Need advice on my second Thunderdome piece- Give it to me now!

[Batteram]

http://www.imagemagician.com/images/batter/tunnelcyst.jpg

http://www.imagemagician.com/images/batter/tunnelconcept.jpg

Here you can see two pictures. The first one is my second monster I am entering into Thunderdome. The second picture is a background I quickly did in an hour or so for this monster. Now, in the first pic I was going to put a laboratory background because that monster is killing and eating the bad scientists. However, the bodies on the ground seem awkward in my opinion, considering I have no references of draped cloth and bodies in that position, etc. The guy in his boxers crouching over the bald scientist looks awkward and just doesn't look right. So, I was thinking, should I just leave out the dead bodies on the ground and put this monster in the second pic, or what? I am so confused as to what I should do. I also did the second pic to add to my portfolio because I am going to go for an interview for a contract concept art position at some local games/simulation company. So, I need advice as to what I should do with this monster now. If I put him in the second pic I will have to make him more or less a silhoutte because the light will be shining from the back of him. AAAhhh! I don't know what to do! Aaahhh again! Please give me advice!

[Fozzybar]

Don't remove the bodies on the floor...they are great for your composition and your idea. As you said, this guy lying on top of the scientist is a little bit off, so his upper body looks too long.The problem is the right shoulder/arm part. It's too far away from his body, also his arm would be closer to the scientists body. It doesn't touch the scientist at the moment.

If you put the monster in the background below, you have to adjust the overall-brightness...but he wouldn't look too dark or as a silhouette as you said.

Very weird creature indeed...I love the idea with this snakehead, which has got the head in his mouth.

I have a creature for thunderdome, too...and there is something, which is similar to mine...

I am to lazy to look, but as far as i remember your first entry was this one inspired by the doom-screenshot, or?

Keep it up! Conceptart-Army is growing...:evilbat:

[jezelf]

interesting concept. reminds me of 'the thing'

what threw me a bit was the legs of the guy in the boxer shorts look like they belong to the scientist at a glance.

I agree that the bodies are a great element to your piece - it gives us an idea as to how it disposes of it's victims (love the guy in the background with his head covered with part of the monster - good touch)

I think you just need to consider your composition some more. re-position the dead bodies so that the curvature of the body creates compositional lines that lead you up to the centre on the monster.

create more depth by curling that tentacle coming towards us around the image frame so the eye will follow it's curve - to the dead scientist and the bodies positioned that I mentioned earlier would send the reader's eye up to the monster again.

so you have a loop where the eye keep moving around the image.

I think the tunnel is cool - why not try putting the monster in the tunnel, and instead of scientists - turn them into a special ops/ swat team?

this would mean they could have torches which would create dramatic up lighting the scene. also the fact that a swat team were useless against this monster means its something to not mess with! however I don't know if you wanted to tell a story of an experiement gone wrong in the lab?

anyway - hope that's some help.
good luck with the image and your interview!

best wishes
jez

[Batteram]

Hey, thanks for the help guys, much appreciated. The swat team in the sewer tunnel being eaten sounds cool jezelf, I really never thought of that. The only problem is that when you see the level of detail on my monster and then sort of put it into the sewer pic, it kinda looks weird, considering that the background looks more realistic than the actual monster. I want to keep the main focal point the monster itself, so if I put it in te background it would look rather small and detract from the overall image. I think I went a little bit overboard with the background to tell the truth. I was just getting board trying to figure out the right composition for the dead bodies and just came up with the background to keep my mind occupied with something else.
Hhmm. Once again, I like the swat team idea, but maybe I think I will keep the first pic as it is, only exception is that I will only have one body in it, like my first Thunderdome piece, and maybe have the snake head still eating the human head, but he will be lying on his back or something. Like, he just got knocked over and the tentacle caught him off guard and began eating his head.
I will also give the swat team a go and see how it looks in the tunnel, but, because of the amount of detail in the creature already, I don't want to overdo it if you know what I mean. Everything will become way to busy then.
Anywayz, thanks for the advice!

[Batteram]

...

[Batteram]

Here is an update.

http://www.imagemagician.com/images/batter/tunnelcystcopy.jpg

I decided to leave the bodies as they are and just rework there clothing. It was a pain in the ass doing this, especially when you have no references and have to refer to your own clothed arm, body, etc.
I decided that I am going to leave it as it is and add just a simple dark background like I did with my first Thunderdome entry. I just want some more crits as to whether it looks ok as it is and whether I should go ahead and complete the background. So, is it ok, now?
Oh yeah, Fozzy, my first Thunderdome entry was inspired by the doom3 screeshot of that monster eating the zombie in the bathroom, thats why I did it! ;)
Btw, what do you mean when you say you have a similar entry?

[mcotie]

it looks cool. might want to emphasize your light source a bit more, it looks good now, but it might make it a bit more dramatic. You did well with weird anatomy fix on the bodies. using your own hands, clothing etc. is the best, easiest access reference you can get. I would do a background but keep it simple not busy and something to push it forward. Maybe something like what Android does, with a contrasting backlight.

Mitch

[Darrell Bowman]

i like the forground figures cause they are in interesting poses but then the monster is kinda rigid like a cookie cutter figure maybe if one leg was back or something like bent over to give it more dynamics then just stiff legs. compared to the great poses on the ground he a bit stiff.