C.O.W.#236, GODZILLA MONSTER! wips.

[Rob Powell]

v-lkry: I think although in the brief (lark stated 100ft. high, over 100ft long is acceptible so long as it isn't a skinny 100 foot long twig, it must be of a large size basically....

and no worries, the glow will come soon enough!

[Eclectix]

I'm hoping the glowing eyes satisfies the brief; it states that it should show "some part of its anatomy glowing," and eyes are part of it's anatomy.

I'm not sure whether I'm getting the translucent effect I'm after on the creature's underside or not.

[AndreaC]

Hello there, it's actually my first time trying C.O.W or any community activity but i might start giving them a try since it can be both fun and a useful practice.
Anyway just a rough and quick sketch, trying to see if what i'm trying to do makes any sense at all.
If you're wondering why is there a military humvee in the picture.. well there were some in Hulk2 if i remeber right, equipped with some kind of sonic cannon, and this bat shoud fire pretty much the same stuff, only hitting harder

[PJT]

Here's my monster frog WIP

[Luckers]

I started the whole Lobzilla idea over.
I didn't want to end up with the exact same anatomy as a regular lobster.
I'm still having some trouble with the glowing part of the assignment. But it looks like everyone is holding on to that one until the end.

So, here's my new WIP (It's my first time using the lasso tool so extensively, dont laugh at me!)
Edit: I just realized I don't have any reference on the size of my godzilla creature... I'll get to that!

[bbwolf]

Eclectix I like the look of the Octopus, thou it looks like one giant gasbag. The glowing eyes registered with me only after I read the
description and even thou I REALLY like the look of the painting imho
there´s not really much of a mutation to it apart from the gigantism.

AndreaC Good on ya for participating!!! I am curious on how
yu progress to show the mutation and the size.

PJT Nice frog. Same thing thou, I can hardly spot any Godzilla-esk mutation.



my WIP (of course) I´d be very happy if some of you heavweights here
could give me some pointers, please. Feel free to tear it apart or/and put some lines over it. My Idea was to have a mutatet slug with the shell house becoming armor.

[Roddy]

Bbwolf- remember it's creature design, this feels very much like an illustration. I'd like to see a bit more focus on the slug. Is the slug glowing? Maybe tone it down a bit. Cool concept though.

Luckers- Very cool, although it has an inanimate feel to it. Maybe have it in more of an action pose. Also I'm not feeling the whole radiation vibe at the minute.

PJT- Love it, However I feel like the photo background is distracting.

AndreaC- Not getting a feeling of height but it's a nice concept.

Eclectix- No crits, spot on.

This is my early sketch, based on a black widow. Needs more mutation.

[dumpstercake]

Godzilla and his kin aren't just monsters, they're elemental forces of destruction like hurricanes, or tsunamis. They don't always intentionally devastate their surroundings, but they can't help it due to their sheer size and the large amounts of residual mutating energy that glows from within their bodies. Energy that they can often project as a directed weapon or aura or something.

I'd like to see more of this in these pictures.

Edit: bbwolf seems to have the right idea, though the monster could probably be having more of an effect on its environment.

[Eclectix]

I thought I'd try a few simple variations. Mouth #1 is more expressive, but mouth #2 is more alien looking so I think it goes better with a cephalopod. I personally prefer it just like it was without either mouth or glowing tentacles, but my 7 year old prefers it with both mouth #1 and glowing tentacles. Seeing that he's a Godzilla fan and I'm more interested in Lovecraftian stuff, I'm now not sure whether to leave it the way I like it, or add a mouth and/or glowing tentacles.

[bbwolf]

Roddy Thanks mate. I think you put the finger in the wound there. I might get too carried away with the surroundings. I need to put more training into my speed painting skills as a creature design like this needs a bit more bg than just a few swishes.

Eclectix I like the last version with the glowing suckers best.


So here´s my next WIP. Fixed the perspective and a bit more of the surroundings. Whatcha think?

