This week's theme and brief by previous winner, Lege1
Crimson Character of the Week #46
FANTASTICAL DESERT LANDS
"THE SANDBENDER: A nomadic desert-dweller who travels the desert on a sand-covered carpet. Sandbenders are skilled in tracking and survival, and they are often able to find water and food in the most inhospitable places.
THE SANDWORM CONTROLLER (Character / Creature fusion): Who is able to control a giant sand creature that lives in the desert. Sandworms are incredibly powerful, and they can easily swallow a person whole. They are typically solitary creatures, but they can be aggressive if they feel threatened. What type of being, or person, could control such a thing and how?
THE SANDSTORM SPIRIT: A powerful spirit that is said to control the sandstorms. The Sandstorm Spirit is often depicted as a beautiful woman with flowing hair and eyes of fire. She is said to be both benevolent and malevolent, and her moods can change as quickly as the desert sands.
THE DESERT ORACLE: A wise woman who lives in the desert. The Desert Oracle is said to have knowledge of the past, present, and future. She is often consulted by people who are seeking guidance or answers. She can be depicted as being witch like.
THE DESERT DJINN: A magical creature that lives in the desert. Djinn are said to be able to grant wishes, but they can also be mischievous and unpredictable. They are often depicted as being humanoid in appearance, but they can also take on other forms."
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.
Thank you; @pubic enemy for posting the brief and I'm hoping this will be a good turn out this round. I just got a drafting table in so I might just go the traditional route with this one at least on the drawing end of things and then take it digital. If time permits I may keep it all analog and do more than one entry since there are some good topics there. Good luck to all and looking forward to what everyone brings to the C.H.O.W. table! =)
Here's some Sand Bender ideas......
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 start Lege! And congrats on the win! Well earned. See if we can give you some better competition this round!
For me I’m drawn to the sand worm controller, I’ve had this concept in my doodle board for a while so this would be perfect prompt to flesh it out. I’m gonna shoot for a Aztec-ish inspired sand worm and controller. Should be fun one to play with. Here is my intermediate sketch so far to get something down. Gonna separate her from the worm a bit I think and play with the composition and framing a little more.
With the kids at the grandparents all day means I got some good old peace and quiet, not to mention some time to give this piece a bit more love. I’m gonna set it down for a week or two and see if I can spot all the things I hate about it and try to tweak it ha! Might even dabble with some of the other prompts if I get some more free time.
My character is a scorned Aztec Priestess driven mad by the constant cat calls from the local temple construction crews. With her diabolical companion in tow she roams the desert in search of any and all hammer and chisel toting pions, and together they feast on their flesh
@cbinnsillustration Amazing piece and turnaround, I absolutely love the Aztec theme incorporated into the piece. This has a really overall lovely rendering style and mood to the piece. I'm also really enjoying the circular composition along with your color selections here, the choice of warms and cools work great together. This is a really fantastic piece and you even went on to put an Aztec temple in the back ground which is pure awesome. Great use of brush economy as well, as all those grains of sand flying around really add to the mood and feel of the topic of this concept. I could definitely see a character like this featured in a more fantastical version of the movie Apocolypto. Great work bro!
I'm furthering developing my recent Sand Worm Controller post out as well, but not sure if I will stick with it being my final as I'm trying to explore as many of all the concepts on this one in the wips stages, but I figure it'd be good to have something ready for finals.
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"
Wish you guy would do something abit further apart in design you guy took a similar road that my personal opinion.So totally on board with lege1 exploring more.Else if you keep that route i would like to see a battle in rendering.Both go the extra mile and show us the real depth of what you can do.No cut corner.
Wish you guy would do something abit further apart in design you guy took a similar road that my personal opinion.So totally on board with lege1 exploring more.Else if you keep that route i would like to see a battle in rendering.Both go the extra mile and show us the real depth of what you can do.No cut corner.
Yes, CbinnsIllustration and I definitely took a similar road but still produced very different results. I have been exploring my rendering styles more lately, so I was more focused on the overall look with this image more over anything else. I definitely plan on trying to produce more where possible. I still may try to work something up analog, but time will tell. Thanks for your input always and we are all going to keep pushing our limits and boundaries for sure. Every image is new lessons and working methods explored, so the more mileage put in, the better for sure.
