Chow 163 :: Envoy of the Khemethar

[daestwen]

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

ROUND #163 :: ENVOY OF THE KHEMETHAR

DESCRIPTION

Envoy of the Khemethar

Nearly 6000 years ago, the Khemethar discovered a small blue planet on the edge of the galaxy, and sent an envoy to the primitive species that lived there. They made contact with a strange but industrious people in a place which first would be known as the Upper and Lower Kingdoms, and then the united nile valley would come to be known as Egypt.

The primitive race could not completely understand where their new guests had come from, and explanations of their journey through the stars led the Egyptians to believe that they had met Gods. The Khemethar's mission being one primarily of study, they allowed the egyptians their belief in order to get closer into their culture and to study the people of this planet much more closely.

Though a peaceful race in the grand sense of the word, they still suffered the same flaws as humanity, and fights often broke out between the members of the envoy - more than 2000 in number - some ending in injury, and death.

The stories of their hardships, battles, and revelations to the Egyptian people became legendary, and finally mythical. When they took their leave of the egyptian people, they left an undeniable mark upon them.

Notes :

- Design One or More of the Khemethar envoy, based upon one of the Egyptian Gods (ie, Aten-Ra, Isis, Osiris, Set, etc)

- You do not have to depict them as the Egyptians did - think of interesting things that they might have had/worn that might have been interpreted the way they were by the egyptians either for symbolic reasons, or simply because it was the closest thing that it looked like, not having the same technology/clothing available to them.

Websites:

http://www.nemo.nu/ibisportal/0egyptintro/1egypt/index.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Egyptian_religion

http://gwydir.demon.co.uk/jo/egypt/index.htm

http://www.touregypt.net/godsofegypt/


---------------------------------------------------------
DEADLINE
MONDAY, June 22nd, 2009
Deadline is Monday, at 5:00 pm Eastern Standard Time (GMT -5).
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example: "CHOW#100_Oblio.jpg" ;)

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(you can add CA logo, etc).


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

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

_____________

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

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

[JailHouseRock2]

Sounds cool, cheers daestwen!

[PuppyKitten]

Ooooh, I hope I have time for this one. Looks so fun!

[darklogik]

I Love Ancient SCI-FI! this should be fun. Can't wait to see what comes outa this.

[Random Stranger]

Sounds fun, I had a major Egypt obsession when I was younger, so it should be interesting.

[Sorknes]

Redesigning ancient Egyptian Gods.

How can I *NOT* enter....

THIS is gonna be fun! :D :D :D :D :D

[~baxter]

Definitely in on this one. :D

[NicHolS]

amazing topic! this round should be a scorcher no doubt!

[Pixeltuner]

cool :)

[CKLamb]

Anyone else thinking of doing an orth and concept sheet for this one?

[Gavage]

Really cool idea. This one has a lot of possibilities.

Ancient Egypt meeting alien technology would be what, stonepunk?

Result of some doodling this evening, a take on Isis. I'd like to use her and Osiris although they feel like slightly obvious choices. Could do with the technological aspects being made a little more apparent - I was thinking a giant neon-esque sign on her head with pipes and tubes all over the place. Not sure whether I'll use much of it or not but if I do I'll definitely go for a different pose.

[conti]

very cool!

[~baxter]

Anyone else thinking of doing an orth and concept sheet for this one?

Yeh I was thinking about doing a separate concept sheet before I go for the illo on this one myself, just to get the design/ outfit fully fleshed out.

Thinking about going for Set perhaps. Nice and violent.

[dawnusllaw]

this should definitely be a fun one. I think I'll go for one of the lesser known deities..

[alesoun]

Ooh! I wanna do Bastet, goddess of joy and despair.

[Sorknes]

I totally thought about Bast myself, hehe! :D

She's always been a kind of favourite of mine. And during the history of the Egyptians, she kind of changed as well, she was more lioness early on, with rounded ears and such.

I might have a go of several of the Gods that share some of the same "features". Like Maahes which it thought to be the son of Bast or Sekhmet, he also has lion features. And there's several that has the orb thing going on for the sun disc.

And the staffs are shown differently in different places, but several Gods shows similiar ones...

Ooooh, the possibilites. :D

Edit: Meret sounds interesting too... I just found out about her. She is holding a bowl up to the Heavens and has flowers on her head... Maybe she's the radio technician, hehe. :D

[NicHolS]

Anyone else thinking of doing an orth and concept sheet for this one?

hmm not a bad idea, i may do a turn around for a change, if i get a chance this week :P would be good to pull the trend away from pretty layouts and fancy compositions. great idea!

[Reymus]

Quick idea for Ba'al, God of Thunder (Egypt's Zeus?).

[mantoe]

This is fucking exc iting. Some top notch CHOWs this past few weeks.

[danlambert]

haha, this should be fun, I hope I actually remember to do it this time! Great topic

[Aly Fell]

A quickie of Isis. I'd like to do either Osiris and/or Horus. A nice little incestuous family group!

Edit01: Bit of doodling between other things...

Edit02: I'm unlikely to finish this, again! Crunch at work so I've only been able to tweak this between hours. Sigh... I'm not happy with the wings anyway... I didn't spend enough time thinking about their logic!

[Sorknes]

The more I'm sketching, the more I'm thinking about the frog ones. I might turn around and take those instead. If anything opens for aliens, it sure is them...

Ho hum.

[rinjii]

this sounds lovely! i'm thinking that i might try my hand at Nut [goddess of the sky] or Hapy [god of the nile river] but this will definitely be a bit of a challenge- i've never done sci-fi interpretations before [and i'm not counting the star wars chow >_>].

either way, it should be awesome to see the different deities :)

[daestwen]

Here's a few concept sketches I did for Nut... Trying to get the idea of a 'dress made of stars'. Figured she would be a test pilot, and the star-suit would be for flight-suit tests in earth's atmosphere as they adjusted to gravity, to make her more visible (and they could be colour-coded as desired). Often being seen in the sky, and having a suit that so resembled the night sky, though, the Egyptians saw her as a sky goddess.

edit: Added another sketch. Nut with her first glimpse of the planet she falls in love with (in lore she's married to the god of the earth), via a hologram projection.

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[CKLamb]

daestwen- awesome, I might do a Geb to your Nut.

[MJ_Alcazar]

Initial idea. Sekhmet, associated with war and destruction. She shot flaming arrows at her enemies and her body was said to glare like the sun. I'm thinking of several others too that I may play around with.
This should be a fun round!

