C.o.w. #242. Freestyle! Wips

[Eclectix]

A sketch built on top of a photo I took. I probably won't go with this one, but it was fun so I'm posting it as a WIP anyway.

[Something_Moore]

Well, it looks like I'm not going to have time to put together a final for this round. Boo. The next few days just got insanely busy. But I'll see you all in the New Year for the next challenge!

[hekatoncheir]

eclectix: that's a pretty cool wip, but I feel like if the neck looked forward (ie stretched to the right), the composition would look better. Either that, or have more space to its left (since it's looking there)

rob: is it just me or do you like multiple limbs? hahah. Cute face, interesting creature, I'd say push your values more, and make sure that the creature's right side's limbs all follow the same perspective lines. (The second right limb for example, looks a bit too short)

si sweamn son, I think you can most def push the bioluminescent part waaay more. Did I spell that wrong? Yeah I probably did. Anyways, although the colour palette is mute, you should kinda be careful because the foreground colours aren't separating form the background, so I don't get a sense of depth, and the blur in the background distract the crap out of me. (I think a plain bg would work or a lighter colour for the blur. Atmospheric perspective yeah?)

something_more: Gurlfrand you totally have time! (Isn't this due the 9th?) But your creature still makes me think of a griffin... Maybe you should explore a little more with possibilities (of different kinds of limbs).

lehmann: AWW IT'S A BIRDIEEE. WITH MULTIPLE LIMBS (GODDAMN IT PEOPLE. What is with the limbs!?) As much as it has a sick beak, it doesn't look like it can fly... (Take it from a native New Yorker who has seen their fair share of pigeons.) A raptor ref for that pose would be helpful, to capture the plumage and the way the head cocks.

Lancer: Bro! The last time I saw you was in a Teen Challenge round, you most def got better. Add more highlights or mute the background, because your creature is blending in a little waaaay to much. Also, add more textures if you're going to use them. (Because everything else is very blurry, but the bottom right corner of the image has like, a photo, so its very dense. It brings my eye to the bottom of the page instead of the actual creature)

I'm going to hope I typed English up there. It's like 3am right now. Anyways, I have this for now, took forever, not sure if want, but I KNOW I wanted a cat. So. Yeah.

Yeah I might scratch this.

[Eclectix]

hekatoncheir; Thanks, I appreciate your input. I may crop the image differently. I didn't really plan to keep working on it but I got sucked into it a bit more doing scribbly little details which I always enjoy (as I can just let my mind wander) so this is now a work in progress. I am still not convinced I will use it for this competition, but whether I do or not at least I'm having fun.

[Something_Moore]

Hekatoncheir - Guur-uhl =), thank you for the encouragement, but I believe this challenge ends on the fourth. And you are right, my creature is completely too close to a griffin. I'd need more time to fiddle with designs. But don't you worry your heart - I will see you in the next challenge.

[APW]

@hekatoncheir be careful now
..NOT ACCUSING ANYTHING PPL. DONT FREAK..

[hekatoncheir]

APW: Bro I know. It's on my dA favourites. It's really just a bad coincidence that my kitty looks like it. I was going for a viper head and spikes.

Bring out the torches. Every one has to experience that once in a while.

[APW]

hahah no problem, wasn't accusing you at all, just a heads up that ur kitty (which looks killer) might be headed in the same direction. no worries, looks good btw

[Eclectix]

hekatoncheir: Don't worry about pitchforks and torches; it is so easy to be subconsciously influenced by something you have seen in the past, only to find yourself making something uncomfortably similar without being aware of it. Add to that the fact that there's almost nothing new under the sun anymore; if you create something entirely "new," it is probably not terribly different from something else, somewhere. One example of this was when I sketched a new creature that was part tiger, only to have someone accuse me of plagiarizing the displacer beast from Dungeons and Dragons. When I reviewed a drawing of it from D&D's sources, it was almost identical to my sketch right down to the pose and the number of limbs. Strange thing is that I had no memory of having ever seen that picture before. I imagine this happens to everyone from time to time.

My sketch:


Displacer Beast:

[Junior artist]

Ugly desert creature Please judge only the design, it's not finished yet

[lancer_idenoure]

gotta run. more crits later.

render render render

[Rob Powell]

wasn't really happy with myother creature, a little bit too much probably (probably trying too hard on my part) so went with a different design, and I'm a bit happy with the current progress. atm feels like I'm still missing something so a bit more experimentation will probably do good.
anyways here's the sketch...

Happy New Year, btw!!!!

[Reddcarp]

So here's my current WIP, I think I've realized that I should have pushed the creature design itself a lot more before diving into the painting, but I'm going to go ahead and finish this up because it is my first creature painting, and I don't think I'll have time to start fresh. Also, I will be getting rid of that god-awful purple.

[AdrianNagorski]

Excellent stuff in here guys!!!

my idea, B is a more aggressive pose??

[Uhlsdragon]

This will be my first participation in a COW ever, so wish me luck!

Just some sketches to get the ideas flowing, I think I've made a decision on one, but I'd love to hear what you guys think.

