Chow 154 :: Character for a WWII Motivational Poster

[daestwen]

http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii293/chowarchive/CHOW-LINES/CHOW-LINES-MEDUSA.jpg

ROUND #154 :: CHARACTER FOR A WWII MOTIVATIONAL POSTER

DESCRIPTION

Character for a WWII Motivational Poster

Pretty straight forward, guys. Design a character to be used on a WWII motivational poster. Remember that you want to think about what subject you want your character to be addressing. Convincing people to enlist? Reminding them that there girlfriends are probably spies? Telling their girlfriends that to help the boys they need to work in factories? "Keep Calm, Carry On?"

You don't have to do the poster itself, just the character. But you might find it fun if you design the poster too. :] just keep the 3/4ths rule in mind! If you want a close up for the poster, you should include a full-body sketch too.


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DEADLINE
MONDAY, APRIL 13th, 2009
Deadline is Monday, at 5:00 pm Eastern Standard Time (GMT -4).
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:right: FOLLOW THE TOPIC.

:right: POST YOUR FINAL IN THE FINALS THREAD.

:right: SAVE YOUR FILES IN THE FOLLOWING FORMAT. Chow##_Nickname
example: "CHOW#100_Oblio.jpg" ;)

:right: PLACE THE IMAGE IN A FRAME WITH YOUR NAME/TOPIC

http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i222/ChowPics/frame.jpg
(you can add CA logo, etc).


POST YOUR FINALS IN THE FINALS THREAD!
Remember to include your nickname in the file name.

About quality - as general rule: if your shapes and values are not decent - you are out. Watch proportions, perspective etc. we need perfectly readable shapes and coherent, consistent values.

_____________

BE PROFESSIONAL - only finished and good quality entries will be taken to the poll. Daestwen and Poshspice will make the selection.
Please review these helpful reminders if you have not done so already.

:right:ON GETTING TO POLL (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1891823&postcount=15)
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:right:NEW ROUND RULE: WIPS PLEASE! (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1910999&postcount=27)
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:right:SUBMISSION FORMAT REMINDER (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1911002&postcount=28)



PLEASE REMEMBER TO WRITE YOUR COPYRIGHT INFORMATION UNDER THE IMAGE IN THE FINAL BURNING THREAD SO I DON'T HAVE TO HUNT YOU DOWN LATER!

[daestwen]

Some examples:

639168639171

639173639174

639175639176

639177639179

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[Razorleaf]

I like this one! My imagination is already going full steam ahead hahaha :)

[JessiBean]

So in... :teeth:

[grey]

nice one!
http://www.greystudio.com/ca/rosie.jpg

[daestwen]

Updated second post with some prime examples.

[Aly Fell]

Rosie the Riveter by Norman Rockwell is probably one of my favourite images ever!

http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/images/at0071.2s.jpg

[Sulk-Sal]

One of the cool things about a topic like this is that I can delve deeper into history and learn new things. So the only question now is: nurse, WASP, or perhaps nukes. From Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Y-12_National_Security_Complex

"Kenneth Nichols compared unit production data, and pointed out to Ernest Lawrence that the young “hill-billy” girl operators were outproducing his Ph.Ds. They agreed to a production race and Lawrence lost, a morale boost for the Tennessee Eastman workers and supervisors."

This was for the Manhattan project.

[Ink-Ronin]

can the motivation be sarcastic? because i hate war and love sarcasm...

[Ostrander]

This is so cool!

[masque]

This was for the Manhattan project.Yeah, but I doubt there'd have been any posters for anything even remotely connected to the Manhattan Project, even in Los Alamos or Oak Ridge. It was the tightest security ever experienced in the history of the U.S. to that date (and yet even so we had Communist agents in the atom bomb labs). Oak Ridge workers (not the scientists) might not even have known they were working on a war-related project.

[Ink-Ronin]

something strong and point -making like a resounding correlation....
Smoke crystal meth... because like making meth, thousands die over a fruitless cause, for an inept and outdated resource which costs too much to produce and obtain...

[Nerahla]

In researching all the cool old WWII posters, it occurred to me that everything that I could think of has been done, and that I really need to work on creativity and imagination.


So, I'd like to do this project, if only to work that weakweakweak muscle that's hiding somewhere in the corner of my brain.