[CKLamb]

Geb- Earth God, Envoy cartographer and environmentalist...during the day he communicates with Nut about coordinates and topographical data as she flies the skies...over the years...this simple communication turns romantic, all under the nose of Nut's husband Ra.

Seeing as felines hold a special place in Egyptian religion I decided to give the "god" race a feline spin.

Going to do a full concept sheet, if any of you have some experience in this I'll most definitely appreciate the help as I fudge through it.

[Muninn]

Very nice theme this week :D... I really hope I can make this one. Nice sketches so far :D

[MoHog]

oooh, enough time after exams to do this one...
looking at Horus - may expand to Set and bring in the myth where they brawl and horus takes one of set's testiclas :P

[darklogik]

After some research, Im going with Anubis, Sci Fi Alien Medical doctor that inadvertently created inbalming. Helmet with be kindlike attached x-ray specs - built-in sreroe digital stethoscope and 2 way field radio giving it a Dog like shape leading to the Jackals Misconception. going alien-esk sci-fi tech. =)

hopes its a good idea.
:rocker:

[emerging]

nice topic. love egyptian stuff! here is an Anubis i did couple years ago.. going to take it further this time, probably put in a fight scene

[ImaGEEnation]

Great topic once again! I think I'm gonna pick Anubis after doing some research! Nice sketches so far, guys! ^-^

[Migsta]

Here's what I have so far...

http://www.miguellleras.com/chow/CHoW163_Migsta2.jpg

[Aly Fell]

Has anyone seen the movie 'Immortel (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0314063/)', and read the comic books by Enki Bilal on which it's based? They might provide a bit of inspiration, although not too closely:

La Foire aux Immortels (http://bilal.enki.free.fr/details_oeuvre.php3?nom_oeuvre=la_foire_aux_immort els&quelles_oeuvres=albums&special=30)

[SaiVix]

I'm in. I can has Hathor plz k thx.

[Rabies]

The describtion sounds like the Nephilims... Funny i actually did some quick sketches of Egyptian god robots some time ago

Im allso going for Anubis hope its okay? :S
Its not gonna be anything like the sketch i allready did

[gtgauvin]

I've been slacking on CHOWs for months, so this one was too juicy to let slip. Here's what I've got done thus far. I'm going with Amun-Ra; a kind of obvious choice, I know, but recognizeable.

Oh, and Migsta: that's a sweet, sweet sketch! Can't wait to see it finished.

Edit 06/16: Pushed the body a little farther. Too muddy to be the final piece, but a good template for the overall character design. Thoughts?

Edit 06/16 ( later): Got the final underway. Went with a more dynamic angle and better pose. Still not decided on a color scheme yet. Something is bothering me about the muzzle of the mask, though. It's kind of lacking the jagged angularity of the first. Think I'll go in and change that.

[ImaGEEnation]

Alright, I changed my mind. Too many Anubis, so I'll go with Anuke, The Goddess of war. Just doing the sketcthes now. Thanks.

[Cosmitron]

Great theme! If I find some time to do it I'll take Hathor :)

[Rabies]

Didnt realise there were that many Anubis' im changing mine to Toth the moon god

[Pixeltuner]

Posh: I've seen the movie, pretty cool. :) I'm gonna do Thoth btw. Is going to make a nice alien scientist-dude ;)

'The Egyptians credited him as the author of all works of science, religion, philosophy, and magic. The Greeks further declared him the inventor of astronomy, astrology, the science of numbers, mathematics, geometry, land surveying, medicine, botany, theology, civilized government, the alphabet, reading, writing, and oratory. They further claimed he was the true author of every work of every branch of knowledge, human and divine.'

[Dan!]

Posh: I've seen the movie, pretty cool. :) I'm gonna do Thoth btw. Is going to make a nice alien scientist-dude ;)

damn I had the same idea- thumbs coming.

[Marsch]

will try, this is so Stargate!!!!!!(Indeed)

[Cosmitron]

So here's a sketch of Hathor, Goddess of Love, Music, Beauty...
http://bolospoilerman.free.fr/Chow/Khemethar/hathor%20sketch%20copy.jpg

:)

[Texahol]

I just want to say, even though I might not actively participate in the activities, I really appreciate how timely and smooth the CHOW runs.

There is always an active topic, and there is never a question on deadlines.

you chow mods are great <3

[Taimic]

nice topic, i hope i have time to join in.:yum:
would it be ok if i go for ammit? because it is a monster not a god...

[~baxter]

Pretty sweet ideas so far!

quick sketch up of Set.

Gave him a little grabbing arm with a sensor for picking up stuff, grabbing things, dismembering Osiris, the usual. Using it to give the appearance of the forked "tail"

[pahavasa]

I'm going for Khnum, who was one of the earliest deities and originally the god of the Nile River. The "horns" are filled with fluid as he cannot breathe air and he carries a water refinery on his backside.

"Since the annual flooding of the Nile brought with it silt and clay, and its water brought life to its surrounds, he was thought to be the creator of the bodies of human children, which he made at a potter's wheel, from clay, and placed in their mothers' wombs. He later was described as having molded the other deities, and he had the titles Divine Potter and Lord of created things from himself."

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Edit.
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[JaneM]

If I get to work steadily with this one, I'll go with Anubis too. I've already got my head full of images. :D

[SaiVix]

Great stuffs so far guys!!

GTGAuvin - Awesome!! I can't wait to see more of that.

[Carnifex]

first thoughts...

[Eric Young]

Straight from Chariot of the Gods this week, sounds cool I'll give it a go.

[MoHog]

Horus... (reeeeeeeally basic wip)
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Didnt want the helmet to resemble a hawk too much as the silhouette would be too unoriginal. Neck guard is a spin on the egyptian crown

concept: Horus is the philosopher/scientist of the envoy, disillusioned with his own race (no thanks to Set) he constructs a 'vocalisor' to make him the only member able to communicate through speech with the homo sapien. This allows him to become a highly regarded god and gives him some power in the envoy

Pahavasa is intriguing me the most at the mo' the colours are great. Great helemt design gtgauvin

Edit: better wip

[SunRoamer]

Hmm, sounds nice, although I immediately thought "Star Trek"... xD

If I'm entering I'm either going for Sachmet or for Bastet, I think :)

@Posh:
I know the movie and I LOVED the visuals. For the story, however... xD

[PixelFish]

I think I'll be portraying Seshat (goddess of writing, wife of Thoth, Mistress of Books, she who opens the door of heaven, etc). Got some ideas there....:)

Some quick notes:

Migsta: Love the silhouette and the suggestion of details on yours.