[Reddcarp]

Hey Uhlsdragon, welcome to COW! I don't think I'm really qualified to give a critique yet because this is my first entry as well, but I really enjoy the forms of 4, 5, and 10. I think that building on those could make for something very interesting.

[Si_Swe]

Here's a little WIP on my piece post-basic rendering. Still to come: highlights galore, secondary light sources, moar feelers! Still blocking in where the fungi it feeds on will be located, eventually.

[Eclectix]

Si, I'm loving the bristly whiskers.

[Junior artist]

well I dont know what is wrong with my post in finals thread, I cant post it there anything and I dont know if it has to be like this or should I try again? but its already too late, deadline has passed....... I think I failed posting that final picture here's what I had for all of ye

[Rob Powell]

Junior artist: do not worry, deadline is still approximately 24 hours from now, and that is an issue that has happened quite a lot lately for some reason, the mods should be able to fix this when they get the chance...

[Eclectix]

I guess I missed a week; I thought we had another one to go still. I didn't realize this challenge started on the 21st. I guess I'll have to finish up what I've got then instead of starting over with something new as I'd planned.

ETA: Here is where I'm at right now:

[Junior artist]

just testing ..

Artist: Junior-artist

Concept: Desert-Sparewonder

"Desert Sparewonder" is a creature of Australian deserts.

[Evil-lettuce]

hey guys. ive been lurking for a long LONG time now. i personlly have very little talent in drawing, so i most probably wont be adding any entries of my own; but i think from now on ill try to from time to time try to help, support, crit etc.. mostly with concept me thinks, but art too for sure.

any way so what caused me to come out of lurking state is your creature si_swe. as cool as the concept is, without further explanation i find it EXTREMELY unlikely that any creature would develop to have glowing sensory organs(the ones you want to protect...). anyway that just bugged me to no end since as of lately i tend to get a bit OCD over stuff. hope you can include that in your concept

P.S. blame any and all problems with my english on it not being my mother language.

[Si_Swe]

Evil-Lettuce, your english is perfectly fine. Thanks for the comments. I figured that with a bioluminescent food source (as the fungi I've only just blocked in will be), elements of the creature would begin to develop the same bioluminescence. Certainly it's not all plausible, but neither is the creature's design. Part of the creature of the week is to render impossible things. Hell, even the massive creatures we create would be physically incapable of supporting their own weight let alone locomotion. I appreciate that you want believability, and it's something I strive to achieve a certain level of, I'll see what I can do to satiate that desire.

Junior Artist, it happens every once in a while that someone posts something and they can't see it. It's generally people with very low post counts attempting to post images. They require mod approval, and there really isn't a good system in place for bringing that to a mod's attention. The only reason I can even tell is because a post won't have a post number in the top right hand corner. I'll be sure to check and see if you've posted and approve your image. EDIT: Your image should be visible, and I've deleted all the duplicate not-yet approved posts

[Eclectix]

i find it EXTREMELY unlikely that any creature would develop to have glowing sensory organs(the ones you want to protect...).

I'm not saying that you're wrong necessarily, but I am wondering why you feel this is the case. Many creatures take on the colors or other chemical properties of the things that they feed on, such as brightly colored flamingos which lose their color when they don't feed on crustaceans or poison frogs which lose their poison when they don't eat ants with toxic alkaloids, or even certain sea slugs which take on venomous stinging properties from the hydras they feed upon. It seems like a natural thing to me for a creature which feeds upon bioluminescent plants to take on some aspect of that in its physiology, even in the sensory appendages. It could be a warning to other creatures that it is toxic or bad tasting, for instance. Anyway, I'm not trying to be argumentative but I'm just curious about your reasoning.

[Evil-lettuce]

ohh... well i think you guys might have just not got what i meant . i didnt mean physically and individualy, but rather evolutionally(is that a word? :p) what i mean is that having your eyes seem like tasty snacks wouldnt do much good against predators and so the gene would die off quickly. what i meant by adding this into your concept was actually how THAT fits, and why individuals with glowing sensory organs would be the ones to succeed more then ones with something (imho) awesome like disposable and gecko style amputable (or sumthin appendages used for luring prey, escaping predators and maybe even courting (though the creature seems insect-y atm). just an idea that suddenly popped into my head .
anyway sorry for the missunderstanding if things happened like i think they did. damn i have to say im pretty impressed w/ my self for those appendage thingies. hope you can make them as elegant as you did the sensory organs if you choose to use them though

[Si_Swe]

Another update on mine. For the moment I'm leaving the creature alone, but there are still some things I'd like to correct. I'm working now on making the ground look a little more solid and rendering the fungus structures.

[Burhtun]

Si_Swe: I suppose if you wanted to give reason to the bio-luminescent feelers you could give it a long flexible tongue to lick up flies that are attracted to the light. Then the light makes sense (attracting prey) as does the fact that they are sensitive feelers (triggers whip-like tongue action). I agree though, its nice when things are reasoned-out but its not totally necessary for this sort of thing.

lancer_idenoure: Your creature reminds me of okra. bleh.

[Si_Swe]

Had to rush some things to get it in while I still had the time to work.

Just a reminder that there are just a little more than 2 hours left in the round!

[Junior artist]

thx guys, for help and advice! my entry is now in the thread.