MONSTERWORK SHOP - FINAL VERSION DUE TONIGHT (MONDAY)

[Andail]

WORK MONSTERSHOP WEEK THREE

So, for those still going strong, please submit your final piece before midnight. Starting tomorrow, we will then vote for our favourite entries. Break a leg everyone!

[miguel]

Latest Sketch - 14th May 2013
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Go ahead and hit me with all you've got, make my day!

[Misj']

End of week 1 sketch


(global overview of the scene)

-- Follow first week progress --


Some links to feedback given during the first week:

• ThreeOhFour
• Miguel
• Waheela
• Cuiki
• Misj'

EDIT1: CLOTHING
She would never forgive me if I left her naked, so...yeah. The opportunities with clothing are infinite; but they are also crucial to define a character. Depending on what you want you could go very classic or very outgoing. Now I can't say I'm very good at doing original clothing, but for this exercise I wanted to spend a bit longer on this subject.

Designing clothing for Sandra is unusual for two reasons: 1. the has a feline body, and 2. she has wings. As a result I cannot design anything that has to be pulled up, nor can I design anything that has to be pulled over the head. In other words: her clothing should be wrapped around her, and be closed either in the back or at the front.

Also, because of her character, I wanted most designs to be cloth-based (bright colours) with only the occasional leather or metal.

So here are some designs I came up with (front and back; bottom row are accessories) :


Here is a nice tutorial on drawin clothings: How to Draw Clothes by Paris Christou

[dactylopus]

Alright, this is my initial Sketch:



On to week 2!

[cat]

Water dragon

Link back to original post: http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=48175.msg636453462#msg636453462

This is the result of the first week:


Water dragon, week 2, step 1 - Color

So, update for my drawing!

I started to decide on the colors. The water is blueish green, the kelp yellow-green, so I decided for my dragon on purple to get some contrast here. Underwater there is not much perspective guides beside the kelp going up to the single focus point out of screen. So I intended to use Aerial perspective (does this name even fit for an underwater scene?) which basically means stuff that is farther away is less saturated.

My goal was to draw the viewers eye from the bright top to the mouth of the dragon. At the first try, I didn't succeed at all. It is colorful but looks flat and dull. You can especially see that in the desaturated version I put underneath.

I started to add more contrast but was still not satisfied. Finally I changed the purple to a bluer tone, added shadows on the dragon itself and darkened the mouth as suggested by SookieSock.



Water dragon, week 2, step 2 - Color

I started coloring the basic sketch.



Water dragon, week 2, step 3 - Anatomy

I changed the eyes and arms as suggested. Lots of cursing included. I also tilted the head slightly for better consistency in perspective.



Water dragon, week 3, step 1 - Shading



With help from Ben's fantastic paintover I tried some shading. I'm still missing some highlights on the kelp and I'm not satisfied with the legs yet.

Water dragon - Final drawing

Click on the picture for the high-res version:

[loominous]

Week One Thread

Week One Last Entry

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

A man, a plan...Panama

Latest:



Please ignore the pure black along the cliffside and the comparatively lighter colors of the right cliff.  The right bit was me playing around with values but I wasn't happy with the contrast and brightness so I tried something different on the cultist cliff and was quite happy with the results.  I will be applying the same approach to the rest of the piece soon .

[waheela]

WEEK 1 - SKETCH DEVELOPMENT

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Here's my sketch.
I plan on reworking the hands/cards based on the awesome feedback Misj' gave me in the last thread, but I am totally open to any new feedback anyone has for me as well.

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WEEK 2, STEP 1: COLOR, REVISION, AND THE BEGINNINGS OF SHADING
(May 15, 2013)

First off, I began with a rough color study based on some of my reference images. I didn't really spend that much time
on the marble or human skin, and the overall colors will continue to evolve anyway with each draft as I fiddle around with the
color balance setting in Photoshop.


(Accidentally made his chest blazon green and not purple. Will change later.)


After this, I went back to my piece and made some changes based on the feedback I received from you guys.


