Illustration Activity - (New Activity-Month Long-join before Dec. 7th)

**dCepT** · August 8th, 2005, 06:32 PM

aremah: Good looking out! I like the lighting you've pulled off! He looks grim and battle ready. nice.

my piece.. I feel that it's pretty half ass... but there's been some real freelancework (yay!) taking up my time lately, so this is what I've got.

peace

d-C

**Aremah** · August 9th, 2005, 06:32 AM

I'm only going to write about those pieces that grabbed my attention for longer, but don't feel left out or anything if you're not there. It's just lack of time.

machzero - very, very nice piece. I still don't know why you opt for 'redscale' when the assignment conditions are clearly stated, but the art itself is gorgeous and nicely detailed. The two things I feel could slightly help would be a bit more of a snarl on his face, and a bit of a hunch forward (which I also failed to do in my piece, although that was for a reason), but those are just nitpicks. Great job!

Tunguska - nifty pose and rendering. I really like what you did, especially seeing the progress, but I feel it could've been even better if you took care to make it smoother, perhaps with some finger blending or whatnot. It feels quite dirty and jagged at the moment. Also, I am personally confused about the light source (I see no dominant one), which takes a lot away from the piece. And a complete nitpick from a samurai fan - japanese longbows were much longer than the one you drew, and not symmetrical.

dCepT - tons and tons of potential here. Lovely lighting and shot. It's a pity you couldn't finish it properly. Maybe later? If you ever do, you have to put a lot more attention to the samurai. It really doesn't scream 'samurai', like Rick said it should. I'm not a die-hard fan of the overly realistic approach, but what little armor is pronounced doesn't look japanese at all (the thigh part of it looks more Roman, actually), and this includes the helmet, which really needs more detail. The visible leg could use some more pronunciation, too. I know you'd have done better if you had more time, though, so good job anyway (and do consider wrapping this one up at your leisure).

Onto the next one! I can't wait.

**Marcatili** · August 9th, 2005, 09:01 AM

here's mine...i changed certain parts i'm not really happy with it at all...
i prefer the sketchiness of the sketch- this clean line version needs tone to make it more dynamic but I'm all out of time.

I actually think I made the arm and the lasso worse than it was before...

**rick_hershey** · August 9th, 2005, 02:39 PM

machzero- Nice rendering, although the red tone breaks the rules. Very dynamic and nice design. The weakest point of this image is the characters face.

Tunguska- good job. . .looks nice. Lots of action shining through on the horses part, but the rider seems boring in comparison.

Nikotem- clean linework and use of shadow. The background is very distracting and takes a lot from the image. A little more detail would of pushed this more, and maybe the horse looking a little more towards us.

Aremah- Works very well, simple but affective use of shadows. One of the better pics I've seen from you for these activities.

dCept- Great pic, although the rendering could be a little crisper. I think the horses neck is too long, and the sword is off.

Expat- This is nice, but it does lose a lot from the sketch. The riders legs are off. . .length and connection don't seem accurate. I don't think it reads as well as a girl.

Hope that helps everyone, look for the next activity. It should be great!!

**DSillustration** · August 9th, 2005, 03:53 PM

o.k. guys,
very promising stuff going on in here!
rick has allowed me to conduct the next activity.
i am quite excited.

here's how it will work:

firstly, reply to this with a new post stating "you are in".
i would like to know how many people will be participating.

***this will be your working post!***
all future posts and updates will be added to your already existing post.
this should keep it clean and organized.
when i want to see what you have done, i simply need to look for that one post.

for all intensive purposes, i will be your client.
the assignment is one i have actually recieved and is on my easel now.
i am fairly far along, and should be able to share mine with you on the final due date! (no fair peeking at mine!)
doing this will give you a fairly good idea of what a professional job would be like.

***lets begin!***

item: book cover (black, white, & grey!)
medium: any

final dimensions: 600 x 818 pixels.. vertical!

***must include: empty space for type and for "bleed"***
(this means nothing important should be near the edges, usually a 1/4 inch of your final image gets cut off on all edges.
also leave about 25% of the image simple enough for the title and author's name to be placed over, this is very important!!!)

we will call the story "new planet"
summary:
earth has long been destroyed. floating in space is a sentient asteroid/spacecraft named "ship".
aboard ship is approximately 100 children (about 15 years of age).
these children have been born on ship and have never seen earth.
ship's mission is to train these children to adapt to life on a new planet.
ship is enormous, it would take several days to walk from end to end.
as part of their training, ship requires that all the children move into the "biosphere", a simulated earth-like environment aboard ship.
having left behind their "easy" living, the children take to the biosphere.
they must build homes and hunt for food, surving for a year.
they are given stun guns, a knife, and the clothes they are wearing... nothing more.
without ship's watchful eye, and no rules, the kids are free to do as they will.
an interstellar "lord of the flies" ensues.
theft, murder, and politics all play a role.
eventually, the children reach a new planet and ship abandons them there to start a new life.
ship departs and breeds new children to colonize more planets.

