ChoW#227 :: Xmas 3week Special : 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse

[Ian Barker]

my progress so far:

[Carnifex]

so much epicness in this thread. happy holidays to all.

[APW]

GEB, Parsakoira, and suneater: EPIC!
Update:

[zy.]

Bnoch- epic. Love the comp and emotion! The horses look spot on and riders are really interesting. Only comment- might not be an issue in the end but right now it's difficult for me to figure out where the light sources are... really awesome though! Can't wait to see more.

[zy.]

Happy December days to all =D

[lancer_idenoure]

ok heres the promised crits...this is gonna take a while *_*

Liffey: im likin your start. nice colors. add some oranges? theyre kinda just standing around right now though, you might want to give them some sense of purpose or have them walking

Nikola Marinkovic: your details are comin along nicely, just watch out for letting the overall color get too washed out. right now you have the same hue of blue throughout the whole painting. go in with some overlay layers and add some varying hues and levels of saturation. also, i cant tell from the illustration which rider it is. it looks like a black horse, but the rider looks more like death.

Suneater: awesome designs lookin forward to seeing those colored. are you planing on having all 4 in the same piece? just check the anatomy on war. his arm is bent back awkwardly and his torso blends into his waist, making it look short, and his shin is a tad short as well which adds to that

Partisan: thats lookin sweet man, just push those values to make things pop more. and oh god good luck with all those skulls O_O haha i hope youre planning to have them get less detailed as the go back? it might help to copy and paste a skull or two here and there as well. same thing for conquest: push those values. (his horse's butt is stickin out a bit to much too :>)

bnoch: @_@ what the hell that is TOO good! only crits i have are to check the anatomy on conquest's arms. his left (the one holding the bow) doesn’t quite seem to connect to his shoulder and his right arm and shoulder look too small. move both of them up (including his right shoulder) and make his right arm bigger. other than that it looks AMAZING!!

APW: hmm thats a nice interpretation. lol at the frog just try not to make the transition from skin to bone that abrupt. maybe have some tattered skin hangin off the bone to make that smoother...haha thats gruesome. also theres a bad tangent of his front paw (the one touching the ground) and his hind legs. where theyre placed along with the abrupt skin-bone transitions made me think he had an extra joint on his right hind leg. hope that helps :]

Axazel: pretty much the same thing ArtByManon said. that and i would change the legs to have some joints instead of the straight lines they are now. some subtle colors would be a very nice touch too your other sketches are lookin great, especially war. im hopin to see those colored

Broken_Lawnmower: nice glowy effect :] just same thing i said to Nikola Marinkovic: dont let it get washed out with the same shade of color. right now the green is all the same hue. add some variations of warmer and cooler greens, along with some more saturation in certain areas to make it pop a bit more. heres an example of what i mean::]

zy.: wow nice concept. i agree though, youll wanna show more of the character. also, a lot of areas are way too saturated. leave some areas of interest as they are, but tone down the rest of the painting to add some more focus

lunipard: thats a good start. and maybe change plague's pose to something other than a jockey's? check the foreshortening on famine's horse and her anatomy too. i think her hip should be wider. you can look up pictures of starving people on google for ref (kinda disturbing though :/) and make some harder edges. i know theyre in the early stages, but having to go and fix those later can be a pain.

larchist: thank for the crit. and yeah, i was planning to have hell in the distance behind death. fixed famine's horse's legs too (i hope). yours are comin along nicely. haha death is sweet (shout out to obesity im guessing?) id just change his cape/hood thing. its lookin kind of "little red riding hood-y" if you know what i mean. also, famine's arm is bent back strangely. its a little too far back. bend your own arm back in the mirror for an easy ref.

gloombunny: i like the second one, but yours and bnoch's are kinda similar now...hmm maybe a mix b/w the 2. like have some bones showing through the tattered cloth. nice start

Carnifex: the colors and the mood are lookin awesome. i agree with you though, its a little static and the anatomy could use some fixing up. his legs are gone too keep at it man

GEB: haha drunk...nice thanks for droppin by my sketchbook btw. war is lookin seeeexxy! lovin that sword. about the body twist, its up to you if you wanna change it but i think itd be worth it to got in with the liquefy tool and play with it a bit. i you dont know, got to FILTER -> Liquefy. hope that helps. nice start on death too

Gobi: haha legos. nice not sure which to crit though. ill go with the older posts. those are nice concepts, i just recommend getting some refs for the anatomy. that always helps. are you planning on coloring it?

