Some pics

[IronBrush]

Hello all
These are my new pics.
Enjoy and crit.
Have a nice day~!

[Duman]

Yeah ironbrush, a big fan of your work. And this update didn't disappoint. The second character is fantastic. You rendered the gold wonderfully. The detail is great. The portrait is great, but the horns look a little unfinished.

[DanielC]

nice work ! :)

[Verehin]

very cool!

[Aerius]

great stuff again IronBrush, I love the dead/inhuman/intelligent eyes on your demon guy.

[Katzenminze]

hi, good work on all of them first one is my fav. though. great depth, very 3d-ish! like the curly bumps on his forehead! congrats

[D@niel]

Great work man!!

[Patrick Szucs]

The armor in the second image looks fierce

[smokenmirrors]

very creepy face! veeeeeeeeeeeeeery nice!

[Larriva Art]

Cool! Great details on these, like the stitched up mouth. Are those tiny secondary eyes?

[Extollere]

lovely.

Everything is great except for the horns on the portrait. I can't tell if they are supposed to be flat against the side of the head, or coming out and then bending forward. I would assume the latter because of the horn on the left most side but it's hard to make that coorelation to the one on the right. The connection isn't described, nor the form of the horn. I understand wanting to keep elements loose but just a little more info would make this area read better and even give him a little more character...not that he needs it...holy shit look at that mug!

[Darktwin]

really like your work Iron Brush, but I wish you would post all your work in one finally finished thread, instead of starting multiple threads, it allows people to see your continual growth, instead of seeing simply your new work.

Keep working hard!

[manji]

Glad to see you posting again. I have been a fan of yours for a while. Great update

[IronBrush]

Thank you^^
Yes, They are secondary eyes^^

Cool! Great details on these, like the stitched up mouth. Are those tiny secondary eyes?

[El Jeremie]

Wicked stuff dude.
That first guy is really disturbing.

[Pavel Sokov]

love the portrait there, it is pretty brutal

[Valkier]

I have been noticing a problem with your designs.

I am not going to discredit your rendering skills. The way you do material and how ornate you make your armor is quite good. The color choices are wonderful, and you give a very good sense of weight in all your pieces.

The problem I see, is that NONE of your armor is practical. NONE of it could ever be used in a fight, and not just because no normal person could carry that much weight. It's because I see no way for any of it to let the person bend without hitting five heavy plates at a time. I'll point it out piece by piece to explain.

The first portrait is fine. It looks like a freaky guy with weird horns and symbols in a military uniform. Nothing wrong with that and I'd like to see more work come from you reflecting this design sense.

The second guy... I just don't know. Again, it all LOOKS fine. But I don't see how he can walk. I don't see how he can move his head. If he tilts it back, he hits the humongous collar. If he turns it either way, the horns or sides of the helmet look like it would catch the edges of the collar plate. If that man would try to lift his arms in any way, those shoulders overlap his collar so much that I don't think he could manage much more than a DaVinci pose with his palsm facing towards us. Thats if he can turn his forearms at all since it looks like his gauntlets interlock perfectly for the position he's standing in alone. I especially don't see how the guy can walk with that heavy seemingly set piece of plate covering his crotch, combined with the also visibly set pieces of metal on his hips. I'm sorry, but I can picture this soldier penguin walking into an opposing army at best, wonderfully decorated as he is.

The third piece isn't nearly as bad for mobility, but I still have some issues with it. Again, that cod piece is just killing the design of it. It looks like it's actually hung from around her waist, and it's put there pretty tightly. Basically every time she'd take a step, it looks like she'd either stab the top of her legs or have to rotate her torso with her step. Her helmet, while much more conservative than what I've seen you post recently, looks like it's resting just above her ears and would most likely fall off if she tried to move any faster than a careful walk. The shoulders on her however are much more conservative than what you have been doing and seem plausible for movement.

