C.O.W. #139 Just Eats the Skin! -- VOTING!

[Michael Jaecks]

ROUND #139 VOTING

Topic: Just Eats the Skin!!


Deadline for the voting: Wednesday 23 April 2009

Posting thread (closed): http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=154771.


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OK - before voting/posting read this!!!

1. Please give c&c or a reason why you voted for the image!

2. Feel free to comment on any or all entries, the artists will appreciate it!

3. No voting for your own entry!!! If a participants votes for his own entry, every member has the right to call him a stupid lame moron in this thread! And i will delete his/her vote anyway...
4. The poll is public and everyone will be able to see who votes for whom. No self-votes.

[Mordus]

642624
Artist: Mordus

Concept: Children of Mikhail
The old women always knew something was strange about the Jhakes child. They were the ones who watched him play. Watched him tear the limbs off the insects. Watched him stick them back on...somehow.
Then they watched him grow. Mikhail Jhakes was soon the finest doctor in all of Russia. Yet few would go to him, for all knew the stories. His experiments. His works. His bargains with devils. And most of all, how he built 139 twisted beasts from unholy flesh, each with a hook bolted to its arm, and how each was animated by a demon within the carcass, a Sabbat of Sheol, the 2nd Hell.
And how these monsters, the children of Mikhail, would walk forth and scavenge the skins of dead warriors.
Mikhail was building something.

[dwinbotp]

Artist: dwinbotp

Concept: Flayer Maggots
Already on the piece, Kindly read :)

[Smashed_Pumpkin]

Artist: Smashed Pumpkin

Concept: The Cruoursus

The Cruoursus, more commonly known as the Slaughterboar, is found in remote forests and jungles. The boar enjoys a very select diet, feeding only on the skin of other creatures. Often it will simply scavenge the skin from already dead creatures, eating the skin which other predators discard and even most scavengers overlook. The boar’s scissor like fore-feet allow it to make precision cuts in the skin removing it meticulously. Cruoursi are pack creatures with a Patriarch leading the herd. There will often be a number of males competing for the position of patriarch and time not spent hunting or scavenging is spent fighting each other. As a result Cruoursi generally tend to be extremely strong and resilient, quite capable of defending themselves against attackers much larger than themselves.
642720

[luness]

Artist: luness
Concept: Navalla

A creature about the size of a domestic cat that would jump (from the ground, from trees, from anywhere) in small groups onto the back of bigger creatures to feed on their thick skins. Their saliva saves the bigger creature of infections and also ease the healing and renewal of the part that has been eaten.
As represented in the graphics, they would use their razor-sharp lower beaks to make precise incisions, like a surgeon using a scalpel, and peel off the slices of skin with their hardened claws.

[Reymus]

Artist:Reymus

Concept: Quanakakramanu


This horse sized beast preys on the soft-skinned as yet unidentified creatures that fall from the jungle canopy onto the floor, and with it's heightened sense of smell can detect a meal from miles away. Upon discovering a carcass, the Quanakakramanu, as the locals have named this scavenger, it then proceeds to feast upon it only stripping the animal of it's skin. Scientists are unsure of the purpose though it is suspected that the Quanakakramanu's skin is highly sensitive to it's surroundings and must eat regularly to stave off infection, blisters, and peeling. A late stage Quanakakramanu with advanced skin problems is a voracious scavenger and can attack live prey smaller than it.

[Crowsrock]

Artist: Crowsrock
Concept: Hide Grater
A great pest on Akoltuh III. The Hide Grater plagues the big cattle beast bred on that agricultural planet.

[Jerik]

Artist: Jerik

Concept: War-Mask Pseudogriffon
Native to the Planet of Volkeem, this predator possesses a curious instinct for feeding, instead of being dependant upon full corpses, the alternate digestive system of this extra-terrestrial Avian forces the crittor instead to flay it's victims in flight and feed upon removed skin tissue. Preying upon animals similar to the Earth rabbit, the War-Mask Pseudogriffon growing to about the size of a common Earth seagull.

[AD2012]

Artist: AD2012
Concept: Red Skin Scub

During the terraforming of the Martian surface at the end of the 21st century, large amounts of soil were sent to help with the development and acclamation of Earth-like habitats and species. It was the over oxygenation and lack of predators that lead to the infestation of the skin scub on the Martian surface. a member of the Trombicula family, originally the scub was a mutation of Earth's chiggers and mites.

At only 5 microns at the adult stage, (shown above at 10,000x size) they are almost invisible to the naked human eye. Alone, the parasite is virtually harmless, gnawing at tiny fragments of skin. With it's fragile upper jaw hook, it tears small chunks off to eat.