I envy you all, I envy everyone here their ability and ease of creation/imagination.

[Sulk-Sal]

Yeah, but I doubt there'd have been any posters for anything even remotely connected to the Manhattan Project, even in Los Alamos or Oak Ridge. It was the tightest security ever experienced in the history of the U.S. to that date (and yet even so we had Communist agents in the atom bomb labs). Oak Ridge workers (not the scientists) might not even have known they were working on a war-related project.

Oh, I know, I just always search for the oddest way to take a project before I begin, and nuclear weapons are one of the subjects I find most interesting. If I do end up doing this though, I would most likely go with WASP but only if I am able treat it with the respect it deserves. Mockery is something I have no interest in.

[shannanigan]

Rosie the Riveter by Norman Rockwell is probably one of my favourite images ever!



Soooooo with you there!! That chick was bad ass!! Its one of my favorites too!

I can't believe you guys made such an awesome topic during the Team Chow Challenge. Are you trying to kill me?? I can't resist this!!!

Oh well, sleep is overrated anyway.... LOL!



can the motivation be sarcastic? because i hate war and love sarcasm...


Me too... I got one.

"Hitler likes it when you touch yourself"


Hahaha! Sorry I couldn't resist. :D

[daestwen]

can the motivation be sarcastic? because i hate war and love sarcasm...

Yes, sarcasm is fine.

I have a hard time believing that "If you ride alone, you ride with Hitler" isn't tongue in cheek...

[humboldt squid]

Does it have to be American style propaganda, or can we bust out the Russian socialist realism or what not?


E: my eyes must have glazed over the text in some of the examples, NM

[Aly Fell]

Does it have to be American style propaganda, or can we bust out the Russian socialist realism or what not?


There's no restriction to the US. Russian would be fine too! :)

[IanLlanas]

"If you ride alone, you ride with Hitler" - Holy shit, I just about choked on tea from laughing so hard! daestwen - I seriously doubt that was meant to be tongue and cheek, never underestimate the ridiculousness of American propaganda. Although my Russian friends have convinced me that they had us beat by a long shot.

[Ostrander]

Just a quick sketch so far. Maybe a Lumberjack looking off in the distance, thinking of his brother overseas or something. He works for a lumber mill that provides the local ammo factory the wood to fuel their fires. I dunno...
639458
EDIT:Another doodle
639829

[MJ_Alcazar]

ohhhhh, Daes, ::glares:: WHY? may I ask, at the same time as Team Chow?

j/k this'll be fun

I want to do something related to nurses, just because it's near and dear to my heart. We'll see though.

[-HAWK-]

wow, I just saw this CHOW and went to ask my Grandmother about what she and my Grandpa did back then. She had some pretty awesome stories and as a major coincidence: Turns out she had just sent me a HUGE e-mail with pictures of WWII posters this morning...so I'm in ^^

[ikuru]

oh now I get it, WWII is World War Two!
At first I thought it had something to do with the World Wrestling or the Nintendo Wii! :D

[masque]

Initial poster layout & sketch.

639563

In all wars it seems that word from the home front is a major factor in morale, so I figure it's worth a promotion.

[bluki]

one question, since I'm not American / European, can i make my own nation's poster war propaganda? (still in the era of WWII of course)

[daestwen]

bluki: yup! long as it fits the time period.

[shannanigan]

Yeah I know... its bad. But I'm doing it anyway! LOL!

I borrowed the "allure" bit from a vintage poster but the rest of it is all me!! :D

[dwinbotp]

Too much going on lately for this but it's a very interesting topic to pass up. Dunno how this might end up but here's mine. Seems like cigarettes were part of a soldier's rations back in the day. So...

[ikuru]

u got to love this stuff... :)

http://z.about.com/d/politicalhumor/1/0/q/N/antiwar_collegemoney.jpg
http://www.oldamericancentury.com/fascism_not_us_1.jpg
http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o186/michaelbogue/Boy-Scouts-Bigotry-e.jpg

[Aly Fell]

Der Fuhrers Face! A little bit of history: Donald Duck and Spike Jones!

mZiRiIpZVF4

Thought I'd have a stab. First sketch. Had a look at lots of pictures of world war two industry, and decided to fly the flag! ;) Der Fuhrer needs a bit of work...