Dionesiist: hawt design, sir! only crit so far is that the proportions look a little squashed. try lengthening out everything a bit. like i said to GEB, you can play around with the liquefy filter.

Stovieheed: i love his pose. thats lookin intense just check the horse's head, its not really lookin like a horse. nothin a quick trip to google images wont fix

Parsakoira: damn dude, youre busting those out! bummer about death that always sucks pretty hard. you might be able to save the image from this forum and then blow it up and paint over it...:/ its better than starting over completely anyways. theyre all lookin awesome though. maybe tighten up the areas of interest a liiiittle bit more. we've got like 2 more weeks left too, are you planning on painting all 4 of them? id love to see it

ArtByManon: ...damn that is creepy. especially the bloodshot frog eye on the horse *shudder* all those details are a bit distracting though. soften some up along with the edges in places you dont want to bring interest to and that should help.

Naphtali: nice start man. im liking the design. just dont be afraid to push those values even further! i dot know if you plan to give them a horse, but if you dont, you might wanna color them correspondingly. conquest=white etc...

electric sandal: thats starting to look pretty sweet. the forms arent reading very well though. take a break from all the detailing and really think about the planes of her form and think about how the light is hitting them. you can go in with overlay and multiply layers so you dont lose all the sweet details

Artfix: thats pure sex lookin awesome man! im just wondering how youre gonna fit the 4th guy in that composition. looking forward to more (and a bigger picture! )


ooohh what did i get myself into??? >.<


Sean McClain: thats a nice start. to answer your questions it looks like the focal area is her head because of the high contrast between her hair and skin...which im guessing is what you were going for. the horse' head looks too close to the body though, like it doesnt have a neck. move it to the left to fix that. it would also help to add some more saturated colors in areas you want to pop more. looking good

JanJager: great color schemes as always theyre somewhat early on right now so i wont crit much, but just watch out for getting into details too much. for example. on famine, from a distance the forms arent reading so well because you went in on the muscle details a little too early. just something to think about. cheers!

Truepinkas: haha nice idea man. hope you can participate

romediggity: santa coat? lol awesome. just make sure your forms are reading. pick a light source and think about how it falls on the subject.

Pixeltuner: thats a nice start, just check the horse's anatomy. its legs are bent the wong way. hopin to see more

AndreRuben: thats lookin awesome. love the veins. just push those darker values to make the forms read more. hope you get to finish!

matias: awesome colors so far. thats working really well as an illustration but for character design, its good to be able to see the front. youll just have to make their silhouettes be very readable

Missile: the anatomy is lookin solid. id just suggest against the head-on view. you cant see the 4th rider and its kinda static.

Urotskidoji: nice sketches so far. especially like death famine looks a little plain though. have a good christmas!

kxu: looks to me like thatll fly with the rules. just try to distinguish which is which a little more so you can tell without the labels.

emerging: awesome take on the topic. lookin forward to see more

Bethany K.: thats different. in a good way. his leg pose is a little static though. i think his left shoulder should come down a bit too.

J@n!t: thats a nice start. he looks a little tired though. i dont know if that was your intention, but thats how his pose is reading. have fun

kissorkill: those are some crazy muscles! maybe a little too crazy, you might wanna tone that down a bit. looks like youre using a body builder for ref? other than that good start.

IDP: the anatomy looks great. only thing i have to say so far is that you might wanna beak up the "top line" of the composition. all their heads are just about level right now.

xabian: the values look good so far, just a bit more contrast. check the horse's anatomy too.

Keppo: that rendering looks fantastic, just check the anatomy and proportions.

Vablo: ooo that looks preety :] i think the flag looks a bit stiff though. good start dude!

fudgeloaf: that sketch is lookin good but which horsemen is it? rudolph's neck is too thick and his legs are missing a joint.

Formic Acid: hahaha lovin that sketch you get a great sense of personality just from the silhouettes. lookin forward to seeing more progress


.................................................. ............................................im dead now >.< that took FOREVER! hope it all helps.

and i might as well post what little progress ive made today. started establishing some background and lighting. ill probably go in and change death and famine a bit, im still not happy with their designs.