However, the venom that secretes from its bottom "jaws" is highly corrosive, and will decay the skin, much like a bedsore, leaving the exposed raw flesh of the victim. The scub in large hives can infest entire crops and fields in a matter of a day. As decay happens at a rate of 1 inch per minute after direct contact, and left untreated, many bites have been attributed to death of many terraform workers. The open raw wounds are incredibly prone to infection. At first it was thought to be a fungal infection, until their discovery late last year.

Early signs of possible scub bite infections would be bruises that change and get darker quickly, heightened skin sensitivity, and dramatic decreases in energy. Seek immediate medical attention if any signs occur.

[Droid]

http://i711.photobucket.com/albums/ww113/President_Choob/2009-04-13-2139-23_edited.jpg

Artist: Choob

Concept: Chupatra
Roughly the size of a house cat, these little creatures hide in the dark parts of the dense forests, on the planet Angethar. Their huge eyes and ears help them to find prey lost in the trees, and in small packs of 5 or 6 they can take down an animal that can be the size of a small horse. They have a strange liking for the skin on animals, especially humans, presumably because of the salty sweat giving the flesh a taste they are fond of.

My first C.O.W Entry, sorry about the sizing, my computer is dying, had to restart 2 times to just scan it.

=(

[skullbeast]

Artist: skullbeast

Concept: FLUEGG
The Fluegg is an oddity all to itself. This creature instinctively eats only the tastiest part of its meal, the skin. The Fluegg leaves the rest of the carcass for mother nature to consume. The Fluegg is a nocturnal hunter that uses an advanced sense of taste to find its prey. The Fluegg uses one of its tongues as an "outlook" tasting the air as it's fish hooked tongue rends loose "snacks" of skin while the larger rake teeth make light duty of tougher hide.

[Pantro]

Artist: Pantro

Concept: Europa's Jellyfish
Hi, this is my first COW.

This is a deep sea jellyfish that lives in Europa, one of the moons of Jupiter, it is about 5 meters long, it uses its beak to introduce a venom that is produced inside its green glands to separate the skin from the body of its victim, then uses its claws to take the meat to its mouth. After eating the skin, the body is disposed because the stomach of this jellyfish can't digest raw meat.

[lkjhgfdsa]

Artist: lkjhgfdsa

Concept: SkinFlicker
The colloquial name for this creature is as much for it's nature when feeding as it is for the flicker of colour that ripples across its transluscent skin when it attacks it's prey.

[rushwolf]

Artist: rushwolf

Concept: Rom-rom
The Rom-rom's name comes from the strange sound it makes before charging its prey. Perhaps catching its breath, or some useless battle cry. With great inhales they bellow "Rohm Rohm." Gifted with neither sharp claws, keen vision, nor quick wit; the Rom-roms seem to have taken the odd forks in the road of evolution. Some say they're the ungainly cousins of killer whales, orcas, using their massive heads to ram into their prey. Or their prey's hiding spot. Once they manage to hit something, they use their horn-like hooves to savage the corpse, making it easier for their inept mouths to get a hold of the skin.

[Michael Jaecks]

All righty. Choob, I'm sorry, but I had to pull you from the poll. We need to have finished work in COW, not sketches.
AD2012: I fixed your html, and still think the pic is going to be a little on the large size for many voters' screens.

[AD2012]

^^^ Thx Jaecks^^^ this is my first COW post, and i was so excited and trying to make sure I made the deadline I forgot to size it down, didnt know how to go back and fix it. Thx and sorry about that.

[Michael Jaecks]

AD2012: No prob.

All: New round is up... http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=155819

[lwhuang]

really hard to vote with so many great submission but i voted for dwinbotp because it is more believable for me that a smaller creature will only just eat the skin instead of a larger beast. I also think it is very cleanly rendered and polished. I would have voted for rushwolf's or luness too if they were smaller in size. but i love all of them and just able to give one vote so i was careful to read evrything:)

[rushwolf]

Sorry if my C&C is a bit raw. Lack of sleep! Aimed to be constructive, I wanna see peoples grow!


Mordus - The image, while shaded, doesn't convey much sense of volume or light source. Also having the creature just sort of "float" in the middle of the page doesn't help the presentation. Some simple cast shadow on a ground plane would help.

dwinbotp - A nice design, though I think you could have pushed it a bit more. All of the creature's legs align a bit stiffly [though they may be dead, but still!]. I think for the nature of COWs and CHOWs, the subject shouldn't be such a small portion of the composition. There's a lot of intricate anatomy packed into lil critters like your Flayers.