Otherwise you have these wonderfully rendered areas, and then parts of it you look like you figured either we wouldn't care or we'd be too distracted to notice the parts you haven't fully rendered out. It really kills the "finished" quality the rest of your pieces display and I hope you do post finished versions of what you have done thus far. Your lighting sense is good. Your character poses look natural. I'd just like to see you put this level of detail on a character in a pose with more movement. I think if you start doing that, you'll start creating armor that looks a lot more usable.

Take a look at your last post.
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=142806

The armor in this thread is still impossibly thick, and in some places still suffers from what has crept up in these latest pieces, but I can see joints. I can picture these people moving, albeit stiff. The cod piece issue isn't nearly as prevalent in your heavy armor piece, though it's still there. The plates on the armor aren't perfectly interlocking around where he should bend so it looks like he still has some movement even if it is severely limited. I can picture that heavy armored guy not being a threat for skill, but his sheer power alone would be enough to make him formidable in armor that would take most blows like a tank would withstand a kitten licking it. Yes, his cod piece does still look pretty fixed and would knock into his inner thigh every time he took a step, but it would be mostly believable. One thing they both do have in common is the areas between the plates. They don't look like the stretch or bend in any way. They look dull like wrought iron with heavy oxidization so they have very little or no luster. If you could make it convince to be leather or a chain mesh of some sort, then it would do wonders to how we perceive the mobility of these warriors. As it stands, the ones in heavy armor don't look like they can even bend over.

I think the bottom character is the best you've done however. His armor is light looking in an aristocratic fencer sort of way. Yes, he does lose SOME ability to move his arms freely, and that belt would make his pants weigh a ton, but the man looks lethal. He looks like he could probably parry and thrust to his hearts content and judging by the scar he has incurred, he has had experience in using what he has in battle. Do more of this. It is good.

[IronBrush]

Thank you very much.
It is very useful.
Thank you


I have been noticing a problem with your designs.

I am not going to discredit your rendering skills. The way you do material and how ornate you make your armor is quite good. The color choices are wonderful, and you give a very good sense of weight in all your pieces.

The problem I see, is that NONE of your armor is practical. NONE of it could ever be used in a fight, and not just because no normal person could carry that much weight. It's because I see no way for any of it to let the person bend without hitting five heavy plates at a time. I'll point it out piece by piece to explain.

The first portrait is fine. It looks like a freaky guy with weird horns and symbols in a military uniform. Nothing wrong with that and I'd like to see more work come from you reflecting this design sense.

The second guy... I just don't know. Again, it all LOOKS fine. But I don't see how he can walk. I don't see how he can move his head. If he tilts it back, he hits the humongous collar. If he turns it either way, the horns or sides of the helmet look like it would catch the edges of the collar plate. If that man would try to lift his arms in any way, those shoulders overlap his collar so much that I don't think he could manage much more than a DaVinci pose with his palsm facing towards us. Thats if he can turn his forearms at all since it looks like his gauntlets interlock perfectly for the position he's standing in alone. I especially don't see how the guy can walk with that heavy seemingly set piece of plate covering his crotch, combined with the also visibly set pieces of metal on his hips. I'm sorry, but I can picture this soldier penguin walking into an opposing army at best, wonderfully decorated as he is.

The third piece isn't nearly as bad for mobility, but I still have some issues with it. Again, that cod piece is just killing the design of it. It looks like it's actually hung from around her waist, and it's put there pretty tightly. Basically every time she'd take a step, it looks like she'd either stab the top of her legs or have to rotate her torso with her step. Her helmet, while much more conservative than what I've seen you post recently, looks like it's resting just above her ears and would most likely fall off if she tried to move any faster than a careful walk. The shoulders on her however are much more conservative than what you have been doing and seem plausible for movement.