[bbwolf]

can´t help my illustration instincts. I want it to look good. Too much? Not enough?

[WarmSoda]

Eclectix - Amazing job! The one with the glowing tentacles is my favorite, by far.

[Eclectix]

bbwolf; try to get some reference for that guy's hand, it has some pretty big issues. Also, it would help give a better sense of depth and scale to get some variations in values from the foreground to the mid to background. Things further away tend to have a narrower range of values, but so far yours are pretty much all over the place for all levels of depth on this piece. I hope you don't mind the quick paint-over to show you what I mean.

[Eclectix]

WarmSoda; Thanks! Do you like it better with or without a mouth, and if so, which one?

[J-Sun]

With no disrespect to all those who have suffered and continue to suffer from the Chernobyl nightmare, I present Chernobyl Chicken.
I only wish that giant monsters where the only result of such nuclear catastrophes instead of the reality of disease and death.

At any rate, my "finals" never really get past the WIP phase... but I'm further along than usual with this one!

Still needs A LOT of work... and I actually still have time!


Comments and help always welcome!


Great work everyone!

[PJT]

BBWolf, valid crit. I monstered him up a little but not enough I guess if you go by the godzilla scale, she really doesn't look like an iguana at all, however I find frogs scary as hell. Hopefully some radiation fx in the next pass will help sell it.

Roddy, hopefully this works a bit better, though admittedly it's still a bit lazy Hopefully a little more rendering and some color and I'll have a decent integration.

[bbwolf]

Eclectix No I don´t mind at all. Thank you for that. I know I have issues there. The hand was marked down for a workover anyway and I kinda know what´s wrong with it too. I had a value adjustment layer in there somewhee but it got lost in the process and I planned to go in do the athmospheric perspective at one point. Thank you again for the quick workover. That helps a lot.


Edit: I´ve taken your advice as you can see. I already posted it in the Finals thread, but if anybody has some last minute advice, I gladly take it and try to incorporate it.










J-Sun That´s some figgin´ cool concept. Nobody needs to help that chicken. And a nice take on the radiation poisoning makes
monster concept as usually they are aquatic and pacific creatures due to the location of the A-bomb tests and Japans location.

PJT yeah, that´s a bit more monstery. Maybe the tongue can be even more mutated?

[PJT]

I think this'll be my final for this guy.

[tsabu]

Monkey ruffian gang mutated together into one giant monkey-hydra thug!

Darn these dudes made me some heavy beating so far - i almost though i lost these pics, but still got hope. Tomorrow final battle

J-Sun Love your work - perfectly fits into these topic imo! When finally you will make a CA sketchbook!?

[tsabu]

bbwolf I like your final work Wips can be criticize for not strong enough focal point - but in your final, head of the monster is strong enough as a main focal point!
These is how i would make it showed in my crappy pain tover (made it before realized that you already post final in the finals )
PJT I like especially your sketch - there are some really nice lines on the creature body - i think you should make these fold's on the final piece more strong, and slightly less polite. Just like in the sketch! These shining lights on the creature are cool - but they are too strong at these moment in my opinion
Eclectix My favor is mouth#2 BUT i would add these glowing tentacles either Also i would push a bit more these transparent\blue part of the monster head - its very cool part but its one of the very last point where observer eye is landing.

Hope these helps, and sorry for not commenting every ones.

[bbwolf]

I just realized that it´s not two hours to the deadline, BUT 26 HOURS!!!!

What should I do to my entry now? Work the cityscape over? Any hints, tips, tricks, recommendations?

[Sketched]

Hey Guys. Really cool stuff so far.
This is my WIP. Went with an ELK. Thinking i might have to mutate it a little more.

[J-Sun]

Awesome work guys!

Gadbury - Great work overall Gadbury - The creature and the environment are very nicely rendered! I'd like to see you go to town with the addition of some wild glowing radioactive effect -- the creature's huge frill is the perfect canvas for that!