Daestwen: Love the star suit for Nut and the composition of her seeing the planet for the first time. Lovely.

Posh: I like the snakey tendrils coming off of Isis.

DarkLogik: No sketch yet, but I like the direction your thoughts seem to be heading.

Carnifex: Like the first sketch...the attenuated ears particularly.

Baxter: The helmet is nifty....The hands look a little thick and clunky, but they are aliens technically so who knows what their hands are really like.

[SuperSubie]

Ah very nice topic, this is gona be my first CHOW, will upload some sketches for concpets soon :) im going with toth. god of wisdom, learning, writing, wit, fantasy, speaking and inventions. he is gona be a scrib type character i feel, might even use egyptian glyphs in the designs, asuming he taught them to write and speak while upon earth.

btw MoHog really like that helmet design

[Random Stranger]

Done some scribbles, Horus/Re as a tall bloke in armour, with antigravvy tech wing things and a birdlike helmet, Thoth, sitting in some kind of hoverthrone, typing away, brain connected to the information matrix, only ever half there, and finally an idea for the Golden chariot, which carries the sun (energy ball thingie) three "gods", and they are battling Apep, the black serpent, which the envoy had captured previously.

C&C gratefully recieved :)

[Pixeltuner]

Here's my Thoth. Took some inspiration from The Predator as well as The Rocketeer for some strange reason. :)
Here we go again y'all. :yayca:

[CKLamb]

Oh, I like that Pix....I can already see you using some of the techniques you learned from your last piece. Nice!

[Pixeltuner]

CKLamb: Yep, I made myself some funky new brushes and picked up some stuff on lighting and using a lower flow setting on my standard brush as well ;)

[CKLamb]

What does lowering the flow do?

[Pixeltuner]

It puts less 'virtual paint' on your brush so you can do a lot more with subtle blends and small hue changes for added colour depth. I tend to put it as low as 20 to 30% and put my opacity on pressure sensitivity for that extra control in defining form in a subtle way.

[Novbert]

Naunet (aka Nunet) - godess of watery abyss she's represented as a blue skinned snake-headed woman. Those poor ancient Egyptian folks obviously didn't know too much about high-tech diving equipment :P

Lineart and some messing around with basic shading and custom brushes

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[Gavage]

Pixeltuner, that's amazing! I can see the Predator influences in it, but it's quite nicely unique too.

Anyone else thinking of doing an orth and concept sheet for this one?

I was debating it but I don't think mine has anything much interesting going on at the back to make it worth drawing from more than one angle. I did give it a shot (the embarassing result below) because it'd be a nice change to more illustration-type stuff but... it isn't looking too promising. Might opt for a second 'character' or a close up of the face from another angle instead.

Still running over ideas for Isis. I like the concept of the head dress and hanging cloth but the rest of the clothing looks a bit too much like something from a tacky goth clothing shop, pondering what could be used to make her seem a little more regal.

[SuperSubie]

oki here is the result of my first little go at chow xD
i have chosen to do toth, quite a bit i want to sort out on him atm, but this was just for mapping out general features. on his staff that monkey nit looking shape near the top.. well its actually meant to be an hour glass, i think im gona fll it with like a acid green bubbling liguide, and have it looking like its filling the staff shaft. and his left hand is typing on a ultra flat screen floating monitor. wanna develop that abit more two. this is the first digital thing i have done without a reference, would love some comments on it as in where i need to improve. :)

http://th07.deviantart.net/fs45/300W/i/2009/166/7/4/tosh_concept_test_1_by_SuperSubie.jpg

[papervampire]

what a cool theme... hehe.. I think I may have to enter this...
cool work so far peeps.

[NicHolS]

Has anyone seen the movie 'Immortel (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0314063/)', and read the comic books by Enki Bilal on which it's based? They might provide a bit of inspiration, although not too closely:

La Foire aux Immortels (http://bilal.enki.free.fr/details_oeuvre.php3?nom_oeuvre=la_foire_aux_immort els&quelles_oeuvres=albums&special=30)

hey posh, is that jean giraud? i totally love moebius! :O so inspired to do some stuff that style... hmm i may do that this round... such a wicked style!

[Cosmitron]

hey posh, is that jean giraud? i totally love moebius! :O so inspired to do some stuff that style... hmm i may do that this round... such a wicked style!
It's Enki Bilal.
:)

[MichaelNoel]

I love teh Egypts.

[AsaB]

Aaah, what a fantastic topic! I've been meaning to join Chow for ages and if this isn't the perfect topic for me, I don't know what is. I do love ancient cultures!
*plots*

[Reymus]

updated sketch.

And a question, I've asked this before but, does everyone use Photoshop exclusively for COWs/CHOWs/work, or do you use Painter as well, because I don't have Photoshop to use myself, I'm wondering if anyone uses Painter primarily. I've seen generally, Photoshop will always work better for clean concepts/illustration than Painter.

[MJ_Alcazar]

Update pg 1!

Ok, going to try and get some crits in.

Poshspice - love the design! and her feet are a nice touch. :D

Daestwen - again, love the design, and the idea of the lights as the stars. That last sketch with her looking adoringly at Earth is really cool. I hope you finish this one.

CKLamb - liking the sketches so far.

Missile - Like the sketch so far, the helmet is cool. Watch her breast area, if you can, get some pics of women's torsos and you should be able to fix that area from there. :)

Migsta - very cool sketch.

Pixeltuner - you improve evertime I see you on here, very cool Thoth.

pahavasa - very cool, I'm loving the design.

Cosmitron - cool sketch so far!

gtgauvin - really liking the design so far, keep pushing it!

baxter - I'm liking it so far, simple, but nice design and I like the little forked tail thing he has going for him.

Novbert -cool! Her left foot seems a little off, I'm not really sure whether it's crooked or not far back enough or something. It just seems just a little bit off.

Reymus - looks cool so far!

[Eric Young]

quick question, although I'm sure the answer is no. Can we do any ancient civilization's gods as aliens? The theory goes that not only were the Egyptian gods aliens but also ancient americans and hindu. I'm pretty sure the answer is egypt only.

