Team Chow: Insomniacs Sketchbook

[Keng]

This is a Sketchbook for the members of the Insomniacs team for the Team Chow to organize and share wips in.

The Team:

Kleewyk: Our evil laugh
Bone_fish: The one who just joined
Keng: The one who wrote this.

To summarize our planning so far:

I'll be taking charge of the Sage and the Technician. (WOOT! I get the smart people!), Kleewyk will be taking our Heroin and the Rabble Rouser, and Bone_Fish has the Shadow and the Protector.

I've been looking around and for a short bit I was worried that my idea for the sage would be out of the appropriate era but upon further research (google actually offered me very little info on this) the Victorian era is roughly the time period that the situation of my Sage might occur. (or at least close enough) Woot! So he'll be about 12-14 years old and served in the British Navy as an officer for a while. I might ditch the officer part but he's been to school and that's all that matters.

I've also been looking around at Russian art seeing as how that's where the majority of our characters are from. I think I'm getting too into the research of this XD. It's hard to find what common folk fashion might have looked like. I was hoping to find a few inspirations for the style of art but I may have to look in the school library (HOLY GA-JEEBERS! RESEARCH OFF THE INTERNET!) for some books that might be able to give me more of the type of art I'm looking for and a broader sampling. From my brief search there isn't much online. I'm probably just not using the right keywords.

Also, to build on my reputation of over-thinking things, I have come to the conclusion that anything in Russia that's steam powered will have to be kept hot at all times during the winter because otherwise the water would freeze. On that note it's likely that the steam coming out will crystallize and cause buildups of ice. The technician sure is going to have a lot on her hands. No wonder they decided to bring her along!

Oh, I should probably mention for those of you who might be reading this and getting a little lost that we've chosen Russian Steam Punk in Winter as our theme for the challenge.

Just one more week (and a bit) of school left thank goodness. This thread might be a little slow until it's over. Go go animation students!

[KleeWyck]

here's some ideas for the hero and rabble rouser. i was thinking that perhaps it would be a good idea to have some kind of unifying element between all the characters.

added some costume designs inspired/referenced from russian clothing...

[Keng]

I found a good information source for what woman wore in Russia. It's very informative. Lurkers, you should check this out too!

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_did_women_and_girls_wear_during_the_1800s


This next one has tons of good links. Kudos to Kleewyck for finding this rescource:

http://www.filmcostume.com/Links%20World.htm

Late 1800's Russian artist group called the Wanderers. Not all of their art is based in the time period but they do have a few good paintings that look like they may be from the time, and have some good clothing depictions.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHQUi-VwhhY

[KleeWyck]

update on the rabblerouser's design. will put in more steampunk elements... maybe.

[KleeWyck]

here's the lineart of the hero. will be painting this digitally some time next week.
anyways i was wondering if there are any design issues or whatnot that are problematic.

her weapon is a is a magnetically powered propulsion/projectile blade that functions by using a very strong magnet within the handle. this magnet is a special type of magnet that only affects certain kinds of rare metals hence the blade will not be deflected or attracted by normal metals such as magnetized armor and machinery.

her armor uses vials of chemicals which once they are in contact, they create an exothermic reaction within the armor (boots/gloves) in order to heat these limbs from the cold temperatures/weather patterns of northern russia. these chemicals are kept heated using steam power. it is customary (and rather important if you wish to survive) to carry multiple vials of these liquids as refills.

her clothes are made of heavy materials (ox hide or something) which act as insulation for the body. the fur-lining stops the wind from entering her garments as well as keeping the heat produced by the body inside. the traditional steampunk goggles work to keep the harsh winds and snow out of her eyes.

the character herself (has no name yet, let's just say she has forgotten her name along with her past) but her long red braids are proof of her noble heritage. although her memories are flawed and forgotten, once in a while they will return, driving her insane. In this state, she goes berserk and attacks/kills friends or foes... cliche i know.

