Newborn - Baron's Birthing Brouhaha

[Baron Impossible]

FINAL IMAGES. I'll be submitting the first one only

Storm Bringer
http://img34.imageshack.us/img34/1235/stormbringerfinal700.jpg

Hatch
http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/2897/egg700.jpg


-----


Here's my WIPs so far. All ArtRage. Not sure if this'll be my final or not. Plenty of time to do another anyhow.

Unfortunately, after WIP 2 I made the woeful and asshat error of saving my ArtRage file as PSD, forgetting it would lose all my paint thickness info. Which it did, making blending pretty tricky from now on :(

http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/6725/eggsecond.jpg

http://img181.imageshack.us/img181/6144/egg01.jpg

http://img181.imageshack.us/img181/7637/egg02.jpg

http://img199.imageshack.us/img199/3087/egg05.jpg

[Nickillus]

Aw Si. Is it worth taking one step back and redoing it to get it back? If it's going to liberate your brushwork, and knowing how fast you work . . . . .

Looking wonderful, whatever file format it's in.

[Tonic]

That's a waste with PSD format, I would really love to see painting effects.

Seeing more cocoon-things in background, I thought it would be nice to expand canvas horizontally a lot and paint a big number of them, so the viewer would think "Wow! What are these things?"

Are you going to make cocoon's skin opaque or partially transparent? So we would see/imagine inside shapes.

Keep in work, I'm sure you will do fine from painting side, I remember your DWIV entry and it was pleasure to look :)

[pearlyking]

Cool idea Simon. I think you might have inspired me to enter this competition :) Artrage is a good way to go too :)

[Mythmaker]

When did you start using lineart?!! - I don't think I've ever seen you do that before :^^:

I'm not feeling this piece yet. There's something about the composition that feels uncomfortable - as if it's been cropped and were not getting the full picture. I think the idea has lots of potential though, and I don't doubt you'll turn it into something awesome!

[Baron Impossible]

Nickillus - I thought of that, but I'll likely do another one for the final submission so I'll just plug away. I can get the paint thickness back by simply painting over what's there, but I need to cover it 100% or it will look scratchy. No worries, though, it's good practice using AR!

Tonic - Cheers. Yep, I think I'll expand the canvas slightly. Can't do it too much because I'd need to reposition the main characters and because AR doesn't have lassoo / paste I'd have to repaint, and I can't be bothered :)

pearlyking - Cheers, Bill. I hope so, it would be good to have you onboard

Mythmaker - Good question, the answer being I've haven't really used line art before, but I like the pencil feel in AR so had a go :) And hopefully the compostion will sort itself out when I add a bit to the canvas and more fully define the background.

Keep up with the tough crits, that's what's useful!

[Nickillus]

Ooh yes. The pencil in ArtRage is really nice isn't it? Glad I'm not alone in thinking that. Go for it Si.

[Baron Impossible]

OK, well I widened the composition as much as I could without having to repaint the figures and I think it looks a bit less claustrophobic now. Loads of fun detailing next.

http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/4919/egg06.jpg

[Nickillus]

Your use of colour and tone always knocks my socks off, Si. Beautiful balance giving the feel of all sorts of textures and surfaces already. Magic.

[hunchback]

:jawdrop: man....:asslick:

[LightSovereign]

Jeez simon, the bronchial texture look amazing , i envy your ability to whip something up very quickly..

Fabtastic

Marley

[hala]

hot damn, detailing is next? it's detailed already! wow, amazing skills you have there. :)

[Sorknes]

That... is awsome already :D

[Baron Impossible]

Nickillus - Thanks, Nick. I find that AR preserves the colour contrast when blending, which means I don't have to adjust the values later, which is handy.

hunchback - :)

LightSovereign - Hey Marley, thanks for dropping in, glad you like it. Hope you're going to partake...

hala - Yep, plenty of detail yet, I'm working at about 5K px so you can't really see it at this size (or the scratchiness from when I saved in the wrong format!)

Sorknes - thanks v much

[graphicgolem]

Love the colour, so painterly and interesting idea. Looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

[Baron Impossible]

graphicgolem - Good to hear you're liking it so far, thanks

Well, I'm making another try tomorrow to swap over to a new PC so I guess I'll post again when I've got up or running (or, like the last two attempts, reverted back to my old one)

[Baron Impossible]

Managed to get a bit more done this evening. Just noticed there's a bit of MC Escher going on with the pipes, so I'll fix that later. Oh, and in case I hadn't been sufficiently unoriginal to start with I added a tentacle.

http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/8265/egg07.jpg

[Black Spot]

That is so organic. When I first saw them, I thought they were sperm based.

[hala]

I'm totally loving that guys' pony tails XD

This is looking excellent man. It's inspring :)

[vardoburrito]

ooo ... sweet colours dude. [I feel your pain with the ArtRage>PSD]

[Baron Impossible]

Black Spot - Who knows what happens on alien planets; that's the beauty of sci-fi, you can just make it up :)

hala - Thanks v much

dwardo - Yep, learned my lesson now though ;)

[RoyCook]

The forms are looking wonderful. Im not sure about those two people right up in the foreground though (man with the ponytail and the women), I just feel they draw my eye away from the organic form a bit which I would much rather be paying more ettention too.