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"
Yeah personally dont see any issue with a similar design / scene , it is a character described brief after all ha! Or maybe we have synced up our imaginations…uh oh :)
Cheers Lege1! You are always a great supporter all round and as usual I really appreciate the encouraging feedback, a true forum legend! Your piece looks great! I like some of the nice textures you threw in there giving it a nice gritty feel and the fact her hair looks like one simple brush stroke is great! I think there is certainly a few imaginative ideas in the brief, exploration could be fun. I might join ya in tackling a few more of the others if I get some extra free time.
@CBinnsIllustration Great minds think alike indeed bro. Cheers back and likewise, you already know! I'm always grateful to be able to participate here amongst other great image makers as yourself, and the others. I appreciate the good words on my work and thanks man, I really have just been doing a lot of experimenting and the texture thing is just something I have been having some fun with and exploring more for sure. Yes, anytime I have the opportunity of winning these challenges my goal is to always try and serve not one, but many interesting topics within the same genre in order to ramp of the creative incentive psychology all the much more, one should be able to read the concept briefs and be flooded with massive amounts of creative ideas, and there will always be one topic that stands out more to one than others.
The idea of exploration is key in our development, we should never get too comfortable doing the same things over and over and really push ourselves like @darktiste has mentioned. Yeah bro, time's a m'fer for real, it's so easy to dissolve a few hours into this stuff, but we do the best we can and like I always say that doing anything is better nothing. I push myself hard to try and manage everything to the best of my abilities. I actually get moody in real life when I don't get to create, and create freely, not sure if you relate, but yeah, I just really enjoy drawing and painting; it's really that simple.
Get in where you can bro, and I look forward to all your image drops no doubt! This last piece you rocked was nothing short of amazing and you know, I forgot to mention how brilliant the friggin sand spinning around the character is man, that is really an awesome and fantastic effect that brings so much motion to that image, absolutely great work again.
Noodling away on a Sand Bender, just got my values and colors in place roughly, really excited to start rendering this soon, but first the gym and grocery shopping.......
Some good music serving me some good mood and inspiration on this I'd like to share with you all: Krull-A Symphony (James Horner-1983) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFFdQcfXDyA
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"
Lege1, great feeling of action in the sand worm pic. I also really like your first Sand Bender concept where the dude looks like he's picking something out of his teeth. It looks dark and creepy in a good way. And I don't know what's going on with that huge skull in the ground, but it's cool. Glad to hear you got a drafting table; hope you get a chance to make good use of it soon.
CBinns, the detailed carvings on the worm look awesome. The figure is really nice and proportional, and the skimpy outfit reminds me fondly of Boris Vallejo paintings.
I'm going with the "Desert Oracle", which I'm envisioning as a leathery woman with a pet snake for added mystique. I'm gonna work on maybe adding some more details and trinkets so that she looks more like an oracle and less like a homeless lady in the desert. Went all digital for this one; it's been long enough since I seriously attempted a digital painting that it feels fresh and new again.
(07-26-2023, 03:48 AM)Pubic Enemy Wrote: Lege1, great feeling of action in the sand worm pic. I also really like your first Sand Bender concept where the dude looks like he's picking something out of his teeth. It looks dark and creepy in a good way. And I don't know what's going on with that huge skull in the ground, but it's cool. Glad to hear you got a drafting table; hope you get a chance to make good use of it soon.
CBinns, the detailed carvings on the worm look awesome. The figure is really nice and proportional, and the skimpy outfit reminds me fondly of Boris Vallejo paintings.
I'm going with the "Desert Oracle", which I'm envisioning as a leathery woman with a pet snake for added mystique. I'm gonna work on maybe adding some more details and trinkets so that she looks more like an oracle and less like a homeless lady in the desert. Went all digital for this one; it's been long enough since I seriously attempted a digital painting that it feels fresh and new again.
