Crimson CHOW #62 THE WANDERER

[Lege1]

-=THE WANDERER=-

Appearance:

• A lone, weathered figure with a stern expression and a determined gaze.
  
• Adorned with mismatched scavenged armor crafted from repurposed metal and tattered leather.
  
• Long, unkempt grey hair and a wild, untamed appearance.
  
• Layered clothing composed of rags and salvaged fabrics, highlighting their resourcefulness in a harsh, post-apocalyptic world.
  
• Carries a crude yet functional weapon, perhaps a handcrafted spear with a jagged blade.
  

Story:
The Wanderer is a survivor of a cataclysmic event that has ravaged the land, leaving it a desolate wasteland. They roam the barren landscape, searching for remnants of the past and struggling to survive in a harsh and unforgiving environment. Their journey is one of solitude and resilience, as they navigate the dangers of the post-apocalyptic world and face the challenges of a harsh and unforgiving environment.

They are a solitary figure, haunted by the memories of a lost civilization and driven by a deep sense of loss and despair. Their journey is one of survival, but also one of self-discovery and redemption. As they travel through the desolate landscape, they encounter other survivors, some friendly, some hostile. They must learn to trust and rely on others, while also maintaining their independence and self-reliance.

The Wanderer is a complex and compelling character, embodying the resilience and determination of the human spirit in the face of adversity. Their story is one of hope and despair, loss and redemption, and the enduring power of the human spirit.

[*]The Wanderer could be a former soldier, a scientist, or a member of any other profession. Their past experience could inform their skills and abilities, as well as their motivations for traveling the wasteland.

[*]The Wanderer could be searching for something specific, such as a lost loved one, a cure for a deadly disease, or a way to rebuild civilization. Their quest could provide a sense of purpose and direction to their journey.

[*]The Wanderer could be a mentor or a guide to other survivors, sharing their knowledge and experience to help them survive in the harsh post-apocalyptic world. Their wisdom and compassion could make them a valuable asset to any community they encounter.

Previous Challenge Win by Lege1

• 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.
  
• 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 Monday, May 8th, 2025 @ UTC: 23:59

[CBinnsIllustration]

nice piece on the last brief Lege! Apologies for having you go solo bro, I have been having a bit of an art block for a few months and I need to get back at it. Im Gonna give this one a go and see what sparks I can ignite.  Looking forward to getting back into it with a brief that resonates with my love of all things post-apocalyptic 

[darktiste]

Damn CB you didn't have to go so hard!

[Lege1]

CBinnsIllustration: Thank you so much and I'm glad you liked my recent final. No worries and I'm happy to see the forum still up and thriving. I have been trying to reach out to other creatives to see if they are interested in joining and maybe we see some new participants. I've never had artist block, but suffer from the opposite, for me it's too many ideas, and just being infinitely over creative. I'm glad this was a topic that interested you. Absolutely incredible work on your 4 thumbs, I really like the top right, for some reason that one stands out to me most, maybe it's the dynamic pose. Crazy how you just banged those out so fast man; for someone that has been out of the loop, you jumped back in like you never left!

[CBinnsIllustration]

HA cheers Darktiste, yeah im a bit out of practice on staying disciplined on not doing too much on thumbs and got caught up on a few of these.

Thanks Lege! yeah it wasnt really a art block from a creative standpoint and more on the motivational side. I would find myself thinking of all these ideas for new pieces and when it came time to pick up a pencil or ipad i just found myself de-motivating myself thinking of all the time I need to dedicate to finishing it. I found guilt creeping in that I was selfishly taking too much time from my kids. Since i work full time as a software engineer my freetime is becoming more fleeting as the kids get older. (both kids having soccer, golf, dance, girlscouts etc...) Then one day my daughter asked me why i havent shown her any art I have done in a while and it cut deep....time to get going again i think! gonna have to just try balance things better.

I agree with top right, i do like more dynamic poses and something with more of a story behind it. but i may take some of the other elements and put them together. I like the bottom right hair and sidekick, the bottom left lighting and top right pose. just need to put it all together now !

[darktiste]

CBinnsIllustration
Here how i see It about balance it about showing them that dad also as need is personal time is need to express certain thing in other way than word. You can always draw with the kid nothing stop you but maybe it not the kind of subject matter or not there cup of tea so sometime you need to be an adult you know. They are getting older they probably understand better what it is to want to be alone sometime or simply that sometime concentration require that alone time.