Excellent work though Im sure progess on this well be awsome.

[Nickillus]

The form and colours on your floating hearty shaped thing are just gorgeous, Si. How I long to have your natural colour sense and tonal control with it. Simply - WOW!

[graphicgolem]

Hi Si

Loving the colour development - the egg thingy is really rocking. The two figures in the foreground are drawing attention but as Im not getting what their story is. Hopefully it will become apparent in later updates. Also I am really digging the worm - the grossness of the egg/worm and the relaxed manner of the astro scientists is really nice contrast - would great if this could be accentuated. Anyway thumbs up!

[hunchback]

neat egg thing man
lets see some more : D

[Baron Impossible]

RoyCook - Thanks! Hopefully when the detail's done that will sort itself out. Hopefully ;)

Nickillus - Cheers, Nick. I use a bit of a sneaky trick with the colours. Basically I'll create a colour palette of about 100 - 200 varying hues in Painter and order them by value. Then I'll export it to AR as a reference (not as a colour wheel as I like to keep the default one). When I want a colour I'll just pick very quickly from the palette reference, not bothering too much about hue and going mainly off value. I find that creates a more varied colour scheme that holds together pretty well, and of course when I need a certain hue I can be more specific, or use the wheel.

graphicgolem - The people are involved in a little sub-plot, probably obvious only to me but what the heck. See, everyone's distracted and doing their own thing (apart from the blond dude) - the guy with the weird hair is chatting up the girl and the woman under the pod is getting a bit jealous, whilst the scientist guy is concentrating on his machine and all the while the pod is starting to hatch :)

hunchback - Cheers, on it's way

OK, so did a bit more detail and added an eggy membrane.

http://img199.imageshack.us/img199/5121/egg08.jpg

[Aly Fell]

Simon - Is the woman at the front looking at the guy with 'the hair' or away from him? The angle on the neck and the eyeline are a bit confusing. He looks like John Malkovich! :)

[Sorknes]

Haha... suddenly those things growing on the ground and coming into the picture next to the lady started to look like french baguettes to me...

Great work, keep at it. :)

[Baron Impossible]

Poshspice - Good call, Aly, I wouldn't have spotted that. You're right, I think her gaze is too extreme, it needs to be more like what you posted. And he does look like John Malkovich! :) EDIT: Just spotted you altered the head angle too - mmm, that does look better but I may have a problem in ArtRage - no lassoo / paste and as it's a .PTG I can't export... I'll weigh up if I have the balls to redraw :)

Sorknes - Yeah, planet Baguette-Prime, I thought that too ;)

[Nickillus]

Hi Si,
I don't think you could call arranging your colour palette in an orderly manner cheating - unless you want to call any number of artists through history cheats. It is something I've heard of before and really is something I ought to try. Thanks for explaining your methodology. Do you organise them into warm and cool as well?

[Brashen]

Lol wtf man I haven't lain down m paints yet....

[Tonic]

Baron, it's coming very well. I enjoy this painting. By the way, since you're nearly finishing, are you going to paint other ideas?

[Baron Impossible]

Nickillus - Cheers, Nick, you could be right :) I don't order by warm / cool but what I normally do is make sure my palette has the complementary extremes somewhere in it, and if I need to specifically use warm / cool I'll first look at the rough position according to value and then make a more conscious choice of hue, say, orange or blue.

Brashen - Don't worry, I'm always like this - rush everything in the first few days then wish I hadn't as I see the other entries take shape...

Tonic - Thanks. Yep, I plan to do at least one more :)

[Nickillus]

I love complementaries. They're such a great 'get out of jail free' card, in a fix. Whatever it is you do - it doesn't half work well. I think you just have a great eye for colour, which is what is behind all this glory. I went to Woolworths before they closed down to see if I could get one. They'd run out, dammit. Can't get one anywhere.

Rush?! No - it's sheer speed! It's a real asset Si. Gives you the chance to do so much more. Use that gift - Do some more. They'll be just as superb. I'll put money on it.

[graphicgolem]

ah yes its all becoming clear now and I guess the thing that is hatching out is probably not a herbivore...really like the human relationship aspect - such is the way of the world caught up in our little worlds we dont notice the bigger picture until ouch! I can almost see the creatrures betantacled form apprearing beneath the stretched skin of its egg case and its giving me the heebie geebies - quick you fools lookup before its too late!. Great work!

[Baron Impossible]

Nickillus - Cheers, Nick, I think we're both more confident of the other's skills than we are of our own :) Anyhow, I slowed down a bit - haven't even thought about art today. Back to it at the weekend though.

graphicgolem - Cool, glad you like it

[Baron Impossible]

Spent a couple of hours more on it. I'll likely finish it tomorrow and then I'll need to start thinking of another...

http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/4150/egg09.jpg

[Baron Impossible]

That's that, then

http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/2897/egg700.jpg

[Huey Yeng]

Wow sir this is great looking piece. :)

[RoyCook]

Very well done great piece of work.

[Black Spot]

Excellent texture.

[Dorkthrone]

You're already finished with this one? Damn. I've barely even started on mine.

Anyways, the textures are amazing.

