112 Dracula's castle, Transylvania Gothic

[chaosrocks]

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e181/chaosrocks/EOW2.jpg

112 Dracula's castle, Transylvania Gothic

Brief
which ever version you chose, It just better be dark ad scary as hell :P


DUE may19th 2009
and we're off again!

NO description required, say what you need to say visually.


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[Gaius]

Oo nice!
count me in. :)

[nickmarshallvfx]

Yea i might get in on this one if i have time.... despite knowing that Gaius is in ;)

Nick

[chaosrocks]

aw don't let him intimidate you
it'll be fun!

crx

[Kazan]

My WIP. I want to say "quick sketch", but this has taken me multiple hours cos I suck. :(

http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/2789/draculacastle.jpg

Dunno if it'll be good enough when it's finished or not, but hopefully I'm learning while doing it. :)

[Amber Alexander]

oooo I've never really done an environment and this one sounds like a fun one to start with, I might have to try it!

[Hideyoshi]

Waaah, killer topic!! :x

[kevin mayle]

I'm in on this one.

[Tonic]

I guess it's allowed to paint the castle's inferior?

[arttorney]

I think you mean interior. Inferior would mean "not so good" and I am sure you aim to do your best.;)

[ashton]

http://i356.photobucket.com/albums/oo7/ashtonsimmonds/dracula.jpg

top down.

[Tonic]

I think you mean interior. Inferior would mean "not so good" and I am sure you aim to do your best.;)

Haha, yes, you're right - I meant interior ;)

[IIKII]

It didn't came out like what i have in mind
668468

[Hideyoshi]

:right::right:

edit: resolved some things I wasn't happy with...

[geronimo66]

awe crap.... yoshi... as soon as I saw the title I started seeing horn or fang like shapes... or a castle of saber like blade shapes shooting upward...

[kevin mayle]

OK, after those last two entries, maybe I won't enter now.

[fughi from yuggoth]

non-digital. all analog.

[Tonic]

As so far:
http://tonic-art.com/gallery/eow/112_dracula_castle/wip3.jpg

WIPS as so far:
http://tonic-art.com/gallery/eow/112_dracula_castle/wip1.jpg
http://tonic-art.com/gallery/eow/112_dracula_castle/wip2.jpg

Creating a mood is surely a hardest part - I played with Photoshop colour editing (do I hear booo's?), like colour balance, overlay layers, map gradient etc.
The results were a bit unpredictable and I have made a set. It helps me a lot with choosing mood.

http://tonic-art.com/gallery/eow/112_dracula_castle/dracula_castle_moods.jpg

[Mark Tarrisse]

Woww... tonic great job ! I think the rain you added on the last one is a great idea, but for the colors I think the second and the third one on the left are the bests.

BTW I think I'll give a try to this eow ! :)

[kevin mayle]

Oh my lord, I am so far out of my league here.

[chaosrocks]

Kevin_don't be a wuss..... these guys are whats gonna help you get up there. If you don't try , you can't.
and Wow gentlemen woot!

anybody actually do any research?
:P
(not required...just teasing.

[artiphats]

Hideyoshi you suck! (Except for that fact that you're actually pretty good :) ). Tonic great progress shots, thanks for those.

I agree with Chaos, no one should feel out of their league in here. We're all still learning no matter how new or seasoned.

I got two other paintings going on right now but I'm REALLY gonna try to get in on this one!

[kevin mayle]

OK, I'll post mine. It'll be done soon.

[arttorney]

Ha ha ha, Chaos. I've been watching the old 1930 Dracula a bit at a time. He's in London now, but there's still Carfax Abbey to look at.

I'm making one that is kind of a graphic novel double splash page. Are you going to eject me if there's a word bubble in Old English font and a hand with pointing finger extending into the picture plane? The castle will definitely be there on the first intersection of the thirds the eye usually goes to. (Admittedly, because of the word bubble, everybody's eyes will probably draw a Z backwards into the picture ending on the castle.)

[Hideyoshi]

Hideyoshi you suck!
YES! Someone finally said it! Thanks! :D

I don't have a problem with not taking it to poll, done it often enough, right? :) I often only do these for my own personal practice. And creating something after a topic in a community environment always gives me that extra little encouragement and inspiration.

Tonic: looking rad! I think you have improved a lot! I like top right and middle left!

[Tonic]

Oh my lord, I am so far out of my league here.