Otherwise you have these wonderfully rendered areas, and then parts of it you look like you figured either we wouldn't care or we'd be too distracted to notice the parts you haven't fully rendered out. It really kills the "finished" quality the rest of your pieces display and I hope you do post finished versions of what you have done thus far. Your lighting sense is good. Your character poses look natural. I'd just like to see you put this level of detail on a character in a pose with more movement. I think if you start doing that, you'll start creating armor that looks a lot more usable.

Take a look at your last post.
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=142806

The armor in this thread is still impossibly thick, and in some places still suffers from what has crept up in these latest pieces, but I can see joints. I can picture these people moving, albeit stiff. The cod piece issue isn't nearly as prevalent in your heavy armor piece, though it's still there. The plates on the armor aren't perfectly interlocking around where he should bend so it looks like he still has some movement even if it is severely limited. I can picture that heavy armored guy not being a threat for skill, but his sheer power alone would be enough to make him formidable in armor that would take most blows like a tank would withstand a kitten licking it. Yes, his cod piece does still look pretty fixed and would knock into his inner thigh every time he took a step, but it would be mostly believable. One thing they both do have in common is the areas between the plates. They don't look like the stretch or bend in any way. They look dull like wrought iron with heavy oxidization so they have very little or no luster. If you could make it convince to be leather or a chain mesh of some sort, then it would do wonders to how we perceive the mobility of these warriors. As it stands, the ones in heavy armor don't look like they can even bend over.

I think the bottom character is the best you've done however. His armor is light looking in an aristocratic fencer sort of way. Yes, he does lose SOME ability to move his arms freely, and that belt would make his pants weigh a ton, but the man looks lethal. He looks like he could probably parry and thrust to his hearts content and judging by the scar he has incurred, he has had experience in using what he has in battle. Do more of this. It is good.

[Professor Wagstaff]

Well in my humble opinion IronBrush I wouldnt worry too much about the whole armour thing. I've seen loads of concept art with ridiculous armour and weapons. Its all artistic license i think. However Valkier's advice is certainly good to keep in mind.
I love your images especially the first and third ones. You have a really nice developed painting style. Something i could certainly learn from :)

[dkounios]

amazing stuff man.
really.

[Patrick Szucs]

about the mobility of the armor; unless your going to turn it into a 3-d figure mobility really isn't an issue. that's one of the advantages to working in 2-d.

[banhatin]

That head works really nice~

[Robert.B]

about the mobility of the armor; unless your going to turn it into a 3-d figure mobility really isn't an issue. that's one of the advantages to working in 2-d.


I couldn't disagree with you more. Relying on aesthetics alone will only do one of 2 things:

allow you too polish the hell out of a turd or play fine artist where its so subjective the turd could even become the character.

Part of being a commercial/concept character DESIGNER is creating a visual vocabulary that works analogous with the actions and status the artist is suggesting his her character belongs to.

So if your making for instants a futuristic synthetic basketball player you ad better make some ergonomic choices with in the body design that showcase an evolution for that characters actions.

As far as 2d being excused of having the responsibility of considering functionality well lets not forget that a major element of design is the marriage of form and function.

If anything a 2D artist has be even more contentious in this area of thought because they aren't working with a software packages that automatically

give them multiple dimensions with which to easily test movement and surface tangents.

[IronBrush]

Thank you for all comment and crit.
I will edit design and upload again.
Thank you very much.
Have a nice day~

[Patrick Szucs]

I couldn't disagree with you more. Relying on aesthetics alone will only do one of 2 things:

allow you too polish the hell out of a turd or play fine artist where its so subjective the turd could even become the character.



I'm not sure what "turds" have to do with all this.

I agree that creating concepts that would work in the real world is important in many cases, and does add believability; And perhaps his armor does go beyond artistic license “I don’t think it does”; but strictly conforming one’s imagination to fit functionality is a handicap.

you've got to find a balance.

[andyhunt]

Very awesome colors/textures, although I feel like the person in the 2nd image fits a bit awkwardly in his armor. Extra thick I guess. Otherwise, I love your work!