This week's theme and brief by previous winner, Lege1
Crimson Character of the Week #53
This weeks theme features a character / creature fusion to design a character concept overall that you can let your imagination run wild on.
THE MULTI-LEGGED CENTAUR
Create a centaur like character that is half human and half creature with multiple legs. The upper human part of this character can be either male of female, or humanoid, and the lower multi-legged portion can be any insect or animal you so choose, or if you really want to think out side the box create something entirely different and alien. As long as the character is half human / humanoid on the upper body and multi-legged at the bottom, it's a go. This weeks topic was inspired by CBinnsIllustration recent personal art ventures.
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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.
-+|| WIP THREAD ||+- Deadline is Saturday, July 6th @ UTC: 23:59
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"
Congrats Lege for the win of this challenge!
Also props that you already came up with a awesome briefing in almost no time.
Im probably going to create a hybrid between a centaur and a harpyie.
Since harpyies usually fly I plan to design around a creature which hunts
on the ground and is not able to fly. To hunt prey it sprints like
a jaguar or puma, to accelerate velocity or increase jump distance the
creature can use the small wings for extra power.
Im not sure if the feets are supposed to become claws or a mix between hoofs & claws
since it is more bottom heavy.
I may develop the idea on the elbow further that some type of sharp bone is used to hunt
prey down as "weapon" that can be used "drive by" while sprinting.
Nice start Trashpanda, it would be kind of cool to see the bottom half be an actual jaguar or tiger to give it a more aggressive combo animal to reinforce the ground predator aesthetic, but then again there is nothing wrong with a classic horse body either! :)
I’m going aquatic with mine this time round. I’ve had this octopus hybrid in my head for a while now and I think I’m gonna try to paint her a bit more classically and slightly less illustrative that I normally shoot for just for some fun. Might not pull it off and I might pivot or blend it half way through but let’s see how it goes.
Opsie forget to vote on the last one but my vote were on Lege1 and RottenPocket
-Rotten for the ability to make something that complete made up to appear like it could have been a page of a cryptozoologist
-Lege1 for the boldness to experiment in term of presentation and style and for the simple fact i am now terrified for life of what he made.I think i took some psych damage just for the share absurdity of a Shellodents my nut are scared for life.
(06-25-2024, 03:19 PM)CBinnsIllustration Wrote: Managed some painting on this cheeky cephalopod tonight. Looking forward to pushing this one more when time allows.
The composition and the weight of the character make this really right heavy it would be interesting to see how you could try to utilize that horizontal space to counter balance the figure.
Now a personal beef of mine with art process and that in general because i obverse it around the forum and i wanna take this post as an opportunity to speak on a topic that need more talk around town. Yes i am talking about thumbnailing.
I am not a fan of skipping thumbnail and i have a problem when i see none in the case here you already came with a something that was marinated in your brain but still no iterative process. There is so many combination possible with such a prompt it hurt to see that there was either no attempt beyond the first or that you feel those initial test are meaningless or unimportant.
Now it goes without a saying my personal approach doesn't make it right or wrong. I simply observe that this thumbnailing stage is alot more likely then not something more personal that i might have realize even if it a natural part of most process and i think it wishful thinking to believe star align every time and i am not suggesting that you work without thumbnail every single time you make something but i have to also consider that it a possibility.
I think more like a sniper that ready to miss i shot to get closer to my target the next shot that why i believe in thumbnail.
It can be a fun approach to be thumbnailling less if you would qualify yourself as the kind to enjoy improvisation certainly it pose more problem solving challenge because your stuck with the first thing that strike you and it a big balancing act because you probably will have moment where you don't like something but you will want have to make it work regardless or burn out because you decide to persist in something that may or may not work. My advise in that case is work very soft at first at least you get a lot more room to move thing around but also if you don't wanna be bother working with a ''feathery hand'' that if you work traditional you can always trace over your first draft. If you work digitally and you don't like thumbnail ... try new technique if your up for a challenge.3d is permitted (if made by you) so it even an excuse to learn new skill or speed paint or Ai prompt come to mind the idea being to have an environment where there is little to no time sink in the iterative stage.Learning skill within a challenge is adding up to the difficulty level but it certainly force you to be a better creative problem solver for sure.
Now enough with my silly personal preference.
Let talk going a bit further with how we think in term of design maybe this tips can help.
A concept that i wanna share with you is meshing concept this perfect for the prompt here.
I AM GONNA SAY THE ''DON'T'' WORD HERE DISREGARD IT AT YOUR OWN RISK.
