C.O.W. #250. Aristotilian Elementals - WIPs Thread

[GEB]

You know it makes sense dude! Try to be really free with your brush to start with and shapes will apear.

Don't think!

Feeeeeeeeeew...

It is like a finger pointing toward the moon.

SLAP!

Don't concentrate on the finger or you will miss all that heavenly glory...

SLAP!

I said stop looking at my fucking finger!!!

[Ironbyte]

Lots to think about, thanks Geb, much needed advice and kick

[Si_Swe]

Aw man, I'm an idiot. VegasMike that looks fucking killer. While I was attempting to click the "Thanks" button on your post, I accidentally hit the button immediately below it (which, when you have admin access is "Remove All Thanks"), so if you or anyone is wondering where, like, 8 people's thanks' went, that's where.

[NightHerald]

I've been pretty lazy working on this, but I tried making it less humanoid, and also skethced out a different head design.

[Stinkfist]

[Zylock]

Here goes a quick one. I feel that a vague insectoid shape fits the earth elemental quite well.

[Lander]

Time flies and you have been busy

I see that Vegasmike is on the same path. Looking bad ass by the way.
I want to make something dynamic so here goes my first wip.
They are still loose so next step is to make them more solid.
Should also expand the canvas some to make room.

Fire away!

[VegasMike]

Thanks for the comments, I'm really excited to be working on a COW again, it helps my soul! Here's a cleaned up version in black and white. I've already colored it up but wanted to show you this step first. Let me know what you think and keep up the hard work!

[Rob Powell]

VegasMike: I can't even comprehendpld: Awesome work, Man!

[GEB]

Vegasmike: That's looking wicked mate. The scale is awesome too. To me that singular bird is distracting and kinda messes with the scale you've worked so hard on. I think maybe a flock of birds pushed way way back might work better, also I think you need to get the angle right so we're looking up at them

[stridiggio]

Very nice concepts and works! keep it up!
Here is my progress but I'm not happy at all with the black colour of the background and also with the transparency of the fire than is not clear,

[DefiledVisions]

hey guys, I'm sorry to say I'll have to bail on this one. I thought I'd have enough time during these two weeks but I've got shitloads of work to do. Looking forward to see the epicness in the finals, stuff here is already mindblowing!

[aburnier]

Ruins72: I think you have a really good concept and I would love to see more. I would suggest adding more details to the creature and making sure that its design is practical. For instance, I'm not sure its tail could propel it properly with a head that size. Perhaps make the tail thicker or more hydrodynamic and add some "accessories" which will make it stand out visually. Also, make sure whatever you're scanning is darker to preserve more details and re-sized so that we can see the whole thing without having to scroll down the page.

Just my two cents. Good luck and I hope you finish in time!

[Ruins72]

Just thought I'd post what I have at the moment, not gonna finish in time. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

"Although it may look like just another ugly sea creature, the Grinder Eel has been classified as an elemental due to it's unique ability to literally become water. This creature is completely blind, and must rely on the sensors lining the inside of its mouth. It surrounds it's prey (unaware that the water around him is alive), and reforms itself with it's kill trapped inside it's jaws. Another gift this creature possesses is the ability to grow depending on the amount of water at its disposal. While one in a fish tank may only measure a few inches, one living in, say, the ocean... well few are actually willing to think about it."

so let me know whatcha think, and what I can work on plz? Oh and sorry for being a pest but I dont know how to resize a picture so I think i'm just gonna observe until I do.

[Ruins72]

I'm entirely new to editing and digital art in general, so sorry. I kinda have a lot to learn, thanks for the tips. I got rid of the huge one though, so i guess thats a step in the right direction.

[Sebastian Wagner]

hey guys. This sounds fun. Here is my WIP

[Abee]

God, it's so hard to find good concepts that hasn't been done already. Guess everything is a remake! (Or atleast feels like it when I try to think of concepts)
Here's some more Thumbs anyways, will aim for the middle one to the right.

vegasmike The sense of scale is great, one comment would be to try to even the elements out, you know go all out yinyang! I imagine that they're a bit visually unbalanced but then again The color will probably do shitloads for this piece

All Try to keep in mind that a huge part of your creatures "persona" derives from the whole being-elemental-bit, enhance it, identify where your element meets with your creature!

Great to see alot of different ideas though!

Will try to finish this. WORK-ETHICS!!

[ToddBushman]

reworking the head as it was looking too much like a mask. Still a lot of work I need to do with the overall form, it seems a little tight and a strange shape. This is for my air elemental. please critique.

There are amazing creatures being created in this round. Certainly out of my league but I keeping learning as I do these.

My favorites so far: Junco, Scorge (where is the head on that thing?), aburnier and VegasMike.

[Rob Powell]

Progress is slowly being made....those cracks are starting be more of a pain in the arse more than scales, gonna have to watch out so that they don't become too busy. Will be changing a few things here and there and gonna try for a skeletal rib thing on his torso region. Starting to believe that I may not be able to create a second piece for this comp, this piece will def be finish unless I die or something, but a few things in life have come up that made a second piece a bit less likely, but I'm just gonna focus on this one until it's done then we'll see.

Also just noticed the way the tail effects the composition may need to tweak that. Also I'm a little stuck at what to do with the hood, I have a few ideas in my head, so we'll see....we'll see, we'll see.....



we'll see...

[ToddBushman]

rob that just changed my mind, yours is definitely one of my favorites now. Looking really good.

[Calireayn]

I'm not so good at this. I do find it weird that I'm the only one drawing little creatures, though.

