Portfolio Class- Character Development!

[Jmob]

hey jmob, your Mordred has a broken hip! 2 seems right, compared to the rest ;) try standing like this, you'll see it's never going to work.
Oh and although Morgan's face is beautiful, she looks like Anne Hathaway :D which isn't very egyptian ;)

Ughhhh you are sooo right. Although I could stand in that position it was just incredibly unbalanced and awkward... You'd have to be a gymnast to pull it off comfortably. And ehhh, she kinda looks like Anne Hathaway and more like Arwen the elf chick from LOTR...just more like as if she was stabbed by a morgul blade. rofl... I'll change some of her makeup to make it seem more egyptian. perhaps thicker, less curvy eyebrows. But yes, thank you very much for the critique. VERY HELPFUL. time to work. :)

[malan]

Some very rough ideas for Mordred... still not happy with it, and still thinking how to make him interesting. I was giving him a beard on the first two, but that made him look way too old, and I want to make him look at least younger than arthur, so I tested a short beard on the last one.
And, I have several key words to help get the concept and pose:
evil
scary
agressive
challenging
powerful
young
handsome (maybe)
raider
desert pirate?

And I'm not sure how to link him to Morgane... I was thinking about giving him a fire sword? is that idea too cliche? still thinking what to do with that.
Cheers!



EDIT:

I pushed a bit more the previous sketches
I think I like the last two

[Myriam]

Ughhhh you are sooo right. Although I could stand in that position it was just incredibly unbalanced and awkward... You'd have to be a gymnast to pull it off comfortably. And ehhh, she kinda looks like Anne Hathaway and more like Arwen the elf chick from LOTR...just more like as if she was stabbed by a morgul blade. rofl... I'll change some of her makeup to make it seem more egyptian. perhaps thicker, less curvy eyebrows. But yes, thank you very much for the critique. VERY HELPFUL. time to work. :)

lol I'm glad I could help! =)
Ooohh I didn't see Arwen in her until now! She kind of also reminds me of Sandra Bullock :D
I'm so curious to see your progress on Arwen Hathaway and Mordred the Gymnast ;)

[Thomas Mahon]

looking good malan! maybe he should be holding sand in his hand :)

I've recently been on heavy painkillers for a tooth problem, and with no sleeping pattern, and being tired all the time, it's been difficult to maintain my shit, doing better now though, so gonna produce alot more

I'm struggling quite abit with getting the pose right, the designs on these are placeholders


kabuto study wip

[Jmob]

lol I'm glad I could help! =)
Ooohh I didn't see Arwen in her until now! She kind of also reminds me of Sandra Bullock :D
I'm so curious to see your progress on Arwen Hathaway and Mordred the Gymnast ;)

Hahaha, yesssss maybe for kicks I'll make Morgane into just that as well as Mordred. But for now, I got to make these characters stand alone yet be seen as part of the same force and relations first. I think making the brows bushy, almost feathery, and not just adding makeup will tell a better story as well. I just don't want it to become "LOOK AT HER MAKEUP" and not the story so I've wanted to have the thick eyebrows that are semi egyptian but somewhat mutated and cursed. That's basically what I'm doing for the whole design or will be doing with Morgane, giving her the natural garments of the arthurian kingdom but then making it look cursed which will be more than making her garments look tarnished. Best y'all.

[Myriam]

jmob, i'd say get in front of a mirror, put your right foot on a box and look at your other leg, then you'll see what works and what doesn't. =)

[Jmob]

So I decided not to change the face. All other alterations looked dumb with the grungy hair she has. having a face with makeup or bushy brows didn't look right at all. Well I was either doing it wrong or there is some reason it isn't having the kind of unity i'm looking for. Anyways, Here's a sketchy colored version of Morgane. Really fought with this one to make sense and to really push the look of "egyptian" beyond the egyptian stereotype. It was really hard and I don't know if I succeeded. I don't know if I lost the egyptian esque feel of the piece. I guess that's why I didn't really push this to finish--still unsure of whether I should take a step back and do some redesigning or if I should add more detail to get the story across. Anyways, the notes in the painting address the things that are more obvious atm... Critiques are VERY welcomed. In fact, I don't think I should move on with Morgane until I get an in depth crit. Keep on going strong everyone. Also, Thomas, glad you are feeling better.

[PTimm]

lots of frustration on this one, but got some solid crits from some friends about the anatomy lighting and background, so hopefully I've addressed those since the last pass, im gonna stop on it for now and wait to see what Dan says, if need be like all my other work I'll start from scratch again, unless there is anything I can fix pretty easy. Lovin all the updates tho, nice work on the sketches Malan! i definitely like the bottom right ones the best, and Jmob good work so far, only thing I can see is that she seems kind of stretched IMO like her legs might be too long for the body, kinda what I saw in the mordred sketch, also if you are thinking of putting that cool colored shoulder pad in you may want to move those colors around the design so that it doesnt stick out from her, right now that is the first thing my eye goes to, and I dont think that is your intention, other than that looks good to me.

[mateusrocha]

Holy Cow, I'm late.

I have some serious catch up time to do.

Awesome job from you guys! I had a lot of pages to see and read, but seeing all this improvement is very inspiring!

Malan, killin' with the sketches as usual :P I personally liked the third and the last ones.

Thomas, dude! :D I liked the samurais very much! Hope you get better soon. I liked "A" more than "B" 'cause of his more powerful imposing figure.

PTimm... THAT LIGHT!!! SO awesome, the bardiche cast shadow and everything :) Nicely done!

So, December was a no-go in painting for me... don't know exactly what happened. But now I'm back, though.