[FightingSeraph]

To Electric Sandal: Yours, by far has to be the most original and creative take of the bunch. Plus, it doubles as an angelic assassin.

To Partisan: I really dig your take on Death and the halo you put on conquest is genius. (Same goes for Axazel and Clockwork Bunny.)

[Artfix]

I want to say thank you to lancer on behalf of everyone! Thats dedication.

I hope to put other characters in slight upward perspective like the guy on the right is. Make everything look consistent.

My update:

[kxu]

merry christmas everyone!!!!2232##@

[Gobi]

Gobi: haha legos. nice not sure which to crit though. ill go with the older posts. those are nice concepts, i just recommend getting some refs for the anatomy. that always helps. are you planning on coloring it?

thank you, man. Yes, I will actually coloring yet, but have never done it before. Let's see how it looks in the end^^

[Partisan]

ok heres the promised crits...this is gonna take a while *_*



Partisan: thats lookin sweet man, just push those values to make things pop more. and oh god good luck with all those skulls O_O haha i hope youre planning to have them get less detailed as the go back? it might help to copy and paste a skull or two here and there as well. same thing for conquest: push those values. (his horse's butt is stickin out a bit to much too :>)

.................................................. ............................................im dead now >.< that took FOREVER! hope it all helps.

and i might as well post what little progress ive made today. started establishing some background and lighting. ill probably go in and change death and famine a bit, im still not happy with their designs.

NO Copy-Pasta for me sir ^^ and yes there be a little less details in the back + the Horse-Arse...its painted over an actual foto of a horse its looks that way ^^ ...yeah and concerning values .... I dont know how to push this further ....but Ill try ...

so long and thanks
Seb

[ArtbyWard]

Merry Christmas ! And i've put the FINAL BURNING thread up, so you guys can post your finals when finished

[Nikola Marinkovic]

damn i think i overdrive it with this glow shit everywhere. what do u think everyone?

[eeedward]

Oh gosh~! Everyone's is looking amazing!! Cannot wait to see everyone's finished versions!

Happy Holidays everyone~

[bbwolf]

okay, I started on the project too. Obviously. We´ll see where it goes

[Cyberman]

suneater the design themselves are looking good, I am glad your not just jumping
right into rendering a turd or anything. you could use a perspective grid on the horses the
hooves on famine are all the same size, and the one in the middle the back hooves are
larger than the front ones,...I actually put in a 3 point perspective on these two after getting chewed out in my sketchbook. Merry Christmass!


Nikola Marinkovichmmm this is kinda harsh maybe, because it looks like you already
spent a lot of time on it, but if you really want this to be good I would drop it back
into greyscale and get the anatomy/perspective on the guy and the horse and cut
it down to just one direct light source to make life easier on yourself and just make a finished looking non color piece...that is just my suggestion do what you think is right. ...and Merry Christmass!

Bnoch hmm so a Santa Apocalypse making the children cry....wow your a genius!
I would have never thought of that in a million years!...Merry Christmas!

Liffey NIce pallet and mood, they look very lurky reminds me of ring raiths...a lot
of peoples do actually lol! Merry Christmass

APWcould be interesting I like the way your handeling rendering...

Lancer idenour hey man Thanx for the Critique, I did both of those things, and
I yes your guessed the focal area, you get a smiley face. I think with yours you could
work on the perspective a bit more before you go to far with rendering, they all
seem about the same size, plus what I believe they are kissing is what this is called,
not overlapping but just barely touching, overlapping gives you a sence of distance
so you know what is where in space...anyways Merry Christmass!

ArtfixI like it,...maybe some super duper atmospheric sillhoute of some city
maybe greyish purple or something with like some smoke coming out to give the image
more of a story like they just finished destroying it...anywho just one idea for a bg,
merry Christmass!

bbwolfthat is a pretty intense light situation dude, flames from below flames
from his head light shining of the tip of his sword intensly,...I would either cut out some
of the lighting elements to make it less complicated, I think the light from the sword is unnessery the reflect light from the fire on the sword and his head would be enough
I think, or get some great reference of images that show super crazy light to help you out. anyways Merry Christmas!

well since my last post I realized how the perspective needed work and
did a 3 point perspective on both of these, which helps so much...I am going
to increase the size of the canvas to make the white horseman less crowded/busy and put more work still on war, but I want crits first! Merry Christmass everyone...