Maybe actually set her up in some kind of tent with the open desert behind her so she doesn't look ''homeless'' and it gonna give you plently of opportunity for decoration,pattern etc...
Lege1, man those posts were nearly simultaneous. Great job on that gnarly hand coming out of the ground; the arrangement of fingers looks very natural. Also I was honestly surprised that you posted a symphonic music piece, because I was expecting heavy metal.
Your attitude toward drawing is very refreshing as always. It's very easy for people to fall into grinding away at fundamentals, and becoming so critical that they lose all enjoyment of the process.
Darktiste, good suggestion; I'll probably do just that.
@Pubic Enemy I'm glad you got the feeling of action in the Sand Worm picture, I always strive for action and interest in my work. I worked up that Sand Bender concept one just for you =), I like it too, it's just weird, and shows what can be done with no reference, not that reference is a bad thing; it's just my preffered method to work where possible cause I can put out my best energy in my work regardless of technical or anatomical issues.
I've been a lazy pos with putting together my drafting table cause I have been going off digitally,lol; the thing is still in a box from getting here days ago, lol. I'm with you on @CBinnsIllustration carving details on that sand worm, I failed to mention that in my long list of things I love about the piece.
The Desert Oracle is looking really good so far and there is a lot of potential here. It's great to see you working digitally. Yes! Deck her out with all sorts of cool accessories, the camera angle and sheer size of the character can really allow you to go off in a great way with detailing and accessorizing her. It's great to see you going digital on this one and if I could give any pointers at all it's that a little bit of color can go a long way, so keep that in mind with the saturation levels in the piece and consider focusing on saturating the areas in which are focal points.
I really like the loose and messy start, I'm a big believer in starting messy and then cleaning it up no doubt. The face has some really good forms coming along in it. Have you ever tried working black and gray and then into color? It can be a lot easier and faster to focus on values first and then work your way into the color. A great thing about values and color is that it doesn't matter what colors you put over the values as long as the values are correct and the form reads right. There is also an intersting amount of negative space in this piece, are you going to occupy some of that space with something? Just curious on the cause. It could stand alone as is putting max focus and attention on that character.
Yes, I try to reply fast to you all and keep the forum on fire, and yes, I'm eclectic in pretty much everything, lol, especially music. I'm really glad you liked that hand coming out of the ground, that I did actually pull some reference on because no matter how hard I tried to wing it, it just wasn't coming out the way I'd like. Haha! I have been destroyed and rebuilt, it's the fine line of carrying like crazy but not at all that creates my attitude today, lol.
@Darktiste I think that is great advice for @Pubic Enemy with the tent idea, I definitely think this would be a great addition to his piece.
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Some more noodling and change of scenery, I like working fast and aggressively in most cases especially when I'm well rested and nourished. The concept here is that we got our jolly food and water finding Sand Bender flying around happily enjoying all his resourceful finds, he commands the sands and can consume through taking on forms of the sand which in this case is a skull going for the water at the oasis, while he physically grubs on desert grapes, that he found along his flight,lol. I'm just having fun with this piece and really exploring color with this one along with focusing on shape elements in the work. Some harder and gritty rap music by no other than Conway of Griselda https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIOHpnh-vgA
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"
Thanks again for your feedback Lege. I agree about working without reference; I always try to do my best without it unless I fail hard to figure something out. It's just more fun that way.
I'm not personally crazy about working with grayscale and then color. It's a fine technique, but my preference is to slap all the colors on from the beginning, since they contribute so much to the "feel" of a picture. Although this maybe leads to some overall over-saturation as you mentioned, since I like to go to the extreme corners of the color triangle, but it's always easier to dull things down later than it is to fix a lack of contrast or saturation.
The reason for the empty space is that I'm planning to put a moon and stars there, to make it look like a dry desert with a perfectly clear night sky. Not in a too distracting way, though.
Sand skull dude looks sweet. I notice there's often distortions in the backgrounds of your paintings that gives them a slightly expressionistic feel, E.G. the tilted pyramids and small palm trees here. I mean that in a good way because they sometimes make me feel like I'm having a fever dream when I look at them. Was that always a part of your personal style?