  ------> 

I changed Lord Jagged's hands to make them more threatening based on Cerno's comments (and face, see below image).
I also made him larger compared to the fortune teller and made him take up more space based on Cerno's and SookieSock's
critique. I corrected his sitting position based on dactylopus', Cerno's and Mordalles' suggestions, and lastly,
changed the human's hands and cards after reviewing the feedback Misj' gave me.

Below is a WIP. Still not happy with his face. Will work more on this tomorrow.






WEEK 2, STEP 2: MESSING AROUND WITH COLOR BALANCE/BRIGHTNESS/CONTRAST
(May 17, 2013)

Been messing around with the brightness/contrast settings as well as color balance. I also added some texture and color variation to Lord Jagged and developed the background, human hands and marble more.



Something about that clenched hand doesn't look right to me. Maybe it's the coloring? Any thoughts, guys?




WEEK 2, STEP 3: MORE FLESHING OUT
(May 21, 2013)



Added detail and shading to the cards to the hands. Based on your guys' feedback, I also made Lord Jagged's hands bigger, and I'm planning on re-shading his midsection tomorrow. As always, feedback welcome.




WEEK 2, STEP 4: AAAAAANND... EVEN MORE FLESHING OUT
(May 22, 2013)

I tried adding a more scaly texture to Lord Jagged's belly, but I just didn't like how it looked. Too distracting, so I reverted to the original design and added to it more....

               

-Further developed Lord Jagged's other hand
-Added more contrast to the pic in general
-Colored in chest blazon. (Not quite happy with it.)
-Fixed (hopefully) the pillowy stomach

Tomorrow, I'll work on fixing the embossed leather (just doesn't look right, suggestions welcome) and developing the background. After that, I'll just continue to add more details to the pic until the deadline.

[nihilyst]

Here's my sketch.

[Misj']

WORK MONSTERSHOP WEEK TWO

By the way...how strict are you one the weekly outline?

Week Two
During the next week, we exchange feedback and start fleshing out our illustrations; we set up the lighting and start colouring.

Week Three
After the second week, we give each other a final round of C&C and start refining our pieces, adding details, textures and highlights where needed.

Week 1 - for me - was about character-design and stance (and a little bit about composition). Week 2 would be about adding details and fleshening out the characters; after which I can continue with the environment. Once that's achieved, week 3 would possibly include inking (though I don't think I'll do that for this piece), colouring, and lighting. These weekly goals (that are based around painting) are kinda incompatible with that approach; which is standard for line-art.

So...can I just ignore the outline as a guideline?

[Mordalles]

Week one's progress: Here


Week 2 Step 1 (15/05/2013)
an update on mine,
i'm going to change the shell pattern and eyes later on, but for now...
trying colours and values. kinda difficuly making the shape of the monster read from the background, but i will continue with this for the next week before i worry about painting details. i will worry about lightning a bit later also. first want to get basic values in there.
i'm looking for a more overgrown cavern with more greens ...

and as loominous suggested, trying to make a very loosely painted monster stand out...


Week 2 Step 2 (18/05/2013)
im still playing/fighting around with values and forms, and possible backdrops. some sort of temples in the background, with man made pillars in the tunnel. still very much loosely painted monster with details lacking. at the moment its mostly shadows, light still has to be added. light is coming from top right corner, kinda behind the monster. that shell is giving me nightmares. 

did a bit more experimenting  with my monster and background, and started with some of the details on the face.


Week 3 i think, Step 1 (21/05/2013)
update on my side. i'll try and focus on the statue heads on the walls next, and the left hand wall infront also. after that i'll try and fix a few little things (leg on the right for one thing), but i want to keep it relatively "concepty" so dont wanna go into detail overdrive.


Week 3 final update for now...
update of mine... i've kinda finished the grayscale one, and did a quickish colour test thing. its pretty rough, but I'll leave it like this. added a few more highlights on the skin also, and finished those statues.


toned down a bit on the colours...

so a very rough larger version... (with a few unpainted bits to the left and right i'll just keep that way )

[Cerno]

So this is my end of first week sketch, its predecessors are over here.



Since I'm quite new to all this, I am pretty much stuck at this stage.
For anyone willing to give me c&c, I would be happy with some very general pointers here.
Basically, what I should improve at this stage before it's too late and what the next steps would be.

Week 2 Step 1

Thanks to everyone for their invaluable support and tips.
I had to organize it all and even the condensed version now fills two pages.