[SinnerMan]

"Think FULL METAL JACKET, ladies! Now start shooting!"

[♦♦Jackdaw♦♦]

Sweet topic. I think I'll go with the Germans.

Poshspice - Nice idea. I like the direction you're taking with the cartoony Fuhrer. The lighter side of 40's propaganda ;)

dwinbotp - The smoking part threw me, I think the image makes more sense without it.

Shannanigan - Cool idea :). Looking nice!

Masque - Looking Nice and a solid idea. Just remember the 3/4 rule.

Ostrander - Cool looking lumberjack but try and establish a stronger connection to the WWII theme. Maybe some US airplanes in the background or something. I like your 1st sketch best.

[Miran]

http://www.demotivateus.com/posters/wwii-ww2-hitler-demotivational-poster.jpg

[gerezon]

Basic idea.

What better to motivate a person going to war than their sobbing kid? And I intend on making him pretty darn sad! :)
http://jonas.grapefrukt.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/ww2-wip1-copy-400x515.jpg

[dirkvandulmen]

wip....

I'm going for a true legend/hero/ruler of the skies ....

[masque]

Masque - Looking Nice and a solid idea. Just remember the 3/4 rule.Thanks, A2S ( ;) ), I'm still looking for a definite ruling on whether I need to show more figure, I've been told it's borderline but not which side of the border :D I guess I can either show more of the figure or provide a sketch that shows the whole figure, though I'm not entirely sure what the point of that second option is.

[Deon]

This topic is awesome!
But why now? Why now???!!
Man I'm so busy this week :( ..... And I just bought a book on Chinese propaganda posters from the cultural revolution!
Shananigan, isn't it "Loose lips sink ships" ?

[shannanigan]

Shananigan, isn't it "Loose lips sink ships" ?


Yeah.... that is the most popular version but there are many variations of the "Loose Lips" theme.
I needed it to work with my "Zipper" punchline so I altered it... ;)

[yoitisi]

Hm I don't know if I have time to get this anywhere, what with the Team ChOW going on and all, but I figured I might as well try.

This is just a rough mock-up so far, the photo in the background will eventually be painted and the layout needs some huge changes, but all the elements are about there at least. Lots of stuff to do with it in fact...

I went for a more serious British propaganda: recruiting pilots and crew for Bomber Command and their notorious bombing raids on German cities.

On the airplane to the workshop in Dallas I sat next to an old guy who turned out to be this British war veteran; he was navigator on one of those bombers and had lots of stories and memories to tell. It was...kind of inspiring to talk with someone who's actually been there and done that, so I figured I'd make a sort of tribute to that guy. Shame I forgot his name :(

640439

[anibawl]

Ah! :D This is going to be whicked.

I'm in.

[LORD M]

Sketched a bit, dunno if I'll continue.


http://img504.imageshack.us/img504/7590/murderers.jpg

[Ostrander]

another doodle...
640634

[shannanigan]

Just a little update.... gotta get this one done quick so I can get back to Team Chow!! :D

[LJaydemos]

Shannanigan I love your idea for this, and the hidden humor in this works great, i look forward to the finished work:)

[♦♦Jackdaw♦♦]

I've always been fascinated by the uniforms and graphic design of wartime Germany, hence the subject matter of my WIP:

Translation: 'The Fatherland is in danger! Enlist! Waffen SS.'

[Storr.der.Schnitter]

actually it's "Das Vaterland" not "Die Vaterland"...

[silvernomiko]

Arthur, the color palette is nice and seems time period but it's hard to delineate between the foreground figure and the background tank/gun. Otherwise, it looks nice.

[dirkvandulmen]

wip ....

[courtyard]

LMAO @ Shannanigan! Brilliant!

dirkvandulmen, your work is coming along beautifully. Love the colors and composition.

Arthur 'Two Sheds'--beautiful muted colors, really like the idea, but I'm not sure if his expression matches the ferocity of the message. He looks a tiny bit sleepy...

Ostrander--really powerful. Very clear message and high impact--great work@

[-HAWK-]

wip sketch, I was shooting for a sort of "don't just wait and worry about your soldier, do something to help him" - a poster to get girls to join in the war effort. So she'll be working on life preservers or something...I'll figure out the slogan later, right now I just need some sleep...