You don't have to force yourself to finish but i think that over time not finishing hurt motivation because you end up with the ''what the point of all this'' you direction and motivation because you have life distracting you. I am not sure those challenge really fit your current artistic time because of the need of consistency to achieve a end result.

Maybe you just need something more time flexible like a long term project you can come back to when you find the time or just quick creative burst of sketching that are low commitment low stress no string attach.

[Lege1]

CbinnsIllustration: I understand, it can be hard to be motivated to make the commitment to follow through with projects, especially leisure ones. Many of us in the times are stressed with feeling like we don't have enough time and money to manage and balance life, and it's certainly not easy times in the world. I'm pretty sure we all have unfinished folders, I know I certainly do and even shared some of it here.

It's a constant battle being a creative person and trying to balance real life and time for being creative, and the simple truth is creativity feeds on our greatest asset in life which is time. Darktiste makes some good points there no doubt. I feel like as long as we are trying to do our best and doing something that things will hopefully fall into place and balance out more while feeling better about how we are spending our time. It is important for creatives to take on personal projects and do stuff for self, so something to strongly consider always and is taking care of self best as possible cause if not, it becomes like a person drowning trying to save others from drowning when we stretch our time and selves too thin.

In regards to your concepts I think you are on the right track with mixing it all up for sure. You know the deal, and I know you def have a plan, it's just all about action and executing it which I'm sure you will figure out how to do in good time here. Keep up the great work and awesome wips again! Just out of curiosity, how long does it take you to whip up what you did there?

Folders and folders of unfinished person ideas and work from over the years. The numbers next to the File names are the dates I started the projects. Currently exploring silhouettes for this challenge and taking some time to really simmer in it as I feel that it is a huge help with the beginning stages of character design.

[CBinnsIllustration]

Thanks Darktiste and Lege you both gave some extremely helpful feedback back and it was very much appreciated. We are all artists here after all and I forget sometimes how much of a safe haven a forum like this can be for like minded people and that we all experience very similar trials and tribulations. Your words are motivating and encouraging. I will work on getting more me time and not get too focused on needing to polish every turd lol maybe just one or two :)

Lege in terms of how long my thumbs take, it can range from 10 minutes to 50 minutes depending on how fast I can generate the original idea. Normally takes me 4-5 minutes to get to a shape of values I find creates an interesting character or pose, depending on what I’m shooting for. Then at the 10 minute mark is normally where I could stop and move on but I rarely do. 10-20 more minutes in and I normally polish some details (usually faces are this entire time)…and again this is where I should stop, but I don’t, and I will take another 10-20 minutes polishing and working on details and backgrounds. The screenshots below are from the Timelapse on my iPad and show where I’m at roughly for each time portion. Sometimes I am certainly guilty of being captivated by a rough and over doing it a bit, but more often than not that’s the one I end up finishing anyways. 

[Lege1]

CBinnsIllustration absolutely and yes, the is a safe haven for someone like me for sure. I love our community here although there are not many of us left, but it is still great  regardless. Def take care of yourself especially with mental and physical health.

Thanks so much on the thumbnail info, I wasn't expecting all that; pure awesome and so helpful to understand. You know I normally sketch everything out linear, but I want to try using silhouettes and I'm very inspired to try your method. I'm going to post some wips soon. I have some really hard edge painted silhouettes that are very interesting and were inspired by Gary Laib (You can find him on IG and Youtube, he's an awesome artist and person.) I'd like to do another batch using your method and see how that goes. I like the idea of trying new things and foundational things are very important for time efficiency and overall quality. Thanks so much again bro!

***Please let me know which silhouette you might like most out of this batch for possibility of bringing to final. ***

[Lege1]

Alright so I found a new way I like to work volumetrically based on the combination of Gary Laib's thumbnail inspiration which was the above result, plus combining CBinnsIllustration method and then just going my own direction with things. This seems to be a pretty quick way to turn out something that looks decent. Typically I would work linear and create a rough sketch, then clean up the line work which can be time consuming. The conclusion is that I like both methods of working linear and volumetric, so depending on what I'm doing and how fast I want to do it I would take advantage of one, the other, or a combination of the both. I was able to get together in a little over an hour including the initial silhouette. 

[CBinnsIllustration]

looks great Lege! it screams post-apocalyptic wasteland wanderer. I think for the silhouettes/ thumbnails you might try adding a couple more values ( maybe a 50% grey and 25%) it might help carve out the volume a bit more and provide some depth withing the character.. I find when i do this at an early stage it helps from making my figures getting too flat, but i guess that all depends on the pose your going for. keep up the great work, your ideation phase is always fun to review. I see a few in there i would love to see fleshed out more.