Smashed Pumpkin - Again, while your image is shaded, its not really conveying much volume. It looks more like it has its muscles and veins tattooed onto its surface. The background adds a lot of distracting noise as well. Some cast shadow on a ground plane would help the creature seem a bit more solid. Before tackling all these small muscles, focus on seeing and rendering the large body parts are simple shapes. Shapes that have volume. The little details of muscles and veins come after than.

luness - I like the concept. I originally wanted some sort of ape-like critter too. The only thing that bugs me is the hair on its head. Something seems off, I think being able to see so many individual strands gives it an unnatural, more graphical, appearance. Overall you went for a more stylized approach, which is nice, but I think it clashes in some areas. Namely the graphical blood and hair. Yah still got my vote. And you still owe me money for voting for you last time. :D

Reymus - Nice basic design. Reminds me of ravagers from WoW. The colors are kinda muddy. I think you could benefit from practicing a balance between straight and curved lines. Also notice that colors tend to get more saturated toward shadows, desaturated toward highlights.

Crowsrock - Your anatomy could use some work. Muscles tend to wrap and curve around the bones. Also pay attention to what the creature's skeleton would be like, as it is there are no real "landmarks" in the anatomy where the bone is near the surface. It really makes the creature seem like it has balloons for limbs. Also as I suggested to Pumpkin, start off defining the anatomy with simple shapes, make sure the superstructures [arms, trunk, legs, etc] have a clearly defined shape, get the lighting to read, then move onto the smaller shapes: muscles, skin folds, etc.

Jerik - Sorry man, but a six legged crow isn't really stretching the imagination. Its drawn fairly well, but in a sort of comic-book, anime sort of way.

AD2012 - I see a lot of potential in this. But first- don't post your image with dimentions more than 900x1100 or so. The scribbled background is kinda distracting, also the shadow it casts reads like the Scub is standing on top of a mound. The rendering on the back and glands is nice, but the black lines really kill the sense of volume. Avoid using black, aim for a dark value of the color but don't be too quick to hit the extreme ends of the value scale.

skullbeast - The colors are extremely muddy. The person's skin looks like he's part rainbow trout. I think your design is overly noisy, very few solid surfaces or shapes for the eye to lock onto. The lighting also seems haphazard. I think some clearly defined light sources will help you rendered surfaces better.

Pantro - Values. hues. anatomy.

lkjhgfdsa - While a bit difficult to read, I think its a nice design. Would have liked seeing it brought further than penciling with a color wash.

[Reymus]

I voted for dwinbotp this time, though I think it could really be better if they had more detail to emphasize a cross between worm/maggot and shrimp/centipedes.

Rushwolf - I notice the muddiness as well, it happens with a lot of whatever I do when i take it from Painter to photoshop, maybe it's preferences but almost every TIFF file gets noticeably pixellated and I lose colors in some places.

And for your entry,while I like this one, it resembles those pinky demons in Doom, but I loved the WIP version of it, it seemed more malicious, a lot more on it's face as if it just stuffed itself.

[Droid]

All righty. Choob, I'm sorry, but I had to pull you from the poll. We need to have finished work in COW, not sketches.
AD2012: I fixed your html, and still think the pic is going to be a little on the large size for many voters' screens.

No problem dude, I didn't have enough time for anything more. Just thought I'd post so you guys can see what my idea was.

Don't worry about it, I might have more time next week.

:sungod:

Voted for skullbeast, loved it all through development, and it looks great it the final copy.

:wink:

[AD2012]

I voted for dwinbotp. I just liked the design all around, and I'm partial to X-files. Really like the glass lighting. And the concept of a group of small skin eaters versus one large one, just seems more believable and scary.

rushwolf- Thanks man, it was a toss up. I really loved your piece.
I couldn't agree with you more. My shadows seemed wrong, like he was standing way to high almost. And I was just tired, and forgot to resize the image. Sorry. Everything I've done digitally has been on PS2. Ive seen a few basic tutorials, but nothing much. Kinda trying to teach myself, this is like my 10th attempt. I notice I have a lot of similar problems in any medium, as my stuff flattens out, mainly due to me choosing black, or something to dark. I need to better understand values and contrast, hopefully better understand how light and shadows hit and fall on form. I'm all self taught, day and night for years. Thats why I'm here though. Needs some better, you know...

I'll post my WIPs next time, so I could maybe get some constructive crits.