Luckers - I liked what you had started out with, but I am liking what you've ended up with even more. Your second, more unique take on the Lobzilla idea is looking great. I think a very subtle cue to indicate relative scale of the create will clearly established the creature's sale as Massive - although I feel that the viewing angle you've establish is doing a pretty good job at establishing this scale already. Looking at the overall silhouette you have of the creature I can imagine adding some radioactive glow to delineate the details of the creature's anatomy and maybe leave it at that?! At any rate I like the drama of the piece so far with the beast emerging from the sea and all.

Whiskey Sour - I'm loving the Monster French Bulldog Piece.
On one hand I say call it done, leave it alone and celebrate the completing of a very fun and inspiring art work! On the other hand - KEEP GOING! - and push further along with the brief, go with Emerging's editions, shadows and all, paint in more highlights, mutations and radioactive glows and such!

Rob Powell - Awesomely tight beginning there Rob!!! I love it. The massiveness of this guy's shell and all of the bony bits = fantastic. You can't go wrong continuing to develop this guy!

Eclectix - Beautiful work. Your Beastie fits seamlessly with your photo. You've captured a great sense of movement and the integration of the monster into the scene with him destroying part of the Key Bridge is excellent! (PS - I like mouth #1!)

AndreaC - Welcome to C.O.W. AndreaC. I like your concept. I think you are off to a great start. It would be great to see your Bat-Zilla emitting glowing radioactive sonic pulse (like in your sketch). Don't necessarily worry about totally finishing your concept but try to develop it further if you have time.

PJT - I enjoyed seeing your piece develop (or mutate- hahaha) from greyscale concept to finished detailed color. Great piece overall. The scale-like segmentation really distinguishes your creature into being a real monster rather than just a simple mutated oversized frog. The details in the skin texture and the saliva really give the piece a very polished look.

bbwolf - Love the energy of these piece! You've truly electrified the concept by taking a slow, dull somewhat amorphous slug and mutating it into a dynamic hyper-detailed slug monster. The overall action and composition of the piece is very engaging and I love the countless details and extra bits that you have worked into the creatures anatomy!

Roddy - I think you are starting off with a great composition/vantage point to emphasize the creatures massive scale. The addition of some environmental detail - be it a tree, car, building, people or other animal - could serve to further establish this scale. I think you can do some really cool things with this foundation - I can imagine the the body shape and and legs coming live with all sorts of glows and textures. Keep going - there is still time!

Tstabu - Yeah! A Concept Art sketchbook would be a good thing for me to get started - I'll get to work on that! Thanks for the encouragement!
With your Giant Monkey Hydra-Thug - I like that you have really mutated and fused these guys together and have come up with a totally monstrous new creature! The deep shadows and intense colored highlights really bring this guy to life. What you have going in the upper portion with the heads is looking fantastic - keep going!

Sketched - I really like what you've got going on here with Elk-Zilla. I like the GIANT antlers and the mutations along its spine; maybe you could add some radioactive glow to both of these areas. It would be cool to see him completely in context of his environment to get a better sense of his enormous scale - Time being tight though I'd focus on the creature itself. Awesome start - love the lighting and the fur.

[Eclectix]

J-Sun; thanks for the helpful crits! I hope you finish and submit your Chernobyl Chicken, it's a very fun concept and chickens are actually terrifying from the perspective of a bug! They're just dinosaurs after all.

[ZenithDeLunaris]

Because I was talking with a friend about this and she said I had to do a bunny for sure.

[calyx]

I'm a genius, i remembered the deadline wrong (thought it's tomorrow)... but here is what i did anyway, an unfinished piece. A glow should be radiating from the lines in the grassy patches.. yes there is supposed to be grass!

Hope to join the fun in the next rounds!

[Si_Swe]

calyx - Very sorry to see you missed the poll. Great stuff. I'm a huge fan of your "singing death". Hope you're able to participate in the near future.

[calyx]

Thank you Si Swe! I would definitely like to post more, i haven't been active anywhere online..

May COW live forever!