[DIMAGYAN]

Nice topic!

I choose Bat godess (representation of cosmos at one moment in egypt)
The character i made is some kind of "star cartographer"...

cheers

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[daestwen]

;2302290']quick question, although I'm sure the answer is no. Can we do any ancient civilization's gods as aliens? The theory goes that not only were the Egyptian gods aliens but also ancient americans and hindu. I'm pretty sure the answer is egypt only.

Since the brief very specifically says egyptian, that's what we're going for.

[DazDaryl]

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b277/DazDaz25/set-1.jpg


I've got this idea for a set / seth character

[sketcheth]

Ooh cool...I'm gonna do this one properly this time, heh.

Reymus -- I use painter for everything just because of the workflow, but I've got photoshop too. Different strokes for different folks, I think. And I think as far as clean vs. dirty concepts, I think that's personal preference. You could paint really cleanly in painter if you really wanted to. It might just be that the majority of people choose not to.

Cool stuff so far, everybody!

[Reymus]

Sketcheth - Yea, I know that it comes down to whatever you like best, one isn't necessarily end all, but I notice a lot of the time on Painter at least (I don't know *if* Photoshop does this, but I've read it's does not) either there's a lot of pixelation going on which makes it frustrating going from say 50% zoom to 80% etc. I've just started doing anything digitally the past 4 months, so it's something I haven't learned yet.

P.S. I hope this dosen't turn out 50 entries with 35 Anubis' and 10 Sets :).

[ImaGEEnation]

Woo! Nice WIPs guys!

Pixelturner- You're fast, dude! Love the colors!
Novbert- Really cool take! Good idea!
Missile- Great concept! Haha those heels looks painful!
Reymus- so far so good, bro!
Dimagyan- Damn cool!

Sorry guys, if I didn't list you on the crits. But, good work everyone! Can't wait to see more progress on these babies! Peace! :yayca:

WIP: A sketch done in pencil and PS of ANUKE The Goddess of War

[dawnusllaw]

ok so I think I'm gonna go for Wadjet, cobra goddess, Protector of the Pharaoh. sketches tomorrow, whee!

[dawnusllaw]

ok so I think I'm gonna go for Wadjet, cobra goddess, Protector of the Pharaoh. sketches tomorrow, whee!

[Aly Fell]

hey posh, is that jean giraud? i totally love moebius! :O so inspired to do some stuff that style... hmm i may do that this round... such a wicked style!

As Cosmitron says it's Enki Bilal. They do have similarity. I first found his stuff in Heavy Metal Magazine.

BILAL (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enki_Bilal)

http://bilal.enki.free.fr/

[Novbert]

Let's see what we've got here :P

Missile: I really like the concept though I think you should consider putting some desing elements on the clothes, boots and those veils. Well ... especiall on the veils
Reymus: To answer your question: Chow is application independent - as far as I know, so you can use painter, or anything else you have. (daestwen?) About your sketch: Is that human face supposed to be a mask on an alien? Cool idea but not too obvious at this stage. Maybe make the face more stilized and the alien face more detailed. Add more details to the clothes - it's kinda smooth at this stage. But before that - define a ligh source!
Posh: Beautiful as always. It's so hard to compete with you.
daestwen: Nice idea. I hope you'll go with that pose-sketch with the glowing earth.
Mj Alcazar: The second one has really got potential, but if you start with a line drawing (as you usually start) it can be a good idea to add more variation to your line weight (http://tentopet.livejournal.com/12935.html) it really helps you to define form. And thanks for the crit on the left foot - I've noticed that it's kinda wonky - I was just too lazy to fix it.
CKLAmb: nice start with the concept sheet, but be sure to clean up the concept a bit more unless you won't be able to use it as a reference.
emerging: Is this kind of reciclyng authorised here?!? - Just kidding. Really cool anubis - but get rid of that freaking glow.
Migsta: One of my favourites so far. really clean design - nothing to crit
gtgauvin: I love the design, but the colors you use don't work together yet. Keep that in mind if you start the finished piece
Cosmitron: Ah, Hathor - I almost chose her. Not too much to crit at this stage, but having seen your last two chows... I can't wait to see the finished piece. Keep it up, man!
~baxter: Nice, simple design and color scheme, but the pose could be more interesting....
pahavasa: Now that is some crazy stuff. Add some interesting background and it will rock.
Mohog: The helmet looks nice, but the pose is kinda stiff. And use bigger brushes whe you define forms.
Pixeltuner: Not too much to crit here, man, it's already awesome
Supersubie: Not too much to crit at this early stage - but the head looks WAY too big.
Dimagyan: I like the simplicity of this one.
ImaGEEnation: Lovely pose and cool design so far. And thanks for the comment
:yayca:

[gtgauvin]

Novbert: Yeah, I'm afraid my deficient color vision is the bane of my artistic existence. If anyone here can point me in the direction of good resources for colorblind artists, or perhaps offer suggestions and/or criticisms of my color pallete, it'd be greatly appreciated.

[Novbert]

gtgauvin: Google is your friend if you're looking for color theory material, but to be a little more helpful this video of bobby chiou (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beM99eFb76c&feature=channel_page) was like an enlightment for me on coloring and general process. Just be sure watching it from the beginning to the end, and try to catch the point where the miracle happens ;)

[emerging]

lol recycling haha, nah man i was just showing my old work cuz it kinda fit the theme, im obviously gona do a new one for the chow hehe