Air sprite. Another wizardly pet. Highly valued for their ability to control air currents in an alchemist lab, and direct noxious fumes away from their master. Somewhat offset by their tendency to be flighty and nervous. The biggest ones grow to be about two feet in length.

[GEB]

Rob Powell: Dude you always smash out some lovely designs. That one is gunna be a ball breaker for you though! I would say that the hood doesn't quite look symetrical

[Bertling]

Hmm this is definitely turning out to be a challenging round.

If the topic is humanoid elementals, or elemental-themed creatures, or even amorphous elementals, then it would be easy. But as it is, "non-human non-amorphous elementals" is a damn hard topic. There's already a ton of beautiful and creative artwork here. BUT so far I feel like many of the entries don't satisfy the spirit of the topic.

I might have a narrow definition of what an elemental is.. For example, a fire elemental is something that represents the spirit of fire itself. If fire were to come to life, that would be what it looks like. To me, a dragon made of magma and breathes fire is still a dragon; a bird made of flames is still a phoenix, and so on.. Now if the topic allows humanoid or amorphous creatures, this problem would be solved.

Also, I think the air elemental is the hardest of all. Props to the couple of people that have attempted it so far!

[Ruins72]

I think you have a point. air's always been my favorite element, but i can't really think of anything i like design-wise.

[Grumbleputty]

starting a new direction- we'll see if I can bang it into shape in time for the deadline!



Comments and suggestions are always welcome!

[SpiralHorn]

I'm dropping out this round. I'm just too stressed by other things going on in my life to focus on something like this right now. I might not do another COW for a couple of months, but I will get back into them.

Good luck guys.

[scorge]

Not as good at leaving comments these days as I used to be. Eventually I will get back into that practice again. Sorry guys.

@Vegasmike: Long time no see. Always great when the old schoolers drop by to up the ante by about a thousand. Good to see you man. Work looks epic as usual.

Here's the current wip. Still trying to give it a little more bang. And, couldn't help but notice that I've designed a giant crawfish. (Patting myself on the back with an axe right now) Been working on this at work and I'm afraid that the gamma on my screen might be a little screwy. If you see anything seriously out of place color-wise I'd be grateful to know.

Might just move on to another element. We'll see.

[ToddBushman]

Scorge, that looks epic. Nice job! It does look like he's wearing women's underwear though, kinda strange.

[Noun]

Also, I think the air elemental is the hardest of all. Props to the couple of people that have attempted it so far!

For sure, I was hoping more people would be willing to tackle it as well. It's definitely the toughest to turn into a creature.

Ironbyte: Love the most recent pose. The way it's cut off just a little on the bottom edge is odd, but otherwise looking forward to the progress!

NightHerald: I like the first face better, but I always tend toward more simplified things... Might play around with the spacing/orientation/amount of legs as the overall balance doesn't seem quite right. I like the amount of detail you've added thus far.

Stinkfist: Appropriate colors and I actually like the design on its own, but it seems too humanoid for COW, maybe. The muscles in the arms/chest look very human. Can't quite tell what's going on where the body meets the rock pile.

Zylock: No crits really, looks great. I think the earthiness will show a bit more once there's color.

Lander: The water area looks great, some dark values might separate forms out more clearly.

VegasMike: Great composition even with everything that's going on. The only thing is maybe more clearly define the ground the tortoise is standing on, it doesn't exactly look like it's touching the land. Maybe toss in some bent/broken trees around his feet, and clearly define which trees are in his shadow and which are in the light. Great stuff!

stridiggio: Really nice colors. Almost reminds me of fireworks which could be a really cool direction to go in. Something to work on could be defining the area below, not sure if it's a forest that's been ignited or some kind of raging fire sea.

Ruins72: It might be cool to show 2 different versions of the creature--one at normal size and one that makes use of its expanding ability. It's hard to tell it can do that without looking at your description. Maybe it puffs up and gets more round when it ingests large volumes of water.

Noro: The thing I really like about this is how you suggest the element of fire through smoke, without actually showing it. I don't mind the creature's look really but it seems to have a lot going on-- a prehensile tail, wings, and some sort of plant bulb on its back. Not that a creature isn't allowed to have all of these, but it only seems to be making use of its tail/feet to move around. I dunno, guess I'm overthinking it lol.

Abee: 1 and 6 look great, it'd be great to see those polished up.

ToddBushman: Great approach to the wind element. Maybe have the trees around swaying in his wake. Something about the background/perspective seems off, the way the horizon just cuts off like that. Not quite sure where the problem is there but it doesn't look right.

Rob Powell: I really like how this one's coming along, maybe for the hood make it a sort of transparent fleshy substance that glows. I'm sure you'll come up with something that looks good in the end.

Calireayn: I think it has a bit too much weight and color. Air is the least substantial of these four elements so it might be something to try and make certain parts transparent looking. The bright blue says water to me more than air, maybe a less saturated color scheme would work better. I do like the curled edges in the tail/crest/whiskers. Keep it up!

Grumbleputty: I really like that glossy look on the abdomen, you handled that perfectly. I think you could even add some more interesting stuff to the design, it still looks more like spider-made-of-water more than something that symbolizes the essence of water.

scorge: Crawfish from Hell. Please keep doing what you're doing. The colors look fine from where I'm sitting, the fire really pops.

Browsing through this thread has been really inspiring.

The original look for this was kind of based off of statues/clay pottery and it mutated from there. Still working on adding texture to make it look decidedly wooden/stone/soft clay/whatever I decide.

[Calireayn]

@Noun

Thank you for the feedback.

Someone else I showed this to said the same thing - thought it was a water sprite, not an air sprite, so I think you're right.

Oh well, on to the next round...