what i require:
the main character is a 15 year old girl named "jane"
the editor wants her as the prominent character on the cover.
adding other characters are ok too.
the girl "jane" should look like a mix of many different cultures,
and it is important that she look tough.

due dates:
08/15/05: 3 rough sketches due (i will pick one)
08/22/05: final sketch or progress shot due (i may make revisions)
08/29/05: final due! (due by 9:00 am est)

this is a 3 week assignment, very typical of a real job.
if you accept this assignment, i expect a finished piece.
if you bail on it, i will never hire you again

show me what you've got!

**Aremah** · August 9th, 2005, 04:08 PM

Oh, boy. Not only has Rick actually commended my piece and made me feel warm and fuzzy, this comes along now! Weee!

Question 1a: I know it sounds stupid, but do you really mean thread, or could you mean one post? I ask because Rick had confused the two several posts up.

Question 1b: will you collect the finished pics and post them in this thread (or let us do it) for the sake of continuity (provided the reply to question 1 is "a thread")?

Question 2: black and white means black and white only, as per Rick's activities, or greyscale as well?

EDIT: Heh. This post makes little sense now that the activity description has been edited

**|NTeRN** · August 9th, 2005, 04:45 PM

nothing great in here i know but just gtom home from a nice 8hr day at school and pack to go off on a vacation. i wont be back too sunday. i dont even think ill see which thumb to take on. of well

**Aremah** · August 9th, 2005, 04:47 PM

Alright then. I'm in, obviously. Probably going to go for black and white again, even if that doesn't really work too well for books. We'll see. Looking forward to this!

THUMBNAILS

I've deleted thumbnail descriptions to save space. Number 3 was picked.

SKETCH

Take two. Fixed knees (I think) and added a bit more space on the bottom at the cost of a bit of space on top.

Due to various reasons, going into which would only be tedious and boring to most, I was unable to finish my piece. Sorry, DSIllustration.

**mital** · August 9th, 2005, 04:53 PM

Activities like this are very hard for me to pass up. Please count me in...and a big, belated, hello to everyone

Week 1

1. http://www.mitalart.com/ca/shipbkcvr30.jpg - Just entering the biosphere part. Trees and foliage reflected in the background. I tried putting additional characters behind her but didn't like how that looked so I left them out.

2. Hunting in the biosphere. Actually this was about four people attacking her...but I turned them into plants. I liked it better this way, more ambiguous since you can't tell what she's reacting to. Put some lines on the outside to indicate the inside of the biosphere. [Edit] I was asked to add the other people back in. So imagine those plants in the foreground as people!

3. http://www.mitalart.com/ca/shipbkcvr51.jpg - Traveling through [a dangerous part of] the biosphere. Probably the least sci-fi of the three, but I suppose if I detail out the costume and the stun gun in her hand it'll still read as sci-fi.

Anyway the hardest part was on what to emphasize? The survival aspect? The sci-fi aspect? The combat aspect? How bloody is the combat? Is she a leader? protector? loner? Is she tough internally (mentally/spiritually), physically? Both? There are so many things left open...so I started by deciding some things. Which may or may not coincide with the Jane of the book.
I decided that my Jane is a loner, but will help/protect people when she can. She's tough internally. Average physically. Characters who are strong in every aspect tend to be uninteresting. I chose internal because that's what appealed to me. I think a lot of this image will be in the way we show the face, and particularly the eyes/expression.

And my roughs...I went for strong light/dark patterns. I figure if I do something at this size that attracts attention and stick to it on the final, then the cover will do its job on the (hypothetical) bookshelf. The numbers may be hard to read, but I chose 30, 46 and 51.

http://www.mitalart.com/ca/shipbkcvrth01.jpg
http://www.mitalart.com/ca/shipbkcvrth02.jpg

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Week 2.

Still working on the lines. Did a speedpaint under the lines so it looks a bit closer to how the final will look (though I'll have to do some subtle rim lighting on the foreground silhouettes in the final...they're getting lost here). The lines without the grayscale can be seen here

I'm still not entirely happy with her face and pose. She's supposed to look like she's just noticed people behind her and whirled to assess them. Also need to improve the poses/shapes of her background attackers. And there's a near tangent with the knife and tree-trunk that I didn't notice until just now.

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Updated Lines:
I'm happier with the lines now. This is what I'm gonna start taking to final.