Let's see what we've got here :P

Missile: I really like the concept though I think you should consider putting some desing elements on the clothes, boots and those veils. Well ... especiall on the veils
Reymus: To answer your question: Chow is application independent - as far as I know, so you can use painter, or anything else you have. (daestwen?) About your sketch: Is that human face supposed to be a mask on an alien? Cool idea but not too obvious at this stage. Maybe make the face more stilized and the alien face more detailed. Add more details to the clothes - it's kinda smooth at this stage. But before that - define a ligh source!
Posh: Beautiful as always. It's so hard to compete with you.
daestwen: Nice idea. I hope you'll go with that pose-sketch with the glowing earth.
Mj Alcazar: The second one has really got potential, but if you start with a line drawing (as you usually start) it can be a good idea to add more variation to your line weight (http://tentopet.livejournal.com/12935.html) it really helps you to define form. And thanks for the crit on the left foot - I've noticed that it's kinda wonky - I was just too lazy to fix it.
CKLAmb: nice start with the concept sheet, but be sure to clean up the concept a bit more unless you won't be able to use it as a reference.
emerging: Is this kind of reciclyng authorised here?!? - Just kidding. Really cool anubis - but get rid of that freaking glow.
Migsta: One of my favourites so far. really clean design - nothing to crit
gtgauvin: I love the design, but the colors you use don't work together yet. Keep that in mind if you start the finished piece
Cosmitron: Ah, Hathor - I almost chose her. Not too much to crit at this stage, but having seen your last two chows... I can't wait to see the finished piece. Keep it up, man!
~baxter: Nice, simple design and color scheme, but the pose could be more interesting....
pahavasa: Now that is some crazy stuff. Add some interesting background and it will rock.
Mohog: The helmet looks nice, but the pose is kinda stiff. And use bigger brushes whe you define forms.
Pixeltuner: Not too much to crit here, man, it's already awesome
Supersubie: Not too much to crit at this early stage - but the head looks WAY too big.
Dimagyan: I like the simplicity of this one.
ImaGEEnation: Lovely pose and cool design so far. And thanks for the comment
:yayca:

[MoHog]

ok re-imagining, pose changed slightly. Not adventurous but Im still learning anatomy. Hopefully counter this with a dramatic light source as Horus gets 'beamed down'. Gave him a cooler hat thang too (also hes a ninja :P)
699381

[Feil Magnus]

Set had never been represented how he really was, a red haired cool bad-guy hunk!!!
He indeed had a pitbull or at least what pitbull were at that time (with a long nose which influenced some of his representations)
His anks was a lighter and was fond of space cigarettes.
Finally, his well known twin tail was only a serie of belts (Egyptians had never seen belts like this)
- Here goes some wips -

[AhChu]

Not sure wher ethe hell this is going, just playing aorund with some shapes and designs, sort of reminds me of a cross between a gi-joe and a transformer :p

[Ghostbrush]

Ra-Horakhty was a combination of the gods Horus and Ra.
Horus was a god of the sky, and Ra was the god of the sun. Thus, Ra-Horakhty was thought of as the god of the rising sun.

going for a rather ambitious pose, trying to push myself here.

trying to move away from fancy backgrounds etc, concentrate more on the character and costume design.

would love to hear what you think...

Alex

[~baxter]

Replies...

Novbert:Thanks! but that one was just a preliminary concept sketch, so the actual entry will be far different :D
MJ Alcazar: Thanks. Im thinking about sizing up the prongs just because they dont look like they could do much.
PixelFish:Yeh the thick fingers are intentional. I was gonna do 4 fingers but I usually stick with all 5 or 3 for designs.


...and some crits.

PixelTuner: Pretty awesome man. Love the helmet and colors.
pahavasa: Also loving the headgear and colors.
DIMAGYAN: Simple but effective!
ImaGEEnation: Lookin good so far, cant wait to see more :D
Ghostbrush: Same as above, looks good!

[Cam Sykes]

Ok here's just something to get me started. JUst figuring out patterns, clothing and ornaments. This pose is of course inappropriate and awkward so this will be my reference for the proper piece. Also gonna push for a otherworldy and more alien vibe.

[daestwen]

Here's an update for my Nut. Sorry I don't have time to crit! I have a day off tomorrow so I'll try to get some done then. :]

699570

[pahavasa]

Thanks for all the comments, everyone! Will post mine later.

Getting there, eventually...

[luness]

Great ideas guys!
The second note about developing a character(s) for this topic was actually what inspired me the most, like “…think of interesting things that they might have had/worn that might have been interpreted the way they were by the Egyptians either for symbolic reasons, or simply because it was the closest thing that it looked like…”.
So I started to sketch a series of helmets based on the different animals the Egyptians used to represent the different gods; like ibis, scarab, cobra, jackal, hawk, etc., following the idea that one of the reasons behind Egyptians “drawing” always in profile or a very flat perspective was that these asymmetrical and also symmetrical helmets they saw at the arrival of the envoy looked very much like profiles of animals’ heads, animals that were part of their landscape and surroundings. They didn’t know that these helmets were actually part of different uniforms designated for different occupations, like field scientists, surveillance, scout and expedition, architects, infantry, among others.
More than 2000 aliens were part of the envoy, so there were many members using the same kind of uniform, depending on their mission; hence the idea and conviction of the Egyptians that these gods were “everywhere”, that they could see any of these “gods” standing just few steps from them and all of the sudden at the top of a working site, near the temple, for example; when the Egyptians were actually looking at different aliens wearing the same uniform at the same time. I hope I’m explaining myself clearly, I’m not that good at this sometimes :)

So yeah, here are some helmet studies. The aliens’ anatomy would look very similar to what we see on the hieroglyphics: humanoid but with broad chest, very long and slim arms and legs…that kind of look.
I’m also posting an example (design based on the demon Ammit) of two kinds of presentation that I used some time ago for a very similar subject, which I’m keen to use again, but now with a papyrus-kinda background and if I decide to color them, I’d be using a color palette commonly found in the hieroglyphics, like brown, gold, black, blue, red, turquoise, etc.
This is going to be fun and I truly hope to find plenty of time to post something before the deadline.

Again, great work so far guys. I will comment and give some feedback later on, alright?

Cheers!

[Muninn]

luness Woah really nice studies, and awesome example. (I can't help thinking of Jar Jar though o_0, ok u can hit me with a stick)
daestwen - I totally love her outfit!
pahavasa - Impressive and daring colours and great design to. Is he pressing his own button or is it me?
Reymus - Wow thats rad. The tesla thing works really wel :D
Ghostbrush - Awesome start, I love her helmet and colar!
Migsta- that full body drawin kicks ass! I can't wait to see where your taking it.
Pixeltuner - Really nice helmet design!. I love the little tattoo details.

Here's some of my scribbling. Just some quick alchemy doodles and one quick overpaint in photoshop. Not sure if I like where this one is going tho... there's a lot of aspects I'm not content with as it is.
And, yes, that is a mummy dangling from its.. feet....?
Oh yeah, its Sobek.

[Carnifex]

fucking hot damn luness,that's the best idea i've seen in a long time! :O

i have a really hard time coming up with something original,because the egyptian design in themselves are already so beautiful and perfected...i feel like all i'm doing is making them more plump...