[electric_sandal]

Conquest update. thank you for all the critiques. I'll try to keep improving.

Great work from everyone. enjoy the holiday!

[bbwolf]

Sean McClain
Thanks and merry christmas to you too. You might be onto something with the number of lightsources. I suck at color and light and this might be overdoing it just a tiny tad.

We´ll see where I´ll go with the whole thing. Good work on your own entry btw.

cheers

[~KJK~]

worked on some poor quality wip JPEG file i had saved, its shitty quality and needs some refinement

[MasterStryke]

the thing is, people will most likely vote for the more traditional concepts again. and as much as i like using chow for producing portfolio pieces, when the general public isn't interested in them, what's the use of producing said portfolio pieces specifically for this challenge?

the second thing is that i'm not really feeling the characters with my own concept. i'd love to come up with something spelling "all-impending doom", but parsakoira's already perfectly captured that, and i can't come up with anything really better. i feel like it's quite the uphill struggle to be original without falling into clichés, but at the same time to capture the voters' attention and preference. most seem to prefer cliché.
or maybe i'm just overthinking things. anyway, i don't have the desire to create currently.

agree



@parsakoira: you nailed it.

good stuff there..

but somehow your last rider is falling out of the line.. because of the boring perspective probably

[~KJK~]

@ MasterStryke: Yeah youre right, the perspective is boring, it was mostly just about design, i should have used more time to make it more interesting but im now way too far with it to start over

[ArtByManon]

Lancer - thank you - very helpful feedback, I do feel taht it is too detailed and too crisp -w as goin gto do some blowing dust across it - maybe that will liven it up a bit...

[JanJager]

@Nikola Marinkovic
With a lightning behind him I think he will bee almost a silhouette against the hard back light and just have a thin hard rim light on the top parts.
@lancer_idenoure
Coming good. I like the mode and colours. Perhaps the horse of war seem a little bit small for the rider.
Thanks for the crit. I cant stop myself from going into detail's to early.
@Bnoch
It's grate. Death is so cool half standing on the horse. Perhaps adjust the way concur sits on his horse he seem to slide a bit.
@Partisan
Nice take and good picture.
@Sean McClain
Good progress I like the colours. Perhaps the horse on war looks to have a bit high body.

Sorry for not critting all. So many great entries.
Merry Christmas

[Partisan]

small update , pushed out the values a little further ( as demanded ^^ ), Death is for now finished ( some work yet to be done: some Skulls, Skeleton in the back holding his throne is way too small, the right hand not yet rendered, coloring yet completely to be done )...and after this I think I will not draw any further skulls for a long long time

so long
Seb

[Keppo]

Im working, slowly but steadily
And yeah, horse still sucks, but im working on it!

Keppo - Is that a burning city reflection in the sword?

Yup, it was meant to be burning city, but it was bit hard to paint, so im not doing it

[APW]

update: redid the legs a bit, added and took away some stuff, i don't know if i should leave the frog?! It seems to add some humor but I don't know if humor belongs.
lancer_idenoure: WOW! thats dedication doing all those Crits & Comments! Thanks
Thanks Sean McClain!
Everyone is doing an amazing job!

[bbwolf]

no no. By all means. Keep the frog!!!

[Artfix]

@Partisan: Man those look awesome but you gotttaaaa push the values! That is going to look so sweet if those things on the throne glowed more brightly.

@Sean mcclain: I have same critique for you. Push the values and tighten things up a bit. I like yours a lot too.

Damnit I like everyone's more than mine. Is that always the way?

[Cyberman]

@Sean mcclain: I have same critique for you. Push the values and tighten things up a bit. I like yours a lot too.

Damnit I like everyone's more than mine. Is that always the way?

yes that is always the way because, if your for instance a chef and your
making some dish, your going to have tasted it out so many times before
it's finished you just wont have any desire for it anymore for yourself, thnx for
the critique too.

[steve pete]

Work in progress

conquest - white horse