Don't slap two thing together rather think of those two separate thing as one. I know bottom and top as to be from different creature but the idea but here is the concept you take from the bottom subject and you inject 10% of the element of the top into the bottom and you add 10% of the bottom to the top.
Here an example a 8 legged women where the tentacle end in a feet covered in tattoo from head to toe. Lil spin: She a tattoo artist just because it a cool idea that she could be using her body to do her work(ink and maybe tentacle to tattoo multiple people at the same time).(Make more sense to have 8 arm in that case probably (tattoo faster) but who know maybe she the most hypnotic dancer of the 7 sea(because she as 8 feet)...Anyways the fun part is trying to justify choose and thinking outside the box.(An other fun idea would be that she as 8 wooden leg because one ain't gonna cut it.
So it a back and forth of idea where you get story telling by thinking about what kind of unfair advantage there physical apparence can help them better fit into a society or maybe to the contrary that make them at odd with society.
For example a minotaur would could do part time as a beast of burden and he work as a body guard for the dairy syndicate at mooh mooh ville. See i try being silly with the idea because that just a bit of my personality but the idea being you just take thing that don't necessarily seem to wanna work together and you come up with anything pretty much that fit within the limit even if sometime the prompt is more tricky with experience you can still get pretty creative as long as you know how to bend the prompt to fit the universe it associate with.
@darktiste as per usual your input is appreciated although not super necessary, in regards to thumbnailing. This step is never skipped rest assured. However sometimes you need to test yourself and see what you can make out of a concept that might not start out perfect. For example The unbalanced nature of my piece is intentional at the moment as gravity is less pertinent in water and there is no need to balance the figure, the composition is the attempt to balance when I can get to that. Like I said in my post I am trying a different approach to my normal method this go round, and I might not pull it off and I’m sure you will be first to tell me I didn’t :) but I’m gonna see where it takes me. Personally speaking, Sometimes your replies in this forum arnt as justified as you might originally think they are and you should take note of that. Popping in here to make one rash judgement can be overly critical. Now I know you are speaking more to the group and less to the individual but just be mindful of your audience a bit more. If you have such strong opinions on how to create a creature like this I say put your pencil where your mouth is and show us you know what you are talking about, you might just have some fun too. Join in for a change my dude, although I know I have said that a half dozen times now and didn’t work before so I know won’t here either.
But regardless thanks again for taking the time to stop by and share your thoughts.
TrashPanda: I thank you very much on the congrats and good words as that always is a confidence booster. Thank you on the brief and I have to give credit to CBinnsIllustration really, I just modified something he was already onto; I'm glad you like it and look forward to seeing more progress. What you currently have is very cool, although it is a classic centaur; consider adding just another pair of legs in the middle to really stir things up. Also keep in mind that focus should be on the character, opposed to weapons, backgrounds, etc.
CBinnsIllustration: Off to a great start I see and this one is definitely evolving very organically. I was initially going to do an Octo-gal but went totally off-road exploring so many other possibilities. I did whip up a Octo-dude concept. Definitely a big fan of the black and gray approach as it is a great way to work fast and free, all my thumbnails were conducted like this with no prior sketching.
I got into your black and gray wip some, just showing a bit of different composition, but I got a little carried away free painting and listening to classical music lol, not gonna lie; don't take it the wrong way, it's just suggestive and I like it that much to get into it, so cheers no doubt.
Your color version is looking very cool, you are being very brazen and free in just exploring with the color and it shows in a good way. This composition is interesting cause the rule of thirds falls right on her breasts which really forcefully draws the viewer in, and you already know the importance of the face looking exceptionally good as that is a forced focal point regardless cause people are obcessed with identifying faces. Looking good though man and keep up the great work.
Darktiste: Thank you for your vote and I really went off the rails with that last entry. I just let loose and dared to do something completely absurd and different. I appreciate the good words and lucky for you they don't eat people.
I'd like to also lightly touch on what you wrote to CBinnsIllustration and everyone overall: You point out a lot of very good things, make good points, and suggestions, and the input, and participation from an observational standpoint is respected and appreciated. The validity of your input would indeed be much stronger if you would participate with us more from an art stand point cause it can sometimes feel you are just wanting to stand back and critique everyone's work without visually showing us anything. We would like to see all of this knowledge and philosophy you have put to work in the form of image making please this way we can see how everything works well while you go on to explain in words as well.
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So since the topic of thumbnailing has been brought into spotlight on the this forum, I decided to go off-road with producing a bunch. You guys please let me know what you might want to see me bring to completion please and I may even do a few more. Hopefully I can make the deadline, lol.