[Keng]

And I finally get around to posting what I've done so far. Yay for being forced to take a day off because the school is closed!

A few preliminary sketches for the sage and the tech with many side notes. Still gotta get in there with some more steam punk and review our Russian references now that I have a moment of time to do so.

[lazarogamio]

nice stuff! Keep it up, you guys seem really productive!

KleeWyck: Your character's feet seem to be a bit too small, just a nudge bigger would be nice.

[KleeWyck]

thanks lazarogamio! i knew something was off about the feet but couldn't quite pinpoint it.

here's some colour flats for the character and a very basic sketchy bg so i can start with the shadows/highlights on the hero.

[KleeWyck]

here's progress for the hero... now i need to go study for my exam.

not sure what to do about the corset. it bothers me. maybe taking a day off (studying for my exam) might make the problem more obvious.

[Keng]

Wooo! Go go cultural theory! Time to put our well developed BSing skills to use!

Also... (yes, I'm only seeing this now, don't kill me!) The weight seems kinda off on her. If she's standing on a hill I can see that stance maybe working (kinda snowboarder-ish) but otherwise it looks like she's sitting on an imaginary chair. Maybe her body needs to be moved forward a little, as in, like titled forward. Otherwise it's coming along great.

[Bone_Fish]

I should probably post something to prove that I do exist and I am working. Anyways, I have a bit of a mental block right now when it comes to drawing, etc... so I haven't completed as much as I wish I had by this point.

Shadow:
So for this character I have based him on the Cossack (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cossacks) people from Southern Russia. He is an ex-militant, around 29-ish, and may have met the Hero while protecting her family or attacking where she used to live (I can't make my mind up on that detail). He fell for the Hero the moment he saw her, and a relationship between the two did develop, but since her memory loss he is unsure of whether or not to bring it up. And I also think he doesn't want to bring it up because it might remind her of why she lost her memory....obviously it has something to do with the Shadow and it wasn't anything good.

I've basically settled on his design but it needs more steam punk....and it needs to be fixed in several places still. He doesn't have a name.

Protector:
Well I wasn't at all sure what to do with him. I want him to be like a father figure to the Hero.....his design actually reminds me of my dad now that I think about it. He is in late forties, was a farmer and a amateur metalsmith, and he has never been in a fight before but he isn't afraid to get his hands dirty. Found the Hero washed up on the edge of an icey river near his home (hypothermia probably led to her memory loss).

Design is still in progress. His hands will be in these steam powered gloves (just for warmth....might be "handy" weapons too), and his clothing should have a worn/tattered look to them.

How can we be using steam in such cold temperatures? :
...And I also found some links that may be relevant to our teams interests: Steam Tracing (http://www.globalspec.com/reference/9796/349867/Steam-Tracing-Keeps-Fluids-Flowing) and some diagrams (http://resources.schoolscience.co.uk/Exxonmobil/infobank/4/2index.htm?pipes.html) of steam tracing.

[Keng]

Incase you haven't caught on, I've been having trouble with my boot design. So I found this nifty refrence!

http://www.batashoemuseum.ca/collections/permanent/circumpolar/russia_siberia/index.shtml

YAY for shoe museums! *goes to look for other clothing museum sites*

edit: interesting video

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1177384//

[KleeWyck]

discovered i can't paint bronze among many other things... the more i work on this, the more i feel like its getting worse. need to fix some armor and feet issues.

[KleeWyck]

other than coloring/finishing up the sword and adding designs/patterns on her dress and erasing the original sketch lines, this image is pretty much finished. so if there are anymore things i need to change, i need to know about it before sunday 'cause i plan on finishing up the entire image by then so i can start work on the rabblerouser.

[Bone_Fish]

latest update....I think there are still a few things wrong with the protectors design. I'll explain more about what the Shadow and the Protector are wearing later...because I need sleep right now.