Don't be a wuss :P Just only for you I went to my ultra-super-secret archive, avoided tarantulas and vampire bats and pulled out my (mostly probably) first coloured environment I made when I started my first architectural drawing course. The work is dated for 4th April in 2007, so it makes two years ago.

http://tonic-art.com/gallery/eow/112_dracula_castle/environment_2007.jpg

There are countless factors deciding how much improvement you can gain, but being not intimated by other people and using their works for own improvements is one of them :) And my experience from preparation school confirms this :)

Markusthebarbarian, hideyoshi, thanks! I'm glad to hear about improvement. Don't hate me, hideyoshi, but I too think that your work there looks poor comparing to your other excellent works :P

About rain, I have a dilemma. Of course, it's a interesting effect and gives and mood, but there is a disadvantage I see : with rain, I have feeling that there's going too much - third point perspective, a bit spheroidal, swirly clouds, bright moon, vampire waiting at the end of balcony (?), warrior going to slash him, corpses on the right side and tall objects in the background. Adding rain makes works less clarified. You know saying "less i more", right? :) And I think it would fit there. But perhaps making the rain more subtle should be enough?

About colours, I basically I agree with your choices, however, I want to combine moods - that's why I've made colour experiments and made a set. It's easy to compare and see what exactly it's good in specific moods. I've numbered moods examples and replaced with image from above. As so far, I think I will use moods from 2, 3 and 5. For lighted area around moon, I think I will use 3 (green and blue combinations), for foreground I will use 2, as it's a bit darker and blue and green are visible. About 6, I will probably use the lighted bottom part of background - the olive, humid, foggy effect looks appealing. It may be more subtle to make whole work more readable.

[kevin mayle]

Oh I made one. I never get too intimidated to keep from doing my own art. I just felt that I'd embarrass myself by posting it after I saw all the talent on display here.
I'll post it though. I just have to finish tweaking it.
By the way, thanks for the kick in the pants to get me to not wuss out. Haha!

[kevin mayle]

Oh, hey Tonic? I was watching some of the videos on your site and could you tell me what program you are using that lets you construct your environments in 3-D shapes before painting over it?
Thanks!

Edit:
I just saw what you are using.
Photoshop CS3 + Google SketchUp + Intuos3 A5 wide
As I watch your videos I come away with more questions than answers.
Do you recommend a DVD tutorial I could buy that would explain how you are doing all the tips and tricks, like how you place in those perspective lines etc.
Thanks!

[audit]

woah, interesting discussion about how much we all suck, very confidence-boosting...

Tonic i love the feel..the composition is ace. xD

anyways i got together with my brain and we made this. before viewing this image you should be warned that my knowledge of gothic architecture is EXTREMELY advanced. Also, Dracula has loads of guests at the moment.

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b141/86audit19/cgforums/vamp2.jpg

[artiphats]

audit FTW! Whoa that's a good one you got there!

But to hell with you all I'm in fo' sho'! I don't see much gothic yet so I'm going that route. See you all at the finish (unless I post WIP's before then of course) >:D

EDIT: Actually, mr. audit, after viewing your image again and actually reading what you typed, I think you should use your advanced knowledge of gothic architecture to spice up that bridge. Maybe it's just me, but the bridge is just begging to get more attention. Oohhh, and maybe bats could be flying out from under the bottom of the land mass under the castle, lower left. Please feel free to ignore my ideas and comments all together :)

[PixelFish]

I think I might participate in what would be my first EoW. (And only my second of the "of the Week" challenges.)

So I've set up my castle in 3dsmax so I can make sure to get the perspective right, and I'm contemplating one of these two layouts....

[revenebo]

Tonic I can't leave you alone five minutes and you post some ass-kicking environments. When have you progressed so much?!?! Anyway I prefer the way you painted two years ago... :)

Audit °_° Majestic...

I'll post in the WIP thread, I usually don't do it to avoid losing time uploading the WIP images, but I think it's useful...

I'm going with the interior of the castle, something like a loggia overlooking a forest of impaled bodies...

669929

[ashton]

http://i356.photobucket.com/albums/oo7/ashtonsimmonds/wip04.jpg

duckula.

[Tonic]

Oh, hey Tonic? I was watching some of the videos on your site and could you tell me what program you are using that lets you construct your environments in 3-D shapes before painting over it?
Thanks!

Edit:
I just saw what you are using.
Photoshop CS3 + Google SketchUp + Intuos3 A5 wide
As I watch your videos I come away with more questions than answers.
Do you recommend a DVD tutorial I could buy that would explain how you are doing all the tips and tricks, like how you place in those perspective lines etc.
Thanks!