I've been keeping things really simple with these, just starting with black on like a 20% black background which helps control overusing white and just staying away from it overall in the thumbnailing stages; I feel strongly it should be looked at as bright light, and nothing more really. I've just been starting with 100% black and using either one brush, or like a combo of two mains and like one texture to get things done. The importance of focusing on the foundational elements like proper drawing, and values, is far superior than what brush to use, although brushes can curve the overall look some. Experimenting with different opacity and flow settings along with pressure settings go a long way too. These concepts are completely from imagination and I will most likely go linear on a re-draw of which one I'm going to do instead of working up the actual thumbnail, I'll most likely search for some reference and stuff too, to make everything that much more anatomically correct and convincing.
So I decided last minute I wanted to do some linear thumbs as well......
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"
@lege your thumbnails are looking dope! I’m really liking a few of these and can’t decide on a favorite!
1. I a great concept with the centipede and make this rising up in disinter way casting the viewer in shadow would sweet.
3. I would love to see how you tackle the crab elements and work this one more, it gives off a pirates of the Cara beam vibe
4 although similar to my concept I don’t even care… this one could be cool to see. The composition is nice and the foreboding posture of the character is menacing. I could rule this one out either.
6. A bee? Who thinks of that? This is awesome. Being able to play with this concept could really make something fresh. Having the bee colors and little fur all over to really tie the concept would be tricky but would make this a very cool piece. I could maybe see the body posture 5 on this one and make this little bee really calling out his foe. ‘Bring it” :) did a quick doodle to show what I mean as I really liked your concept hope that’s cool.
All in all great work.
As for your feedback, once again it’s beyond valuable and you make some great points and observations, your PO was great, and I’m flattered you liked it enough to play around with it and you new composition does look great! I was hoping to keep my piece a touch more horizontal for this one as I feel my comfort zone is vertical and I’m trying hard to break that habit. Admittedly I may not pull it off but it will be a learning excessive.
I panted her out a lot more over the past few days as I’ve been laid up with a virus so nothing to do really but draw. I’m quite happy with the direction it’s going in but there is always room for tweaks and additions.
CBinnsIllustration: I appreciate the great feedback and thank you so much on the paint over bro, it looks awesome and really got the creative juices flowing for me in the right direction, where I might have not been on the best idea path prior. I'm def going to go with the Bee concept cause it is a challenge, and whether I nail it or not, I still want to try. I like everything you presented for sure, and switching the character to a male aggressor character definitely fits the narrative; going in a more killer bee direction, although a wasp could be very cool as well.
I want to take a moment and tell you that you are really doing an amazing job on your piece; I'm really liking the bold coloring, texture mentions, micro details on things like the tentacles, staff, and body of the character. I notice the amount of detail you put into the hands which is great.
Some suggestive critique and observation:
1. The right hand seems much larger than the left, this could easily be altered with some lasso surgery.
2.The green on the characters skin I'm assuming is light that is supposed to be coming from the staff; I'm not sure how much more you will work on that effect, but as of right now I strongly feel that it is not reading correctly and looking a lot like algae on the skin instead of lighting. I know you know how to light things so I'm going to make the honest assumption that this is just an incomplete effect.
Really great job over all and I love the expression on the fish that is located at the first point of the rule of thirds along with that ever so awesome mother and child character feature in the background. I hope you feel better and are back up on your feet soon bro.
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"
Got around to putting some work into this tonight and it was a great time. I taught myself a bunch of new stuff which will help me speed up my work flow while maintaining quality in my work. I could call this finished, but I had no intentions of leaving the piece with the black outlines still in it, so I will continue on painting this out. Hope you guys like....
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"
JosephCow: Really great update! I like this concept a lot, this character looks like it could come right out of an Avatar movie. I'm digging the new loose style and am curious to see where you go with this. Faces are always an important focal point as I'm sure you already know so definitely consider concentrating a good amount of rendering in that area to draw the viewer in. Very nice anatomy going on in this piece as well and I'm also digging the muted gloomy color palette which sets off it's own little mood here. Keep up the awesome work man and always great seeing you participate here.
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"
JosephCow Very nice update and style!
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***FORUM UPDATE***
The finals thread has been posted. Looking forward to seeing all the finished entries there.
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"
Great points @lege1 I made some tweaks based on your feedback and toned done the green a bit. I was probably just not accomplishing what I was trying to do the that light. Hopefully it works a little better now, highlighting with green is always tricky and wanted the try it. And I really like your beetaur in the I’ll thread , a nice invention a perfect fit for the brief and well executed.
@JosephCow nice start to your piece pal. I love the hybrid and the pose is very regal and I would love to see this guy rendered out more.
"Everything has been done, but not by you" 
"Everything has been done, but not by you" 