[KleeWyck]

hey Bone_Fish, your shadow is awesome!! i can't wait to see it finished.


here's the final for the hero unless there's something i still need to fix. the border doesn't need to be as such, but i placed it there to show that this was the final.

[KleeWyck]

here's the sketch for the rabble rouser. if there's anything wrong with it, just let me know so i can make the appropriate changes.
if it's about the mechanical arm... it's supposed to be slightly oversized/bulky.

[Bone_Fish]

Shadow's clothing:
-underclothing made from a heat conductive material
-heated via steam pipes located at the shoulders, waist, and lower legs.
-the steam is produced by micro-pumps located in his shirt pockets (can't think of a better explanation)

I'm slow going at the painting for him because I keep getting caught up in all the details which I realize will only be seen if I uploaded the full size image. I just started working on the background.

Protector's clothing:
-steam heated metal gloves (gloves have this kind of circulatory system of micro steam pipes....water needs to be added now and again to replace the steam that is used)
-his glasses are tinted so he doesn't get blinded by snow glare

So I just decided to start colouring him because I need to get a move on if I'm going to finish both these characters for next week. The background is a little wtf right now but it will be fixed later. He kind of looks like a gangster too.....

[KleeWyck]

Bone_Fish your explanation of their technology is so awesome. now i wish i had spent more time on the hero character integrating her technology more fully into steam technology. oh well.

hey i noticed on Bone_Fish's designs that she's using yellow for the color of the border/decorations part of their clothing and that my character also has that similar border. i was thinking that maybe we could apply that yellow border/decoration idea to all characters. not necessarily the same yellow for all of them but just that idea. that way it'll look a little more unified despite our clashing styles.

[Keng]

I'll see what I can do about the yellow border thing.

Goal: have sketch with colour wash up before I go to sleep today for at least one character. Preferably both.

[KleeWyck]

started working on rabblerouser's colours and a quick bg...

[KleeWyck]

hey everyone! the deadline for team chow got pushed back to saturday may 2nd. > http://conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=2234176&postcount=78

so yeah...

also who is in charge of final touch-ups? like getting all the characters together in one image with a unified border with the appropriate titles and correct file naming?

[Bone_Fish]

I'm glad the date was pushed back, I was getting worried that I would have to rush the colouring for the Protector....though I should finish colouring the Shadow by today (but I'm so stiff and bruised from playing road hockey yesterday that its hard to move lol).

I could help with putting all the characters together....just as long as I'm not in charge of doing the final submission because I don't really know how to go about doing that....

[Keng]

I've got a nice setup outside right now hehe. Found an extension cord so I've been sitting in the sun with my laptop and tablet :). Life is good. Working on colouring the sage right now. Should be mostly finish by tonight. Mostly.

[KleeWyck]

hope everyone is almost done their entries! i know i'm not... stupid rabblerouser's colours are just depressing me. anyways...

here's the link to the finals thread with the requirements for final submissions: http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=156801


if possible, i want everyone to have their entries done by friday midnight so i can start working on putting everything together. i don't mind doing this, but i'd like someone to look over the submission before i submit it to make sure everything is there. i would never forgive myself if i made a simple mistake and everyone got disqualified because of it.
i'm not sure how large your entries are. but just send them to my school e-mail when you're ready or post the files here.
we need to submit a composite of all the characters and individual characters. that means the individual characters' images need to be big enough to be a final image on its own. so leave the image size a decent size please.

does anyone have a border preference? i was going to just drop in some colour and titles. nothing fancy because i'm not very good at designs. and i'm not good at rushing creativity.

[Bone_Fish]

Here is the Shadow. This is not the final border design for him and I also don't know what size I should be uploading for the final post.

Is it alright if i just send you the full size image KleeWyck? you can just resize it to your liking....And I kind of like this border colour (I think its the same colour as the border for the Hero).

Now off to finish colouring the Protector as fast as I humanly can!

