CRIMSON ARENA 1-Child of Zeus

[crackedskull]

Nice entries Madzia and Eduardo.

Did some studies and designed the character. Also starting to get down the mood of the painting.

[Madzia]

Hey crackedskull don't want to be harsh but are you 100% sure about this composition? On which value thumbnails is it based? From what material buildings are made to be that dark in value? I bet you could push it much more to something interesting. Look just how much buildings takes space, is the city that important for the story? (Also you get yourself into painting a lot of uninteresting buildings, I'm personally too lazy and would avoid this like a plague :D ) They make statue looking small when I think the statue should dominate over city.
Try to expose more the sculptor and the relation of small and big statue. They should occupy most of the picture space.
About the design in which century is it happening? Is it Ancient Greece or Renaissance? I see street lamps so maybe Victorian? You need to know this all before rushing to picture. Spend more time on thumbnails this will build whole story in your head. You will not have time for it later. Later You will have to focus on lights and perspective!

[Warburton]

Fuck yeah, how have I only just noticed this!?

It's gonna be fun watching this play out and seeing crimson paladins push everyone to their limits. Long live the daggers!



crackedskull - Nice start dude! Madzia has given you some gold advice there man. Take it all and study each element rigorously and do a ton of experiments before committing to an idea, it'll work out in the long run and make you stronger as an artist. Cant wait to see more man!

[Madzia]

haha love the song Warburton !! :D
Here's my final value composition and few colors. I will go with 3th one. Saturated colors always lure me the most :D

[Warzone]

Biker Hephaestus
Not entirely sure I'll go with this one

[EduardoGaray]

crackedskull: i have to agree with everyone else, Madzia was spot on on that critique, keep punching it mate!

Madzia: yeah i like 3 the most too, really nice to see the progress :)

Warburton: what are you waiting to join the fun mate? also, fucking awesome song haha.

Warzone: heh like the idea, a biker pagan god is so daggers.

Here is the my first idea for the illustration, i quite like this composition.
Do you guys like Berserk? i think i want to go for that feel, just the feel of grim darkness and badassery. Your feedback is reeally welcome :)

and some background for the pic: Went for a futuristic setting in which the ancient greek civilization was never conquered by either the romans or the turks and became the biggest superpower in an alternate XXII century. At that time the Pan Hellenic Dominion started developing artificial super humans that closely resembled their gods.
In this pic i wanted to depict one of those artificial "gods" after being eaten by a giant Asura (that she killed from the inside) from the Persian/Indo Alliance.

[RenatoCaria]

I'm still not sure if I'll go for Artemis or Hermes so just did a bunch of thumbnails to get my ideas going :O I guess I'll just choose one of the tomorrow and start working on the image :)

[Jonas Jerde]

It's awesome to see another community challenge going on!

I think i'm going to go with Hermes. he is commonly known as messenger of the gods but I have read that he also guides souls to the underworld. I thought that would be cool to paint- so I'm trying to go for a darker looking Hermes who is leading a group of souls into the underworld.

Some thumbnails...





WIP...

[crackedskull]

Got some help from Madzia on composition and emphasizing the 3point perspective more, much tanks,many appreciate.

Thats a really cool song Warburton, the long high pitched yells caught me off guard.

Eduardo- Great progress, loving the berserk influence, its the best manga.

Madzia- Lookin' nice. I'd say a mix between 1st and 3rd color scheme would be best.


Got some good entries going on here people, as Warburton suggested, push it to the limit. Also get out of your comfort zone. The purpose of this challenge is to learn and the best way to learn is to try out new things.

----------------------------

Its starting to shape up, right now the biggest issues are the sculptors face, the surrounding environment(should I keep the castle? I want the contrast on sculptor, but it may be too much of a distraction. Looked at Hogarth's methods and constructed the statue's face based on those.

[EduardoGaray]

crackedskull: looking better! i also recommend some studies of giant statues or structures in the distance, the obvious choice for something like that would be the Cristo Redentor in Brazil, so you can transmit the sense of size and distance on to the picture.

RenatoCaria: That Artemis composition on the bottom left is my fav without a doubt!

JJ Aaron: cool stuff! i already like the colors and the character in the wip, looking forward for more.