To be honest, I only have el coro's storyboard drawing video from Massive Black and I can tell it's useful in terms of environment. He uses various perspectives, static and dynamic, and shows how he creates them. For rest questions, it's better if you just ask there. About lines, I've used just a Photoshop Line tool and placed lines by my eye. It's simple, but requires perspective knowledge and experience. Drawing geometrical forms is a excellent exercise. Returning to DVDs, I think the one David Levy made for G.n.o.m.o.n. (without dots, I have no idea why forum erases this words) would be a good idea - judging by screenshots and the fact it's him, you could learn many things. hydropix has posted two videos on his page (http://hydropix.com) where he draws from beginning to the end. You can learn few colouring tricks. The playback is fastened a lot, so you will have use Pause button a lot to see what he's going.


woah, interesting discussion about how much we all suck, very confidence-boosting...

Tonic i love the feel..the composition is ace. xD

anyways i got together with my brain and we made this. before viewing this image you should be warned that my knowledge of gothic architecture is EXTREMELY advanced. Also, Dracula has loads of guests at the moment.

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b141/86audit19/cgforums/vamp2.jpg

Wow, that's a really nice work. Something simple, yet hits strongly in viewer's face. I like how did you made air perspective, combined with foggy/cloudy effect. I also like the subtle scratchy feeling in whole work. The two things I would improve in your place are: the main element is too centralised. Maybe shifting the castle a bit to left and darkening mountains in background at right side would make the composition more interesting with kept balance. Second thing, as artiphats noticed, is bridge, I think it's too thin. Heck, if I were a giant staying by castle, I couldn't suppress the urge to chop the bridge :P

And I think that work just begs on knees for some colours, even monochromatic :)


I think I might participate in what would be my first EoW. (And only my second of the "of the Week" challenges.)

So I've set up my castle in 3dsmax so I can make sure to get the perspective right, and I'm contemplating one of these two layouts....

I think both images have great potentials. The problem is filling empty and plain areas (bottom right portion in first image and upper right portion in second image). In first case, you can put, for example, some ground with people with torch or something. In second case you could put a big bat with carriage on back or something. I think the first castle is tilted too much. It looks like it wants to pop out from mountain and fall to grounds :P I think tilting should be subtle, especially in static composition.

Tonic I can't leave you alone five minutes and you post some ass-kicking environments. When have you progressed so much?!?! Anyway I prefer the way you painted two years ago... :)


Haha, I too somewhat finds something cute in this work ;) And thanks!


Audit °_° Majestic...

I'll post in the WIP thread, I usually don't do it to avoid losing time uploading the WIP images, but I think it's useful...

I'm going with the interior of the castle, something like a loggia overlooking a forest of impaled bodies...

669929



For fast uploading images, I recommend using Photobucket or FireFTP plugin for Firefox + your own account. In Photobucket you have awesome option for batch creating links for various internet places, such as your webpage, blog, forums etc. It looks like that - you create new category, select WIP files from hard disk and upload at one time. After they're uploaded, you select them in Photobucket's category, then click a "Generate HTML and IMG code", select [IMG] links and paster there, then voila! It really takes only few clicks to show them there. But there are disadvantages, such as the fact that Photobucket doesn't like any erotic images and deletes them. Do you remember Space Vixens EOW? zimfin made a thumbnail with woman statue ass part and they deleted it. He joked that Nuns runs Photobucket :P

Anyway, this hosting service isn't well suited for learning artists, who would study anatomy (like myself) so I swapped to FireFTP + my FTP account. It integrates with browser and it's convenient. It can copy image URLs, but without [IMG] brackets, unfortunately. I've suggested adding this Photobucket feature to author and he said he will think about it in next version.

[peterhurman]

heres mine, ill try and mess with it more later in the week http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v314/ovenglove/castle7.jpg

[Mark Tarrisse]

I dont do enought enviro, so I thought that eow was a good reason to try to do something. So here's some thumbs for the moment, I'll try to do some more.

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y192/markus_the_barbarian/Eow_WIPS01.jpg

[PixelFish]

Markus:I like the colours in the middle one and the bottom one. Those are my two favourites of your layouts so far.

Peterhurman: I like the sense of space your WIP is giving off. Also the lighting is very unique so far.

Tonic: Thanks for the advice....I'm definitely considering modifying the slope a bit. (Not too much, because too straight on doesn't give the looming effect I'm hoping for, but yeah, I see your point.)

Audit: Your picture has a lot of stylistic impact. I'm alternately troubled but charmed by the implausibility of your thin bridge. From a concept/strategy point of view, it's a smidge problematic....but from an aesthetics/style point of view, it hits a particular fantastical sweet spot for me. I'd consider refining the supports, and perhaps throwing in extra arches, but the delicacy contrasts and contributes to the impact of the large mass that the castle sits on. It's a juxtaposition that almost works, but just needs some refinement.

Revenbo: It's nice to see somebody approaching the interior and tackling the close-up view of the internal architecture.

