CHoW#244 :: Guardian of Atlantis

[Eofn]

Design a guardian for the underwater lost city of Atlantis
DEADLINE: SUNDAY, May 15th 2011
Deadline is Sunday, at 9:00 pm (GMT+1) Check your timezone!

DESCRIPTION
This weeks theme is a chance to take a look at some non human character design and create a guardian of the underwater city, Atlantis. The inhabitants of this lost, city used to be human, thousands and thousands of years ago, but they have evolved to survive in their new environment and whilst they still appear humanoid, they are far from it. Atlantis has been protected over the years by a shield, the form of which is up to you; it could be magic, technology or perhaps an underwater cave which acts as an air pocket, whatever the reason, the character must be able to breathe and move in water and on land! The illustration of the piece is just as important as the development of the character so plan your image carefully! As always, images which are not well developed will not make it to the poll!

Things to remember:

• Think about the inllustration of the piece But do not forget the character design!
• Can be Male or Female
• Must be huminoid in form BUT NOT HUMAN!
• Must be able to breathe naturally in water and in air (No diving suits)
• Think about what Atlantis might have become, is it still a beautiful, peacful place or is it more like Rapture from Bioshock
• Can be any style or genre
• Think carefully about how water affects light and colour!

Helpful Links:

• Atlantis (Wikipedia)

Good luck, and be creative!

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How to Enter
The RULES
Helpful Guidelines


About quality - as general rule: if your shapes and values are not decent - you are out. Watch proportions, perspective etc. we need perfectly readable shapes and coherent, consistent values.


BE PROFESSIONAL - only finished and good quality entries will be taken to the poll. Rinibee and Parsakoira will make the selection.
Please review these helpful reminders if you have not done so already.

PLEASE REMEMBER TO WRITE YOUR COPYRIGHT INFORMATION UNDER THE IMAGE IN THE FINAL BURNING THREAD SO I DON'T HAVE TO HUNT YOU DOWN LATER!

[grey]

nice one, I've been looking for a chow to jump back in

[Pixeltuner]

Inspiring. First thought is that the guardians are actually the onely ones left as some some sort of centuries old statues. Stone guardians with all kinds of sea flora on them but still with lungs as well as gills. Let me sleep on that thought

[NickyBeats]

heres just some loose doodles trying to get a better idea for this one

[fdisk]

Craaaaaaab people! Craaaaaab people! Craaaaaaab people!

[<3.]

I doing heavy research on this one. I am going to enter it! no excuse.

[Blankstate]

My idea so far. I think I might be better at illustrating than conceptualizing. Seems terribly unoriginal to me. May scrap.

[Suneater]

Nice! Wasn't able to finish the last one (damn my clunky way of working) but will certainly participate here.

[Artfix]

Blankstate

My idea so far. I think I might be better at illustrating than conceptualizing. Seems terribly unoriginal to me. May scrap.

I am the same way! I feel very unoriginal most of the time, but I think its overrated anyway. I LIKE the same shit, that is WHY its popular. Also to be fair, being original is almost impossible by this time in history.

[KleeWyck]

Quick sketch (first idea that came to mind) before sleep. I wanted to go with the horror genre and I thought it would be interesting if the guardians were bloated human bodies. Kinda like the original humans when atlantis was submerged died underwater while others were able to survive by finding air pockets however their bodies were horribly bloated due to their constant exposure in water.

[Paolo13]

Heads up!!!!

[Pixeltuner]

Nice heads Paolo

I've done some ref research and work but I'm still not really feeling this.

[~KJK~]

ill see if i get some wips posted today

[Rob Powell]

Interesting topic, I may not paricipate but I did this quick digital sketch anyways . Just to get my idea down.

[Staplebug]

Heh, I like this - am thinking about the ways that Whales and Sealions became aquatic, and assuming that undersea humans would evolve the same way - although in the time available, not so fast.

[Jamesbiff]

Just some thumbs so far...

Quite hard to strike a balance between human and fishy dna....

[Ludic]

Sketching around.

[Kahel]

@NickyBeats - Underwater superheroes?

@Blankstate - Looks like you're off to a good start.

@fdisk - Crab people! Cool Idea. Definitely getting the armored guardian vibe.

@KleeWyck - from where is that reference pic? Kinda gross but in a good way! I guess bloated creatures would make sense.

@Paolo13 - Nice. I like the last one most.

@Pixeltuner - It's looking pretty good. Try googling diatoms, they have some really nice patterns that might interest you.

@Rob Powell - I feel the same. Still, it's a nice start.

@Stablebug - It's really cool when people get all scientific about character designs. I say good start.

@Jamesbiff - Lol, shrimp are good at being food too.

@Ludic - Liking the underwater tribal vibe. Nice start.


