CHOW #42 - VOTING - Oxygen King

[Oblio]

Oxygen King
(as in all mankind must get their air through him)
from the suggestion thread. Thx Stephan R

he didn't asked for it. he had no ideea what will he be turned into. he forgot how it came to this and when his life become meaningless to him... and everything for the rest of them. why?
Now... concept!

______________
Topic elements:

1 = King
2 = Provides Oxygen

Make sure your picture contains these - you will receive 3 VOTES for each topic covered.
4 extra votes will be offered for the description.


POLL RULES
(for the new people)
NOT ALL ENTRIES ARE TAKEN TO THE POLL.
(the selection is based on technical quality criteria)
ENTRIES NOT POLLED WILL RECEIVE C&C
(i really try to do this every time)
IT IS A DIFFICULT PROCESS - MISTAKES CAN BE MADE
I am trying to set this as a professional demand. I act as the client...
Oblio is always looking for feedback - If Oblio is wrong - tell him so.

rejected due quality:

i love your concept and you put a lot of work into it - however your drawing is flat. You need to separate the planes - whats close vs what's far.
Also... the biggest problem - your values and shapes. You need VOLUME - mak eeach element look 3D. Make your picture B&W and see your values.


just as above - yet you put less work into yours see your values and shapes. bring strenght to you form.


uh.. difficult task you had - all glowie and lots of lights.
my advice - try to put more work on it. clean it up.. it's a bit messy - all your strokes are kinda strong and .. not too ordered. Make your strokes careful, following the shape. Your values need more work too but you are on the good path.


oh.. this was hard to reject. you worked A LOT on this and the concept is cool too.
you need to clean it up and to see your values. You can not have so much black in there... try to have the whole range of your values. If you work in color - don;t use black to lower your value. See the Peer Project in the weekly activities.



Close to rejection:

a bit messy..


saturation, form and values... but... it made it.


and the winner is... Andrew Ley . Congrats man... KEEP'EM COMMIN'

[trevor]

im in! finally have time to finish one hahaha

EDIT
heres a little wip snapshot
enjoy


FINAAAAAALLLLLLL
" date 2259: planet: UW c238: this is only the second planet we had found with any sort of atmosphere in this system.
had i know how bad the first 3 years of terraforming had gone i probably wouldnt have taken the job. but 9 years later im still here
ive begun to feel less and less due to the strain of breathing this harsh atmosphere but because of my over exposure
im one of the few that can breathe unassisted in the open. i believe it is changing me.i have already lost my right arm, replaced by this clumsy electromag excavator. the ice deposits that i have been tasked to find are getting fewer and far between. i alone have been responsible for the last 6 finds but it still isnt enough. the public sees me as a hero, they have dubbed me the oxygen king
but i fear the deposits will run out soon. maybe 6 months to a year before we run out if i cant find any others
we are so secluded here i doubt evac could make it in time if at all. do i tell my people? or do i keep looking?
either way i feel we are doomed
no ice no oxygen no oxygen no life
i miss my children, my wife, i hope they understand what im trying to do "

[Serpian]

WIP

Hey, it's my first submitted CHOW!

He's married to the Carbon Queen.


"You don't know 'bout the Oh-two King? Larry, where've you been since the Big Ozone Collapse? His the richest freakin man in the Federation! Nobody thought he would make it when he started selling freaking OXYGEN, but then with the Collapse and all, the market was skyrocketing!"

EDIT: Reactions to suddenly appearing submissions.

Trevor: Cool!
Durin: Poor guy! I still have to pop in in your SB..
Fuuryoku: Wow, very special idea!
Eric Gerhard: Doesn't look much like a king, but cool nonetheless.
Faroresama: Poor Tom... "In retail", haha!

Oh, and completely off topic: what the HELL's this supposed to be? "Nintendo"? How is that nintendo?

[Piru]

Count me in!
From the description provided, I got the feeling that he is a torn character, ripped by his concience, pierced by guilt. I'm trying to get that feeling into my concept.

The Oxygen King: Aaron King, CEO of Oxxen Oxygen Harvesting Corp.

As CEO of the multinational company Oxxen, Aaron King has become the most powerfull man on earth.
His career made a rather strange twist of fate. If we go down the records, we find out that Aaron King was an ecology specialist, very concerned with climate problems, global warming and other signs of disastrous problems regarding the state our planet was in. His point of view was, that the whole planet was controlled by a few big players and he hated this profoundly. By the time that mankind had nearly destroyed it's own habitat, King had built out a vast network of laboratories and research centers around the globe in search for oxygen filtering and production methods, as war had contaminated most of the world's air.
This is about the time he made friends with the wrong people. They forced him into becoming the man he now is. The only true ruler of the planet, attached to the strings of others. Blinded at first, he now sees what has become of him, the only thing he never wanted to be. The terror of the small man, proclaimed king by a vast amount of suckups, but chained in his palace, an empty shell... thus living his worst nightmare.