[xabian]

just thought id post my wip, dunno if I'll finish, pretty busy revising
http://i43.tinypic.com/ms12sh.png
http://i41.tinypic.com/s1t6vq.png

[Tonic]

peterhurman, the cathedral isn't well constructed - looks like you painted it from mind and by eye. I suggest you to take photo references and redraw cathedral with perspective lines. Construct it first, then paint. And you should move it a bit to right side. The balance of the whole work is tilted to the left side because of heavy building and darker mountains in background. It's just that the right half is much lighter than left. And the scale of birds are a bit off - they're larger than humans and their wing length is around cathedral's small window height. Perhaps it was on purpose? :)

Markusthebarbarian, hard to believe you don't paint much environments :P All thumbnails looks very nice - I like all colour examples, moods and compositions are well balanced. So it's up to your taste, but if you would ask, I'd choose top middle and bottom ones. But castle forms aren't so interesting - they're pretty classic. In your place, I could try with unusual designs, even S-F. It would be cool to see a castle in Calatrava's style, but that would be a quite challenge :)

xabian - the work isn't balanced, the elements are places mainly in right half of canvas and you left the left side empty, with only moon. The foreground looks it was cut out and glued to work, I guess it's mainly caused by its lighting - you have a moon in background, but looking at rocks, it looks like there a second light source coming from viewer's side. And you should focus more on readability of forms instead detailing. But in the end it's you just need to keep practising, especially rocks, perspective (so you can construct buildings properly) and lighting.

For anyone - if you have problem with compositing, there's a old good rule saying you place the main element (castle, for example) in 1/3 of canvas width (from left or right). Not in centre, nor close to canvas edge. Compositing has various definitions, one of them would be a filling empty canvas with keeping balance. For explaining balance, try to imagine you have a paper. A 1cm^2 of grey area drawn by pencil weights 100gram. The darker area is, the heavier it's, and the lighter area is, it has less weigh. Now draw in each half of paper rectangle. One is dark, second is grey. Now hold the paper in the middle area. Will it tilt? If yes, then it's unbalanced and you must "add" more height to get balance. For example, drawing another grey rectangle, so you have two grey rectangle versus one black one. And that's all.

Returning to topic, I'm sickened by rendering lighting caused by moon and rain, so I will take break. The results as so far - any merciless critiques?

http://tonic-art.com/gallery/eow/112_dracula_castle/wip4.jpg

[geronimo66]

How the heck did you get into my head!!! I am gonna have to hate you for a while ;)


I like the darkness and mood that you have brought to this work.

[Mark Tarrisse]

Hey tonic thanks, and you're definitly right about the castles, I had done those thumbnails just for the mood/composition/color stuff, after I was planing to start on the concept (maybe the way I proceed is a little weird but as I said I dont do enviro often :))

Yours is pretty cool as I said earlier but I've just noticed something : man that paladin is a hobbit or what ?! :D I mean, I look at the dead guys on the right side, and they look 2 times bigger than your paladin ?! hehe...
and he could also have a pose, maybe more dynamic.
I think its all I have to say, the rest is way to cool man ! :)

[Tonic]

How the heck did you get into my head!!! I am gonna have to hate you for a while ;)

I like the darkness and mood that you have brought to this work.

Hey, thanks! And your brain looks tasssteful..! Oh, yes, you're going to hate me :P



Yours is pretty cool as I said earlier but I've just noticed something : man that paladin is a hobbit or what ?! :D I mean, I look at the dead guys on the right side, and they look 2 times bigger than your paladin ?! hehe...
and he could also have a pose, maybe more dynamic.
I think its all I have to say, the rest is way to cool man ! :)

To be honest, I wanted this "palladin" to be evil, a humanoidal demon being who kills only for money. Ordinary humans don't work as it's shown in picture :P

But you're absolutely right with proportions and I'm going to correct it. The dynamic pose is a great idea, but it's also hard for me, as I'm not that experienced with characters. Though, I will try :)

[Lander]

Second time around these parts of the forum :)
As always, eyecandy for the needing to be seen straight out ov the oven. I'm inspired by every ones work so far.

So here comes my initial scribble. Feel free to crit tho it's early in the process.

[kevin mayle]

Thanks Tonic, all of that is going to be very useful for me.
In the meantime, this is what I came up with.
http://i661.photobucket.com/albums/uu333/kevinmayle52/Draculas-Castle.jpg

[audit]

Tonic - you are a useful person. thanks! your work is well realised. i was wondering about whether you could put in close foreground elements to make a slight vignette. That would be cool :) And maybe play with your secondary lights. The olive tone is good but wants a complementary or just more saturated colour in the palette to make it work.