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Final?
I'm either going to need a day extension or this is my final. I've got an [family] obligation to be in Arizona this weekend. I'm dragging my low-powered laptop and wacom with me but I don't know if I'll have internet access where I'm staying. I'm supposed to be back by Monday night so I should be able to upload the final by Tuesday morning (or late Monday night), but if not...here's where I am as of Friday.
k
[edit]: my final image...sorry for the delay
[edit2]: made some contrast modifications. I think it's a bit more dramatic this way. You can see the other one here:

**Shamagim** · August 9th, 2005, 04:54 PM

Im in, sounds like fun...and is much more interesting that my current asigment...also 3 weeks is a lot of time

EDit: Here they are

1- A very different alternative, showing the very beggining, maybe in case you want to show this book as a serial for others..etc

2- A more conflictive alternative, a duel

3-Adventure theme, more light and hopefull than the others, is like she and others are moving toward something, a goal

still needs a lot of work..

http://upl.silentwhisper.net/uplfolders/upload9/NW.jpg
http://upl.silentwhisper.net/uplfolders/upload5/NW2.jpg
http://upl.silentwhisper.net/uplfolders/upload3/NW3.jpg

Update: sorry i had to color it.....if is to big of a deal, ill turn it into gray scale

**quesadeist** · August 9th, 2005, 05:19 PM

Sorry, guys, but it looks like I'm out. I wish I could have gotten a progress shot together in time, but rather unpleasant circumstances this last week have left me with very little desire to do much of anything besides go to work, go home and go to sleep.

Hopefully I'll be out of this funk before the next activity, but I wouldn't count on it.

**Fozziebear27** · August 9th, 2005, 06:27 PM

I'm also a Go!

This will be a new experience for me, that simulates the pressures of a deadline. It will be good for my progress!

**Liquidspider** · August 9th, 2005, 06:41 PM

I'm a GO as well. Having all that info could give an artist a lot of ways to go on this idea. 3 week deadline is good, since work can become pretty crazy at times and kill the project i want to work on.

I sure hope you check up on us often, I'd like to get as far ahead as I can as fast as i can since life is so unpredictable

Good luck everyone, this should be pretty fun times

**Teifu** · August 9th, 2005, 07:26 PM

Well... didn't participate last time, so this time I'm in!

And here are my thumbnails

1 - Assasin - Jane has just assasinated the Leader of some gang and thereby taken control. Sexy but deadly!

2 - Leader - Jane standing in front of a Cave "leader-ish". People can be seen in the background.

3 - Divious (Loner?) - Jane sitting near the edge of a Biosphere looking at the star-lit "sky" and Planet (reflected in the biosphere-dome-glas) well aware of the approaching assasin!

The chosen of the above was the first - Assasin - and here is a progress shot, and good luck to all

(redo of the cover)

Teifu

**Hjalli** · August 9th, 2005, 09:55 PM

The one with all the bling bling.

---
Made a few changes to the "finel sketch" very happy about them.

---
And here is the rest, lots 'o stuff I would like to have done better. I'm not really in love with this piece so I'm gonna let it go fast and move on

I can just imagine what they'll say when they see the results. "We'll call you"

**dCepT** · August 10th, 2005, 01:16 AM

I'm in!

I loved the last three-week assignment, and I've never really done sci-fi-stuff before, so this should be interesting!

d-C

Here are my thumbs.

First one shows her scouting for something in the distance. The beams are the support for the biodome.

Second shows her in a temporary refuge in the roofbeams in the biosphere. The tree in the foreground suggests a way she got there.

Third shows her evading a trap, only to maybe fall prey to the guy who made it, who's sitting at the ready with his stungun.

Dan: If they're too small, I can post bigger ones... lemme know!

thumbs

Progress-shot:
Changed her pose a bit.. I felt like showing something other than the warrior side of her. I imagine these kids have a hard time dealing with the survival in the dome. Also I've started hinting at the lightscheme, trying to keep the focuspoints that I want. Im wondering if she should be bigger in the scene, though? Background and stuff to come in the final version.. I didn't want to have too much to juggle at this stage.

Progress #2
DS: If I shouldn't post this progress, let me know and I'll kill it

Crits are appreciated!

Progress #2

I won't be able to work more on this until the deadline, so I'm gonna post now. Made some small changes according to crits from Dan and Hurricane, so I hope this looks ok by now

d-C

**DerekT** · August 10th, 2005, 01:42 AM

Hell ya i'm in, i skipped last project (damn those girls) but nothing shall stand in my way this time.

I haven't worked on a character yet, so i just threw in a shiluette for proportion. During last week will work on character and final line art for the background.

090505 - Ok, i'm posting unfinished piece but at this is better than nothing.

