Crimson CHOW #27 - Beastly Botanist

[Pubic Enemy]

This week's theme and brief by previous winner, RottenPocket

Crimson Character of the Week #27

Beastly Botanist

"Alien, primal or lab grown - your character's specialty, special traits, features or skills can be all things monstrous and leafy but above all is an academic in their field."

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.
  
• 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.
  
  

Deadline is Monday, May 17th @ UTC: 23:59

-+|| WIP THREAD ||+-

[Jana]

Refrence:

Sketch:

Lineart:

I am quite happy about how this turned out till now, but I am also always happy about critique :) And I really hope for another participant.

[Jana]

---

Tried some colour ideas and need feedback. Nr.1 or Nr.2?

[JosephCow]

I like nr 1. But I think if you're going to have daylight coming from the window the character's fur needs to be darkened, or vice versa. They just can't both be the same amount of brightness or i don't think it will read well.

[Skeffin]

Yeah the lighting in 1 is nicer . I'd recommend looking at yaoyaoma to see how she does dramatic indoor lighting , plus her colours are on point

Not sure I'll have time to do something for this unfortunately, which is a shame cos the prompt is really interesting

[Pubic Enemy]

I extended the deadline to the 17th now that there's some activity in here. No need to rush through 'em.

Jana, that's a delightful concept, reminds me of The Cat Returns. I agree with Joseph's feedback; if you're going for a realistic indoor lighting feel you'll want the character (and room in general) to be more middle-valued, so that you can have some nice strong lighting from the windows (unless you're doing a scene with artificial lights). I like Number 1 more overall.

[Zizka]

@Pubic Enemy:
If you participate I would suggest not adding photoshop effects like the leaves for the dryad or the flames for the dog. Your handmade art always stands out on its own and both time the extra effects ended up detrimental/superfluous to the final result (in my opinion).

[Pubic Enemy]

Zizka, I think you got me confused with RottenPocket!

[Jana]

JosephCow, you are right, I´ll work on that
Skeffin, thanks alot for bringing yaoyaoma up. I looked up her work and instantly liked the first piece I saw and when I saw all the paintings she did of her and her dog I was really hyped. She really seems like a good example of how to convey a mood with light and colour.
Pubic Enemy, I love Studio Ghibli movies so thanks:) I will keep that in mind and go with Nr.1. Also thanks for extending the deadline, saves me a bit of stress.

Aside from that I just realised that I kind of mixed up florist and botanist..oh my.

[Skeffin]

@pubic enemy

Thank you for extending, I am eternally grateful to our pubic overlord for his/her generosity

@jana

I mean florist is pretty similar I think ? Both plants and stuff right. Glad you like yaoyaoma

[Pubic Enemy]

It's close enough Jana. There's necessarily some overlap between the two anyway.

Skeffin: LMAO. Any time.

[Skeffin]

some rough concepts,

went with a mesh of no 2 and no 3

and the words "academic in their field" made me think "uni professor". So here's your demon overlord professor of botany with tenure, here to educate the brightest of this generation on the flora from hell. Still trying to think on how to make him more beastly, perhaps fur on the arms/give him a tail/ lizard skin.

[Jana]

Skeffin your prof looks really cool and respectable. Is it weird that I kind of want to go to his class? :D

Flat Colours:

My try to add some light. Took me longer than it seems to get to this and even now I am torn between liking it and feeling I could do better. Will work on it some more tommorow.

[Pubic Enemy]

Skeffin: I would definitely audit that guy's class.

Jana: I think the lighting with those shadows from the window looks really nice, and it reads a lot better than the first thumbnail. The only thing that sticks out to me a little bit, is that it looks like the VP for the environment is placed a little higher than the one for the character. This is where it looks like the horizon line of the character is for me, because we're not seeing much of the top plane of the character's head or shoulders. So it's like the viewer is sitting across from her. I could be wrong, but it's something to consider if you're feeling stuck and want to try a big change in the background.

[Skeffin]

@ Jana, I don't think its weird at all that you want to turn up to his class :3

professor dilf has been rendered some more, gonna skip the bg this time i think

[Zizka]

I hope you manage to add in other peripheral details so it would help push forward the theme. I'll be keeping my eyes peeled for the folds in the clothing. Do you use a reference or do you just instinctively know how to paint them?

[Skeffin]

@zika  yeah i use reference for it, clothe folds I struggle with. I don't think anyone really instinctively knows how to paint them ? Even when I was a kid with no laptop I used me in my own clothes to study how they fold and wrinkle and stuff.

He's nearly done, cant decided if I prefer with or without background ? He does feel a bit like he was pasted onto the background tho ( he kind of was and just had a small col adj layer). And I think the bg takes away more focus from him but if I remove the ivy it makes the lighting on the char look wrong

[Pubic Enemy]

I quite like the look of him on the background actually, especially for having been pasted in. I suppose you could add some occlusion shadows where his feet meet the ground and stuff, but I think it looks pretty good. You could also make the rim lighting from the windows a bit softer, since it looks like indirect light.

[Zizka]

I like the version with the background a lot better.