Today I started my Morgane. As I've chosen the Indian culture, it was very nice to research some clothing and stuff, I came up with this:



I liked 5, 7 and 8 more. Thinking of which will pass to the next phase (planning on deciding it until tomorrow). Personally liked 5 because of the Shiva inspiration.

Ok, I have some serious studies to do. Gotta work. :D Cheers all.

[JakeB]

PTimm - Looking awesome man. Sure Dan'll hit the main points, but you might want to make the fire more of a circle or an arc on the floor. Atm it's kinda flattening it out. Love how you've painted it though.... Fuck, can't stop looking at it. Great work.

Mateus - Some nice stuff in there, 1, 7 and 9 really jump out as Indian to me btw.

Little bit more work here.









I'm leaning towards the bottom right one. Any thoughts though?

[Thomas Mahon]

woah jake! good work ethic man :) - I like the bottom right belts, but maybe with the left ones shoulders?

dan gave me a critique, combining some of the sketches i did earlier. making a start on design

[Jmob]

Thomas, I'm really interested in how you'll show the relationship between morgan and mordred. keep it coming.

Here's the wip with a test in lighting and mood. trying to show the duality of morgane. also, in order for the gradient design to work i have to have a strong lighting from above. Don't know if I like it or not...Also, the costume design around where her tummy is seems to get too busy and distracting. It looks like something that would confuse the viewer and not let them remember it. Either I'll have to solidify my dark and light pattern there or eliminate some of it. Progress, progress, progress.... mmmm

[LorDeimos]

Hello everyone

well this turned out to be more fun than i expected :D

here are my Fear inducing faces haha




And here are the some poses ,
dont know what kind of armor he is going to wear yet





So far i like N 7 the most . ( and N 1 hehe )

im happy to hear your thoughts and crits . :)

[Dan Warren]

<3

[Dan Warren]

@PTimm- In your latest piece with mordred, the things i mentioned on the morgane stream apply! its a fantastic piece and i love the scenery, but it looks dark and a bit dull. try washing an orange on an overlay layer over your foreground fire and where the light hits him on his body. really push the colors in the glow! the designs youre doing are very effective, and the scenes are great- they deserve a vibrant palette to really show them off!

[PTimm]

@PTimm- In your latest piece with mordred, the things i mentioned on the morgane stream apply! its a fantastic piece and i love the scenery, but it looks dark and a bit dull. try washing an orange on an overlay layer over your foreground fire and where the light hits him on his body. really push the colors in the glow! the designs youre doing are very effective, and the scenes are great- they deserve a vibrant palette to really show them off!

thank you so much for your critiques dan, i can't tell you how much this class has helped me in sooooo many ways, understanding fundamentals more, breaking my ridiculous fear of starting over from scratch on a piece, getting insanely motivated to draw all the time, and actually studying stuff that applies to what im currently working on, ill definitely get on those changes! :)

[malan]

So, here's a clean Mordred sketch.
What's your thoughts? :)
I hope I can get to render all those fabric textures right haha.

[JakeB]

Malan, looks great, as always man. Looks like the sheath might be a little awkward to use? I dno..

Bit more stuff for mine. Been really struggling with theming it.
Mongols didn't seem to be all that big on patterns, and just wore dead functional stuff, as they were nomadic.

So, leather, fur, and spiky shit is gonna be the theme for Mordred. I think.

[mateusrocha]

Hey!

Malan, the sketch is very nice! Love your style! For me, the only annoying thing is his right arm... don't know exactly what it is, maybe I'm wrong tough!

Jake! Maybe you can use some of the mongolian armor! I think they are very different from the other cultures..

Like this

or this

And after Dan's critique and paintover on my Morgane, I'm gradually working on her. I know its Mordred time, but I wanna finish her to start with him.

Thanks again Dan for the help :) It was really important <3



I'm not finished with her yet. Need to work on the staff, the feet, the cape, her face and put more patterns and gold :D

[Erik Mooi]

Hey everyone,

Since some of you have difficulty to pronounce my username right (witch is my full name now) :) i decided to make a new account because every time i tried to email the contact button below i received a error message that the mail could not be delivered.

Anyways, back to business.

Before i started with Arthur i said that Arthur was the red dragon and Mordred should be the tiger.
With those thoughts and the introduction from Dan i decided to make myself a moodbaord before i went into sketch mode.


I wanted to create the look and feel from a Psycho, evil and twisted man. That's the reason why the joker and Hanibal lector are in it :)

Sketches for a pose:

my decision after the sketches where that the katana feels out of place with Mordred.
A tiger cant kill from a distance, he needs to be on his prey to give a lethal bite in the neck.
After research and a few good samurai documentary's further i found the Kusarigama.Witch a later on added to the moodboard.
For the counter weight on the weapon i attached a pinned ball to make it more evil and as a representative for a tiger claw, and the reaping-hook for the tigers teeth that cuts your throat.



Morganne had foxes attached to her clothes so i wanted to extend that idea into Mordred's design.
Normally when you see a full animal skin attached to a armor it's usually hanging over one shoulder. When it comes to fighting a warrior needs to be flexible, so i hung it over his chest to match his mask and to intimidate his opponent.
Also added a flag on his back with a demon sign, seems that samurai warriors where those in war and battle's.
Purely to invite the enemy to attack. Each flag represents a status or clan.
First i thought was, yeah oke..... but why would you invite someone that could kill you instead of sneaking up on him or ambush him? The samurai invite other samurai to fight that if they die, they die with honor and respect.

Hope you guys like it,

If anyone is interested in the documentary its this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QL-JDO8paG8