With regard to the bridge you and pixelfish pointed out, yes, it is structurally impossible unless it's made of some kind of super-material. But, this is Dracula we're talking about here. Haha. Actually that isn't a good enough excuse...I tried a lot of things with that bridge and I hated the outcomes...arches just get in the way of the nice scenery.

Markusthebarbarian - lovely stuff! hope you develop some/one or other.

Peterhuman - I think the piece reads well. The way you've lit the scene is great, but possibly there are just too many light sources? The rather heavy fill light is flattening the piece I think. Also I have to agree with tonic about the perspective, it is a little wonky in places, sorry.

xabian - if you do work more on this, i would stop detailing and work on the bare bones of the lighting. Considering you are making a night-time scene, the light sources will be very well defined, precise and small, so they won't produce much if any fill light (reflected light). Basically the whole of the rocky bit should be unlit except for the vaguest suggestion of formations. Imo. That'll also make it far more dramatic.

kevin - I think the light source is misconstrued and it's weakening the piece. If the structure is lit strongly from behind you won't get a higher value in the middle of the structure, but at the edges. Form in the structure will come from lights within it. So the castle and the rocks it's standing on could do with a relight. I like the sky though and the bat effect is cool! Kind of psychedelic..


Anyway I painted this evening and came up with another idea, added a colour wash for the sake of it. I'm not keen on it but I had trouble getting even a half-decent colour scheme together. I think it's overexposed at the moment, and there are lots of details I'll work out if I still like it tomorrow.

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b141/86audit19/cgforums/vamp3.jpg

[geronimo66]

plenty here to make me want to quit!! uuug, starting to wonder if I should pursue my art education. :(

[geronimo66]

well here is my place holder, this is kinda what I am thinking... now to beat it to death with a detail hammer.

[revenebo]

Update!

671481

[L0bo]

so here is my wip.
some crits would be nice.

http://i601.photobucket.com/albums/tt99/L0bo/Draculacasslte9.jpg

[NicHolS]

wow some great entries so far! ive been crook as hell all week and painting in bed on my laptop but unable to get conceptart.org to work on my connection for some reason... so no wip's for this one... ill just post my progress and final...

also im not sure if a logo or text is alloud so i did two variants, one with and one without... i always plan my negative space in my compositions for potential headers or text... it also helps the composition breathe without the logo mor often then not. let me know what you think

adam

LObo - nice angle! try to ensure the image has a single strong focal point, will be easy to over detail the foreground stairs and not the door.. cant wait to see it finished!

Revenebo - Glad someone did a interior shot! i was going to do one but copped out in the end instead choosing a more matte vista approach

Geronimo66 - Nice composition, keep working at the colors, try a deep overlayed blue and work at keeping the lights nice and warm and itll turn out great!

audit - omfg gorgeous sense of scale, colors i feel are letting it down but i can see this one finishing up nicely!

kevin mayle - nice simple shot, reads well but the colors read a little flat, try working in some more cooler night colors or if you like stick to the red-scale but add in more of a textured feel to the surfaces. maybe add a glowing yellow window or two? lacks a single strong focal point at the present

lander - sweet sketch layout, i can sense the sense of discovery youre trying to hint at, nice!

Markusthebarbarian - definitely feeling the colors of the top right thumbie! very very cool! sure hope you finish this one

Tonic - brilliant composition, the use of the forced perspective is well illustrated, id work on the supporting of the draculas theme by adding more gothic feel to it, some bats or something to move it away from being too much focused on the characters... remember its ENV of the week, focus on the castle!... theres already so many good details to work up :D

peter herman - wow great details, the drop away really feels epic mayber try less color in the sky, its leading down an odd path i think

ashton - i like how youve added the train, often adding a character or something for a sense of scale will help give the viewer a great sense of being inside the image and being drawn inside the piece

sorry for anyone i missed, im coughing way too much and am heading back to bed

[Lander]

NicHolS. Thanks for the crit. Holy blood! What ever is going on behind those walls must not be for mortal eyes. Makes the elevators in "the shining" feel a bit vague i message :)

[Gaius]

Very inspiring guys :)

Damn I wont be able to finish my entry till next week. I am away on holiday from today, no pc or anything.

Back the 21st so maybe the final burning might not be closed by then.

[PixelFish]

Nichols: Nice work. I like how you set this in daylight--fairly unique for Dracula themed art, although I do love the 1977 Nosferatu for its eerie daylight sequences--but still managed to maintain some definitely ominous overtones with the colour of the water, the sky, and the stained walls. Another thing I like about this piece is that the architectural styles and material colours actually are fairly close to some of the castles that Dracula's castle is said to be. I've been looking up a lot of reference shots, and you've done a fairly solid job of emulating the local style while still maintaining original flavour.