EDIT: fuckit,i'm out. i'd be stuck thinking of luness designs all the time and how mine aren't half as original or cool. really,it's the perfect blend of what i tried to wrap my head around the whole time, the mix of elegant looking aliens (non-resembling humans too),and the even more elegant egyptian designs. i'm alittle bummed that i can't think of anything,but fuck that. next week.

[buffichar]

:sungod:
I had an idea so i'm going to run with it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hathor
Femininity, mother earth, bull/ cow tendencies. I am guessing they could mask themselves to seem somehwhat humanoid considering the planet they were on. So far that's what i'm thinking. I just feel like what was beneath was concealed and how they wrapped (yes pun intended) their exterior vessel made it easier for humans to approach them.
You'll get the sketch once i sort this computer out

[Djinn]

daestwen I'm really glad you went with that one, the pose and expression makes it so clear that she's fascinated/enamored with the planet.

CamSyko I love all the texture.

luness your designs are so original, and I really like your draftsmanship, even on the rough idea sketches, even the underlying construction lines add to the idea.

--
As for me, I'm going to be unbelievably busy for a while, so I'm not sure if I'll have time to make a real go at this one, but here are some rough idea sketches just to get my mind going, I'm leaning towards my Set(h) concept (mid-right) but I'm liking my Osiris concept, where his headdress and ram-horns are actually his space-helmet and breathing apparatus--but I think the costume/clothing is lacking.

EDIT: Added a quick Set(h) rough. I would love and appreciate some feedback, tear it apart, paint over it, whatever you think will help me get better. Thanks in advance.

[Eric Young]

luness- thats a great idea and looks likes your off to a great start

[Droid]

Very good topic.

Devine, god-like aliens...

I think I'll do something like the pharohs, with the elongated hats and chin?

Except I'll make it the actual skull.

Cool topic, I can't wait to start sketching!

[rinjii]

i figured out what i'm going to do for my interpretation of nut [tron-one helped me out massively, thanks babe]- since me and daestwen somehow both thought of a suit of stars, i scrapped my drawing so that we didn't have two similar goddesses floating about.

i decided to focus my attention to Nut's more maternal nature and create her as the Khemethar's ship's sentinent A.I. she acts as the ship's navigation system and defensive mechanisms [her duty to protect them from the 'chaos' of uncharted space]. when they first landed on earth to observe the ancient egyptians she appeared as a massive hologram in the sky- and since holograms can be translucent, a giant floating woman in the sky melding in with the night stars can easily be interpreted as a sky goddess, right?

i'll post up some wips later on tonight, when i can get my scanner working again >>

[Giorge]

waw waw waw , great designs guys , now i feel to bad that i don't have to much time this week to put into this , here are some sketches i just did
699824

luness - great stuff out there , can't wait to see what will

[Marsch]

my sketch.
The hat and face is the upper torso of the alien.

[Cartogriffi]

Luness, those pictures are great!

The helmets are wonderfully designed. I particularly like Thoth's antennae, and Kepri is also neat, he's certainly one of the odder looking Egyptian gods. Some of the names are a bit hard to read though, could you post a whos who? :)

As a big fan of gharials I'm also quite fond of your depiction of Ammit.

I'm looking forward to your final entry!

[machine_breath]

Osiris, chief medical examiner for the Khemethar envoy. He hates his job.
I don't think I'll finish this 'cause after seeing your guys' drawings I'm inspired to draw something more beastly and/or alien looking.
699850

[darklogik]

Anubis -Chief Forensics Officer and anatomy scientist.

Anubis, became the original "God" of the underworld due to his role in performing autopsy's on the young human race once passed to learn more about their biology and internal anatomy. Due to the exotic nature of his practice, the soon to be Egyptians concluded he was preparing the bodies for after life and preserving the organs for that purpose, although they were mere samples for later study. Thus creating the embalming practice they embraced later.

His helmet is of medical use allowing him to see the internal system to delicately remove his specimens for closer study. Due to the large visor and digital recording / transmitting functions, the Egyptians depicted him as a Jackal in stature.

The Eye of Re (ra) Is actually the financing Companies logo, which lead the Egyptians to believe it was the symbol of the Main God since all of the Envoy of the Khemethar had this Logo branded somewhere on their suits.

Let me know what you think =)

Thanks

[MoHog]

Horus update, almost done here I think. exams done by thurs and then It colourin' time.

by the way Luness Im starting up a religion, I f you have any free time would you care to be our God? cheers

699874

[Pixeltuner]

updaaate

luness: that's awesome, now show some bodies :)

[Goog]

My W.I.P.

I love pixelturner's and pahavasa's unique takes on the subject.

I chose RA as a subject. I saw the below sheet of egyptian gods and thought of how funny it would look for a being to have a big red circle on his head. Still working out ideas.

[CKLamb]

Pix-The left leg seems off. I really dig the transparency of the eye.


Carnifex- Don't give up, if nothing else do it for the exercise. This is more then just competition, it's about self-improvement.

[Pixeltuner]

Pix-The left leg seems off. I really dig the transparency of the eye.

yep, leg sucks. But I had to quit or else I would fuck it up. :D

[AvisNocturna]

Goog: I just love that Idea! So cool!

Err... yep. I didn't even want to take part in this chow, but a friend showed me her design of Selket and I just wanted to sketch an idea for her.. so I thought I could at least show it. although everything looks out of place oO

699934

and now I really go to bed!

UPDATE: Tatata... I changed... stuff XD Just for the fun of it.

700628

[Reymus]

Ba'al, God of Thunderstorms. I'm thinking of scaling it down and showing more of his legs...

Goog - That's more creature than humanoid, you might want to get rid of the tail and making it stand a bit more, hunched over maybe.

Darklogic - I don't know if you want to, but if you made the helmet less like a jackal head, more abstract indicating how it could be mistaken for a jackal.

Muninn - Awesome, the mummy on the bottom looks out of place though, since it's Sobek how about extending her bottom into a crocodile tail, or more cloth.

[~baxter]

Another wip.
Scrapped the old version. It just wasn't feeling alien.More of a teched up dressed up human.

Going in an organic direction. Dunno If im gonna keep the mind flayer-esque mouth or have a long snout/trunk.

Here's some quick head sketches.

Edit: Already took back that decision, shifting it to something not so absurd looking. Changed it to a donkey like mouth

[lennon]

I came to bother with one question
So, POSHPICE if you're there, please tell me!

