VOTING!!! Teen Challenge #32 - Alien Mount and Rider.

[Evil_Sloth]

Gratz to Chaichan for winning TC# 32 and Kevzip for a close second.
Everyones improving so fast. Great to see.

The Topic this time was:
To design an alien mount and its rider.

Please give a reason for your voting choice.

Crits make everyone improve, including yourself.

Voting for yourself makes baby Jesus cry..

Mehz
Giger tribute...
http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/1594/tc32jt4.jpg

luxun
"ahhh ffs, ill take you where you wanna go if you just stfu #¤%#2"
http://img120.imageshack.us/img120/7128/alienmountxx3.jpg

Rhythmus
http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r183/Frank_and_John/Frank%20stuff/mantestrianfinal.jpg

savant
'Public transport alien-spider thing'
'In the not-too-distant future when the price of fossil fuels has risen to sky high the working-class citizens no more have the money to use vehicles for transportation. Luckily, at that time the world witnessed the first alien encounter and the visitors indeed were coming in peace! For a further surprise to everyone, the humanoids were willing to help humans with this serious problem of theirs and offered transportation creatures from their own galaxy to be used for free. The world was saved and everyone was happy!"
http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f327/savant-san/TC32_savant_ins.jpg

WolfBane
http://i18.tinypic.com/4yfzyf5.jpg

TheDonut
On his home planet, Morvor was a great and feared warrior, and his steed was the fastest and the bravest of their land.

So Morvor just couldn't understand why he kept being laughed out of the galactic combat area.
http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c176/Shippi222/tc32.jpg

Gorromog
Nun-Arthiel Scout:

The Nun-Arthiel have mastered the science of bio-technology, the riders attach themselfs to the maggot like creature not with a saddle, but by inserting their legs in two custom fit orphises. They control the creature through a nerve cord that goes from the Nun-Arthiel to the brain of the mount. These scouts are well suited to cover the rough mountenous terrain of their homeplanet.
http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/6316/tc32copyiw4.jpg

Goog
http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/1236/cloudflyer2copysg6.jpg

zeeble
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v352/Turtlee/tc32.jpg

ChillPill
http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/aa128/DVDeater/TC32Chillpill.jpg

vaughany_boy
http://img299.imageshack.us/img299/4663/teenchallengemount4copywe2.jpg

Sung-jae Kim
http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g179/Sung-jae_Kim/Teen%20Challenge/3201.jpg

Moggie
The people of Edan 6 have a great relationship with the animals of the planet
http://img503.imageshack.us/img503/2539/moggieteenchallenge32algh3.jpg

Evil_Sloth
http://img403.imageshack.us/img403/6016/tc31final3gz0.jpg

Prophet
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v721/Reanimate/Teencfinal.jpg

Vigilandus
http://www.wataaah.com/images/ca/alienmount.jpg

gul
http://img169.imageshack.us/img169/9392/alienmountandridergulml1.jpg

oyowzas
"EEK!!! The gopher people on the world of Ekarin have always been oddly calm, rule abiding citizens. Not Simon though he frequently fins himself in troublesome cituations, in those times hes lucky he has Buster the lovable riding serpent.
http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o203/oyowz/teenchallenge.jpg

purplerose
Basically, the rider is a mutant breed created from the mount. The mount, called a "Leex," is now used by its cousin breed for transportation since they can barely get around on their own.
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y42/dazzgeist/sketch1.jpg

Kevzip
http://img528.imageshack.us/img528/502/tc32testny3.jpg

Stampedie
http://img254.imageshack.us/img254/8915/alienmountcopyqm6.jpg

Leadster618
Nearing death, King Husquamente of Mercury demanded that his priest make him a golden god so he could live for eternity and be worshiped by many. Appalled at his request, the priests called on assistance from the gods. They wished to bind his soul to a gold skeleton with a melded mouth so that he could never speak such hubris again. The gods agreed and banished Husq to the desert, where he now eeks out a living by absorbing the energy of the dying. He travels the desert on the undead husk of a basilisk He is silenced forever, a god to no one.
http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w7/leadster618/ConceptAug9/17CA-32-Final.jpg

JanNovakov
http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/aa156/yannnovakoff/bokluki.jpg

realitychek
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f6/Pinto777/TC32.jpg

[brandon.leedy]

Wow, I bow to Kevzip and Evil Sloth...amazing you two...I have much to learn.
Zeeble and ChillPill, great use of natural tones. And let's not forget Luxon and Wolfbane, great job on the details and portraying some situational comedy. I guess I'm really not one to critique, but I noticed that a good amount of aliens seems slightly incongrous with their riders...Mine as well...I tried for a more serpentine appearance, but didn't succeed too well. As for light sources and great perspectives I am taking some tips from Vigilandus and Prophet, props to you two for some amazing use of lighting and backgrounds, well done! (I think I need to calm down on my usage of black, it took really seeing some great lighting from those two to recognize it). Finally, there is a lot to be said for the simplicity of Sung-jae Kim and Savant's entries. I especially like Savant's perspective and instruction panels (great idea!)

