It's a Matt Fight!! Matt Dixon vs. Matt Smith.

**Matt Smith** · June 11th, 2005, 07:18 PM

Or should it be the other way around, I challenged him, I always forget which name is supposed to go first. Poor Dixon is going to be so busy this month, 2 challenges and work. The rules are based on three words, Dragon, Shiny, White, and whatever the artist thinks of is fine as long as those 3 words are in the piece somehow. The deadline in June 27th. I am excited to see what Dixon comes up with and what brushes he pulls out of his bag of tricks. All we have to do is be more creative than coming up with a White, Shiny, Dragon

Good Luck.

**Matt Smith** · June 27th, 2005, 01:41 PM

Well the pieces are due today. I need to work on mine some more, but will have it finished before midnight tonight. Dixon I thought you would have posted yours by now. I was so excited to wake up and see an awsome piece this morning. But perhaps you were waiting for me to post first. Post it anytime you get the chance to. I look forward to seeing it.

**Matt Dixon** · June 27th, 2005, 01:56 PM

White panties. Shiny gun. Dead dragon.

**Matt Smith** · June 27th, 2005, 02:21 PM

HAHA, that is awsome, not at all what I was expecting, I was thinking of a similar idea, but it wasnt going to be a hot babe in her panties. Ok these last hours on mine I need to work hard and smart. Excellent piece.

**fukifino** · June 27th, 2005, 02:57 PM

Haha, Prometheus would be proud, Mr. Dixon.

**Fozzybar** · June 27th, 2005, 03:03 PM

Cool, Matt! The dragon looks as if he enjoys his position

Btw i always thought there can only be one Matt at ca...

**Smitherines** · June 27th, 2005, 04:07 PM

HAHA Dixon, you kicked my brother's ass. I'm a dick. Nice work. For someone who told me that they weren't very good at full bodied skin tones, I think you did a good job. Nice dirty feel on her skin too. The dragon almost looks like he has a dirty smile on his face. Through up a tutorial on how you work in photoshop, stop hiding your secrets.

**strych9ine** · June 27th, 2005, 05:06 PM

Goddamn gorgeous. You paint the coolest guns dude.

**Aly Fell** · June 27th, 2005, 05:29 PM

What is it with you and girls with big guns, Mr Dixon? Hmmm... probably the same as me with girls with big swords!

Aah... what would mr Freud say? Fab work! Why a rubber duck?

**young paddy1** · June 27th, 2005, 05:33 PM

The dragon obviously interupted her just before bathtime

**Smitherines** · June 27th, 2005, 05:52 PM

A horny dragon, being a peeping tom. tsk tsk tsk, well he felt her wrath

**Eriboss** · June 27th, 2005, 06:23 PM

Matt thats really nice- really good work on the leg \ knee tones and a wicked face.

The only thing that has bothered me slightly on second look is the gun perspective... the more i look along it, the back seems to be angled slightly wrong in comparison to the position of her front hand?
understood if the "exhaust pipe" bit is facing toward the viewer slightly, and not straight up, but its the bit below that that gets me.. i dunno, maybe im being finicky.

Nice work chief.

**Matt Smith** · June 27th, 2005, 10:20 PM

Ok here is my piece. I thought I was going to be able to pull it all together today, but I just wasnt happy with how things were turning out. I am going to rethink it and finish it up later. Right now i cant stand to look at it anymore. Dragon staff, shiny sword, and the lightning is supposed to be the white, but it looks terrible right now. I would like to thank Matt for taking out extra time to do this challenge. It was several weeks of some artistic frustration for myself, but I had fun. Any comments would be appreciated.

**stoph** · June 27th, 2005, 11:14 PM

hahaha Matt Dixon has this thing won!

sorry, Smithy

**Matt Dixon** · June 28th, 2005, 01:52 AM

Please take the time to finish it up, Matt - that has the makings of a really cool image.

The uplighting works really well, and the sword, hand and other details in that area are looking good. The same attention in a few other areas will really pull the figure out of the background. The lighting doesn't look terrible in my opinion, but it doesn't feel like part of the scene either - maybe a single, larger lightning bolt emerging from the clouds nearer the top of the frame would be more effective? That would help fill the empty space at the top of the pic, and give you the opportunity to throw in some contrasting lighting from above, which should emphasize the figure's form still further.

The soft glow from the firey pit is a good starting point. Get some hard edges in there and it should start to feel more coherent with the remainder of the pic - some curls of smoke or fumes, flying embers, maybe even some licking flames. You could also suggest the forms of further firelit rock formations behind the platform the character's standing on - maybe some jagged mountains in the distance to push the depth if the lightning no longer occupies the horizon?

You could also push the depth by working on the foreground a little - hardening the near edge of the fire pit, and introducing some silhouetted forms near to the viewer - almost as if we're peering over some boulders to see the figure. This might allow you to touch some of the sky colours around in the bottom half of the image which would help tie it all together and break the horizontal split between the orange and green you have at the moment.

Thanks for the scrap, Matt! Glad you had fun - I certainly did, and that's what these things are all about..!

'Til next time, mate!

**Matt Dixon** · June 28th, 2005, 02:06 AM

...oh, and thanks for the comments on my pic, folks!

Matt - Interesting that out of everything that we could have had in common considering the topic, the most obvious thing our pics share is some firey uplighting!

Fozzybar - I'm glad a few people have noticed the dragon's smile.

Smitherines - Ah, but you notice how the flesh is regularly interrupted so I can render one section at a time? I will do that tutorial one day. It just finding the time.

Poshspice - You know, I don't really know why so many of these chicks end up with shooters. It's not like I'm one of these guys with a big collection of 'Machine Gun Bikini Babe' DVDs. I love classic era fantasy and sci-fi illustration, but I think it appeals to me because I find it quite camp rather than 'cool'. Perhaps that's why I tend to introduce things like the rubber duck - to me, that's just the same a throwing in a grinning skull! Unexpected props like that are also a bit of a cheat for encouraging narrative, too - as you said, why the duck? Without the duckie, that bird's just shot a dragon. With the duckie, I'd hope the viewer would try to make some more interesting connections over any backstory they might see in the image. Oops! Getting a bit wanky...that'll do..!

Eriboss - Thanks. You're not being finicky, and I'd much rather hear about anything that looks strange than not, however small it might seem. Having said that, I don't see the perspective problem you mention.

**Matt Smith** · June 28th, 2005, 03:01 PM

Thanks for the feedback Matt. Dont worry I will finish it up, I just need to not look at it for a few days. This took me along time to do, you wouldnt know it by looking at it but there was alot of putting in and erasing or going over. My original intent wasnt to have that look like fire though, I wanted it to just be a light source, with light rays coming up and where the energy source was coming from. And I was thinking to myself, well orange and green are good compliment colors, I'll go with those. Obviously as I worked it more, it looked more like fire. One thing that was really frustrating me was the damn rocky cliff things, even with my refrences I couldnt get them. Another problem I think with it atleast for me is that its basically duo tone, I want to get more colors in there. You gave me some good ideas to work with. The hand holging the sword is my favorite part in my piece, the clouds are nice too but they dont hold the perspective yet that I want them to.

**Smitherines** · June 28th, 2005, 04:50 PM

Dixon- One thing I love about your work, there is usually some sort of humor eliment in there, this case the rubber ducky. I think its great to see all this serious work and you find a way to incorporate something funny into it. I think it adds a lot and really seperates you as a major individual on these forums, also your style of photoshop painting is like non I have seen before...I demand those tutorials!!!