Hrmm... I'm not actually sure if I can come up with something finished, but it's always fun to brainstorm.

So, way back in college, I took this course on earth science, and at one point we were discussing about mountain formations and how sometimes you can find fossilized corals on mountaintops because that piece of land used to be underwater. I've always found it pretty fascinating and now would be a good time to use this as inspiration.

So my concept is this: In ancient times, Atlantis was a powerful underwater civilization who did some pretty hardcore old school science in same style as the Mayans. They had technology, agriculture, etc., and basically what made them so superior is the fact that they can breathe underwater and make good use of whatever they can find there (geothermal energy, anyone?). But, like mammals who can breathe only for a limited time underwater, Atlanteans can only breathe for a limited time on land. Now, during the golden age of Atlantis, they were ruled by a king who then became very proud for his own good, and fashioned himself as a god, believing that Atlantis was the superior race. Now of course the real god/s got angry and basically punished Atlantis by bringing it to the surface, thereby eliminating everything (the same way floods tend to wipe us all out, heheh). The king, realizing his mistake, tried to protect his kingdom by putting himself in the middle and basically sacrificing his own life to keep most of Atlantis underwater. And so poof! The king turns into stone and has now become literally the only entry to Atlantis. Some parts of Atlantis were already brought to surface, so a bunch of them already died out, and whatever's left of the civilization isn't as strong or as grand as it used to be.
The end.

Well, that was long haha. TL;DR version: remorseful king becomes the guardian of Atlantis.

[Partisan]

what I thought when I saw this weeks CHOW topic:

[Gadbury]

I had an image in my head but the way I start all my paintings is so chaotic and retarded

[APW]

Some inspiration for everyone... sharing the love man

[Artfix]

Mr.Gadbury Maybe you had a bad process here, but is it bad if you end up with this awesome rough you have? I love it.

Partisan Looking good...good...use of.. line work. Can't wait to see where you go with THIS one!

Kahel Cool story, but what do you mean he put himself in the middle to keep it underwater? That doesn't make any sense! O:

ludic I like the sketch. Keep brainstorming on those lines i say.

JamesBiff I think that shrimp is a fine idea! He is scary

staplebug I get the sense of him being a whale--how did you do that?

robPowell I think you should participate! I love this guy's face. His big eyes make me love him

Pixeltuner LOVE the face. Not digging the costume or pose tho. I'm hard on you because I know you will overcome

Paolo Awesome. Which one do you like? I guess we will find out!

kleewyck Ya that's gross bro. Good job

Heart name guy Enter dis thang! He looks like a guy in swim trunks hanging out. Try to clarify some of those lines! Lol i could not use your real name cause it made a smiley art! Shame on you for making such a name!

fdisk Raaaawwrr! This is awesome. Maybe you can do a more interesting pose tho?

Nickybeats I like your drawings a lot man. You have a great understanding of gesture and motion. I'm curious to see if your final paintings look like comic book stuff like your sketches do.

[Kahel]

@Artfix - Lol, I know right? I'm just making this stuff up as I go along. And I'm actually kinda uncertain how he ended up being this giant thing. Storytelling isn't exactly my strength haha. Hm. I imagine that he put himself between the gods and his kingdom to protect it such that the "punishment curse/spell" then applied exclusively to him. So now he's in the middle of land and water, with Atlantis being mostly... below land, or hidden by it at least.

@APW - Yes! Totally thought Davy Jones with this Chow.

@Mr. Gadbury - totally feeling the don't-mess-with-me vibe with this guy.

[kingkostas]

I will try to do something but probably i wont make it.
Its just worth it every second learning with all you people

[APW]

this was a lil sketch i did a couple months ago. just thought id share haha

[Rob Powell]

@Artfix: Thnx, the main reason why is because I may not be able to finish it on time, with my COW entry in progress and work, but since you think I should I'll try.

@APW: Davy Jones and his crew definitely came to mind when this topic came up

Everyone's got some neat concepts so far, keep it up!!

[NickyBeats]

awesome work so far in here! looking forward to some more updates!!

heres just some thumbs i was messing around with...

[Partisan]

so my first WIP , going with a more scifi`sh (hehe "...fish".... XD ) approach , they use some sort of bio-mechanical suit , the things on the back are water jets and the things around his hips are fins to control their movement.

enjoy ^^

[Pixeltuner]

Artfix: Well, you might be hard but you're right. The face is the only thing I like atm, the rest is 'meh'. But we'll get there

[RaphaelLuebke]

hehe ok i think i never finished any ** of week piece and im not sure if i find time to finish this one (oh lord so much work atthemoment, and spending all my spare time on beauty and nightmare-contest )
but its such a cool topic i couldnt resist to start painting



(sorry for not commenting all the cool work guys, ill do next days i promise)