EOW 172 :: Ruined Temple of the Horned Ones - (Winner: snatti)

[Vulgar`]

EOW 172 :: Ruined Temple of the Horned Ones

topic suggested by Moai

Topic brief:
Open-ended.

DEADLINE: Sunday, 18 September

ENTRIES:


gmblfdz













kidult

















Streetz


















Blankstate


















OchreHand

















artiphats

















ThomD

















albino-Z

The temple of El lies in the heart of the Opaline Desert. Legends wrought in the vast seas of sand speak of El, a mythical dream sorcerer of the drach, that slept for three full moons, shaping dream-matter into a temple of glorious beauty. It was upon the first look that El's heart was captivated by the untold grace and awe of his own masterpiece. He cried and cried till every tear of joy had left his body, turning himself into a living statue. Now that the war shrieks of the drach sorcerers are but an echo in time, the temple of El is still slowly disintegrating, creating the vast plains of iridescent sand that surround it; a symbol of the relentless power of dreams.


















Farquad



















ognjen


















ismo

















Mhugo


















Jää






















Ramalooke




















jonafunart


















snatti

The temple of Horned Ones yet remains a mystery why it is in ruins, what was once a strong society hidden in the mountains that worshiped dragonlike creatures were suddenly wiped out overnight. Rumors tell of a ritual that went wrong and ended up being the reason for the sudden disappearance of it's people.




















+oas+


















Partisan




















Charlie D


















monotony





















M!CK


















Howie


















DrZero

A couple of brave sould venturing within a vast Ice cave in search of the fabled heart of the Horned ones.



















Lightpunk


















zimfin


















Hideyoshi



















invinciblewombat


















angelknight













Vote for your favorite entries!

Great turnout guys!

[invinciblewombat]

this was an epic round guys, great to see so much quality

[Rob Powell]

holy crap, I'm gonna have a hard time voting, great work overall guys!
In the end I settled with 5
Ochrehand: conceptually the best piece this round, very nice use of perspective as well
Farquad: very cool piece, great composition and nice attention to detail without it looking overdone, nice mood to the piece as well
Mhugo: simple design, but very well executed, nice mood to the setting
Jaa: really cool setting, and a nice touch with the cave about to break (Things are getting ugly)
snatti: You never dissapoint, your work is truly inspirational and makes me kick myself that I don't do enough environments and landscapes

honourable mentions:
gmblfdz
ismo
M!CK
invinciblewombat

[Ramalooke]

Good job everyone. I'm glad that in my first EOW round participated so many great artist. I've learned a lot and saw how much more I need to learn. Thanks and good luck

[Mila]

There's some really cool work in here. Job well done to all that participated.
Voting was hard, but here's some words to my favorites:

gmblfdz Brilliant mood. very realistic.

OchreHand Strong composition. reminds me of something biblical, but I assume that's what you were going for.

Mhugo Wonderful piece. Strong, clear and has a cinematic look to it.

Hideyoshi I really like the use of colours here. The temple itself seems to be beckoning the viewer.

[ismo]

Best round in ages. Let's keep this rate of participation up.

Picking out 3 favorites was really hard, almost impossible. In the end I went for the images that had the most initial impact for me: OchreHand, Jää and Howie.

Ochrehand: Wonderful composition and mood. You can really feel the massive weight of the structure.

Jää: Stands out with its wonderful colour scheme and desert theme. Good call to leave the inside of the temple in shadow and let the viewer use his/her imagination.

Howie: The extreme contrast between the dark foreground and the sunlit temple is very nice and gives immediate impact. The spiky forest theme works well too. Maybe you could have 'ruined' the temple a bit more, but I still like it a lot.

Wish I had time for more comments. You all did awesome.

[DrZero]

great pieces and loads to go through!

Settled on four,

Albino-Z: my favourate piece, love the perspective
Ismo: great story to this, looks like a video game concept
Jaa: love the interesting desert setting
Invinciblewombat: great interior piece, lots of little details like the praying guys.

[Moai]

Awesome work, guys! I voted for several, but Albino-Z and Jaa had my very favorites. Too cool.

[Hideyoshi]

some quick crits, trying not to be harsh (just dont take it personally ok?):

gmblfdz: technically successful! Figure could use some love, it looks like a stickman The image prolly needs more drama, atmosphere, storytelling to be more appealing.

kidult: spacial planes (or perspective if you will) are a bit unclear. More aerial depth would help. Mood's working.

Streetz: the big horn in the middle makes for an unconventional composition, it separates the image and confuses the eye slightly. Figure fits in nicely, temple design is neat.

Blankstate: Lighting is inconsitent. The sunlit rock at the top seems very out of place. Good depth, silhouette character works well.

Ochrehand: cool stuff as usual! Floating structures seen from below always rule. Some textures seem sloppy and undescriptive.

artiphats: its a good composition and element layering. Lighting a bit underdeveloped. The temple could use some more focus, detail, extra light source to be more of a selling point of the image.

ThomD: cool concept, the explosion is well done. Birds a good touch. Like the complementary color choice. More definition in the rocks would improve this.

albinoZ: sweet, cool perspective, nice color hue shifts. Adding more of the lower value range could work.

