CC06: Spiderborn and Ravenred - Night Hunters

[Artloader]

OK so I'm thinking about a humanoid guy called Spiderborn who will be a cultist on steroids and a giant raven called Ravenred.  They go out at night hunting for fair maidens to bring back to the Dark Temple for ritual sacrifice.

Here's my moodboard:

[Lodratio]

Oh my.
And here I was thinking that halloween was a fun holiday where you dress up as a ghost by putting a blanket over your head. Half of the entries for this sound like someone's designing a metalalbum cover.

The relationship of the characters might already be a bit to complex to make it read in a single illustration, but maybe you can make it work. 'Giant crow' seems a little plain as a character idea, so make sure to take enough time to design it.

[Piotr Jasielski]

I like that you have a backstory. I just have a fear you might create a design that is too generic, so I hope for some exploration. Good luck! :)

[Slapper]

Nice concepts, looking forward to see how you handle it to make it original. Especially the cultist since it can be pretty straightforward.

[Artloader]

@Lodratio: Thanks for stopping by - the relationship should be straightforward - Spiderborn is the rider, Ravenred is his steed.  Thanks for the tip off about he giant crow being a bit plain - I will try to think up ways of making it less plain.

@Piotr: Thanks - the story is from my comic project so I just chose a couple of the characters from it and used this opportunity to flesh them out a bit more.  I will see if I can spice up the design a bit - thanks.

@Slapper: Thanks - I have a few extra ideas for the cultist - hopefully I can make him a bit more interesting than the usual cultist.

Thought I'd just do some plain raven studies tonight before I go and put a design over the top.

[devinn]

Cool! Good idea to use this challenge as a vehicle for your small personal project! Just make sure it's a bit spooky if it aint gonna be halloween themed :D

...I shoulda done that, ahaaa :l

[Einver]

Cool crow studies and awesome idea! I feel like the "finish" of your piece is going to be stellar. Props on your prep work so far too.

[Artloader]

@Jaktrayter: Thanks - I'm trying to kill 2 birds with one stone in these Crucible Challenges - move my project forward and also grow as an artist.  You're right - I need to take special care to make these guys scary enough.

@Einver:  Thanks - I'm studying and referencing as much as possible with these - hopefully it will teach me stuff along the way.

OK so here's a spider study with a spider-mutant concept for my humanoid - Spiderborn:

[DQ_Nick]

Yo Artloader,

Interesting idea incorporating the spider anatomy into your human figure, that's looking very promising. That backstory you came up with is wonderfully dark, I didn't know you had such ideas within you. 
 Looking forward to seeing how this develops.

[Amit Dutta]

Cool man. If this is for your personal work, make sure you kick into overdrive and make that stuff as good as it can be! I like the spider/human anatomy meld and that it's not just a half man with spider legs or something. I think you can push it even more into unique territory by not just visual research.

A question I would ask myself is if we had some spider dna what would that mean for us in terms of the phenotypes expressed. What are the methods that spiders use to hunt? We all know many spin webs but these are the non hunters. The hunters have lots of varied ways of getting their prey which in turn might suggest certain design features to accentuate that might not have been that obvious based on a basic trope understanding of spiders. There is so much that can be done with a bit of focused research, some thought, and applying both in a smart mix and match way. :)

[Artloader]

@DQ_Nick: Thanks, this CC has given me a great opportunity for developing some of the characters from my personal project a bit more than I otherwise would have.  In fact it's opened up a whole new avenue of ideas for me!

@Amit: Awesome tip on going beyond the visual - thanks!  I will give this a go and see where I end up :).

Well I've been away on holiday for a few days so not much progress recently.  I got back into it for tonight by putting together some 3D thumbnails in Blender to help me thrash out some ideas around composition and lighting.

[Amit Dutta]

Sweet. The 6 and 7 comps are neat.

[Artloader]

@Amit:  Thanks - 7 was my favourite so it sounds like I'm on the right lines.

I messed about a bit doing a pose study that I might use:




I thought I'd better get a move on with this so I've made a start on the final illustration by putting in a rough environment:

[Artloader]

Gonna be cutting it fine again - grabbed a load more raven references tonight.  Used them to put in silhouettes for Spiderborn and Ravenred:

[MetaShinryu]

I agree with Lordratio, this idea sounds sooo metal haha.

Were it my character, i would probably buff the chest and  make the ribs stand out, forming the shape of the spider's underside.

Also, imagine a comp where he is flying to the camera, with a knocked-out maiden, driving bird with the human hand, and doing the metal horns with the spider one...

:D

[Artloader]

@MetaShinryu:  Yeah I can see the heavy metal vibe - probably a bit gothic too.  Thanks for the ideas mate - I will bear in mind for another time.  For now I need to crack on otherwise I won't finish!

[Artloader]

Some more progress - tonight and then one more night of painting and I will have to submit whatever I end up with but it's been fun - learned a lot about doing an illustration with a little bit of an environment.

[Knopfkater]

Ravenred looks great, i really cannot wait to the the final

keep pushing, i believe in you ^^

[Artloader]

OK here's what I'm submitting before the deadline.

Doing full illustrations like this is great for highlighting the gaps in my art - I think environments is definitely one of them.

Spiderborn and Ravenred - Night Hunters!