Crimson Daggers — Art forum

Let's give this a try, shall we?

I'm not really that good at character design and even sketching iterative ideas, I like to paint when I have everything decided.

I'm keeping refs on Pinterest to keep them organized.
https://www.pinterest.com/roguesleipnir/cc-halloween/

My humanoid's undecided yet, but I'm going for an owl for the creature.
I'd like something huge, but silent. And can appear out of nowhere. 
I like the owl's eerie vibe when it tilts its head and stares. I'd like to capitalize on that.

For now, some owl studies and concepts.

Exploring a big and small dynamic with a little girl.
Doesn't need to be human right? Just humanoid.

The final pose will be more dynamic, like carrying her or picking her up with curiosity.

Maybe she'll be a zombie, or a shaman.
Accidentally or purposely summoning her huge familiar.

I like the contrast in size and tone between the two characters with spooky spider-owl and cute doll girl.

More studies into the owl design.

Long legs are pretty creepy.
Moved the multiple eyes to other places.
To add more ghostly drapery and tattered cloth as a costume.

Got to expand more on the girl's design soon.

Looks very promising. Keep this up!

I don't know about the multiple eyes thing but the owl idea is pretty good. There certainly is plenty of creepy owl reference out there.

Haha, Owls are weirdos. I like the ones with eyes tacked on the body, not so much when they're free floating.

I can tell your owl's going to be mad spooky by the time you're through conceptualizing it :D.

yeah, i like painting more so my sketches for ideas won't be as detailed or spooky... yet.

mixing and matching ideas for the girl.

doll or marionette. spooky accessories like a ghost balloon too.
i kinda like the mouth on her dress.

hmm.. a short brief i just came up with.
they deceive their victims. the owl devours bones. the doll devours souls.

i saw these on my feed yesterday which were quite creepy.

  

nice stuff! Carry on :)

hmm..

i think the jumping idea isn't so hot.. hmm.

i want to make the owl look and feel like a ring wraith from lotr.

found good refs for the rendering, though.

 

Finally got some composition and story ideas this weekend. I'll choose the final one to be rendered on the weekdays.

One is the doll waking up in the giant owl's nest.

Another is being fed with gross stuff. That might be the creepiest one.

Last is the owl protecting the doll from even darker entities.

Imo the nest makes for a great setting, and if you made the owl more spider-like again you could even turn it into some kind of spiderweb nest. I actually liked the 'floating bug eyes face' you had going earlier, but given the other reactions to it I can understand why you dropped it... well, maybe you can come up with some kind of compromise.

All of the compositions in the latest post are good, but I especially like the mid-take off one in the corner.

6 Days until deadline - hope you get it done!

Thanks guys. 'Going to try to finish it over weeknights or mornings before I go to work.

I expanded the first one. Probably too much? Might shrink the canvas to fit ratios better.

Added colors, no real values still.

The tentacles might be pulling away from the focus?
Convincing the scale of a 'giant' owl and not a very tiny doll is also kind of a problem here.
Any tips? Thanks!

Nice comp. Guess you have to decide if the tentacles add to any narrative or not. Atm they aren't stealing so much attention but it's not that clear I guess why they are there perhaps unless they are reaching towards the doll.

Scale is always about relative contextual info. So think about the texture scale of the bark vs the texture scale of the feathers vs the texture scale of the nest material etc.
And values. Big things have atmospheric perspective affect them more.
Also add things we would immediately judge and recognize the scale of to put in there, like leaves etc.

Keep it up, looking forward to the final!

got back past midnight from doctor strange, so no work done...

looking at jungle book for some scale ref.

Knocked down the brightness so I can push the lights in later.

Added spider-ish legs to the owl's wings as the bony frame.

Took your advice to have a smaller scale for the bark details! :D

Watch out for tangents the characters arms touch the owls leg and wing. Looking forward to the finished piece!

(10-27-2016, 02:15 AM)Hobitt Wrote: [ -> ]Watch out for tangents the characters arms touch the owls leg and wing. Looking forward to the finished piece!

Hmm. Thanks for that! 

Maybe I'll move her to the right, then tuck her in under the wing a bit.
Then change her expression to something like worrying.