So first I tried to improve the wings. The initial imbalance was inherited from the reference image of a bat with its wings pretty much in the same pose, but I agree that this has to change.

Next I tried to do some thumbnails, very useful technique, by the way. Thanks loominous!



I like the general feel of them quite a lot

Next I tried to sketch a pose that incorporates some of the advice I got, mostly from Kasander and waheela
I moved the wizard to the lower edge of the screen and made the dragon more prominent. The legs, arms horns and snout now all point towards the wizard. I tried to hint at a triangle here.

Unfortunately I was not quite able to catch the presence of dragon from the thumbnails, maybe this stage needs another iteration.



Edit: Maybe a little more like this, now the wings underline the arrow-shape more and it becomes a little more dynamic:



@waheela: Thanks a lot for the eagle images, nice finds. I have some trouble adapting the pose since an eagle has no arms, while the dragon does. But I tried to get the wings somewhat similar and I plan to heavily reference the talons.

@loominous & Kasander: Unfortunately I won't have the time to redo the whole dragon, so I won't be going for the 3/4 perspective since I fear that I might not make it in the end.

To every other helpful soul out there: You are not forgotten. All advice has been compiled into a neat list and will be commented on in due time


Week 2 Step 2

Last update for today.

I played around a bit with talons:



Also I tried to apply the pose I sketched earlier.
Somehow I get the feeling that every time I go from abstract to concrete the picture loses a lot of personality

Anyway, I know this is far from perfect, but I think I'll have to start thinking about lighting and colors, since I'm running out of time for the sketch phase...



Week 2 Step 3

So I tried to get a feel about lighting and colors with a very rough sketch. It might have been a good idea to do lighting and color separately though.



After Kasander's hint about adding some meaning through colors I drew the whole scene in reds, lighted from below and colored the wizard's spell in blues to underline his foreignness in this envionment. Just realized that the mountains would need different shades of grey to give them a better impression of depth.

After loominous's hints about contrast, I scaled down the image to thumbnail size:



I can see that the dragon takes the focus as it should but the smoke has too much contrast and competes too much. My decreasing the contrast here, I hope to get the background volcanoes to actually feel like a background, the same goes for the mountain range. Also the central volcano at the bottom as well as the wizard's cliff is almost invisible. This has to change.

Week 2 Step 4

Detail work, slow progress. Needs plenty more work, still got a lot to learn, need to research more, I guess.
Tried a different pen for the hands, which now somewhat clashes with the rest of the image.
The wizard's shadow is most likely wrong, at least the pole should not cast a shadow with the light source on top.



Week 3 Final Image

Time's up. Here's my final version (click for full size image):



Phew that surely shaved some time off my life. Worth every minute though
Unfortunately now I'll have to consider redrawing everything I did for the game I'm working on so far...

[Andail]

Misj, yeah don't worry too much about that. Look at my process; I didn't even show any references (although I have most of the work sti ll ahead of me, with plenty of references to find and publish). I expect to spend the whole upcoming week just painting the figures on the bike. I'm also extremely dissatisfied with the monster at this point, so c&c is welcome.
[imgzoom]http://www.esseb.com/andail/graphics/floating3.png[/imgzoom]

[selmiak]

Sketch after week 1


after you all bring opponents and even priests in I'm thinking about adding another thing or person too but the monster will still be based on the sketch of course.

previous post in previous thread




some more painting and refining the monster sketch

A WIP. I hope to have given this beast a more dynamic, aggresive stance. The nose is just for teh lulz. Lightsource is also clear. Still unsure what to with the upper right part...
and how can I make this cave look more moist?

    selmiak:
Not scary, but a nice comical touch.

selmiak:
That monster looks kind of cute, I can't help it. It might be the mouth or the "what's up?" kind of face. Don't know if that's what you were aiming at.

I hope I got rid of that hypnotoad resemblance with these skribbelings

and since drawing penises on your monster is en vogue atm I added a mouthpenis. I don't know if it will stay though

Also added a very sketchy human, but I have no clue on his stance. I want him to hold a sword and a torch for additional lighting but having both sword and torch visible in a more or less natural approaching stance seems harder than I thought.