I'm just doing some color/value comps. Which one do you like the most... or dislike the least? xD

[Madzia]

EduardoGaray fist one looks like Ghost in the shell and third like Evangelion :D You make decisions so hard!

[crackedskull]

Did not find suitable refs of Cristo Redentor, found something kind of suitable in lady liberty. Also as for further objects being distant, I have learned that they should be more desaturated and if theres dust(any particle really) infront then that creates a couple tones lighter ray.

Also checked that the deadline is next wednesday not THIS one, I can stop rushing now.(Although it would be a good challenge to simulate a short deadline competition)

Update on the piece.



Did a rough value block in of this, failed hard, but Its not frustrating anymore.

[EduardoGaray]

Madzia: haha 3 looks like evangelion on purpose but i didnt think about GITS until you mentioned it. xD

Crackedskull: damn, i forgot about the statue of liberty, its perfect too study too, and you are right about desaturating objects in the distance, and make it blueish too, but that depends on how far the statue is. Next time you are doing a block in, try with just two values, its really fun and forces you to simplify and see things differently.

I refined the lineart and added some basic values, but i'm still indecise about the colors. :P i guess, its thumbnail time. Also, i thought it would be considerably more badass to make the giant look like its still alive, but dying, and crying in terror.
Who is the real monster? xD

[futurespaceghost]

Looks good everyone! I chose milinoe bringer nightmares and madness.


heres a few quick comp sketches. im having a hard time deciding whether to do fantasy or scifi :/

[Mr. Toodles]

The story of Midas, this is my composition for the regret of Midas, midas begs dionysus to help him get rid of his coveted power of a golden touch


I'm going to portray sadness and indulgence on either side of the image

[goodsir]

Hey there, this contest and ALL the entries look awesome!

Looking forward to joining it, but i have a few questions about the Theme:
1) Can i choose Nemean lion as a main character? (He's a son of Zeus according to some sources on wikipedia and is also listed under "Children of Zeus, Gods" list there). Because steampunk/dieselpunk lion with impenetrable hide sounds like an amazing topic :P
Or are only humanoids acceptable?
2) If Lion is not acceptable, can i choose mortal children of Zeus, like Perseus? I don't think he have any specific god symbols, but i'm going to portray him in the scene from the myths (battle with Sea Monster).

[vansty]

We would like to keep the focus of the contest on humanoids but you can choose mortal children like Perseus (which i am working on xD). He doesn't have symbols per se but he is identified with the Medusa's head he kept for a while, the winged sandals Hermes lent him, the sword Zeus gave him and possibly Pegasus.

If you really want to paint the Nemean lion, you could make it about Heracles slaying the Lion.

[robertthem]

At first I was afraid to participate because my idea isn't as original as the ones you guys are posting, but I'll try to make it at least look like a boring idea well executed lol

First, here's a page from my sketchbook where I drew some basic ideas, like the outfit and some basic composition.


And here's the thumbnail done digitally.


So, it's basically Athena standing in front of the Parthenon with an owl on her shoulder (see why I said it was a boring idea?). Any suggestions?

[PabloNotPicasso]

I want to start being more active on here, and this challenge is definitely a good way to go about that. I've decided to do Athena, acting in her role as the goddess of war. She will be standing with a giant owl spirit on rubble surveying a battlefield.

Here are four composition thumbnails. Hopefully later today I'll submit concept sketches for her helmet and armor, as well as the owl spirit itself. I'm looking for feedback on how the pose reads, how the value grouping works for the image, and which thumbnail's composition conveys the most "heroic" feel.

[Darantha]

Well I've got quite the love for depicting stuff from myths so joining this. I went with Eris, goddess of discord and strife.

Eris' symbol is the Golden Apple of Discord, which she inscribed with 'to the fairest', dropped into the wedding feast she wasn't invited to, which caused a argument between Hera, Aphrodite and Athena as to whom it was meant, and this all later led to the Trojan war.

Composition thumbs.



Clothing studies off statues and some books I own, as well as some patterns from pottery paintings to get some ideas for patterns on her clothes. Now that I look at it though, I feel like I can push it some more. Greek clothing is pretty fun really, all in the wrapping methods.





Rough sketch and colours.