Well for my first time, I have taken a lot away from these submission, really great stuff everybody! Can't wait for the next one! This was a lot of fun!

[Wolfbane]

Whoa, really nice entries =D Voted for Prophet, man that's just sick skills! the style, the mood, looks friggin' brilliant. Good job dude.

[sketcheth]

Wow, good entries. Uhhh I say Prophet. I think the design is fantastic. Savant, Wolfbane, Kevzip and Sloth are extremely close seconds. All four of you...weird, heh. Great work you guys. All of ya.

[Gorromog]

i voted for evil sloth, i like his style. kevzip, prohpet, and wolfebane's entries are very well done to.

[TheDonut]

I voted for Luxen - nice concept and style. Made me smile :)

Though Wolfbane, Gorromog, Evil sloth, prophet, Kevzip... it was close.

Excellent work, the lot of you

[Dile_]

damn, can only see a few of them. Some of you are getting really damn good at what you doing. Keep growing.

[Vigilandus]

Voted for Luxun; expression says it all, you don't need a caption to tell the story!

As for crits.. Let me try.

Mehz: It certainly says alien all over it! Try working on some background scenery next time, good luck!

Luxun: It's missing radiosity at a few places, especially because the area is very lit.
Rhythmus: Zoom out a bit, go read the wiki (http://conceptart.org/wiki) and read the article about composition (very helpful), so you can work on a bit of scenery.
savant: Looks unpersonal. Low chroma and absence of highlighting makes it dull. Perspective is doing great though, and such a creative concept.
WolfBane: Walking in milk. A really quick sketchy background is better than no background, imo.. Everything is equally detailed! It's all fighting for attention. Looking forward to seeing more of your stuff.
TheDonut: Can't see no image.
Gorromog: Can't distinguish what kind of surface it's on by looking at the image. The rider is leading the viewer straight out of the canvas by looking in that direction while being to close to the sides.
Goog: Absolutely love it, but you can easily make it bigger, badder, make it show more expression.
zeeble: Want to see it in action! It's very static this way...

ChillPill: Frontal view should be avoided, I think. Try different perspectives and study more anatomy while you're at it, this makes it easier to draw it in another angle.
vaughany_boy: Try finishing it =D Study more anatomy. Strokes are too fuzzy, try flattening planes (simplifying) by using 1 value per plane.

Sung-jae Kim: There's not much expression nor energy in it, and while the mount looks very alienish, the rider has a very human skirt, and is thus a bit out of place, I guess. Some scenery would spicen up thing.
Moggie: Everything is saturated, read some stuff about light and colour theorem. Reading is very important.
Evil_Sloth: Can't quite tell where you can improve things.. Think it misses radiosity? Hope someone else can crit that aspect. I'd love to see it in a more energetic stance, maybe you could experiment on using an unusual camera angle.
Prophet: The reds drag away attention from the silhouette. The rider concept has a cast shadow directly below him even though light is coming from the right. <3 the creature concept.
Vigilandus: There's traces of outline left. Mount's head could use more detail. Need more contrast in value. Stance is way too static. Rendering is too muddy. Do more studies, study anatomy. Bad highlighting.
gul: Legs and tail aren't finished. Sorry to see no background.
oyowzas: Simplify! Don't use those brushes (yet?). Try submitting pencil work first, good luck.
purplerose: Although the step from outline to fully rendered with all the values is big, you should try it. Read some good books on the subject. They all recommend Loomis' books.
Kevzip: Head has signs of huge weight. You can compensate that by enlarging the body.
Stampedie: Needs more reflect light at places. Try building solid shapes first, the rider is missing his shadows. Work on variety of edge sharpness.

Leadster618: What you need is to learn to construct! Try building you image from basic shapes. Study your basic mannikin, read a lot of books. Build a library of art books. If you want to draw skeletons, then study skeletons! :D Memorize the bones. Your mount's face is cut off.. I want to see the whole face.

JanNovakov: Where da mount? Zoom out, don't cut off limbs. Or get his arm back into the canvas and make him face inwards. This way you won't lead the viewer straight out of the frame.
realitychek: Looks like it is about to slide off, keep in mind that balance is an important thing too. Bad balance makes stances look off. Either make the butt real big or make the rider lean forward. Needs more value too! Decide upon the direction of light and start shading halftone, shadow, reflect light(radiosity), and drop/cast shadow.

I'm really not sure if all of these comments are just, hope it helps though.

This challenge was fun. I need to practise a lot more. Critting isn't fun, but I'm learning a great deal by analysing other people's works.

Good job everyone, and may we all keep improving,

Frans