[imgzoom]http://i.imgur.com/60aUC9k.jpg[/imgzoom]

[Cerno]

I am really not confident giving c&c about all the awesomeness already here, so forgive my ramblings. I hope I won't offend anyone.

Anyway rules are rules, so I'll be quick about it and run for cover:

miguel
the awesome: I already said that I love how it reminds me of Japanese Oni, although it is reptilian. Also the nose and general body hair is very creepy and makes this piece very unique.
the potential: The current sketch has lost some of the wickedness of the hole in the head as it now looks like a mere dent. Compare to your 2nd sketch from week one. Try to regain that sense of depth that suggests the hole actually penetrates the skull leading to an unprotected brain - or worse.

Misj'
the awesome: Basically everything, from the thought that went into the character to the very charming composition with the side characters. Can't wait to see this progress.
the potential: You opted for an 8-limbed flying creature which I imagine is a hell of a challenge. To me the current pose seems a bit like she is flailing with her legs and might use a little more purpose in the movement. On the other hand, if you animated this, I suppose it should exactly look like this. Hm.

dactylopus
the awesome: Kudos for attempting a foreshortening piece, I'd be stuck with this forever. I think the pose has a lot of energy and since the monster appears to fill the whole cave and is already very close, it is a nice threatening composition. Very in-your-face.
the potential: I think I liked the slightly bigger, more centered eyes and pronounced brows from your first sketch better. Maybe try to give a stronger impression that the monster has four eyes and the middle ones are not its nostrils.

cat
the awesome: I absolutely love how you are able to give a very strong impression of the final piece by from some squiggly lines.
the potential: I'll have to sit this one out until you add more details.

loominous
the awesome: It's stunning how you do lighting and color. You give the piece a very somber and nice atmosphere without having too many details yet.
the potential: Not sure whether you want to keep the somber atmosphere (which is very cool as it is) or want to go more in a threatening direction. One idea: The observer just disturbed the ogre at grabbing a book, so it might be nice to have it notice the observer more, maybe a slightly annoyed look on his face? The mice on its body might also be oriented towards the observer.

ProgZmax
the awesome: The progress you make from a relatively simple line drawing to the shaded details in this image is astounding. You have guts for having the sniper aim at the cultist instead of the elder god. There is the danger that it will look deliberate and not seem like a perspective error. I am looking forward to you pulling it off.
the potential: I have no idea what I'm talking about, but is the cultist cliff's perspective correct? Shouldn't it be more flat? As it is, the sniper seems to be on top of their cliff, for which he is too far away laterally. Does that make any sense?

waheela
the awesome: Drawing a frontal pose of a character with a snout is quite the challenge I think and you pulled if off very well. After listening to the story, I think you captured the essence brilliantly. This is one of the entries I'm looking forward to most.
the potential: Some minor things: Lord Jagged seems more interested than threatening. Maybe laying his bloody knife or sword across the table in front of him would give the scene some urgency, also a grimmer look on his face might help. From the story, I figure that the Kus are very proud so I think he would object to sitting at a table made for human height (as we can see his knees).

nihilyst
the awesome: I really enjoyed watching that thing take form from the initial basic sketch to this very expressive version. The way the tentacles all stretch out towards the boat gives a nice feeling of doom
the potential: Some minor things: Maybe you could stress the fact that it is one organism by adding links between the heads stretching across the lake floor. The boat is quite impersonal at the moment, maybe you can find a way of increasing the hopelessness by adding some personality to it: A dangling foot or a fishing rod maybe. Also having some wrecked boats at the floor might give a little more backstory.

Mordalles
the awesome: You really have a hand for detail. I absolutely love how you transformed your initial sketch into this one. The longer I look at it, the more I like it.
the potential: I am hard-pressed to find anything. The only thing I can think of is that with hind legs that short and a belly that round it would not be able to rest horizontally without rolling around, but that's just nitpicking.

selmiak
the awesome: Very nice lighting. The stalagtites to the right and the water give a very nice impression of the dank and dark surroundings.
the potential: You went quite a way from your initial sketch, which I found very charming. I would love to rediscover its kind of pissed off "What are you doing in my cave!"-attitude in this piece.