[Baron Impossible]

hueyyeng, RoyCook, Black Spot, ninjacat11 - Thanks v much, glad y'all like it

I'll maybe start another one next week although I see the CGSociety challenge has begun so not sure which to go for. This theme appeals more but... I don't know.

[GriNGo]

looking great baron!

[hala]

Inspiring and looks great! : )
I hope you do another one--I would love to see what else you conjure up for this theme and your process.

[Nickillus]

Another beltingly good image Si.
Can't you do a stinker now and again to make the rest of us feel like you may be human after all?
Fantastic.

Hey - You're a fast working guy. Do both challenges, but don't forget to show your work on the other one here too. Sound good? Does to me.

[Liffey]

Very cool... and done pretty fast, too! Can't wait to see what your next piece is.

[Dile_]

this may be too much to ask but.. would you mind posting a picture of how you make up your palettes.. I'm been trying to figure it out today but I'm not sure I'm getting it.. are you just doing scales of value in different hue/ saturation ? anyway thanks a lot for sharing your thoughts on your process !

anyway great first piece ! i obviously love the colors .. also where in England are you located ?

keep it up!

[Baron Impossible]

GriNGo, hala, Liffey - Thanks :)

Nickillus - People will start thinking I'm a competition junky, like I'm desperate for them prizes :) It's actually because I tend to work better given a topic than if I have to think up my own - I can't handle too much leeway! I'll have a think - cheers, Nick!

Dile_ - Sure, I'll post a screendump later. BTW - oop North, Lancaster

[MurdokX]

great looking piece baron, might as well enter the cgsociety one. You will be done in 2 days ;/

[Baron Impossible]

MurdokX - Heh, thanks! Mm, the CGSoc one is a tricky subject this time so if I tried to rush I think I'd fail massively.

[Hive_minD]

I really dig this. You are amazing man. Totally love this piece, cant wait to see what you make next

[petitemistress]

Baron looking amazing EXCEPT for that chick's neck and head!! please fix it as it is really ruining the piece for me, its so obvious something is wrong with it tho i wouldnt be able to tell you what... I think Poshspice nailed it tho.
great work, cant wait to see what you come up with next! :D

[Baron Impossible]

Hive_minD - Thanks, appreciated

petitemistress - Thanks, glad you like it. I altered the woman's eyes but not the neck / head tilt. Reason is I wanted to stay with ArtRage (which doesn't have cut / paste) so unless I was going to repaint I'd need to export to Painter. I know what you mean, though, it looks like she's been sleeping funny to say the least...

[Baron Impossible]

Dile_ - bascially I set up my palettes like this. In Painter, paint (or load up) your image then on the Color Sets palette choose Create Color Set From Image. Then adjust the size of the cells, remove the borders and order by LHS (Level then Hue then Saturation)

Then I screen grab the colour set and load it into ArtRage as a reference. Then colour pick from the reference. You could load it in as a palette but then I think you'd not have your full colour wheel on screen.

http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/5637/colourset.jpg

[Nickillus]

That's useful info Si.
Thanks for sharing that.

The closest thing I've done to that in Painter was when I wanted a muted palette in a hurry for a viking image once. i picked a suitably misty forest landscape and made a custom colour set from it, using it particularly in the background. Worked really well. haven't done it since though - for whatever reason, I can't name.

[Baron Impossible]

Yep, that's what I do sometimes. Grab one (or more) photos of the ambience and colour scheme I'm after, maybe add a few splashes of my own colour then turn it / them into a colour set. Sometimes I've appended to a colour set to give a bigger range but often I find the default number of colours is OK.

[Dile_]

thanks maaaaaaaaaan! that is very interesting ! I appreciate you taking your time Baron..! =)

sick !

[Aly Fell]

Interesting on the colour palette stuff. Maybe this isn't the place for it, but did you know you can do a similar thing in Photoshop? Paint up a colour pallete, or load in an image that has the range you want. Convert that to indexed colour, then Image, Mode, Colour Table. The resulting table can be saved as an .act file which can be loaded up in the swatches menu.

[graphicgolem]

Hey thanks Baron just what I needed to get as colour scheme going. For those GIMP users out there (Im probably the only one ahem) you can make a cusom pallete from an image too - although it cant be sorted in the same way as in Painter.

[pearlyking]

I can't believe you finished already Simon! Interesting reading about your colour selection methods too. Strangely enough the winner for me is the slime effect on the nearest larvae looking creature, I love little touches like that :) good luck and well done for finishing :)

[Baron Impossible]

Dile_ - No probs

Poshspice - Yep, I thought PS would be able to do this, it's a really useful tool. I was disappointed that Corel didn't develop it in Painter as it has loads of potential but its implementation is very clunky at the moment. I'm hoping that AR v3 has something similar.

graphicgolem - Really? I didn't know GIMP could do it. I once downloaded GIMP but didn't really use it.

pearlyking - Cheers, Bill. I'm not particularly satisfied with how it's turned out but that's par for the course. Anyhow, starting another tomorrow :)

[Vaejoun]

Impressive. Your feeling for values and colors is amazing. I hope that mine will be as good as this .... or will be someday. ^^

Now I really want to use painter, but CP9 doesnt work on Vista :frustrated:
I tried it earlier, but I found it kind of difficult to use, compared to PS. But when I see what you can do with it...