The only thing that is really niggling at me are the two largest (and closest, presumably) bats. The lack of detail on them (while appropriate for keeping the castle in focus) renders them almost a little too rough and on the verge of cartoonish compared to the wealth of implied detail in the roofs. (I'm a big bat fan, and have collected books on bats and this one thing is what keeps throwing me. I'm not saying you should render out the bat completely--too detailed and rendered would distract from the castle, which should rightly be the focal point. But if there could be a hint of the lighting on the fur and a wee bit of light filtering through the lights of the bats wings, you could keep it from being a cookie cutter blob, give hints to its mass, and still maintain the focus where it should be. Minor refinement of the wing and foot silhouettes would increase the illusion of veracity.) I think the further away bats are more successful.


....


Audit: I really like your new composition as well. (Although I do worry that the background looks a little too symmetrical where the gap is.) Gorgeous colours.

And I really can see your point about how the arches would have distracted from the background on the first painting. I had a sense of tenuous trees in the background that I'm sure would have been lost.

Revenebo: I like where the refinement of your interior shot is taking you. I'm looking forward to the colouring. (I do hope you will consider giving it some colour, as I think some subtle hue shifts will really push the depth in this work.)

Geronimo: I like the outcropping object and the view of the path below. I like pieces which can push a strong vertical perspective from above and give you a sense of height.

Lander: I have a fairly good sense of the masses involved from your sketch. Looking forward to seeing what you will do to bring out the details.

Kevin Mayle: You've got some intricate masses and you hint at a lot of detail. But I feel that your flock of bats is creating unnecessary busy-ness in the foreground of the castle. I'd keep a lot of the bats ...the ones off to the sides and the background....but I would consider trying a version where the bats don't overwhelm the details in front of the castle. Another thing I would consider is consolidating your light sources, darkening up the general wall masses, picking one angle, and painting the highlights on that side to better shape the castle's silhouette against the sky. I hope that makes sense.

[chaosrocks]

The way you all help each other Totally ROcks!!!

[kevin mayle]

Thank you everyone for the great critiques and advice.
I'm going to try and work some of that in to my piece this weekend.

[Mishkin275]

This is a very successful week! There are some really good contenders so far, so I can't wait to see the final burning. I am digging Tonic, Markusthebarbarian, and audit especially.

Here's my sketch so far... not really satisfied so I will work harder. blah
http://www.tgarretteaton.com/illustration/images/dracula_v3.jpg

[Pixie Trick]

The way you all help each other Totally ROcks!!!

I agree. It's awesome.

Nothing even vaguely useful to say other than absoloutely everyone is doing an amazing job. Seriously, great work. :pump: <- this = my eyeballs as I scroll down the screen.

[chaosrocks]

nichols.. actually what's buggin me is the typesetting.... have faith in your image, it fdoesn't need the explaination that is so much more visually catchy that it ruins the impact of your enviro.

[NicHolS]

chaos rocks - yeah i totally agree looking at it now, i will be removing it as it was very much just a mock and the final will be plain and just the image itself :) i appreciate your comment

pixelfish - your right those bats are flat as! i will see to these

any other crits are welcome! thanks guys, cant wait to see these finished
adam

[ashton]

http://i356.photobucket.com/albums/oo7/ashtonsimmonds/wip06.jpg

[audit]

Hey all, thanks for the responses. Helpful!

geronimo - don't get hung up on the details until the very end of your work on the piece. as it's a rough it's hard to tell but establishing a stronger value structure around the castle would help i think, it looks like you want to detail already before you've really 'built' the thing.

ashton - i think this new one is somehow weaker than your previous. the foreground elements seem a little flat, and the structure of the train could use more work, it looks slightly disproportionate at the moment.

revenebo - looks good, continue!

Lobo - cool idea, the perspective is slightly off or so it seems, on the spire.

mishkin - fantastic, this palette works so well, and the composition is nice and strong. can't wait to see the final

Nichols - this works well i think, definitely the best thought-out castle design, and i like the motifs you've chosen. can't help wondering if you could get some atmospheric distance in there, and have the foreground elements somewhat less...present, if that makes sense. perhaps pushing the cools would help?

update. sadly i think it's inadequate as a concept design since so little of the castle structure is viewable. i would need a daytime scene for that. so i'm thinking of it more as a mood piece, heh.
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b141/86audit19/cgforums/vamp4.jpg

[Mark Tarrisse]

Damnn Im unable to do a nice concept for the castle, Im stuck :S Ive got some compostions, the lights the moods but the concept... is missing ! Ill try my best to do something good, I hope I'll get some inspiration tonight :)

Some very nice stuff so far,

audit : Im not so sure that I like your second one, I think the first one was better. In fact I really liked the first one :)
Edit : Well now its better, but the castle is too dark, try to get rid of the black shadows ;)

Geronimo66 : man carefull with the lights, one tip I can give you is to use different type of layers, I think the color dodge layer is pretty cool for the lights, try to use it.
If you didnt already looked at the section of CA members, take a look at el coro's psd files, I learned a lot from them. here's a link http://www.conceptart.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=88

Revenebo : Nice man, now time to add some nice details and colors :)

L0bo : Very nice so far man.