Good Luck to everyone.

**IILooney** · August 10th, 2005, 03:13 AM

Click thumbnails for larger images.

Progress Shot:

**Marcatili** · August 10th, 2005, 06:08 AM

I am IN...

Here are my thumbs-

Jane stalking through jungle on metal walkway. Would probably change the pose to be more like the sketch, where Jane looks at us.

Well... I scratched the last pose after I got some reference photos. This is my new version. I prefer the dramatic pose of the last one but I'm working through this one and trying to learn to use painter in the process. In fact...in comparison with my sketches it loses a hell a lot of impact i think. What do y'all think? Oh yeah... I can't get that right arm to work... i just left it after fiddling with it for ages...

Here's my progress with the figure on it's own and I hope to have a completed image by the end of tonight.

This feels like a cop out with such an unfinished background. Still...there's no way I can spend any more time on it. Even though we had 3 weeks I probably only spent 3 days on this because of other projects happening. That and an alien fleet abducted my computer and a dinosaur somehow got loose in my home town after escaping it's island of origin where it was genetically created by a rich visionary with too much money and imagination and not enough consideration for Chaos Theory.
If only Jeff Goldblum had been here to save me.

**Zram** · August 10th, 2005, 08:58 AM

Update 1. Late due to technical difficulties, Im down but hopefully not out.

Any way here are my roughs

Marcelo

**DSillustration** · August 10th, 2005, 09:24 AM

looks like a great turn out.
i have checked all of your profiles, so i know what to expect.
i want to see some amazing finished pieces here!

i also hope that you guys will take this finished piece and post it in your profile/portfolio...
almost noone has a single piece there!
shame!
take advantage of this great feauture.

the reason i chose black, white, & grey is so you guys could really focus on the important stuff.
keep in mind, your initial three sketches are just thumbnails.
they dont have to be amazing, just decipherable.

remember to simply edit your original reply when posting your work.
if you have any questions, feel free to pm me.

good luck !

**Dan1989** · August 10th, 2005, 10:42 AM

I'm definately in! Sounds like a great project and I'll do my best.

here are my thumbnails

(from the left)
1:A council is being held by a rival leader, huts and trees in the background, to the uppert left, heroine's face to the right, above her is a view of the new planet ship is headed to.
2:Heroine being chased by a rival clan member. View of ship in the upper left corner.
3:Heroine assaulting a clansmember for important information he knows. in the upper left, a view of ship heading towards the planet.

UPDATE: Here is my final sketch

And here is my final piece,there are areas that I could have done better, I still learned alot by doing this though.

**DSillustration** · August 10th, 2005, 02:04 PM

hey guys...
just to clarify.
the piece must be vertical.
that dimension size is for the front cover only.

**|NTeRN** · August 10th, 2005, 04:30 PM

hey DS is it cool if i include color comps into the process. i'll keep the finish B&W but itd be nice to try a few color comps out and see what ya think of them

**vigostar** · August 10th, 2005, 04:42 PM

Damb are you going to be the client for the next one?? If so I want in!!!! thsis is a great and perfect way to build a portfolio and gear myself for the real world in art....

**DSillustration** · August 10th, 2005, 05:05 PM

i chose for the project to be in b&w only because i feel value is the most important part of a composition.
you would learn a lot by doing so.

however, if anyone feels they have b&w down pat,
and wants to take on the task of doing color,
you are free to do so.

simply pm me.

**Aremah** · August 10th, 2005, 05:10 PM

If it were up to me, I'd say work in color if you want to, but post only grayscale (desaturate + adjust) in this particular thread. Make a WIP thread to get comments on the colors and all, if you want, but stick to the subject. The real editor wouldn't let you submit a color piece if he wanted greyscale, and this is what this activitiy is supposed to emulate. Want a head start in the "real world of art"? Step one: follow instructions.

Anyway, my 3 minute thumbs with a bit of explanations are up.

**Pillick** · August 10th, 2005, 06:41 PM

Thumbnail:

Progress shot:

Got a WIP Thread going if anyone is interested or has some advice.

**Mindflaw** · August 10th, 2005, 08:04 PM

DSillustration: you set togheter a cool assignment if I knew I would have the time I would join, but now I might get all the time in the world or none. Going to be cool checkning out all the others though.

dCepT: congrats on the real freelancework

Pillick: great one more step to greatness for you then

**nikotem** · August 11th, 2005, 07:55 AM

I hate being always the last one, and always have to ask: Can I join...now? It must be that I'm from different time zone, so you people are active when I'm sleeping and it seems not fair... But anyways I'M IN only if you let me in!

Ok Here are my thumnails...

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y14...newplanet1.jpg

This is the chosen one...

Sketch