[Baron Impossible]

Vaejoun - Painter 9 doesn't work on Vista? That's a bummer. However, the good news is that I didn't use Painter for this one, it's 100% ArtRage 2.5, so you've no excuses :)

[Vaejoun]

Aha, a programm I dont know yet with such a potential !
Now I am curious. When I have some more time I will try the demo version to see how it is.

[Baron Impossible]

OK, here's a sketch for No. 2. This guy's an urban shaman and his breath will, eventually, turn into a huge tornado creature towering behind him, made up of old trucks and debris and junk and stuff. That's the idea anyway.

http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/1971/urbanshaman01.jpg

[Nickillus]

I blink and you come up with what's going to be another stunning image, Si.

Can't wait to see it progress. I know I won't have long to wait either.
(Jigs from foot to foot with excitement.)

[hala]

Your speed baffles me D: (in a great way :D )
Love the idea and the character so far, can't wait to see what that tornado monster is gonna look like
*stalks*

[Dorkthrone]

The second concept looks like it will be very interesting. I'd love to see how it turns out.

[Baron Impossible]

Nickillus - Cheers, Nick - let's hope I don't screw it up :)

hala - Thanks, I try to get in a couple of hours a day minimum else I forget what I'm doing, but I'm still slower than I'd like on sketching (which I've barely done any of in the past)

ninjacat11 - Cheers!

[Dusty]

Wow, that looks fantastic. I'm ashamed I've only just now heard of ArtRage...it looks like you are getting some great results with it.

I read up on it...is it really only $25.00 for the full version? I'll have to try that out tonight if so.

Again, great work!

-D

[Baron Impossible]

Dusty - thanks v much. Yep, I sort of dismissed ArtRage initially because of the price tag - I thought it would be a toy but its oil brush engine is way ahead of Painter's and the interface is really slick. v2.5 doesn't have many frills (no cut and paste for instance) but v3.0 is very close and who knows what that might bring. Except Nick, of course, but he's not saying (just kidding Nick :) )

[Nickillus]

Whistles, shuffles about a bit and looks out the window . . . . . . . .



My hands are tied at the moment, honest. I'm just not allowed to say anything, unless it's - ArtRage3? It is getting better and better guys. Look out for it soonish.

[hala]

thanks for talking about art rage guys. i tried it out a while ago but didn't exactly know how to use it/didn't see what was so great about it. I might reconsider it now >> painter frustrates me.

[Dusty]

Dusty - thanks v much. Yep, I sort of dismissed ArtRage initially because of the price tag - I thought it would be a toy but its oil brush engine is way ahead of Painter's and the interface is really slick. v2.5 doesn't have many frills (no cut and paste for instance) but v3.0 is very close and who knows what that might bring. Except Nick, of course, but he's not saying (just kidding Nick :) )

Baron - I just bought it last night and was trying out it. I agree, it may have less options, but the interface is great! That's one thing I never really cared for with Painter, so this will be a great addition to use. I've been trying to get that "painterly feel" with my photoshop work for ages, so I've finally gotten a tool to do that. Are you sure there isn't a copy/paste? I did some kind of "copy to clip board, paste to new layer" thing, but I have only played with it for like an hour so what do I know. ;)

Nickillus - Great work! Seriously.
So will 3.0 be something that can be upgraded, or is it a flat fee with each version?

[Nickillus]

Hi Dusty,
And thanks. Pricing is one of the things I don't know anything about at all for version 3. We've been through alpha stages and are on version beta6. There are some new painting and other tools, plus a whole raft of general enhancements that will be included, but that's about as detailed as I'm allowed to say. I can't imagine that they will want to alienate their huge hobbyist user base by sticking a large price-tag on it though. It would go against the whole ethos of the team there - who are great to deal with by the way.

If you join the Ambient forums you can pick up all sorts of user generated freebies - like sets of stencils for various purposes and custom palettes that you can load to use. Best bit though - You will find that the development team are really approachable, prowl the forums and talk to you. That's a pretty rare thing. I'll expect to see you there soon ?
http://www2.ambientdesign.com/forums/index.php

A very prominent user who has begun his own Italian site with a ton of freebies on is Stefano Fiore (misterpaint). He's based in Rome. Deifinitely look out for him and his offerings.
http://www.artrage.it/

[Dusty]

I'll expect to see you there soon ?

Yup, already registered and introduced myself.
Baron- Haha, sorry for invading your thread with ArtRage talk...just fascinated with it. :)

You can thank yourself for that, though. Really impressed with your results.

-D

[Baron Impossible]

No probs, it's a great piece of software. Can't go wrong for $25! :)

[Baron Impossible]

Is it just me or do other people find that sometimes you just can't sit down for more than 5 minutes. No matter how hard I tried I only managed, like, to get an hour's painting done in the past two days. I have no idea why, just one stupid damn thing after another.

And... breathe...

So here's where I'm at now. Much the same as before except I've changed my idea. Instead of the junkyard creature there'll be a massive, embyonic wind elemental towering into the heavens. A bit like Wyeth's giant, except not as good.

http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/1188/urbanshaman02.jpg

[graphicgolem]

wow - not only is it a good idea that dudes is looking very cool already!