(07-26-2023, 07:58 AM)Pubic Enemy Wrote: Thanks again for your feedback Lege. I agree about working without reference; I always try to do my best without it unless I fail hard to figure something out. It's just more fun that way.
I'm not personally crazy about working with grayscale and then color. It's a fine technique, but my preference is to slap all the colors on from the beginning, since they contribute so much to the "feel" of a picture. Although this maybe leads to some overall over-saturation as you mentioned, since I like to go to the extreme corners of the color triangle, but it's always easier to dull things down later than it is to fix a lack of contrast or saturation.
The reason for the empty space is that I'm planning to put a moon and stars there, to make it look like a dry desert with a perfectly clear night sky. Not in a too distracting way, though.
Sand skull dude looks sweet. I notice there's often distortions in the backgrounds of your paintings that gives them a slightly expressionistic feel, E.G. the tilted pyramids and small palm trees here. I mean that in a good way because they sometimes make me feel like I'm having a fever dream when I look at them. Was that always a part of your personal style?
@Pubic Enemy Oh always, and yes, exactly, you get it! Working without being chained to a reference is the most fun way to work, it's just a free-flowing rage on kind of thing. If I'm not enjoying the process, it defeats the purpose of me even doing the thing. This doesn't excuse creating bad imagery because of not using reference, I'll definitely use reference where I need it.
I get what you are saying about the grayscale situation. It took me years to get anywhere with working like that. For most people the color never looks right, and always looks off when they add the color over the gray. The key in my experience is to make sure to set the color off as early in the image as possible. I usually block my values in, massage them a little to bring some of the forms out, and then go in with a color layer, and never 100% opacity. You can totally work like you're saying and now that you mention it like that, I'm excited to try creating an image just throwing the colors in and then using either a color, or saturation layer to paint out the color as needed with black. This is why I love working in the forums here because everyone seems to have different approaches and sometimes trying these approaches can be a great way to improve workflow and over all image quality.
Thanks, on the Sand Skull Dude, lol, I'm chiseling away on him, lol. I think my graffiti background contributes to my image distortion. It used to work in a very bad way, but now it seems it is working in a much better way. I like to try different things and get crazy with it. I'm a sucker for Dutch tilts, so I'm always setting things off sideways and using the crap out of diagonals in my work. I'm glad you like all that!
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"
This one also remind me of aladdin because of the magic carpet and it also as a cartoonish vibe to it with the posture and the simplicity of the anatomy.
If you choose this one i think putting more detail on that carpet would be a nice addition also instead of the sand spirit that seem to be at of reach i would use the movie poster as inspiration and make him truely gigantic. But i gotta say that even those i am not a fan of the color i think you did something good with the way you play light value in the background against the character silhouette.In a similar fashion as the one you can see in the poster where the character sit against dark in that case with is white shift.
I really like the heavy texture you achieve right off the bat.I think it a bit empty otherwise but you got time for that.What kind of oracle is that a soup reader?
@PubicEnemy great start! Those eyes are truly chilling I can feel her sucking my soul already.
@Lege1 the new piece is awesome, I agree on the point made about the background lighting, looks super nice! Playing with this texture is paying off for sure, and you can definitely see your graffiti background in your work it gives it a very unique look, I personally like the distorted elements of your art, it’s your signature.
@Joseph I love the start on this one so far, can’t wait to see where you take it.
I couldn’t get this one out of my head for the desert djinn so I had to throw out a cartoony doodle for a bit of Tuesday night fun.
The story goes like this…
one cold summer night Sherif Wilber, separated from his posse, stumbled upon an old turtle in the desert. After wiping the sand from its shell it suddenly farted. It wasn’t the smell that took Wilber’s breath away but the magical creature that shot from the anus. Blueish in color and somewhat transparent, she had piercing eyes like daggers and junk in the trunk. Wilber fell off his seat and rubbed both his eyes as the majestic blue creature turned and started. “You have done me a service and now I am free, now point to a tree I’m dying to pee!”
"Everything has been done, but not by you" 
