CHoW#320 :: Dranok the Pale - Centaur Warlord

[Lionsketch]

My first starting sketch

[warburton]

Cool topic, and awesome to see so much activity. Couldn't help drppin a sketch

[28thwing]

nice topic and nice centaurs , here is my sketch

[Vaejoun]

Next step, fighting with my usual problems on finding values and shadows.

[elephant´s stroke]

Update, learning a lot with this and enjoying the journey....great work everyone!

Progress

[Bjulvar]

Awesome topic and really great entries guys! Almost makes me afraid to participate. But here's an attempt anyway, trying to figure out his armor pieces. So it's just blocked out right now.

[Mhugo]

Looking good everyone, some really promising stuff here=)

Sketches from today

[jsn]

Oh yeaahh!,...this CHoW is really shaping up!

Used a little ref for the horsey!

[Partisan]

quick update mainly tweaking, some adjustements and detail work all over the place, still no clue how to implement the axe as i am quite in love with the spear right now he surely will not make way for it, even if this will cost me my way into the finals thread or the poll ^^

[Venger]

Hmmm, how much can I crop and get away with - I know there has to be 3/4 of the character, but a horse is pretty big?
Maybe I should add the legs - time is against me…
Nearly done though.

[jNeumann]

Bunch of cool work in here! Here's my WIP

[no87]

cool theme. will try and give this one ago.

[Kat444]

I thought I might give this one a go... Scary good talent out there!
Venger -Wow. Unbelievably good design.
Partisan - I love the lighting on the front legs of the horse. Beautifully done.
Mhugo - Great designs! I like both of them, but I am leaning towards the one on the right.
Warburton - I like the armour and accessories that you have going on there. Brings it to life.

[Kat444]

Very rough sketch... Just trying to get a feel for him.

[MasterTroglodyte]

Partisan, just a thought, but the torso of the centaur feels big for the horse. Granted, I ain't no centaur expert! Maybe it's just the forelegs of the horse you used for reference. I'm thinking he needs to be more of a Clydesdale than an Arabian...

[Heliux]

Think this is the direction I'm gonna go with this one. I just re-read the prompt and realized I pretty much forgot armor. Derp. x__x

--Any thoughts?

[matias]

Update, pretty happy most overall, I think thos'll be temp markings on his armour, was this of just painted on hand me down armour, but dont know if it is enough. Really not buzzed on his right arm on the axe, looks shorter and doesnt seem to be sitting nicely, naturally. Been trying to find good reference, mainly got a bunch of peasant with their shoulder poles carry shit, but its not the same, could be time to fire up the camera and do some sweet selfies with a broom (groan).


On a side not I wanted to say thanks to Partisan, I actually found your tip on the contrast being alot less than you think, really helpful, and was trying to keep that in mind, still will take some time to get the hang, but its always cool when a little tip sort of clicks!

Mhugo That is really awesome, also your entry has highlighted that I completely missed the nature angle mentioned in the brief, you have totally nailed that druid/Gaea vibe!

[Vaejoun]

Nice stuff, its all coming together slowly.

Another go, color mode !

[taffyjones]

This one should be fun -some graet images allready

[Abrazuno]

"The Mountain is the breath and creation of the world. Here the wind blows relentlessly and we have called these unforgiving slopes EverWind. It has been this way since the dawn of time and we know this from the stones of the first breaths of wind found in the flesh of the Mountain. We wear these stones to remind us how we too are like the wind, forever here and forever shall we be as long as we protect this sacred mountain. We send our young into the mountain to learn how creation came from the flesh of the mountain, and those brave enough return with relics from the ancient past frozen in stone and time. Others we never see again, the mountain claiming them for her own to become one again in stone. Only Dranok the Pale dared to brave the darkest depths of our EverWind, going deeper than any before. For twelve moons he spent in the deepness of the Mountain's flesh. Some say the mountain spoke to him in the darkness, some say that he went mad and feasted on the dead in order to live in belly of the mountain. Whatever happened, Dranok the Pale never spoke of it and never spoke a word since the day he returned back to the light of the living. In his hands he bore and ancient relic of some primordial beast deemed too dangerous by the Mountain to allow to live and was locked away in her stony flesh. Now he wields the mighty gift of destruction and leads us of EverWind in battle and feasts upon the bones of the vanquished dead! Long Live Dranok the Pale!"

