Rider on the snail

[Imp Head]

There are times when I've finished a painting and I realize that the return is far less than the effort I put into it. This is one of those times. Though I'm pretty happy with the way this piece turned out I'm not entirely sure it was worth all the work it took to get here.

Anyway, I think I'll let you all be the final judge of that...

http://www.imphead.com/images/jpegs/snailmail.jpg

Critiques and comments welcome as always.

Brian


PS- I'd also like to dedicate this post to Jon Foster so he'll quit complaining that I don't post enough. Though admittedly it's no robot, this one's for you Jon.

[KeatonMarks]

thats amazing... i love it, the attention to detail payed off. It has real character. I love the chameleon at the end of the fishing pole. I think the only thing is the illogical fact of where he is positioned... nowhere to go, and nowhere for him have come from... its like he just landed there. It makes the peice interesting, but something about that lower area of the peice seems strange to me. You said it wasnt worth the time you put into it.. how long did you work on this?

[ODIN SIX]

:D It looks Great Imp Head!!!!!!!
I looked at it for like 20 mins noticing all the little details in
it.. I like the desert / nomad feel it has. and the whiskey
bottle for bait is cool. The sky looks a little to green to me
and that is my only crit. What did you use to paint it with ????
Can't wait to see more from you !!!!:D

[Oblio]

even if you don't feel like for now... give it some time and on the long run... it always pays off.
About that lower area.. i guess that the snail doesn't seem to blend with the rock.. maybe some shadow there?
Thx. for posting it...

Oblio

[Jezebel]

Damn... I love this. Really love it. I can't find a single thing to criticize about it. Nice work. :)

[eggbeater]

Gorgeous!

A quick observation... shouldn't the values of the rock formations in the immediate background (to either side of the snail) be toned down just a bit? It seems difficult for me to make out the background/forgeround elements

[Loga4]

Fantastic!Totally awesome,I don`t know
what else to say:)I just like it!
The idea,rendering, everything is just WOW!

[Blackarts]

That is an amazing painting. If I had to nitpick, I would say the snail could be a bit more slimy...but who really cares, everything is working well as it is. Nice work!

Can I ask how long this took you, and what medium you used?

[Blankfrank]

Another great painting, your style is all over this, and I love it. I think eggbeater has a good point concerning the rock formations.

[cyclonaut]

This is awesome!

The whole painting is great but I really love the number 8 on the snail. It's really cool looking.

[cmortier2002]

Fantastic, the way you use colors, the clouds, everything...

[Lono]

I think its fantastic! Job well done.

was this a paying piece? i would LOVE to paint stuff like this and get paid.

you rip!

[mc_delroy]

heh... tempting the snail with booze.. eh?

good job... it reminds me alot of James Christensen's work

keep it up

[LeeSmith]

great work as always, I am so impressed with your stuff. This piece is definiteley beyond me to nitpick, but If I had to pick something I would say that the stuff on the guys back seems very high, almost as if it's balancing on his head. I could understand if there was more stuff lower on his back pushing the rest up, but at the moment it seems like it should hang down lower.

As for whether or not it's worth the time or not, all I can say is I would dedicate a couple of years of my life to be able to get a result like that, so as long as it didn't take you that long I think it's worth it! ;)

Lee Smith

[TJ Verhagen]

oh MAN! thats SO wicked!
just... well... :eek:

[SamusNeo]

Very cool, what type of paint did you use?

[Jezebel]

suddenly I'm curious as to how the snail got up there, and how it will get down :D

[Lono]

Wait,,,, so is he coaxing the snail forward by dangeling the booze in front of him?
or is he fishing for Boracho's?

Boracho Loco!!!

Telemundo!

-Lono

[Imp Head]

Thanks all for the comments!

First off let me say thanks to- Loga4, Cyclonaut, Cmortier2002 and TJ Verhagen. Kind words, all

KeatonMarks- I usually put around 20 to 30 hours into a piece this size, but this one I think was closer to 30 to 40. I think it had something to do with the hard light. I'm just not used to painting it and trying to develop and communicate a powerful mood with it is very difficult. As for how he got up there I too thought about that but I decided to leave him percariously perched as I felt that that was part of the charm.