I made the mistake of showing too little of my character, and then I remember that you must show at least 3/4 t qualify. So, this is how I solved it. Would I be able to get away with this? Because his body is like, totally in shadows.
Certain characters are to big for the screen and would only appear as this one, SO, IS IT OK? CAN I PROCCED WITH THIS ONE?

WELL JOB EVERYONE, I'll post a comment later on your drawing.

[buffichar]

I got it to work. :bounce: Uploaded pictures of my initial sketches for :ah::aa::at::ah::ao::ar:.
Great work so far my favourites are not disappointing me.

[Cartogriffi]

Lennon, while I obviously have no clues about its acceptability, your WIP is quite attractive so far. There is some nice expression in the pose, and the background is very nice.

I chose RA as a subject. I saw the below sheet of egyptian gods and thought of how funny it would look for a being to have a big red circle on his head. Still working out ideas.
A big red disk could have easily slipped in to the ridiculous, but I think yuo've done a good job helmet/disk - in fact I like the clothing in general.

Have you decided what he's doing with the disk?

[Goog]

A big red disk could have easily slipped in to the ridiculous, but I think yuo've done a good job helmet/disk - in fact I like the clothing in general.

Have you decided what he's doing with the disk?

I was thinking he might use it as a hypnotizing/calming device to be used upon encounter with the "natives" to prevent hostility. This would also explain why Ra is the most important of the Egyptian gods, as natives would become mysteriously overwhelmed with a desire to please him.



Goog - That's more creature than humanoid, you might want to get rid of the tail and making it stand a bit more, hunched over maybe.



you think so? I must admit I was purposefully trying to stay away from making it too humanoid, and more of separate species. (I mean, c'mon, they're aliens!) I probably wont enter anyways so no biggie.

[Gavage]

Sorry about the lack of comments, pretty shattered right now. I'll have a proper look through and post some tomorrow.

WIP starting out towards a more final design. Going to change the colours quite a lot from how they are now. Not sure about the veil draping over the legs.

Also tempted to make a masked version for this one too. Or maybe make the human face the mask and something more alien beneath it.

http://img36.imageshack.us/img36/9554/isiswip3.jpg

[Blueman]

Doing a depiction of Hathor, the cow-goddess of love and music. At the moment, not looking very loving or musical. Oh well.

I was thinking about torturing myself and doing the whole thing in Illustrator via the gradient mesh tool. I expect the results will be interesting.

[dwinbotp]

Better late than never. Here's the basic composition, not entirely sold by it. I also want to play around with the helmets designs based on the different Gods but I'm inclined to do Anubis first:)

Lotsa good stuff so far! another great topic!:yayca:

[Djinn]

Next WIP:
Wondering if anyone has any crits before I move forward any further?

[Reymus]

Djinn - the perspective is off a bit, his body seems flattened toward the vanishing point. More contrast also, and raise his left arm, right now it looks like he's in a awkward pose scrunching his right arm against his body, while lowering his left shoulder. I should follow my own advice :). Anyway, try drawing simple boxes on a top layer of the figure forming the limbs and making an armature, then you can select the canvas or layer below and rotate/adjust to fit inside those forms, from there you can patch up as need be.

[daestwen]

Aly: Update is looking awesome so far. I'm not too sure about the vines on her back... with the scales + ribs it's looking very cluttered, and the vines keep pulling my eyes off the page. I think it might be because they connect but don't totally overlap the stone arch there, and it makes a weird tangent. I'd clean up the back a little bit and make it clear where the plane of her back is - the angle + lots of stuff is making that unclear, not to mention the overlapping of that one wing. Love the wing/dress combo, looking real good so far. I also love the shadow of the knee, but I'm afraid it might be in the wrong place! Her lower leg is *really* long if you judge from the knee to her foot. Either her leg needs another joint or i would move the knee down... Maybe lower the top step a bit so you still keep that nice light/shadow contract on the wings? Also the back leg looks off - either too short or not angled enough in order to match the length of the other one. Her helmet/headress looks really nice so far though the horns still need to be angled out properly (but I can tell you haven't really gotten to that yet, so there you go), expression is good... I'm personally not too fond of the hands, though I know you love drawing hands like that. :P They look kind of unusable for someone who had to piece their husband back together. :D But that's just a personal thing....

[CKLamb]

Started a new sheet, got some faces down...next up helmets and costuming. This is a first for me so umm...we'll see what happens. Still trying to do an orth. and color shot of Geb. I've got a lot of graphic design stuff on my plate, so I'm not sure if it'll be finished in time though.

[PixelFish]

Okay, changed my mind. Seshet is a cool goddess, and I'm sure I'd like to play with concepting her but all my initial sketches were leading me towards Heptet instead. So Heptet it is. She's got a snakey atef crown (which will actually be a sort of glass encased electrokinetic matrix where she keeps a copy Osiris's memories). She and Isis are escorting the Osiris biopod/saracophagus, and will "resurrect" and reactivate Osiris so that he may commence his studies. Edited to add to address Missile's question re: the "ropes" - They aren't towing him precisely--those are more like bio-leashes, which will keep Osiris alive by drawing from their bodies if his power cells give out while he is in his pod. I'm also thinking that the strips on her snake hood are actually special bio-engineered information collecting cells. When Osiris is present but not conscious, he needs somebody to collect memories for him, and that's part of what Heptet is doing while she escorts him around.


...

CKLamb: I like the variety in your head sketches. Looking forward to seeing what bodies you will come up with.

Posh: Neato. I dig where this is going, although I echo Daestwen's comment that it's starting to get a wee bit busy. (But some detail may fall back during the painting process...who knows.) Love the wingy bits.

Luness: I love your line quality. Love the forms you've come up with so far.

Pixeltuner: Lovely vibrant colours.

Pahavasa: Wasn't sure at first if I was grokking your concept, but I love how it's evolved. The headdress is looking clearer. The colours grab me too.

Ghostbrush: Neat take on the Ra-part of your character. Good integration of the symbols into the head dress.

Reymus: I like the swirly motif with Ba'al's armour.

[Bishos]

Hi all,
First post here and looking forward to adding more in the future. Am really impressed with the quality of work and great community spirit that's active here.

Have started work on a version of Set as I like the mystery surrounding the 'set animal'. Figured his 'snout' would make a cool gas mask style breathing apperatus needed in the sand storms in the desert.