[Chuck Wadey]

In a deforested future, still powered by carbon, it became apparent that oxygen was becoming an invaluable commodity, much as water had been in the century before and oil in the century before that.

Anticipating the trend, Lord Javor consolidated his power by gaining the most direct control possible over that vital resource. Step one was a course of genetic and cybernetic alterations in which he converted his respiration system to expel O2. Step two was the eradication of every other oxygen source through the buyout and intentional drought of chloroplast farms. The bottleneck in oxygen distribution caused a global collapse of civilization and the die-off of everyone unable to reach shelter in his fortress. Tank hauling platoons were able to make temporary trips outside, working the fields for food production and extending Javor's power beyond the throne room, but for the most part he had to distribute oxygen directly to his subjects.

Now, in order to keep his tiny feudal economy running he must devote every minute to keeping his subjects breathing, either directly or by tending to storage devices. Soon, he thinks, he will give up and rest. As he slowly starves to death, he will take pleasure in the fact that no one remains who can dethrone the Oxygen King.

[fuuryoku]

My Wip...


"One hundred years it had taken him. One hundred years of sleeping, his feet in the ever more polluted earth. He had seen what was coming. he had seen that the air would turn to poison, and that the leaders that were would do nothing. there was only one terrible course to take. He changed himself, becoming both animal and plant, and over the course of a century he slept in a secluded valley, until he had grown large enough to stride the earth, devouring the poisons- now harmless to him- leaving the purified air for the survivors who now deferred to him as thier new anointed sovereign."

[Eric Gerhard]

This will be a lot of fun....
(edit)
Guys... I have finished, this is the final... Hope you all like, as I'm really loving all of your works.

Good luck for everybody.


(edit) Ok, here is the description:

He gave his life to save mankind. In the 24th century, nuclear war had vanished most of the gases important for natural life on Earth. This great cientist knew that nothing could create and control a massive power of electricity to make oxygen. He turned himself into a living and concious energy core. He could now spend great amounts of electricity and control it without blowing him out. Through this act of pure love and desperation to save his so beloved homeworld, an enormous amount of the small rest of the world's population, bowed to his knees when he "asked" to be the ruler of the planet (most did because they were afraid of his giant power). Henceforth he'd be known as the King Oxygen.

[Chuck,mate.]

WIP

trev - i understand now.

guys, it seems like i won`t be taking part of this one, after all.
too packed a Schedule. plus - i really can`t think right now of a GOOD
idea for an oxygen king piece.
sorry.
here`s just a little poopoo, something i started for this round:

[redehlert]

ok...since i'm gone on monday and have to frantically pack and do all sorts of pre-trip shite, i've slammed into my piece and am callin' it done.



cheers and good luck all!
d

[Wizard of KOZ]

WIP

DOH!!! Redehlert, it looks like ours are going to be very similar. Here I thought I was being so original.


My WIP

[Jska]

Hey everyone - gonna give it another go... thumbs so far - I'm drawing and watching Adult Swim tonight heh



I miss my pens

(edit!) THIS IS MY FINAL - linework with copic multiliners on illustration board, with preliminary color block-ins w/ watercolor pencil and a final layer of gouache...



The story: The term "king" is really just an inflated and nostalgic term these days, granted to figureheads who have mostly corporations working in their guise. This "king" is one of the last of his species - a species that can convert the acidic atmosphere of this destroyed planet into pure breatheable oxygen. For this reason he was mutilated (as not to escape!), experimented upon, and shoved full of hoses so that his company "Oxygen King" can faithfully deliver oxygen to its customers.

Feel sorry for him, won't you?!? I wish I had more time for this, I would've spent waaaay more time on the background, etc. Good luck to everyone!

[surfacemonkey]

WIP

sketch WIP...

I'm picturing more like the baron off of DUNE... some rich politician in 2080 controls all the breathable air, and is therefore proclaimed king.

[Oblio]

WIP

few wips... still searching...
DARIZ... it's on now...



edit - two more added.

i was away form any digital thing.. only my sketchbook was around.
wondered from O2 in it's liquid form, to a mini king in a hospital, serving patients with O2,trough underwater guy etc.
Here are just 2 craps.


daily dose of saving people.

[Pesmerga]

I might actually participate for once. This is my first contribution (let's just hope I can finish it before the deadline )

original sketch:
http://img73.imageshack.us/img73/335...gsketchtn6.jpg

previous update:
http://img234.imageshack.us/img234/3...genkingwz7.jpg

Here's my entry. Unfortunatly, I don't think I'll be able to take it any further:


I guess I should explain the idea: This guy actually drains all surrounding oxygen. Everything he touches comes to life. But what good is life if you can't breath? Fact is, he's the only one that can provide oxygen. Either with his mouth, nose or any other gaz emiting holes. But of course he doesn't emit gaz (even when he farts, it's all oxygen!). So he's always kinda surrounded by life and oxygen, right? Yet he leaves a trail of death behind. Not cool.

