This week's theme and brief by previous winner, Lege1
Crimson Character of the Week #50
Blizzard Rider
"Appearance: This attractive female is a fearless warrior who rides a giant, dire wolf with fur the color of fresh snow. They are clad in thick furs and leathers, adorned with wolf bones and teeth. Their face is weathered and scarred, and their eyes gleam with the ferocity of a predator.
Personality: The Blizzard Rider is a born leader, skilled in both combat and animal handling. They command a pack of loyal wolves, using them to hunt, scout, and fight. They are fiercely independent and protective of their tribe, but can also be surprisingly honorable when dealing with outsiders.
The best of the CHOWs will be picked by an anonymous poll in the Finals thread and the winner is given the opportunity to pick the theme of the next CHOW's design, as well as becoming the title banner for that week! So go hard, design something interesting and unique!
Guidelines:
No photograph paint overs, must be 100% original work. (See next rule for exception)
3D is permitted and renders MAY be used as whole or in part of a painting, as long as YOU created the work. Pre-made and/or purchased, online, assets are forbidden.
AI may be used in the ideation process, but the final image must be 100% hand-drawn.
There is no restriction on the character's gender, time period or culture.
Studies are recommended, but not required.
There is no restriction on image formats (horizontal, vertical, square).
Environment backgrounds are optional.
Keep in mind you are not required to stick to what is in the passage. It is more of a guide in terms of mood.
Rules:
You must post at least one WIP in the WIP thread to be accepted into the final poll.
Finals must be posted in the finals thread before the deadline.
At least 3/4 of the character must be visible (minimum from the knees up).
Only ONE submission per person in the finals thread.
No fanart. We want to see your original, unique interpretations!
Voting will be held for 5 days after the deadline.
In an event of a tiebreaker, a winner will be chosen through a randomized name picker.
Oooh I like this one! Not gonna lie I like already having the description of what it is so I can just start drawing and I don't have to come up with something with totally wide open parameters. I find that so hard.
(01-18-2024, 06:20 AM)JosephCow Wrote: Oooh I like this one! Not gonna lie I like already having the description of what it is so I can just start drawing and I don't have to come up with something with totally wide open parameters. I find that so hard.
Super glad you are liking this brief and I'm looking forward to anything and all that you do.
LEGEND'S SKETCHBOOK_001
To all artists struggling to create and are intimidated by A.I. (anti-imagination) "Everything has been done, but not by you"
Missed out on the last one but I’m back this round for sure. Congrats @lege1 on a very successful piece last round and you picked a great brief, although I think I’m a tad opposite to @josephCow in that I do prefer the more open briefs at times when you can really take your own interpretation and run wild with it. Although this is fun too as a challenge to stay tighter to the brief it is more inline with a brief you may get from a client and see if you can bring it to life, and bring something unique to it that’s sets it apart from others while your at it.
Well here is a few roughed out sketches from me for this one. I’m really imagining her returning from a hard fought battle with a local clan and now has returned to the den, battered and bruised, to lick her wounds.
I learned today, that I had less than 1 clue about what wolves look like and how to draw them. So this is gonna have to be a learning experience for me lol. I'm just starting with what a wolf looks like, and how a person could ride one.
Great start guys, Joseph your wolves are looking excellent, Lege your studies are also taking shape. Looking forward to see where you guys take yours.
Got some quality time with mine today, not quite finished but thought I’d drop it now and let it stew for a few days. I decided to go for a more ranger style character that has returned from a narrow victory. Badly wounded and miles from home she relied on her mount to navigate the blizzard and lead the pack home.
@Cbinnsillustration This is hot fire on winter turf, looking absolutely awesome! That sideview composition is a great way to display this concept! Lighting and snow treatment on point! I also don't want to forget to add that you have a great use of edges going on in this one as well. Did a speedy white wolf color study to get a better understanding of the color scheme.
LEGEND'S SKETCHBOOK_001
To all artists struggling to create and are intimidated by A.I. (anti-imagination) "Everything has been done, but not by you"
Looking good Lege! Looks like an epic comp. I wonder if having her leaning forward or back more would add dynamism since the wolf is like charging toward us?
___
New wip: color study for the finial piece.
I was considering giving her a more conservative outfit, like this:
because I wanted this painting to be a little more serious/realistic, and having her wearing video-game armor would be pretty cold, but I came back to it and I didn't really like how it looked with the pose and lighting I was working with so I went in this direction instead.