Odin Six- The program I use is Painter 7. The brushes I tend to use are namely a modified sharp chalk tool and a modified watercolor tool. I put more details about how I work in my "robot WIP" in the tutorial section of conceptart.org.

Oblio- Thanks dude. I've actually heard the shadow comment from a number of people. I'm looking into it... And it wasn't that I don't like this piece, I do. I feel, it's just that it doesn't have the same POW as some of my other pieces which was a little dissapointing considering the amount of effort I put into it.

Eggbeater- AHA! You nailed it. Man, usually I'm pretty on about atmospheric degredation but for some reason I shot the pooch on this one. Thanks, I'll add that to the list of "need to fix".

Blackarts- You know I painted and repainted that damned snail so many times it was starting to drive me crazy. I actually started out to make him look slimy and it slowly reverted to the bumpy hide we've got on him now. Stupid specular light anyway ;) And in answer to your other question it was a rough pencil sketch, (I'm horrible about doing inital drawings... I mean I CAN do them I'm just lazy.) scanned and then painted digitally with Painter 7. And it took around 30-40 hours. A little long for me.

Blankfrank- (I love that handle) Thanks! And I agree. I'm on it.

Lono- Thank you... and no, it's not a paying job. This is what I do when I come home from my paying job, where I do this all day. I'm a freakin' art masochist, really... And pardon my extremely shallow linguistic capabilities but wtf is a "boracho"? I actually tried to look it up on line and got nothin'

mc_delroy- I'm surprised that more people haven't heard of the old, "attract snails and slugs with beer" trick. It's an old gardening trick where if your garden is being overrun by invertibrates you can put out a saucer of beer and the snails/slugs will flock to it and then essetially drown. They can't resist it, it's like snail crack... Though now that I think about it not an entirely unpleasant way to go. :beer: And yes, I love James' work. Does it show? ;)

Bastion- Too high up? Well, that's the first comment I've gotten like that. I'll have to take a look into it. I had wanted to make the boxes act as sort of an umbrella for his head and to keep that area below his backpack as a nice negative space but I think you may be right. I'll think on it some more.

SamusNeo- The digital kind. I use Painter 7 to do a majority of my work and Photoshop to do color correction and layer type corrections. Again, there's a more detailed explination of how I work in the "tutorials" section of this forum under "Robot WIP".

Jezebel- He, uh, has some climbing gear tucked away in his shell. All very professional stuff. Snails may be extreme but they're also not afraid to be extremely safe. (This service announcement brought to you by overprotective parents and governments who think they know what's best for you.)

Thanks again-

Brian

[Lono]

oops,, i spelled it wrong. there are R's in Borracho.

it is spanish for Drunk.

Borracho loco means crazy drunk.

i played foosball with a Borracho loco once. he spoke little english, and had a broken hand which was swolen to the size of a grapefruit. i advised him that playing foosball might not be the best therapy for his broken hand, but he insisted,,, just so long as i kept allowing him to take drinks from my beer mug. for my own amusement, i would quickly and almost inaudibly mumble the word "Borracho" every time i scored on him... sometime towards the end of the night i must have started saying it too loudly and he became wise.
a most jolly look came across his face as he turned to me and shouted "Borracho Loco!", and then raised up the swolen mitt for a highfive..

:beer:
:chug:

-Lono

[mc_delroy]

dude lono...

that story is fu*king hilarious..... i wouldnt have beleived it if i hadnt noticed where your from underneath your avitar

... i want to meet a borracho loco ....

...... ! POR QUE ! .......

[foster]

Brian, or brain i should say. One of the smartest and hardworking artist out there! Exxxxxcellleeeent! (Said with a hiss of Smither's love muffin, ).

You always make me smile with delight. Thanks for sharing.

Jon