[waheela]

FEEDBACK


miguel
I wasn't sure what direction you were taking the sketch at first, but after you added color, the piece REALLY came alive, and I love it now! The detail of the scales looks great and I love the hair and shading on the face.

That being said, there is one thing I think you could improve on. Firstly, the perspective of the room does not quite match the perspective of the monster. The perspective for the cell would suggest the viewer would be looking down at the monster from above, but the perspective of the monster is a straight-forward view as if you are looking at the creature eye to eye. I hope that makes sense, and is helpful.


Misj'
I've been really enjoying watching your updates, because I feel your monster has gotten increasingly better and well-developed each time. I love the monster design. I also really like the colors/setting you've introduced into the picture, and the placement of the swordsman in the foreground.

If I were to give feedback, it would be about the placement of the monster. It's unclear who she's interacting with. Is she interacting with the two people in the background? If so, I feel like you should either change the direction the monster is facing, or move the background characters forward so both parties are in the middle-ground of the picture.

If she's not interacting with the two in the background, is she pursuing the swordsman? If that's the case, I think it would be more interesting if the monster was a little closer to the swordsman/camera and taking up more space in the picture. You'd probably have to change the direction the monster's head is facing too.


dactylopus
I like the pose you've chosen for your monster. I think it is very dynamic and interesting (and @#$%ing challenging, I hate foreshortening and perspective, oh my god).

As far as improvements go, mine won't really be that helpful. I think the figure in the foreground is a little static right now, and needs to be doing something like running, showing surprise with his body language, etc... but I assume you're already going to do that anyway and don't intend to leave him/her as is. I'm sorry my feedback right now is crap, and hope I can offer something more constructive later on down the road.


cat
Love your idea, and love your refreshing reboot of the boring, classical reptilian land dragon. I also like the composition you ended up going with! I think it's a little too early in the pic's stage to give critique though, so I'll wait until you've gotten further with it.


loominous
My mind is kind of boggled by the lighting in this piece. So warm and luminous!

It's hard for me to think of improvements, but if I were put on the spot, I'd put down some more darks to add more volume to the figure and bring him out more from the background. Maybe under his arm, on the bookshelf he's directly in front of, in his face to better define his features, etc. I have a feeling you were probably planning to do that anyway though, since this is still in its early stages.


ProgZmax
Phenomenal shading so far, and the figure in the foreground looks well-developed and great! I'm really excited to see how your piece develops in the coming weeks.

Improvements... hmm... the thing that distracts me a little from the piece is the perspective of the plateau in the background. It's so slanted that I feel people should be rolling off the side...
...UNLESS THAT'S WHAT YOU WANT ME TO THINK and you're going for the Lovecraftian-style mind-defying geometry look. If that's the case (which I hope it is because that's just @#$%ing awesome), you should push the landscape more. Make more parts of the plateau jut off at weird, gravity-defying angles.

One more thing, and it's small. I'd add a bit of shadow under the gunman's knee. I think it would make his crouch look a little more natural and ground him more on the plateau.


nihilyst
I really enjoyed watching you develop your monster design last week. Your monsters reminds me a little of the Sarlacc pit from Return of the Jedi, but cooler and more developed. It's hard for me to think of improvements right now for you, so I'll hold off for now and wait to see how you develop your awesome pic first.


Mordalles
I have absolutely nothing for you but gushing praise. Your pencil work is @#$%ing amazing, and I absolutely love your monster design. I really wish I had something to say about improvements, but I've got nothing. I'll wait till you've developed it more.


Cerno
I am really enjoying the composition of your piece. Very Lord-of-the-Ringsian and epic! I also love your merging of both the bull and dragon. Frankly, I'm kind of bored of reptilian dragons, so I think your take on the dragon is interesting and refreshing!

Some pointers you're welcome to disregard it they're not important to you... the wings look a little off to me. One is outstretched and one appears to be bent. I know the eagles below have nothing to do with your dragon per se, but I think they're good references in the way that you get an idea of what a winged animal looks like before landing or "pouncing" on something.




Both wings in the pics above are outstretched or curved slightly, and the legs and talons are stretched out as if they're reaching to grab something.