Nichols : Man excellent work, but maybe you could just add a dramatic light, you know like a little glow of light beside the castle. Well I suck so much at explaining something that I did a small paint over, hope you dont mind :S
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y192/markus_the_barbarian/draculascastle4wo_paintover.jpg
remember Chaosrock said "scary as hell" so I just added a color dodge layer to add light beside the castle, added a bit of contrast and desaturated a little bit.

Mishkin275 : Really love it but its just not scary at all :S maybe if you do it more like at night it would change the whole thing.

Ashton : Man... WTF is that train ?! :D I think that if you add something in your image, it must make sens. If you have an explanation for this train, its ok, but for the moment I really dont understand it. Of course its just my opinion ;)

[PixelFish]

More refinement....adding a wider space, and a foreground.

Also thinking about redoing the bridge area.

...

Mishkin: I like the shapes of your towers....nice silhouette.

Audit: Very dramatic, but I fear you've lost some of the subtlety of the previous work. And now it's hard to make out the actual mass of the castle. Maybe some more edge lighting on the left side?

re: The train in Ashton's image: Trains are actually canon technology in Bram Stoker's dracula. Jonathan Harker travels on a train part of the way to Transylvania. So, basically, having a train skirting the castle lands isn't out of kilter with the Dracula universe.

[kevin mayle]

http://i661.photobucket.com/albums/uu333/kevinmayle52/Dracula-Redo.jpg
I brightened the sun and thinned out the bats.
Though having the sun behind the castle while the front receives the light looks bad, I'd have to completely repaint it to fix it.
http://i661.photobucket.com/albums/uu333/kevinmayle52/Dracula-Redo-Compare.jpg

http://i661.photobucket.com/albums/uu333/kevinmayle52/Draculas-Castle-1.gif

[ashton]

I am going back to my original idea after a right flaming.
It was quite hard to draw a train in perspective.

I want the castle to be seen as a reflection in the lake.

And I totally overlooked the whole gargoyle side of things.

http://i356.photobucket.com/albums/oo7/ashtonsimmonds/wip07.jpg

[luness]

Hey guys, awesome ideas!
This is my first environment design in years and my first EOW ever and I’m quite excited about it. I’m kinda late but I’ll do my best to finish it on time.
So, I sketched these tonight with 4 things in mind:
-Hundreds, thousands, a lot of impaled people around the castle
-Large areas with terraces (like those in rice fields) collecting the drained blood
-All that blood ends in a giant pool (or different pools and baths) where Dracula takes a bath, have dinner, have fun with other vampires.
-Gothic inspired architecture, sometimes upside down. In other words, some inverted buildings, towers, and all that. Dracula hangs like a bat when sleeping, can walk on walls, on the ceiling, but also like us; so this castle is a mess inside, unsettling, confusing.

I’m between the two on the left, and I like some things about the mid right one too. Those “hairs” on the mountains are the impaled and the idea is that it would look like an enormous blood farm around the castle.
I think everything I'm trying to describe will make more sense using a different viewing angle and some color. I’ll work on that this weekend.

Cheers!

[PixelFish]

Luness: Neat. I like the inversions. :)

[Mark Tarrisse]

Pfff... I really suck at enviro ! Here's what I have done, but I really dont like it, I will try to do something else if Ive got time, but I think I wont even post it on the final burning
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y192/markus_the_barbarian/Draculascastle01.jpg

Luness : man your pencils are simply killing me, and the concept is awesome, I think my fav is the top left one.

[PixelFish]

Markus: I think it's pretty sweet so far. The windows in the top tower are wonderful. (Although the lighting/shading on that particular tower would need to be tightened as it looks just a hint lopsided.) The gold light plays off the cool tones pretty well, and you have just a smidge of warmth in the light light peachy tones at the bottom of your sunrise to tie in with that.

[Mark Tarrisse]

PixelFish : Thanks a lot man, I'll try maybe to work on it a little more,
I've tried to start a new concept, so here's a WIP, critics and comments are very welcomed :)

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y192/markus_the_barbarian/Draculascastle04.jpg

[L0bo]

think this is my final version.
since this is my first eow, I m quite happy whit it

Luness: Awesome concepts. hope I'm gonna see one of those.