I chose this very simple static pose to illustrate the apathy, the emptyness and boredom of his life. I tought a dynamic wouldn't fit in the context (unless he's expressing rage). With dying trees in the background, he's holding this beautiful over-colored flower in his hand and he's looking at it with very sad eyes. He's depressed cuz he knows that when he'll let the flower go, it'll probably die. So he keeps it near by. That flower is his only friend...

"For once -just once- I wanted to feel alive,
But I've never felt so empty inside...
Everytime I breed, I kill the air, I lose my hair.
I try not to move, I try not to talk, I try not to cry...
I try I try I try, but I cannot die.
A god of life? No longer am I...

I have become death, the destroyer of worlds."

[Wafflehouseninja]

WIP! Almost done i think.

[Johnnyhorse]

Finished!

Desc.: As life became unsastainable on the surface, the only source of clean oxygen remained in the depths of sea. With harvesting operations racing for the most most plentiful sources of oxygen mining, the situation began to liken itself to 17th and 18th century sea pirating. Sources began to come too little, too late, and civilation made preperations for the worst. They dispatched one last effort into the deep dark sea. The Captain, upon securing the oxygen, remained true to the city's request. Unfortunately, the rest of the crew had other plans.

[Ostrander]

WIP

I think I'm gonna try and get in on this.
Here's a sketch.

[buck6455]

so the oxygen king here is my first post and really my first try at anything like this.



the way i envisioned him was as a lonely corporate type who is held hostage by his title. both the most important person on the planet and the most isolated. here he is standing at a window high in a oxygen corps main tower looking out over the atmosphere he controls. he has his own perosonal oxygen generator with him cause he's special.

[Bryno]

Oxygen King
Final (crits are more than welcome)



-
In a far future, we as Humans failed to substain the ozonlayer. Therfore oxygen slowly started leaking into outourspace. The USA Area 51 tech.staff inmediatly started working on an ultra-secret oxygen-creating machine, providing fresh oxygen for all the Americans(in America). When almost finished, the 51 team needed one, final, hard to obtain part: Human lungs wich where capable of succesfully applying fotosyntheses. Not long after a poor Indian boy was kidnapped from his hometown, and transformed into an automobile- eh... Into an Ultra secret oxygen-creating machine. Later, he became known as the Oxygen King.

[illy]

Alright. Here's my first shot at a CHOW. Don't laugh please.



A mysterious black sphere appears. Silent and ominous. One man is drawn uncontrollably to it. Mental images cloud his mind... vivid pictures of earth's doom and the extinction of every living organism on the planet rush through his senses. He is shown the power of the sphere... the ability to sustain a source of oxygen on many other planets within millions and millions of galaxies. But he must give up everything he knows along with any remains and any possibility of a life in order to take on the task. The decision was made and the sphere took him in, strapping and bonding him to it's own surface. To distant planets they traveled, and soon enough, humans would colonize and escape extinction just a bit longer.

[xgabo]

My Contribution, comments welcome:



The Oxygen King

2084. After two centuries of unbridled environmental damage, the air we breathe became irreversibly rotten and poisonous. The atmosphere reached saturation so fast, not even the darker forecasts could predict the tragedy. Soon people started dying, their bloody black lungs vomited on the sidewalks. While governments pointed fingers at each other, civilization spun out of control.

In an act of desperation, scapegoats were soon picked, and exemplarly punished. Industrialists and factory owners were condemned to walk the wastelands tied to giant air purifiers which sucked the poisonous air into filters and returned it clean to the atmosphere. It was mostly a symbolic act, since the number of machines was not enough to clear the air in large scale. "Oxygen Kings" they were ironically called, due to their headgears similar to crowns. Wherever they walked, they were scorned by the people.

As the atmosphere became inhabitable, al that was left of humanity moved underground, or into giant pressurized complexes. One by one, the "Oxygen Kings" died, and the last of them was seen walking the ruins of what was once London. He chose to stay outside, convinced of his own guilt in a crime all of us had participation. People say he will keep walking the Earth while his machine still works; the last inheritor of the kingdom of man, monarch of an empty realm.

[AndrewLey]

"Sustaining what little remains of the tree of life and guardian of its offspring, the Oxygen king represents the source of mankind’s suffering and its futures only hope."

