters, Dwight, from "The Office".
Didn`t have much of a complex idea for it, just wanted to show how he`s always plotting to climb his way to be a boss or something like it.
So here`s so pretty rough sketches, and my initial render on the piece.
Tried to put the grin in his expression to show the evil-ness of Dwight Schrute.

[inkdrop]

Nipples For The Win!
Still shaking from my review. I was so excited. Sorry if I sounded like a giddy school girl Good times. Here is as far as I got for tonights crit session.

[ ]

[backware]

hope you enjoy

[phizpietl]

Inkdrop: really dig this! Nice stuff.

Phil Lietz

[Robeck]

Nice, I'm really impressed how amazing you guys work digitaly.

My portrait shows Johnny Cash in his days after his wife died and close to his own death (4months later). Worked in watercolors and acryl, then made a few changes to color in photoshop. 99% manually, only 1% digitaly with a huge impact though

Some thoughts I had: the guitar case is closed, he's done making musik.The brick wall, that got a bit short, is a symbol for the many songs he sang about prisons, but is also the borderline to the sky/heaven where his beloved wife is. So he might feel like earth is his prison seperating him from his wife.

Wow this sounds more sophisticated than intended hehe.

[tja88]

just wanted to say thanks to all the teachers for hanging in there, helping us out.. GREAT job,, gotta go to sleep now but will watch the on demand tommorrow..!

i'll definitely fix those "diamonds" in my piece, and tweak some more too, probably!

[Onisan]

Good thing the weekend is right ahead there is some major input to process! Chris Payne was legend ...wait for it... dary!

It's 4 a.m. and I really need some sleep now, but here is what I was able to apply to my Neil Patrick Harris piece so far. Hopefully I could adress and correct some of the many things you guys mentioned.

[phizpietl]

Onisan: NPH is the best. How I met your mother is such a funny show. Good likeness, fun expression. Good work!

Phil Lietz

[applecheeks]

Thanks for the super long class tonight! It was great to see what people have come up with and to hear the critique!

I realised that maybe I should have stuck to my initial idea with a crowd of people instead of this crazy collage thing. The image had more impact in its original form but I was worrying that we didn't get a good look at Obama so I felt the need to zoom in. Ah well... you pick the wrong battles sometimes but you've got to fight them.
I'm wondering if I should still do the people in front/under the "desk" or if I'm picking an unnecessary battle again... hmm...
As for the rendering I think the only way for this to work is to go flat. I did a value study where I rendered things out a bit more realistically but the desktop just wouldn't work if there were reflections and shadows interfering.

Thanks to all the instructors for a packed week! I'm having trouble keeping up! It's 3 am over here in the UK... signing off for now.

[Ted E.]

Wow, amazing class today!
C.F. Payne giving conceptual portrait critiques .... please do not wake me.

Thank you for the positive critique guys (still shaking). Looking forward to finishing this one up.
Here is the WIP:

[JonathanGilpin]

Missed last night "picturbooks" but did get insprired by some other folks ideas - did this quick cartoon from the snow idea with Obama from Appllecheeks...

Thought the cold winter and the snow made a great analogy for his dwindling support both from the public and his own political party colleagues.

[JonathanGilpin]

Conceptual portrait:
Candidates and word stacks:


Went with Garisson Keiller -
Find him interesting but a little creepy when he goes into his dark inner dialogues. Odd mix of happy, familiar themes and a deep dark pathos!
here is my first set of thumbs:
Profile image is to show all these characters from Praire Home Companion coming from his creative mind. The "drag" piece could be the "Psycho" analogy where Anthony Hopkins is the Mom - but in this case GK is the "crazy mother" - again dealing with his seemingly fragile grasp on mental health.

this one deals with his mental balance - he seems almost on the edge of bad depression at times - to much snow and dreery weather? A pun based on his name....


some more quick ideas - great intellect (internal dialogues, mostly) as Rodin's Thinker or as Marvel's Mordok the Thinker


And this axe one where it looks like an ordinary scene but maybe GK is hiding some dark secrets?


And the last one where I depict and old fashion radio and the bursting Jack Nicholson head (in this case GK) from the Shining. Trying to show the dichotomy of the old fashioned values with GK's dark morbid pathos...


Which one should I go with? Or should I keep thumbnailing? The mods told me tongiht during crit to pick on a and spend some tracing paper time fully developing it (they like the Radio thumb - but thought the bursting head over the top).

[BRINKMAN!]

I put in some work. Fixed the things Chris and Brent suggested. I'm going to seek out a good, mostly warm night-time scene for some color inspiration. Any suggestions to help me out would be greatly appreciated!

Great class tonight! What a way to cap off an awesome week.
Thank you to all the awesome instructors we had this week, you really went the extra mile for us.

It's late...must...rest...eyes..... ... .