Thx

AD

[Smashed_Pumpkin]

Mordus, I would have liked to see it painted and rendered, seems like there's a bit too much going on for a pencil sketch like that, still I like the bakground story and it really looks badassed.

Dwinbotp, I really liked the connection to X-files on this one, made it feel that bit more authentic. The perfectionist in me is weeping for that jar though, it seems to lean to the left and the label looks like it's stuck to the inside of the glass; I wouldn't want to be the guy that stuck it in there, hehe.

Luness, you got my vote :yayca: because it seems to have the stongest sense of completion and the composition feels very satisfying. Maybe size it down a little so us poor buggers still using x768 resolutions don't have to scroll, otherwise brill! Keep it up!.

Reymus, I must say I actually prefered your creature earlier on in one of your WIPs because your final seems a little smudged in places, the blood and skin being chewed, frustratingly so. I really do like the concept though.

Crowsrock, the first thing I thought when I glanced at that bad boy was "NASTY!". I think you captured the creatures method brilliantly but I think there's a few perspective and anatomy issues, such as his front right foot/hand and the way it angles at the wrist.

Jerik, I love it! There's something so satisfying about that image but I can't quite put my finger on it. That little rodent's(?) expression is fantastic, can really see the feeling of "WTF?!". But like Rushwolf says, the concept isn't relaly pushing anything.

AD2012, it looks like you've got a really good skill at creating realistic form because that things legs look grabable! It does however have an overall feeling of blurryness, as though photographed out of focus and ofcourse it's bloody HUGE!, heh otherwise great work, another painter I'll be looking forward to more work by.

Skullbeast, you seem to work with a confidence that I envy, I think I like your image more as the resultant outcome of the WIPs I watched you submit in the WIPs thread rather than an image on it's own. There's a lot of really cool details that I think are awesome, like the little clawed arms on it's antena-like frond and the oozing guts of the victim, spilling forth. But I think Rushwolf is right about there being a lack of focus for the eye to stick to and that background looks a bit like he's made his kill on a high speed merry-go-round. Not that I can talk much considering my backgrounds...

Pantro, I think you might have given yourself more trouble than you should have with your concept. I wouldn't even know where to start when trying to draw a giant jellyfish that eats skin. It does looke a little bit too much like a big blue ball, dolled up with tentacles, claws, big green blobs and a tutu. I'd suggest starting with more simple ideas and looking at the shapes that make up the form of a creature. Work on recognising what it is about the shapes makes them recognisable as those forms. But all in all I take my hat off to you for attempting and sticking with the image you made.

Lkjhgfdsa, I think it's a cool image and some badassed anatomy on those legs but it seems quite hard to make out. It doesn't seem clear how the "head/body" section joins to the legs and to some extent it feels like the head and legs don't really belong together, apart from the colour scheme. I also think there's is too much of the original line-drawing showing but I'm pretty sure that was just due to being pushed for time, would be awesome to see it taken further.

Rushwolf, the way you paint is lush! It was stunning to see your flurry of WIPs right at the end there, you obviously have a lot of talent. It does seem like you're quite indecisive or maybe just too self critical, pick an Idea and see it through!. I'd love to have seen your creature in a more finished state with some nice sharp-edged details because it does to some extent feel like a plastic molded object. I'm looking forward to more of your work.

[blackcherry]

I voted for dwinbotp. It was my favourite piece overall. I really like the rendering, the glass jar is great! The species is well designed and I also liked the X-files concept and write-up to go with it.

[dwinbotp]

rushwolf, Thanks for the helpful crits. I do have a consistency problem and my stuff looks rushed and i know it would be nice to sit down and finish a piece with overall satisfaction, haha. I'm proly doing the CHOW and COWs for the wrong reasons but I've treated these activities as a push to do lots more than the usual workload. I'm definitely going to push things a bit harder and not treat these wonderful topics as an excuse to do speedies:)

[NakedZergling]

reymus FTW

I Find yours to be the most pleasing to my eyes. I love the structure and the color. Nice.

[Mushroom168]

i almost went with luness because the idea was really original and well thought out, but in the end i had to go with dwinbotp becuase i thought it looked the best

[HareTrinity]

Voted for Dwinbotp. Tried not to just to avoid letting my X-Files fan-side show, but I do like the jar and general design too.

My next favourites were...

- Crowsrock: I was biased towards smaller parasites, it was a bit large but I thought putting it on cattle, even alien cattle-beasts, made it more realistic.

- AD2012: Pic was offputtingly large, but looked good otherwise.

[Michael Jaecks]

Congrats to dwinbotp... just posted your second star. Well done!