...Her eyes look kinda possessed too, I'll work on that tonight

[Pixeltuner]

Hmm, the first thing that came to mind was a Bill Hicks quote: Let's kill some sandniggers. But that's Gulf War, so there goes my plan for a provocative image. :p Still don't really know what to make of this.

[The Whistler]

I'll try and finish this one...

Here's the sketch, I don't have the definite message it but it'll be something like It's your war too or something like that... Not very good, I know...

EDIT: coloring...

[Ostrander]

Really nice stuff going on here guys. :)
Here is a little update on mine, just blocking in values and shapes.
642240

[Pixeltuner]

had some fun with the new Alchemy :) Not much of an idea still.

[aberrant85]

Not much of a unique character, I'll admit, but I just need the practice of drawing the human form and a painterly style.

http://nathanheigert.com/images/0_fullsize/wwiiposter1.jpg

http://nathanheigert.com/images/0_fullsize/wwiiposter2.jpg

[daestwen]

It looks like this round isn't getting a lot of entries because of the team chow. Will more people participate if I leave it open for a week?

[dose]

I will definitely jump in if there's another week. I've been trying to figure out when I can cram in time to dedicate to this one over the weekend but it's looking grim with the holidays...

[Artangela]

Long time lurker but first CHOW and first art post on ConceptArt. Scared to death. Will add garden and dress as well as value and color in upcoming WIPs. Hope I'm uploading this thing correctly...

[shannanigan]

Long time lurker but first CHOW and first art post on ConceptArt. Scared to death.


Don't be scared.... we're all just a bunch of people drawin' pictures. ;)


So heres my update. Lines are in and flat colored added. I'm hating all the fonts so I'm gonna have to do a little typography search. :D

[♦♦Jackdaw♦♦]

gerezon: Looking good, what's going on in the background?

Lord M: Nice idea. Is that a crib? I'm interested to see the text.

-HAWK: I like your idea, and that's a nice sketch

The Whistler: Feels really authentic so far. Your image already has that nice 1940's 'posteriness' (sorry adjectives fail me).

daestwen: :[

Update. Will be the last one before finals.

[Jacob Kobryn]

Awesome! I'm definitely in, and I just took my final WWII test yesterday so it's fresh in my mind. ;)

[-HAWK-]

a bit more progress tonight, I'm thinking of changing the object she's working on so thus the lack of hands ;) Everyone's got great pieces so far, I hope more join in ^^

[daestwen]

Okay, I'm going to close it on monday as usual. If there's not that many entries, just means that those that participate have a better chance of winning or getting lots of votes. :P

[The Whistler]

Dammit! I can't get the skin tone right. Coloring all over again.

Oh, and, Monday's OK :)

[shannanigan]

Okay, I'm going to close it on monday as usual. If there's not that many entries, just means that those that participate have a better chance of winning or getting lots of votes. :P


Sweet... maybe I'll actually get over 20 votes for once. LOL! ;)

[masque]

Current WIP:

643024

Some uniform detailing to be done but I plan to keep it rather loose, with only the face tightly rendered (for focus). Also need to fix the carbine rendering -- fubar prize to the first to identify my screw-up there :D

I've decided to keep the figure in greyscale to echo the look of the zillions of WWII documentary/personal photos, also one reason to keep all but the face loosely painted, since a lot of those old photos are a bit fuzzy & grainy (but still very interesting)

[Ostrander]

Sweet... maybe I'll actually get over 20 votes for once. LOL! ;)

More importantly, you'll have a piece that you can be proud of and place in your portfolio. ;)

[shannanigan]

More importantly, you'll have a piece that you can be proud of and place in your portfolio. ;)


Yeah whatever.... I'm doing it for the thrill of popularity Pal! :D

[MJ_Alcazar]

Quick sketch. Hopefully I can finish this over the weekend. :)

[masque]

I'm doing it for the thrill of popularity Pal! :DHa! I can imagine you wearing the exact expression your avvie has when you typed this, Shan' :D

[Ostrander]

Yeah whatever.... I'm doing it for the thrill of popularity Pal! :D

Haha! That's the best response ever! I gotta use that in my sig.