[Liffey]

Nice... I was wondering how you were going to pull off the composition with the first sketch you posted, but it seems you've figured it out nicely.

[Nickillus]

That'll teach him to play with fairy dust!

Going to be another complete show-stopper, Si.
Thanks for showing the colour sample blocks on there too.
Might you want to extend upwards and give your creation more room to be HUGE. I know that with your immense sill you'd make the compostion work somehow. Or is that just me being megalomaniac again?

[Baron Impossible]

graphicgolem - thanks!

Liffey - cheers, I hope so!

Nickillus - thanks, Nick, I'll try not to disappoint (nothing like pressure, eh? ;) ) I know what you're saying about the size but what I plan on doing is having the elemental part of a storm cloud and fade it right into the distance (similar in colouration to the bit of tentacle I've already coloured). That should give it the size I need. I have no idea if this will work but it's worth a shot.

Done a bit more this evening -

http://img191.imageshack.us/img191/1674/urbanshaman03.jpg

[Nickillus]

With your mastery of colour and light, you're bound to make it work and work beautifully, Si.

Hmmmmmm - the clothes look great - out of your own warderobe you say? And how was it you described them in a post on my thread? 'like some kind of gay pimp'?
You made a great job of rendering them convincingly, however you describe them.

[Baron Impossible]

Cheers, Nick. Actually the clothes were different (certainly a different colour) - I just ended up referencing the pose more than anything else. Because I wanted it to look windy I couldn't even ref the creases in the material - I couldn't find a fan big enough to give the effect :) I suppose it was the long-coat-indoors that was pimpish and the pose itself that was slightly gay. Here it is, to compare
http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/6927/refmesep.jpg

[Baron Impossible]

OK, got the colour blocked in. Detail next, I guess

http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/6430/urbanshaman04.jpg

[Liffey]

Never ventured outside of Photoshop and Illustrator, but I gotta say, those brushstrokes in the background look nice. May have to give this ArtRage a try...

[Moai]

Hey, Simon!
This new piece is looking great. The lighting in particular is very strong, and the character has a cohesive and interesting design. It's shaping up to be a great piece.
I like this second painting much better than the first, to be honest. The alien vegetation in the first painting was fantastic, and the floating egg/cocoon thing was wonderful, just the sort of gritty, grimy, texturiffic thing that you do best. The emerging tentacle was a great touch. The figures weren't particularly strong in my opinion, though. Their modeling of form was a bit rough, and the "hair guy's" stretched neck was distracting. Not quite up to your usual level of quality, if that isn't too harsh a thing to say.
I looked through your website just now, and I'm really digging some of the newer paintings you've put up. Am I correct in detecting a Jacek Yerka influence in some of your newer "Bizarre Gallery" stuff?
Very nice stuff, man. I hope to see some more of your work gracing Creature Spot sometime soon.:)

[AhChu]

Man outstanding work, the first piece is wicked, such a cool little story going on, and the detail work is amazing. And it is great that you have hope on for another round, which is shaping up to be another goodie......artrage is a wicked gem of a programme which i've been neglecting of late. might to time to switch back again :) So are you going to jump onto the secret agent comp aswell?

[Baron Impossible]

Liffey - Go for it, give it a try!

Moai - Thanks for the honest feedback, that's what I like. I agree, the main characters are a bit rough (not helped when I screwed my paint depth by saving in the wrong format - close up it looks pretty scratchy). Glad you're liking the new one.

The two "bizarre" ones were actually done for CGTalk's Jacek Yerka Challenge, where we had to emulate Yerka's style (not easy, that's for sure). Enjoyable, though, and a serious amount of amazing work came out of it

Oh yes, Creature Spot, I keep meaning to contact Davi about that - I didn't get a new p/word and the old site one doesn't work. I'll give him a shout later.

AhChu - Thanks, glad you're liking them! I might enter the Secret Agent comp but only if I can come up with an original idea. I think there's going to be a lot of same-y art coming out of this one. And yep, get in there with ArtRage, it's great fun :)

[Baron Impossible]

Another update. Got rid of the linework (huzzah, for we don't like linework). I think the values and hues are OK to represent distance. I guess it's only when all the details are in that we'll see if it's fully worked.

http://img154.imageshack.us/img154/747/urbanshaman05.jpg

[hala]

Wow man, this is just humbling to watch how fast you move along in a piece of work.

[MichaelNoel]

The new piece looks fantastic, though there is something bothering me about his face (the guy in the suit).

I feel like you've micromanaged it too much, so it looks a bit out of place with the rest of the picture (in which you've perfected the painterly touch *3*).

On top of that, the relationship between his jaw, chin, and mouth seems a bit off, even for the weird blowing motion.

The monster in the background is pure sex btw. T_T

[Black Spot]

The two are very separate at the moment. I'm sure you'll bring them together in the end. It's a bit like a thriller except I can't cheat and turn to the last page.

[Baron Impossible]

hala - Thanks. I'm only fast when it's going well. If I don't plan then I can mess around for ages on a single detail.

Michael Noel - You could be right, there. I painted the face twice and I fear the second time was a little off. I'm trying to fit it into the exaggerated perspective. I think I'll avoid looking at it until I'm done then check it again and see if I can spot how to change it. Thanks!