Farquad: nice concept, design. Textures throw off the scale, perspective and depth in some areas though.

ognjen: this is a good one. More separation of elements in space through aerial haze could really add to this one. And changing hues to more of an ambient sky color, in shadow areas also. Perspective is a winner!

ismo: sweetness! Anything with Indiana Jones in it is. Design, depth, rendering are all nice. I think the sunlight color on the temple could be less saturated to help the depth even more.

Mhugo: nice one. This would have worked better flipped horizontally. And the composition is very stiff. Adding more space to the left would help and also placing the figure on the dark path next to where its stading now (closer to temple). Having something in between the two big horns (another smaller tower maybe) would help avoid the feeling of empty space there.

Jää: Dunno why but the figure and camel are killing the impact for me. The temple rendering and lighting are pretty well done. Some nice subtle lighting treatment with the bounced light here!

Ramalooke: Push the values! Too many mid-range ones here. Good composition. Work with material definition, everything seems to get the same light treatment. Play with diffuse, reflected, bounced light etc.

jonafunart: Nice concept, the bold color overlay kills separation of elements and the values need clarity.

snatti: photo textures are nice but often kill depth. Some areas look indistinguishable because the edges are 'bleeding'. Some sweet lighting details! I wish it had more aerial haze.

+oas: Working out the values without color is helpful so you can set your foreground, middle and background more easily. Check tutorials on perspective, it's very off but I am sure you know that already.

partisan: this has some nice base lighting, but needs more lights and darks to have the full range. Nice design, this piece has good potential!

CharlieD: Nees a lot of work in terms of values, depth. There is no real focal point to this and the beige coloring is very flat because the lighting situation is unclear. Try to work out shadows and lighting much stronger.

monotony: I like the concept quite a bit, the perspective is fun, too. Push the shadow ambience to be cooler and add more warms in the lights.

M!ck: it looks very flat, needs more definition in separating the elements through overlap and haze. The spill lighting on the roof is neat.

Howie: nice, good contrast with foreground and background. Design's cool. Not much to crit, lol

DrZero: Texture are haphazard in areas. Too many elements competing with each other, it needs a focal point. The foreground draws the viewer in pretty well.

Lightpunk: Work on edges, there are some messy bits. Lighting, depth is working ok. Lacks somewhat of a focal point. The colorful spot seems unclear.

zimfin: nice colors! Feels dynamic, the planet makes a good backdrop. Define edges better!

Hideyoshi: STFU.

invinciblewombat: creative design, probably the strongest here! I wish it had much more dramatic lighting, it seems very 'hesitent' right now. Breaking up the symmetry a bit more would work well i think. The figure doesnt read too well, refining it would be a good idea.

angelknight: More definition with edges and values/depth would benefit the piece. the lighting is unclear. If this is ambient overcast-sky lighting, work with soft shading. Maybe introduce a secondary light source to help define elements.



Hope I wasn't too direct. I understand if you want to send letter bombs and/or ninja assassins to my house now. My address is... well you need to figure that our yourselves.

[Charlie D]

Hi Hideyoshi


People who take the time to give me crits and try to help me improve i consider as my teachers.

Thanks all and keep the crits flowing.

[vibhas_virwani]

damn , i thought i had checked the radio button to vote for Jåå :/ , i wanted to vote for his entry too . .. fixable ? :/ (sorry Jåå)

[Blankstate]

Trying to keep it to three votes almost made my head pld:. so ended up voting for Albino-z, Ismo, and Snatti. They had the most powerful impact for me and great details. Also really liked the ones by Jaa, M!CK, and Hideyoshi. Many others are great but some didn't give off enough of a 'ruined' feel for me.

Hideyoshi How dare you offer your useful insights and critiques in an effort to help others improve!! I found out where you live and i'm going to show up extremely drunk and belligerent and won't leave! Jk. Thanks for all the feedback to everyone. I'm no where near as good as most of you here so i really appreciate it. I think the reflected light on the top rock would of worked better if the comp. was tighter/closer in but I was just playing around with this one really, bit of an ICO tribute. I think yours might have been improved with a little more variation in values and a slightly less square composition. Really great temple design though.

Anwys, Awesome round everyone! would leave more feedback/crits but i'm scared of the assassins myself.

[jonafunart]

Thank you hideyoshi, I love getting crits

[ThomD]

Hideyoshi: good crits....your first sketch RULES! Its got great atmosphere, supurbe lightning and reveals just enough but plenty to know what it is. The sketchy brushwork ads
some looseness...compliments!

[Partisan]

XD ....mine has just been some 1 hour of doodeling but thanks for including it in the poll anyways ...I was kind of surprised right now because I havent thought about it ever since I posted it ...probably should say its a WIP next time ^^

pretty awesome stuff this time btw! big ups to all of you !

my votes go out to : Ismo, snatti, Mhugo, Hideyoshi and OchreHand because they all did a solid job, OchreHand being a little ahead of them in general appeal BUT I have to mention that I miss elements that specifically mark this as the temple of the "horned ones" ...you got my vote ( and to be honest with myself this is kind of unfair) because I simple like it the most