Having a story helps to define the character and its attributes, going for a fossil feel. The spiral shell fossils the centaurs shape into a triangle mountain shape. Isolation in the depths of a cave would explain the pale complexion and also how he got that really big jaw bone

Vaejoun - love that driving shape of motion, though no axe yet?
Venger - the sheer mass of that guy and his armor, pure warlord though I feel sorry for the horse part that has to carry all that weight.
Partisan - Sparta! what I immediately thought of yours, love the texture and the dust kicking up

time for work awesome wips so far

[ardentsideburns]

i think i'm getting closer to the final design..

[Vaejoun]

@abrazuno: Totally missed the part on the axe. ^^ I aded one.

so far.
Now for the background.

[catface]

[Cloud-Yo!]

yeeeeeeiish! you guys are killing it!
however Im gonna make another comment which may make me more unpopular :/

Winning CHOW is sure a great feeling (I would imagine) however, like it has been pointed out by far better folks than me, This is about learning and helping to learn, and in that spirit I wish to remind everyone that doing a paintover over a photo or other gathered imagage or copying character design elements from some other artist's image (from outside this thread) is not helping you to grow as an artist...I realize that no matter what a centaur is a half-man half-horse and theres very little room for variation, but some of you have done an amazing job nonetheless...I dont care about wether getting the perfect human/horse anatomy puts you ahead in the pack as far as this weekly challenge goes, if its done with shortcuts, its setting you way back in your personal growth. Copy it, reference it, imitate it, study it, its what we all SHOULD do... dont just lay on it...however PLEASE, dont take it as personal criticism, Im just trying to help...from personal experience.
(and no, im not talking about Catface's awesome challenge winning piece...love the "axe")


anyhow, thanks Venger for calling me out to play...I wish I had the time this week..but more importantly I wish I could draw horses..I know that I will spend some time trying but doubt i can finish the piece...its a great pretext for learning tho

Jworley wow much better with the pose and the armor looks really cool!

heres a sketch the idea was that his pose should silhouette as a horse's head..with the axe being like part of his maine (sp?)...and again, sorry for the rant.

[Baranha]

Hello Gang.
this week is busy and as always a ton of great designs. Here is my contribution and I think a couple of us here referenced the same horse. Maybe I'll use a Rhino's Body instead? hmmm....

[NickyBeats]

Catface wins. Everyone else : Please go home.

[Partisan]

Catface wins. Everyone else : Please go home.

*sadface* oooook. :C

[Havok Reed]

hehe, thankyou catface. You guys are awesome. I hope to continue seeing you all participate.

[Partisan]

[...]This is about learning and helping to learn, and in that spirit I wish to remind everyone that doing a paintover over a photo or other gathered imagage [...] is not helping you to grow as an artist.[...] if its done with shortcuts, its setting you way back in your personal growth. Copy it, reference it, imitate it, study it, its what we all SHOULD do... dont just lay on it [...]

I really struggled if I should answer to this part as I do have the feeling this could quickly escalade in some sort of barfight in here ( as it has happened a few times before in CHOW threads when actual questions of interest popped up) , plus it shouldnt sound like me trying to justify myself.

Anyhow. I think you are profoundly wrong ( at least in parts) on this one let me explain why I think so. Hmmmmm where to begin ..... Lets start by a little talk about some experiences I had in the last few years since I started my little adventure deep down the rabbit hole that is todays art community. On my way I encountered MANY young artists that deeply believed (to a degree were it starts to become militant) that there is only one (or a few) way(s) how to approach art. Its "the honest way" they defend to a great degree. A way where they are convinced that you HAVE to approach art in a certain way. That way is as you described to do AS MANY WORK as possible by hand without ever doing stuff like paintovers, or using existing images ( not talking about other artists pictures here ). Or another famous talk is the "You can achieve everything with the small round brush"-talk. What Am I trying to get across here? Well its the problem that lies within this approach to art. As honourable as it is (and as much I am in favour of this approach cause the underlying ideals are very true and good) its not always the right thing to do to stubbornly walk down this path without ever looking left and right. Many people I encountered that actually follow this set of rigid rules encounter a multitude of problems, problems that can be avoided. Problems that actually hinder them in their personal growth to an even greater amount than they could imagine.

Lets talk about some of those problems I encountered ( personally and with others I met).