Black Spot: Thanks, hopefully the ground texture will draw them together


Roughing the in the textures on the ground and a bit of detail on the elemental

http://img188.imageshack.us/img188/5853/urbanshaman06.jpg

[Huey Yeng]

Looking great and I *think* the shadow at the foreground is really dark that makes the foreground and background feel separated.

Other than that, keep it up. Can't wait for the final outcome. :)

[Baron Impossible]

hueyyeng - Thanks. I've lightened the shadows a little bit, in places. Not sure if it makes a difference. Can't lighten them too much or the lighting is lost.

Last one for today

http://img30.imageshack.us/img30/386/urbanshaman07.jpg

[Huey Yeng]

Looks better now, Baron. Amazing how fast you do your work.

[acb]

wow really unique and interesting ideas @_@ i rly rly like that atmosphere yuve achieved in the first idea and looking forward on updates for the second one :D

[strings]

I like it, nice detail on the guy's clothing. Great textures all around.

[Baron Impossible]

hueyyeng - Thanks :)

acb - More updates tomorrow night, I hope!

strings - Cheers!

[graphicgolem]

Looking good Baron! The lighting is really making this peice for me - its the kind of light you get when there is a storm coming - and its just great. The main thing thats bothering me is that Im not getting a sense of scale for the elemental - it needs some kind of reference in the background, I can see the birds but its not a strong enough reference I think. If I may make a suggestion, although I realise your not short on ideas, a line of telegraph poles going from the foreground from the seated man to the background where the elemental is - this would help to connect the two characters more and also give a strong indication of scale, they could also be ripped from the ground by rising force of the elemental? I wish I could critique my own work like this as unfortunately Im completely stuck on my own composition. Anyway looking very cool!

[Baron Impossible]

graphicgolem - thanks for the feedback, very useful. What I'll do is get the detail in and see if that makes a difference. It should do because things like stones on the ground should push the elemental right into the distance whilst linking it with the foreground. If that doesn't do it I'll think about what you said about including poles or something to join it all up.

Haven't done a single minute on it since my last post :( Been arsing around with disk monitors on my PC, amazing how much stuff there is to learn about a piece of magnetised metal. Should have another update by e/o week, though.

[Baron Impossible]

OK, so, more detail

http://img79.imageshack.us/img79/4819/urbanshaman08.jpg

[Nickillus]

OK - so better and better.
Lovely feeling of sunlight, Si.

[hungryan]

I'd like to have a technical question, because everyone said this looks great.
I see you use ArtRage, how do you make that perfect looking gradient in the background? I'm not able to do anything like that on that big surface, it always have a lot of texture and painterly effects and stuff (which is great in ArtRage, but I need sometimes something else). Or do you use Painter also at the same time? It would be also great to hear how do you use the brush settings, for me it is a bit of a mistery so far. ArtRage is great (and cheap :) ), but it seems to me that in Painter you can control the paint a bit more (at least I didn't find how to do stuff yet).

[Baron Impossible]

Nickillus - Thanks, Nick, glad you think it's coming on OK

hungryan - Blending in AR isn't great, as you say. In this pic the blending is actually quite rough viewed 100%, but because it's smaller here it appears smoother. If you use chalk in AR you can blend without getting the enhanced saturation you get from oils, because chalk has no paint depth. It's a pain but it does work. I used thin paint here also but kept picking the exact colour rather than trying to blend two very different colours, because that causes the saturation to kick in.

Unfortunately you can't use Painter at the same time because the AR format isn't compatible with anything else - it uses a separate canvas and holds paint depth info and PSD doesn't support these things. If you export to PSD then work on it again in AR you'll find the paint depth is maximised on re-import and new paint strokes "dig into" the old paint and leave very obvious tracks (as I found out on my last piece...)

I'm unsure whether to clean up in Painter when I'm done here. One one hand I know I could improve the sky and the clouds especially, on the other I want to say I did it all in AR :) and I won't have the option of doing anything else in AR afterwards because of the compatability issue.

[daestwen]

Looking good! My only comment would be that the bright orange shadow on his neck is really sticking out for me (though it might be my screen) - It's a lot more saturated than any of the other shadows. Also, I think it might be the wrong colour anyway? The white scarf would bounce white light up, though, so...

Mostly I'm just nitpicking. :P I love his hat and the elemental!

[Ghostbrush]

you sir, are carving this competition up :D like the updates dude

[Baron Impossible]

daestwen - Thanks! And nitpicking is fine. To be honest I'm in two minds how to deal with his face and head. Part of me thinks the jawbone and back of his neck should be darker but when I try that it looks wrong. I'll think on that. Thanks for pointing it out.

Ghostbrush - Cheers, glad you like it. Some would call it rushing rather than carving :)

[corza334]

It looks great!

Its a million light years ahead of anything I could ever do, but is it just me, or is the face really bright? It look like the light source is infront of him, and low to the ground..Wouldn't that make the hand cast a shadow on his face?

[Vaejoun]

Not sure if its supposed to look that way, but it seems that the hat is a little deformed. Like its beding a little over... hard to describe.