@JosephCow Thanks so much on the good words towards what I got brewing and I was already thinking about what you mentioned in regards to the pose. I messed around a bit and decided I didn't want to go the action route with the rider. For moods sake I wanted to go more of a balanced route where the rider is calm but fierce, and the wolf is ready to lunge instead of lunging at least that is the visual read I'm going forward. I'm currently working on a re-work that I will be posting soon here and thank you for that suggestion for sure.
Onto your most recent most, I feel like the warmer attire is necessary for obvious reasons. That is is the blizzard part; if it was a chick warrior just riding a wolf she could be dressed in barely nothing and it would totally work and give max sex appeal, but I inteded with choosing this topic that some type of interesting winter gear would be included on the figure, so you are on the right track. I like what you have going with the short cape like covering she's wearing, and the boots are very stylish as well. I like how your character is taking on more of like an native american / indian type look and really nice color scheme in that second image. My suggestion for the environment is to tone it down on the greens, granted there are evergreens present during the winter, but I feel there is just too much green in the piece to speak blizzard. Maybe consider more bare trees and definitely get rid of whatever the green plant stuff is on the right side and make it a dead bush or something cause as of rigt now it comes off as a bit distracting. I do like the evergreens behind the character cause the complimentary colors work great with her red cape, maybe make more mountains, snow piles, and dead trees througout the rest of the image.
@CBinnsIllustration I see you put up your final entry and from a technical aspect it looks really good. I like the cool and warm color play on this one and especially with the blue in the shadows and warm orange lights, I also really like the lighting on the chick character. From the waist down on the character looks awesome, and I just wish you would have followed through to the top more with the outfit. I feel like she would definitely be cold dressed as is, although the sex appeal and claw marks on her back are great. There is a lot of back ground in this piece too and I feel like you could push the image a bit more with a cape / shawl, blowing in the wind behind her, it would really add an extra dynamic aspect to the image. All around really great work as always. I like it regardless of what I mentioned above.
This is where I'm currently at with mine....
LEGEND'S SKETCHBOOK_001
To all artists struggling to create and are intimidated by A.I. (anti-imagination) "Everything has been done, but not by you"
It might, i don't hate the purple it's just weird because on my monitor i was painting on it didn't look purple to me I wonder if my screen's colors are off. :S It wouldn't be the first time. Back in the day i used to paint on a monitor that was stretched out a bit horizontally so all my paintings were actually stretched vertically without me realizing it lol. But maybe it's actually just me.
Also cool sketches, the lighting on the cave one would look so cool.
@Leo Ki thank you and very good to see you enter some sketches. I agree with JosephCow that the second one would work really nice with the lighting scenario.
@JosephCow Really neat landscape with the violet ambient lighting; depending on the time of day your scene is taking place this could totally work for maybe a dusk or dawn scenario. If you shift towards more blue that would work well and what we most often see in snow, so it's really up to you. Great overall scene and rendering though man, it's really beautiful work. The violet snow with the golden yellow lighting really make for a unique complimentary color setup.
LEGEND'S SKETCHBOOK_001
To all artists struggling to create and are intimidated by A.I. (anti-imagination) "Everything has been done, but not by you"
update on my picture. I might crop the image for the final and finish the background at a later time. I don't love how the wolf looks right now, I need to work on it more. I realized it's definitely my display that just really desaturates certain colors, so what looked normal to me looks very very purple. So i just adjusted that a bit but still went with the same violet/gold vibe and hopefully it doesn't look weird.
(02-13-2024, 05:39 AM)JosephCow Wrote: update on my picture. I might crop the image for the final and finish the background at a later time. I don't love how the wolf looks right now, I need to work on it more. I realized it's definitely my display that just really desaturates certain colors, so what looked normal to me looks very very purple. So i just adjusted that a bit but still went with the same violet/gold vibe and hopefully it doesn't look weird.
Your piece is coming along really well. I really do like the violet tint because it makes it feel like either morning or evening time. Very cool what you did with the lighting in this one; this is a great example of "Less is More". I agree that the wolf could use a little more work, but overall it still looks good . I'm still really loving the back ground of this piece a lot and especially the snow covered trees.
LEGEND'S SKETCHBOOK_001
To all artists struggling to create and are intimidated by A.I. (anti-imagination) "Everything has been done, but not by you"
"Everything has been done, but not by you" 