[shannanigan]

Masque.. Ostrander... glad I could provide you with a chuckle today.
My work here is done... LOL! :D

[dwinbotp]

pretty straightforward, if he's got them, he will smoke em! not much creativity on this one, still it's good practice:)

Arthur Two Sheds Yup, you're right, I don't condone smoking either. I just found out recently for this Chow that the cig packs are part of their ration and i just wanted to, in a way point it out how uneducated that may be. I'm guessing as long as it's home made and comes from friends and family, out on the war, even shitty stuff can be priceless:)

[JessiBean]

Some cool stuff going on, I particularly like your direction dwinbotp, I quite like dirkvandulmen's too, and impressive as always, Posh. :teeth:

I am DETERMINED to finish this week...

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[shannanigan]

Well... I think I'm done! Hooray!

[masque]

Me finished too, Shan'! We finished together. How cool is that ;)

644043

C&C always welcome.

[shannanigan]

Me finished too, Shan'! We finished together. How cool is that ;)


Clearly we are both AWESOME! :D

I really like the texture brush strokes you used... adds a lot to it.
I'm not a "Painter", so every time I try something like that it just looks wrong.

[Great Distance]

Good stuff, guys. Looking at all the drawings here really makes me think about my own approach. I tried to do something for this thread, but I didn't really think about the message I wanted to give out at all. There was just no idea behind it and thus it was rushed and pointless. Maybe better luck next time.

You think it would be okay to sometime maybe use you guys' drawings for my personal studies? ;)

[Giorge]

very interesting dwinbotp , can't wait to see the outcome

daestwen - i think it will get enough entries ^^

[♦♦Jackdaw♦♦]

dwinbotp - Ah ok cool. Looking at your original wip I didn't understand the connection between the cigarettes and sending letters, but now I get it :D

Here's what is probably very close to my final: Last minute crits are welcome.

I tried to keep it looking faithful to the era.

[Great Distance]

Arthur 'Two Sheds' - The arm he's holding up looks a bit odd to me - as if it was somehow detached from his body. Probably some problem around the shoulder. I'm thinking that maybe you just placed the shoulder too up? The result looks a little bit stiff to me, undynamic. I don't know, maybe someone else can help you out better here.

The other hand looks a little bit strange, too. The middle finger should be the longest one.

Otherwise I like it. The colors and background are great. It's just the arm that keeps distracting me.

[JessiBean]

Arthur Two Sheds - I was going to agree with Great Distance, you have very even perspective on your main figure everywhere except when you get to his shoulder, all of a sudden things are sloping upward, which makes him look odd. Keep it consistent all over, so bring the shoulder down some to line up with the foreground shoulder. I also wonder if it might look a little better if there was a touch more contrast between the main figure ans the background, maybe brighten him up some? In any case, looking very nice.

:^^:

[JessiBean]

Woot! Done...
Turn your head and cough, plz. :^^:

644980

[Dan Valkar]

wow jessi, love yours, awesome job...maybe a shorter slogan could be better..

ive been out for 4 days so, this is all i got at the moment...

[♦♦Jackdaw♦♦]

Grat Distance - Thankyou for useful the crits and kind words. I think I fixed all you mentioned ;)

Jessibean - Thankyou also. Your comments on the perspective of the figure really highlighted the problem for me. It's funny what you miss when you spend too long on the same image. Hopefully my latest adjustment has fixed it. Thanks again :). Fantastic image by the way. I wish I could return the favor but there is really nothing to crit.

Cant be bothered attaching the final image here. I'm getting sick of submitting all the info on the attachment manager... It's in finals. Done.

[aoleon]

Great topic, just saw this thread earlier, I can't believe I missed this! I started on an idea but probably won't finish it by the deadline tomorrow...

http://img104.imageshack.us/img104/9509/ww2headshot.jpg

[kelly x]

I so wish I would have seen this, boo who and whah!!! I love this challenge and thought you were just doing the team thing and not the regular chow... so sorry I am so lame and did not check this out!!!
These look great and good luck guys.

[daestwen]

Guys I'm working late tonight so the poll will be a few hours late! If you want to do touch-ups, or are rushing to get it done, now's the time.