Maybe you want to play a little more with the hat ? Its just pitch black, maybe a little line or soemthing to break up the massive form ? Just an idea.

[Sidharth Chaturvedi]

That's looking really great, man! Nothing i can think of to critique, but I'll be keeping an eye out :).

[Baron Impossible]

corza334 - Thanks, glad you like it. Yep, in real life his hand would cast a shadow on his face but I'm omitting that and claiming artistic license ;)

Vaejoun - Thanks. The hat has a few highlights but maybe I'll increase them just a little.

Sidharth Chaturvedi - Cheers! :)

[Baron Impossible]

Penultimate WIP. Taken it into Painter now to clean things up and smooth out the gradient.

http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/318/urbanshaman10.jpg

[Nickillus]

The inevitable, great Brewer lighting and colour control reign supreme, no matter what software you inhabit, Si. This will be the second winner for this comp you've entered so far. Still time for about five more at the speed you can work too. Corrrr!

[shamandalie]

Awesome looking shaman. :D

I love the textures of the first piece, it looks so fleshy. But i like the second idea more, really cool.
I'm looking forward to the final piece. (but secretly wishing you will paint a whole lot more entries after this. :))

[graphicgolem]

Great work!

The idea comes across very well.
:eyecandy:
:aa::aw::ae::as::ao::am::ae:

[Baron Impossible]

Nickillus - Cheers, Nick, although there'll be a load of great entries - yours included - and I know better than to think mine will be top! :)

I decided that I'm only entering this one rather than both as it's a bit unfair to flood the competition when some people may not have the time to do more than one. I think this is the better of the two anyway so I'll stick with it.

shamandalie - Thanks, good you like them both. I've no plans to do more but I may just use the theme as a base of a portfolio piece later on.

graphicgolem - Thanks v much!


Well, hopefully I'll finish up today or tomorrow so I'll post as soon as I'm done.

[Baron Impossible]

All done :) Thanks to everyone who commented

http://img34.imageshack.us/img34/1235/stormbringerfinal700.jpg

[Black Spot]

Looks awesome.

[Leonor]

This last one is winner material for sure. Only his neck and his hand look somewhat off to me, maybe you should just double check those?

[Baron Impossible]

Black Spot - Thanks!

Leonor - Hope so ;) Yes, the lighting is a bit weird on neck and hand but I'll stick with that now. Cheers.

[Delmar]

Great work on the last one !!!!

At first I also thought his hands could be a bit mor refined, but on a second thought it kind of fits the style perfectly. :drinkup:

Man this contest is going to be epic!

Cheers

Andi

[Baron Impossible]

Delmar - Thanks! :)

[Huey Yeng]

Great work Baron. Nothing much to comment and it is fantastic to see the process from the beginning to the final work.

[Irawan]

great work! i like the style and the concept.

[Baron Impossible]

hueyyeng - Thanks, posting WIPs helps me learn, I think, so it's a win-win ;)

Irawan - Cheers :)

[NicHolS]

wow all your entries so far blow me away, such commitment to the image is really awesome to see... only thing i think could help the last one is to make the seat a little less the same color of the background. your character really punches out (perhaps a little too much even?) yet the seat really fades back into it... very subjective but just a thought. good luck! i think youre a huge inspiration! great job : )

adam

[Simon Boxer]

Way to kick ass, Baron. I know this is a massive retrospective, but I loved your Thunderdome entries, too.

S

[Baron Impossible]

NicHolS - Thanks, appreciated. Yep, with the seat I was trying to get it so it didn't compete with the guy but at the same time didn't fade into the background. I agree it could use a bit of value tweaking. Thanks again!

cognition.sb - Cheers! Great to know you remembered my entries in Thunderdome LMS - you've a better memory than me! ;)

[DefiledVisions]

Really enjoyed the process. It looks fantastic, the depth, the mood, the motion and the painterly feel :) sweet.

[Baron Impossible]

DefiledVisions - thanks, appreciated :)

[pearlyking]

Two cool pieces Simon, and both finished already!! I will have to get skates on skates! :D

[Baron Impossible]

Cheers, Bill. Plenty of time left yet, though, no rush :)

[oren90]

awasome work this contest is going to be great lots of great works we have here :)

[Studio Colrouphobia]

I'm in awe of your artrage escapades, especially after having tried to figure it out (went mad without a tilt-function on my stylus).. good job!

[Silverene]

And we have a winner. :D Seriously, this is great already!

[Baron Impossible]

oren90 - Thanks. Yep, should be a good contest

Studio Colrouphobia - Thanks :) Yep, I love ArtRage. v3.0 coming out soon, with watercolours, so I'm looking forward to that.

Silverene - Heh, if only :) Thanks v much

[Vaejoun]

Hi again, just looked through your homepage. Great stuff you have there, I hope I get as good as that too. I quite like my pics as well, but I have the feeling that they still miss something.

By the way, how did you make your page ? It seems you can make updates really quickly. Did you use a programm like Dreamweaver or golive ? Or just html and that stuff ?

[Baron Impossible]

Vaejoun - Thanks! Well, it's all just practice really and you're certainly on the right path.