[KleeWyck]

hey Bone_Fish, that size is actually almost perfect for a final submission. but i'd still like a hi-res copy so i can make all the entries the same height. or you can just repost it.

i'd like a height of 900pixels for all the entries (when i say 900 pixels, that means the image WITHOUT the border is 900 pixels). i don't care about the width. i'll be scaling these down anyways for the composite. but i think 900 pixels height is a good size for a final submission.

i thought it might be interesting to have russian writing surrounding our final borders. it would be appropriate but i don't know how to pull that off. the online translators are very... unreliable to say the least. and i feel disrespectful if i were to just randomly throw letters in there.
does anyone have any ideas for designs to be placed on the borders? i was thinking of having that deep blue color border with yellow designs over it. which i would just repeat or make a brush out of or something. any references i should be looking at? i guess i'll take a look at some 19th century russian clothing for ideas.

[Keng]

Bah. I got mad at the blue colour of the Sage's coat because it was starting to look like a house coat >.> So... I'm changing it to brown. Don't worry. It'll still get done. Promise :D

Also, the Shadow looks great. My only peeve is that it looks a bit like someone is shining a flashlight right between his eyes. His noes could be darkened a little... make it more shadowy.

[KleeWyck]

keng, whatever you post will be a surprise to me since i don't even know what your final design looks like. i can't wait to see them.

i guess i was in a rush to get started on the composite but i need to say this: bone_fish, the details are amazing, especially the design work on his clothing. is that red cloth thing in the bg surrounded by footprints supposed to reference the characters' histories?


alright so i was working on the border and tried out some possibilities... and most didn't work. but leaving the border as just a flat color made it look incredibly boring. so i made a brush design and that's basically the border graphics. had to lower the opacity until it was barely noticeable, otherwise it would steal attention from the characters.... what do you guys think? any ideas as to what to do?

[Bone_Fish]

yes the red cloth and footprints are a reference to the past...it was kind of a last minute throw in.

I'm not sure that border design will work because it is still fairly flat, but if the the border design was brighter it would stand out too much. How about framing the images? or combining a frame with that design?...actually I think that would work.

[RBeek]

good stuff :D Keep it going.
I wonder what other stuff you guys come up with, i like the toony approach :D

[KleeWyck]

thanks rogerb!

hey bone_fish, you should be doing the composite, you have superior skills in design than i do. i like the first and second one, i don't think we should directly attach a white border around the images (the third one), the images seem to lose importance when that is done. or that's just what i see... anyways i'll try a combination of design/border and see how that works.

we also need a team thumbnail to represent us. any ideas as to what we want?


edit: how's this? i'll probably have to make the lettering horizontal. i think at the moment it's hard to read and i'm not sure if it's allowed in chow regulations. anyways i kinda like having writing on the sides... so i just might still look into having some russian lettering in there instead and have the chow titles at the bottom.

[KleeWyck]

hey guys. i'm starting to worry a bit, because it's starting to sound like a composite is where all the characters are present within a single image with a unified bg. :S

so this is how we're going to fix this:
i'll make a very simple bg with flat colours... at this point we don't really have much of a choice because all our characters have a different lightsource. the borders will more or less stay the same as in the previous example. however the titles will go at the bottom.

i need copies of your images, please send them to my school e-mail. i'm hoping that you guys didn't merge the layers on the images... or that you worked in layers (i need tiff images with layers btw, i have PS CS2, and any PSD files i get made with a higher version of the program will probably have flaws in it or just won't open). the easiest way to fix this would be that your characters are on a separate layer from the bg. so i can just drag and drop into the composite without any major cleaning up. that would be the best case scenario. however i can clean up the images if need be.

for the single images of the characters, the bgs are fine. it's just the composite.

i have no idea what to do for the team thumbnail.

[Keng]

woah, glad I read that... at least they're in mostly similar perspectives...

[daestwen]

The composite doesn't need to have a unified background! You can just line up all six side-by-side and save as one image, that's fine. I just need an image with all six to put in the poll, that's all.