1. The general mindset of the young artist of today I dont dare to say that this is true for all young artists there are , hell quite possibly its not even true for the majority of young artists, but it sure is true for many aspiring young artists I met. More often than not many strong believers of the "only hard and honest work" approach to art at some point got overwhelmed by the sheer amount of work there is to do. They started to do everything at one time. They drew hundreds of anatomy studies, when they had to draw a horse they sat down and tried to draw dozens of horses, when trying to get that mood of a certain painting done they made studies of landscpaes for hours and hours and hours ....BUT many of them in the frenzy of trying desperately to get it right and get better at everything managed to fail at it just BECAUSE of the sheer amount of work they made. "How so ?" you might ask.

There are a number of reasons for this:
a) first of all they swamped themselves with work, to a point where the amount of work they made became not an excercise in art and learning but mechanical work on its own. They simply had a huge output of stuff but they didnt manage to actually learn something whilst doing so cause they were more focused on "getting stuff done" rather than actually taking the lesson they originally tried to learn to heart.
b) this "honest approach" is to some degree a thing of the past that is not all that helpful in todays art learning process. Many of the people I met actually pump out massive amounts or "learning" work because they are in a hurry, they try to apply an outdated method of learning to the modern reality of living. What I mean by that is that many people in todays live started their art yourney relatively late but are trying to make a living of it at some point. The honest method of learning everything there is in art apllied perfectly in a time where everything was a little less fast paced and the actually real learning process ( not just noodling around but learning ) started at a younger age. But is not as feasible in a time where many people start out with the art learning process in college - at the age of 18 - and want to get a job in the field by the age of 22-23.
c) the "getting stuff done" problem is a direct result of this idea to learn everything at once and in a relatively short amount of time. You suddenly are confronted with a massive amount of goals you try to achieve at once. And many young artists just try to achieve them with massive amounts of work rather than precise learning experiences. The mind set often times is " A lot helps a lot!" but its simply not that true at all.

The direct result I encountered with this approach is that many people I know are desperately trying to get better by trying to make everything by hand and swamp themselves with a massive load of work end up progressing very slowly due to the fact I mentioned . They dont learn they just put out mechanical work.

Which brings me back to why I think you are wrong when saying that an overpaint is not helping you in growing as an artist and it boils down to:

2. Dont burn yourself out! learning art is not a sprint, its a lifelong journey. Many people I met, who approach it the way you described as the only real way, often times simply are killing themselves with that attitude towards art . They strive for progress that they never make cause they try to take on every aspect at once failing in pushing their own boundaries far enough to actually see progress in any particular field. But seeing that progress is crucial to stay motivated over the long course of basic work there is to do. Which leads me to the conclusive point:

3. Choose your battles wisely! or Why overpainting is not always wrong And that really is the crucial point here. Not every painting we do is an excercise in everything there is to learn in art. You often have to really focus your energy on a certain field (colour, light, general form, anatomy, propps etc.) instead of trying to tackle everything at once to really understand something.
Actually painting over or using a paintover as a starting point provides a whole number of things to learn on its own, cause as much as it gives you a starting point ( for something you otherwise wouldnt have tackled at all , as it would have been for me with this CHOW) it also provides some unique challenges to deal with like a given colourscheme, contrast, lighting situation or general mood you have to adapt to which in itself is a very useful learning experience.

In the end I would say to really open up your mind. Dont dismiss a thing as "not good" or "counterproductive" when it really is not. Every approach to art has its pros and cons and especially choosing your battles does not mean taking shortcuts it simply gives you the freedom to focus your energy on one battle at a time, and really helps in winning those, instead of losing them all at once. Which is a big thing today. You have to organize your learning progress in a fashion that you can handle and that allows you to live your life alongside, its a lifelong process afterall, that has to be arranged in a fashion that allows you to breath once in a while and not to clutter yourself in work. And that is one important fact here for me personally , using a photo and painting over it allowed me to participate in this CHOW at all and at the same time focusing on my personal goals, which are to understand colour and light and to some degree the human anatomy ....painting horses is simply not a priority right now, its something I scheduled to a later time in my life and therefore its not a shame if for this whole learning experience right now I left aside to learn how to draw a horse right now when really I am interested in colour, light and human anatomy at this particular moment in time. ^^

regards
Seb

[PhilipO]

Damn there’s some really sick entries here! Good job guys, I'm looking forward to the finish pieces!

Here's what I got so far, it's a beginning... but I think I will do some major changes next time I work on it.