I managed to flesh mine out  a bit last night. still a lot of rough areas but im happy with where its trending so far. 

[Lege1]

CBinnsIllustration Thank you so much and I appreciate the good words and suggestions. I do get what you are saying about getting some of those lighter values in earlier opposed to the hard silhouette style. I'm going to see if I can do at least one concept using just your technique; I might have gotten overly excited trying new things and being quick to combine methods etc, before exploring individually no doubt. Ultimately I have concluded that for me working linear is still my strong point especially when going into more detail. I went ahead and re-drew over my concept #2 silhouette and am very happy with the outcome so far, and more so cause the bulk of it is from imagination with just a tad bit of reference for inspiration and conceptual direction, my plan is to throw down values into it, color and take it to final to see how it all comes out, I have also been going nuts tweaking my brush presets with custom brushes and such so I'm excited to see where that might take me with this one as well because brushes and brush settings do matter.

Your piece is coming a long great! It's really awesome to see the evolution from your thumbnail version to now this very nicely and rendered character piece. I really like the overall look and feel of this piece and definitely how you brought the pink from the hair down into the socks. If I could make one honest suggestion it is to consider making the hair blowing in the direction of the wind that everything else is which may include flipping the characters horizontally and getting it to flow off to the right with items like the cape, and shoe laces; it might be cool to see the feather bending more in the right direction as well along with having some generic debris floating around blowing the right of the piece. Great value and color work with this one, you really do an amazing job building up your forms.

[CBinnsIllustration]

Thanks For the kind words Lege I appreciate that. Good suggestion and I had played with the idea of having her hair flow with the wind direction more but I wasn’t liking it very much. We can just say she has some apocalyptic scale product keeping it in place ha! That being said I did make some subtle changes to help a bit more with the wind impact. I’m pretty happy with where things are now, might put it down for a few days and see how I feel about it after a break from seeing it. 

Lege your pieces are coming along great, I’m getting a real mad max vibe and that’s certainly on point! Can’t wait to see you bring it to life!

[Lege1]

tCBinnsIllustration: WOwzers! Your piece looks awesome man! Really great work here. Super clear, detailed, and crisp image! Great Post Apocalyptic mood, and color palette, along with really great additional details of the creature in the background, and dog companion. My only critique or curiosity, is what created so many perfect holes in the cape of the character? Would it have a less artificial swiss cheese look if you were to make the holes or tears, more asymmetrical opposed to the prefect circles? Super awesome image though again and this is def one of your stronger entries. Really glad to see you getting back on it and going full force with pushing your limits and skill set; there is definitely a lot of improvement in your work with this image.

Thank you also on the kind words with my participation this round. I'm struggling a little just dealing with work deadlines and some vehicle issues in life this time around, so I haven't had as much time as I might usually have; I'm trying to make time to continue on with the recent sketch I dropped with the punk rock looking dude.

[CBinnsIllustration]

Cheers Lege your words certainly help rebuilding my confidence in what im trying to do, when ever i have a long-ish layoff from art i feel this level of "im not sure i can still even do this" and "what was the next step in my process?" and i find myeslf making a lot of mistakes i normally dont make, but then it can lead to new growth areas forced by the need to adjust due to not have a burned in routine. Although scary, i feel some of my biggest level-ups  in my art have come after long periods non-creativity that allow me to see the process in a fresher mindset.

You are totally right about the holes in her rags, i do tend to go for the more "moth-eaten' wear and tear and i should diversify more.  Perhaps in the world ravaged by mutated giant insects all clothing is now riddles with  grenade sized moth holes. :-) I will teak them to give a better spectrum of wear. 

I know totally what you mean about life, and the bullshit that comes along with it, getting in the way of what we want to do. I would love to get 5 hours a day just sat on the couch with my ipad and endless supply of coffee ( maybe Whiskey too) and just draw my brains out....but that just aint possible so we take what we can get. Good luck with what you  currently have in your way  bud, car problems and work deadlines are no fun :-(  hopefully you can find the time needed to build on your piece.

[Lege1]

CBinnsIllustration Yes, we just simply try our best man and if we did that then we did a enough. Life definitely poses its challenges and always will, so we just find our way through the journey the best we can; we all take our turns going through the ups and downs. I'm glad that my suggestion could serve purpose and the illustration looks all the better for it. I sadly was not able to come up with another entry so I'm keeping with the first one I posted and have set up the finals page. Looking forward to the next round always and hopefully will be able to do better.