[Icecold]

L0bo

Great concept, altho you have put too much of the viewer's attention to the harpy/gargoyle. I'd make it a bit smaller that would automatically enlarge the castle itself, plus desaturate it abit and make it less shiny. I hope i was useful.

Best wishes, Ice

[chaosrocks]

Final Burning thread is up

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?p=2259027#post2259027

please do not forget the Icon
and that the image should be attached via the Ca Attachment manager, the icon still needs to be outside hosted.... Thanks

[NicHolS]

Final Burning thread is up

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?p=2259027#post2259027

please do not forget the Icon
and that the image should be attached via the Ca Attachment manager, the icon still needs to be outside hosted.... Thanks

hey chaos, im new to the whole EOW challenge and am curious what the hosted thumbies are for? sorry if this has been brought up a million times already :(

adam

[chaosrocks]

I need the icons posted from out side sources because you cant link or repost images from the CA attachment manager, so to make the polls with the little Icons I have to have the icons as postable links. which either means you have to give them to me as outside CA links, or I ha would have to rehost them all my self and quite frankly Im too lazy to do that.
CA really would like the actual images posted via the attachment manager so that there will be fewer broken links and missing images down the line.

Thanks

[PixelFish]

Chaos: I know the deadline is the 19th, but what time do we need our works in, if we want to make poll?

[arttorney]

I got one done. It's down at the imaging store. I'll post it about 2 or 3 PM Pacific, Chaos.

[tomonaga]

I posted my work last night around 11:30 (pacific time), but it doesn't show on the thread still. It was my first time posting here. Is it usually takes this long to get your work appoved to post up??

[arttorney]

Sounds like something went wrong to me. Posts generally just get posted rather than screened.

[tomonaga]

finally posted mine..... so..if genre is "horror" they have to screen it before they post it? doesn't make sence....=/

[arttorney]

Seriously. They have been doing some upgrades on the bulletin board code here, so from time to time there is a double post or a non-post. Try to relax. You have posted now, and done so in time. Chaosrocks will do her stuff. There will be a poll shortly. It looks like it will be a good one. Better hurry, PixelFish. It seems like you are done already, so I am not sure what you were worried about.

[Tonic]

chaosrocks is busy lately, so it might take some time before she set poll. Which is a good thing because I haven't finished my work yet :P I'm going to finish it in few hours.

By the way, that's very nice to see so many comments there and artworks!

[L0bo]

haha . audit what happend to your bridges ?

[PixelFish]

Better hurry, PixelFish. It seems like you are done already, so I am not sure what you were worried about.

Well, this is only my second time entering one of the Of The Week community challenges, and the first time in Enviro, and it feels like each challenge has slightly different rules and approaches, so I was unsure if deadline meant at the start of the day or end of the day. But truthfully, I would have kept working on my piece if I thought I'd had more time. Oh well, no worries. :)

[Sean McClain]

Audit your original piece would of had my vote, I am amazed that you put together 3 of them so quickly that's really impressive.

[audit]

haha . audit what happend to your bridges ?

hah, bridges are so cliché, man

Audit your original piece would of had my vote, I am amazed that you put together 3 of them so quickly that's really impressive.

Oh well, win some lose some I guess! I liked the third best so that's the one I went with, even if it's less...spectacular.

[chaosrocks]

My apologies, I am dealing with a death in the family...It's a bit extended. I am threilled at the number of entrys for this one and I promise I will get the poll iup soon.
It would help if the forum would load so that I can actually get at the thread to make the polls. It is very slow and a bit erratic for me lately, Again my apologies and hope to fix it soon
PS those of you who won in EOW 100 please check your email....

[L0bo]

:\ hope it was noone close to you...


Icecold: Thank you. i know the compositions sucks, but i was to lazy to change it. Thanks though.

[Icecold]

Chaos, hope you'll get thru this strong.

Lobo- it doesnt suck at all it just needed some tweaks, don't be so harsh to yourself. :]

[geronimo66]

Wow some cool stuff guys. Thanks a ton for the input. I fell off a bit as my business has taken up a bunch of my time as has life in general.

I greatly appreciate the input though!! I will finish them as practice.

[arghmisfit]

great round everyone!

heres an alternate version i had going...
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=678445&stc=1&d=1243102423

[chaosrocks]

new round is on

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?p=2272221#post2272221

[Sterling Hundley]

audit,

Just passing through, but I wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed your solution to the problem. Very graphic and to the point with a ton of mood.

Well done!

s.