It might be interesting to try this out with your piece and see how it looks before moving on: Shrink the wizard and plateau to a smaller size and move them down a bit. I think this will make the dragon look more gigantic and threatening. By moving the plateau down a little too, you will have more space to stretch out the legs and open the talons a bit more. Just some thoughts. Hope they're helpful!


Andail
I've been really really enjoying watching you sketch out thumbnails for your pieces this past week. I think your composition is bomb. I'm also really enjoying the dystopian, dreary colors. It adds a nice bit of dread to the piece.

You mentioned before in a previous post that the perspective was weird and you were going to change it, so I won't comment on that. Since you're dissatisfied with the monster, I was trying to think of ways to make it cooler. Right now, it seems to be a sort of crustacean/bug monster. Since it appears to be levitating inexplicably right now, how about 4 or 5 sets of cicada wings? Or putrid gas bags maybe? I think that could look pretty cool.


selmiak
As I mentioned in the last thread... the composition's simple, but I like it! I'm really interested to see what kind of textures and colors you add to the monster in the following weeks.

One thing I'd suggest though is adding something on the rock with him/her/it to give the viewer some idea of how big the monster is. For example, a coin, or skull if he's really small, or a tiny person if he's really big.


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PHEW! That took forever! Will post more as people continue to add their pics to this thread.

[SookieSock]

[Snarky]

Same as it ever was...

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

Cerno:

I have no idea what I'm talking about, but is the cultist cliff's perspective correct? Shouldn't it be more flat? As it is, the sniper seems to be on top of their cliff, for which he is too far away laterally. Does that make any sense?

I kind of went with what felt right for the way I wanted to present the Elder God reaching down, so no, it's not accurate.  I'll do what I can to correct it a bit but I rather like the unsettling effect it has when I stare at it. Thanks!

Waheela:

Improvements... hmm... the thing that distracts me a little from the piece is the perspective of the plateau in the background. It's so slanted that I feel people should be rolling off the side...
...UNLESS THAT'S WHAT YOU WANT ME TO THINK and you're going for the Lovecraftian-style mind-defying geometry look. If that's the case (which I hope it is because that's just @#$%ing awesome), you should push the landscape more. Make more parts of the plateau jut off at weird, gravity-defying angles.

One more thing, and it's small. I'd add a bit of shadow under the gunman's knee. I think it would make his crouch look a little more natural and ground him more on the plateau.

If I'd placed this inside a sunken city or something the off-angle would have been deliberate, with rocks floating around and such, but to be honest I just kind of liked how it slopes toward the Elder God, almost like an arrow.  I'll probably try some correction at the base, or I may add some floating debris around it now that you've given me the idea .  As far as the gunman goes, I'm going to correct all the shading on him, darkening it to match the background cliff so I'll be sure to take care of the shadows as well as they are probably one of the most ominous aspects of the piece.  Thanks!

[miguel]

Here's my feedback, just a few words to point out the "feeling" I get from each piece. No bad critiques here because it's too soon, sorry Andail. I think that some works are too much sketchy to be criticized. But I will obey the rules and come up with negative aspects when I have a better idea of what to expect from final pieces.

Misj': judging by the way you draw I expect Disney quality stuff here. The way you framed your work is very pleasant as well.

Dactylopus: the white canvas and the overall "snow man" look remind me of Star Wars snow scenes. Please put your monster in a icy cave!

cat: very dynamic "jaws" feel here. It does look sharp even if you only drew some simple lines.

loominous: Artista

Prog Zmax: epic and complex frame, hope you pull it out!

waheela: feels like I'm playing Skyrim! Difficult stuff here but already looking good.

nihilyst: in love with the colours, tones and the size of your setting.

mordalles: a steady hand like yours will produce only but quality.

cerno: Epic! LOTR kind of epic! Go big, do it with no fears!

andail: love the Blade Runner palette. There's nothing wrong with your monster, the way it looks at you is quite scary and then the eyes drop to see people running from him. It works.

selmiak: creepy swamp monster you have there. It takes me to Gollum in the cave/pond scene.

sookiesock: Dungeons & Dragons Book Cover 1988. Classic stuff.

snarky: that's one scary mother. Really like the face, and the perspective of your scene.