[crazyace31]

here is my version of "The Oxygen King"

“The one Scientist who thought mankind should suffer their fate, was the only one who knew how to save it. He developed plans that could be used to build a device that creates the oxygen man so badly needed. He refused to give these plans to the people because he didn’t believe in saving those who had caused the destruction. However, the people retaliated against the scientist, stole his plans and built the device, and as a sort of punishment imprisoned him in it. The machines life source is the scientist and so in effect the scientist never dies, but at the same time he is never truly alive. As a cruel joke he was given the title ‘The Oxygen King.’”

come check out my sketchbook,
http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=76333

[Eric Gerhard]

Since the very begining I was enjoyng jska drawing. And I also loved what was done because it was totally contrary to what we all did.

[Johnnyhorse]

I give up. hah
Great work all, I'll post crits/comments when i have more time.

[Jska]

Chuck Wadey got my vote! Dynamic use of color and foreshortening - that guy looks intimidating. Good concept and mood overall.

Trevor - I LOVE the atmosphere of your piece, yours was a close second for me. The glowyness is intriguing, my smallest of rits would be that the yellow lights on his costume too closely match the vibrancy to those in the distance, that's about it!

RedEhlert - Lovely and whimsical, I love the use of light! Very noble concept - I must say I'm a sucker for tree characters for some reason.

WafflehouseNinja - I like the composition and the design, he reminds me of Dr. Robotnik (in a good way haha), would have LOVED to see this in color!

AndrewLey - fantastic costume design, like the idea! The cape threw me off a bit at first, but it lends nicely to getting the focus where it needs to be...

XGabo - Great concept and story, the hand really gets my attention for some reason - its rendered really nicely! Overall good entry!

Johnnyhorse- I liked your story as well, and I like the little detail of his crew reflected in his mask, nice job

Eric - thanks again I liked your concept, and man does that guy look tortured! A bit dark, but it adds to the dramatic lighting.

Fuuryoku - good idea, I would love to see this rendered a little tighter - the textures on the tree roots on his leg is nice! The atmosphere to the right of him throws me off a bit, it looks smoke-y instead of air-y if that makes sense? lol

Piru - He is very conflicted, isn't he? haha Kinda dark, and I think if you extended the shadow out to the bottom left it would me the composition a bit more balanced. Good story!!

Buck - welcome! The color scheme gets across that he is lonely, and I like that desaturated-ness. The generator looks like it is coming out of the end of his elbow to me??

*WHEW*

on a side note, i got a vote?!?! hehe

[crazyace31]

nice entries everyone,
AndrewLey- I like the way you focus your level of detail, it really helped guide the veiwer and made more of impact. nice job.

oblio-thanks for the critique, i will return with this knowledge that you told me to seek, For this is not the last time you have seen CRAZYACE gwahaha

check out my sketchbook.CRITIQUES and Suggestions are welcome all the time.
http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=76333

[jackenstein]

xgabo, your story was so heavy and powerful, and was beautifully rendered too. however, my vote goes to Andrew, who had a short but sweet concept, but his character just really resonated with me and stood out even when I wasn't on the boards. good job everyone who made it.

[Pesmerga]

Bummer, I didn't make the cut! lol. Oh well... I kinda knew it inside I'll take my revenge on the next one. Thanks for the crit. I'll try to work on those issues. I'll still try to finish this one just for the sake of my sketchbook.

I hesitated between ChuckWadey, xgabo and Andrewley. But xgabo has my vote

By the way, mine's all photoshop with the mouse. I can't wait to buy a tablet and, thus... finally take my revenge! MWAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!

You haven't heard the last of me CA members...


I'LL BE BACK.

[Piru]

Thx for the comment Jska! Yours stands out both in style and design!

I'm not to good at crit'n'commenting, but I'll give it a try! I'll restrict myself to the selected ones, although there are some nice efforts done, selected or not!

trevor: the story is strong, I like the way the armor is rendered but it's a bit of a pitty that it isn't finished like that overall

Chuck Wadey: I love this scene, fantastic rendering, nice design: I love the face mask. Only little crit is: the oxygen itself might be confusing to people who don't know what this piece is about. Nevertheless you get my vote for this incredible painting!

Fuuryoku: Nice story, missing some definition of tight forms and perspective.. story and image combined are a good startingpoint.

Eric Gerhard: I love the little robot! I think I would've gone for blues in the background. Nice composition.

Redehlert: Your initial sketch was better defined, and I liked it! I think your final is a "tad to speedy" for me

Wafflehouseninja: I would love to see this in colors, I like the almost tangible feel of the greys though!

Johnnyhorse: I like the composition and colors, but I would dress his left arm too! It is somehow a 'fracture' with the rest of the drawing..

Buck6455: I like the expression of the figure, would like some more definition on his back!

Xgabo: I like it, the figure, the machine and the crown! Good concept!

AndrewLey: fantastic! It was between you and Chuck... didn't find out about the multivote untill it was too late!