[KleeWyck]

haha thanks daestwen! that will certainly make our lives a little easier. :)


alright guys. so same as before, i need your images by midnight.

posting what i could finish of the rabblerouser (in case my harddrive decides it's a nice time to crash)
as well as our WIP composite and our team thumbnail.
i made them very basic and simple 'cause i don't know any better.

if there's something wrong or i should change something please tell me. i wanted to put an image in our thumbnail but i couldn't decide what. if you guys have any ideas, it's a good time to tell me.

also for the single character images, i was thinking of just dividing the composite into their own borders and add the appropriate chow titles. is that alright with everyone?

[Bone_Fish]

lol so much panic has happened since my last post.

The border for the composite looks good. For the thumbnail image could we do a photo of an old pocket watch or something steam punk related? And dividing the composite sounds fine for the individual images. All the characters are going to be lined up in their original orders right?


As for getting the protector done by midnight, that is not going to happen since I've being working on it and trying to get stuff organized for the garage sale tomorrow. I'm aiming to have him completed by 3 or 4am. But I'll send what I have to KleeWyck so she can get the border done. Sorry I couldn't meet your midnight deadline KleeWyck.

[KleeWyck]

LOL.

i see there is going to be some issues with getting them in by midnight.

well how about this:

the entries had better be posted by the time i wake up. :P


yeah the characters will be in their original order. i just posted whatever to make it look like i'm getting something done.

as for the thumbnail pic... i don't have a pocket watch to take photos of.... unless i can find my brother's... i'll see what i can do.

[Keng]

I kinda got sucked into yard work yesterday... cleaning up brush into bags, mowing the lawn, walking the dog.. ate a huge chunk of my time.. soo.. I'll have one character done maybe by the time you wake up.

[Bone_Fish]

ok the Protector is finished....and I can hear the morning birds singing.

Not that I really want to be pointing this out at this stage of getting things done, but I just noticed the shadow near the left corner of the rabblerouser's lip is a bit too strong...makes him look very sinister XD

[Keng]

I hate doing big brown flat-ish areas... I find myself just throwing more and more colour at it in an attempt to make it look more interesting...how come big flat brown area will work for bone-fish but not me? :P

Think I need to take some of the wrinkles out. Thank god the Tech is going to have more colours!

[KleeWyck]

keng, can you give me an estimate as to when you think you'll have both entries posted?

here's the composite so far. i'm not sure how big to make it for the final. i know i wrote that i was going to put the characters in order... but then i realized i merged some layers i wasn't supposed to and now it's sort of stuck like this... also it's easier to work from one side to the other since i don't know how large the entries will be width-wise.

edit: with recent version of bone_fish's shadow. i hope. if i made a mistake again, i'm sorry! :^^;:

[Keng]

My current goal is by six, as the grad show is at 7:00 and I still want to make it to that.

[Bone_Fish]

hey KleeWyck can you slap that updated version of the Shadow over the one that is already there? It was in the first email you got.

[KleeWyck]

*sighs*
alright 6pm. but please don't go beyond that. i tend to panic when i get stuff done last minute.

no worries. i changed him as soon as i realized that you sent me an e-mail which was right after i posted the last composite. :^^;:
for clarity's sake, i'm going to edit the last post with the updated composite.

[Keng]

frak... I just saved the sage PSD as a flattened image.. oh well.. guess he'll be missing a few WIP things then :P

[Keng]

10 minute countdown, just have to polish off the BG a little for Tech. Might take an extra 15mins... plus the resize image options seems to be lacking "pixels"... might be a little annoying rezizing them as I was working at 1800-2300 heights for both of them :P

[Keng]

I've sent klee-wyck the finals, I'll actually post them here when I get back... I know it's not many more steps but... I'm hungry, and I need to be off :)

[Bone_Fish]

err..... it might be too late but I think we needed the final images in our WIPs/sketchbook thread too.

So just to be safe I copied the images KleeWyck posted in the final burn thread and posted them here.