I programmed my site in PHP using Dreamweaver, linking to a couple of MySQL databases where all the content is held. It has an admin control panel behind the scenes so I never need to load anything via FTP, I update images, news, new pages, etc. through the panel, plus alter the gallery layouts, turn certain areas on / off, etc. I actually intended to market the software bundled with a hosted web solution for a monthly charge but I couldn't be bothered in the end, so it's kind of overkill for my own use but it was fun to programme!

[Phill99]

wow, amazing works. Can't wait to see the final images!

[Baron Impossible]

Phill99 - thanks, glad you like them

[harris-ejaz]

those paintings are exceptional... but they're not conveying 'newborn' to me so much...
maybe if you showed something emerging from that pupa/cacoon there?

[Baron Impossible]

harris-ejaz - glad you like them, thanks. I've not submitted the first one, it was just a trial run, really. I didn't go too obvious on the second one so I hope the judges can figure it out, fingers crossed :)

[tengu nz]

Awesome work! good luck

[Artboy]

Hey Baron, that's just plain awesome. Great work and good luck!

[Kan Muftić]

Hey Simon, looking good.
The only crit I have is that his face is quite flat. You can put a lot of bumps into this expression.
Good luck,

[Hideyoshi]

Simply masterful! You have my greatest respect for being able to tackle everything in Artrage, wow!
Sorry I want to offer crit, but think it would just be too subjective... I do agree that the face is one of the areas that could be taken to another level, maybe adding a little more fantasy characteristics...?
Love how you added the birds to direct the viewer towards the creature as a 2nd read.

[Baron Impossible]

tengu nz - Thanks :)

Artboy - Cheers!

Chupacabra - Thanks, mate, yep I think you're right about the face. Too late now, already submitted, but I need to work harder on the faces next time.

Hideyoshi - Thanks v much. I agree completely about the face, and don't be sorry about giving crits :) - that's part of how I improve.

[Muttonhead]

Great, absolutely GREAT! The textures are really fantastic. I would watch the flatness in some areas, but man this is a really fun piece! Looks like I might have to bring out the big guns afterall!!! ;)

Good luck to you, sir.

[Baron Impossible]

Muttonhead - Thanks v much. I wouldn't worry about getting guns bigger than the ones you've already got... Being as unbiased as I can be, I prefer yours to mine and I think yours would make a better cover. Good luck to you too :)

[Randis]

cool, i like it!

[Baron Impossible]

R a n d i s - Cheers :)

[Beelow]

Dang I missed a lot of what was going on here at CA. Great entries. I love the use of color and I always love your ideas. Good luck.

[Baron Impossible]

Beelow - Thanks, Bryce, good to see you around. Just checked out your blog - you're really improving at a fair rate, great to see! Keep up the good work.

[rickardwestman]

awesome! love the tornado creature! i can just imagine how it evolved from a small breath to that giant thing! sweet stuff and good luck!

[Baron Impossible]

rickardwestman - Thanks, glad you got the theme, and like it :)

[Randis]

i thougt i commented here already.
Looks great, love the monster/Demon in the BG
Good luck! cheers

[Beelow]

Thanks Simon. Great to hear that I am improving. Sometimes it's hard for me to see that. You're are one of the many artists that inspire me. It's hard to believe that you don't recieve many commissions. I remember reading that somewhere. Either that, or you don't want commissioned jobs, something like that, maybe I am wrong. Again thanks for sharing the process and somemore of you're well painted images. I am about to start my thread and try to squeeze an entry in while my kids are gone.

[NIRONERU]

astonishing concept of alien lifeforms... the overall texture is somewhat realistic that it seemed lively specially because of the people who are examining them...

[Baron Impossible]

R a n d i s - I thought you did too, maybe it's in there somewhere :) Thanks anyway!

Beelow - Thanks, it's good to hear someone say I inspire them. That's right, I don't do many commissions at present although that's cos until e/o August I'm full-time with other work. I do get frequent commission requests but most of them I have to turn down, unless it sounds particularly juicy and I know I'll have the time to complete it to deadline. Some of them are admittedly dodgy and I wouldn't take them on even if I had the time although happily now I'm getting increased interest from more established, reliable companies.

NIRONERU - Cheers, glad you like my alien :)

[dCepT]

Love the stormbringer! Don't have nothing much in ways of critique here.. just wanted to drop by and give some props where props were due :)

dC

[Baron Impossible]

dCepT - Thanks, appreciated :)

[st.s]

Woooooooow :O
That is great…
But there is something about his skin that is bothering me. It seems like it needs more texturing. Or maybe it’s the colour…

[Baron Impossible]

st.s - thanks, glad you like it. Yes, he has very girly skin but I gather that's all the rage with these urban shaman types ;)

[Josif]

impressive work :)

[Shard]

awesome stuff as always Sir!! loving that muted palette for the big thinghy!!

[artina]

This is looking great. Your colors have inspired me to push the colors on my piece. I had intended on going monochromatic but your piece has given me some ideas.

[Baron Impossible]

Josif - Thanks!

shardana - Cheers. I had to restrain myself with the colours for the creature but I'm fairly happy with the result.

artina - It's good to hear looking at my pic helped you with yours. Thanks :)

[mohdmubasshir]

love it :)

[Baron Impossible]

mohdmubasshir - Thanks!