Am undecided whether to push a real steam punkish flavour to him or not. His belly is probably going to end up with heiroglyphic tatoos on it and his jewellery and clothing will eventually lean more towards pharaoh than peasant.

Sketch:

[Gavage]

Pixelfish; Yours has a very good story going on behind it and some interesting ideas. I like it! The only thing I'm not sure about is the ropes Heptet and Isis are holding onto to move Osiris - it seems sort of 'primitive' in comparison to the other things going on in the picture.

Bishos: Looks promising. Reminds me of one of those machine gun toting guards from the Oddworld games.

CKLamb: Nice set of faces - I like the ones on the bottom row the most, they seem to have a good combination of alien and Egyptian styles.

Djinn: He looks like he could do with being a bit taller, he has a slightly intimidating look to him that's currently reduced by him looking a little small at the moment. Other than that it's cool.

Blueman: 'Loving' would be quite difficult to depict, you could work musical into it with a few different ways though - maybe bringing in instruments or some sort of speakers. If you intend to keep the body mostly nude, be sure to keep a lot going on with the helmet, or maybe work some more alien features into the body design. Some sort of alien set of udders could be interesting for a 'cow goddess'...

Lennon: I love this one, it has some intriguing activity going on. It might be in danger of not showing enough of the character though. If you want to keep the body mostly in shadows, you could always make a second more standard image to go with it - a full-body image of him in more suitable light or something.

Darklogik: Clever ideas with the helmet and eye symbol! Looking forward to seeing where you go with it.

[RichLyons]

ahoy,
heres me sketch.:mod:

[buffichar]

Pixelfish: Loving the elongated form. Smooth slinky and just off human. My inner ancient egyptian bows.
CK Lamb: I'm enjoying the process. Looks like you've got alot of work. Hopefully it will all go amoothly.
Blueman: Doing Hathor too. hmmInital sketch concept interesting. I am intrigued.
MJ_Alcazar : As always looking forward to your work. Have you decided which one you are going with?
PixelTurner: what can I say. I like it :D i really like it. Predator/rocketeer huh?
Missle and Imageenation have both caught my attention.
Looking forward to seeing progress.

[buffichar]

My Concept. I decided to go with the feminine angle. Her being aluring almost human masking something underneath. I just couldn't get away from idea of tentacles which inspire the Egyptian braids. Had fun drawing her. I'm in ancient egyptian mode this should be fun

[Feil Magnus]

Time for crits:
Bishos: Nice and inventive design, attention is however focused on his blank belly for now, the tatoo idea on it can be a good idea solution to distract the eye from this part to the rest of the body.
Pixelfish: Good concept, i like the triangular aspect of the scene
Cklamb: That's a nice exercise you've done heare, some faces attract the attention more than others (in my opinion), we'll see which one you choose :)
Djinn: Your god is indeed a bit too small or maybe too skinny, his arms may be too thin compared to his torso to make you feel like "waow it's a god facing me!!", furthermore anatomicaly speaking his left shoulder seems misplaced , that might be the think that make the arm look akward.
dwinbotp: nice pose the guys kneeling on the foreground bring a nice perspective to the scene
Blueman: i like the helmet, but as it's quite big you may have to add some imposing piece of armor-exoskeleton so that the whole figure doesn't seem unbalanced like well if it comes to walk she falls down because of the too heavy headgear
Missile: the pose is a bit unnatural, her left leg is thinner than her right one, i love the energy sphere on her head, and same remark as for bluman as she 's got a big sphere, maybe her pose and neck position should be adapted (but well they're aliens so maybe their big headsets are light as a feather)
Buchiffar: let's see more of that :)
Lennon: love it, very nice mood and composition.
Baxter: I kinda prefered the organic kraken mouth than the donkey one (but that might be because it reminds me of shrekk and crushes away all the god-like idea for me)
Reymus:good one, maybe you could bring dome more shadows to give some more volume to the metalic left part of the outfit.
Avisnocturna: she can be sexy :D naked enough for me ^^
Goog: mmh your khemethar look smore like a creature of the week than character of the week for me but then the conceptart boss will decide.
Pixeltuner: Love the pose, color and general design the only piece of crit could concern the boots that look metalic and thus inapropriate for walking but it can be powerboots made for flying ^^ the rendering of the trousers is awesome.
Mohog: i like your helmet, the torso part could be less geometrical for the bone parts going left and right of his torso, may some organic bones following torso anatomy lines could do it.
darklogic: love the idea of the eye that would be a logo fo rthe manufacturing company, the helmet concept with those color is good too :)
Munnin: Awesome design id love to see tha final result
Lunnes: very interesting helmet design
Daestwen: my girlfriend loves the clothes design and wants the same ^^ very nice.
Novbert: nice view and inventive idea
Well that's all for now (don't have much time)a lot of other ones have very nice and interesting ideas as well.
Can't wait to see the finals

[Ghostbrush]

its cool to do more than one character right? cos I wanna do something more extra terrestrial than the one I have already.

[daestwen]

Ghostbrush: Yup! It says "One or More" in the brief, so you're all good. :]

[Aly Fell]

I came to bother with one question
So, POSHPICE if you're there, please tell me!

I made the mistake of showing too little of my character, and then I remember that you must show at least 3/4 t qualify. So, this is how I solved it. Would I be able to get away with this? Because his body is like, totally in shadows.
Certain characters are to big for the screen and would only appear as this one, SO, IS IT OK? CAN I PROCCED WITH THIS ONE?.
Lennon - Bring out more detail in the design. You have just about enough of the character in shot, but pull some detail out of the black, otherwise there's not much in the way of design to see! :)

[Aly Fell]

Thank you for the crit Britt (crit Britt!), it was really appreciated and very pertinent to. I'm going to 'clean' the back up. It is far too confused, you're right. I'm opening up the space behind her a bit with an adjustment of the wings too. The legs need tidying up. She is meant to have elongated shins, but maybe I've overdone it or not put the knee right. The hands will also be toned down, but I suppose I do draw them that way a bit! :) Well, she could manage to fit most of Osiris back together with those hands, she was just missing one teensy weeny fiddly little bit!


Aly: Update is looking awesome so far. I'm not too sure about the vines on her back... with the scales + ribs it's looking very cluttered, and the vines keep pulling my eyes off the page. I think it might be because they connect but don't totally overlap the stone arch there, and it makes a weird tangent. I'd clean up the back a little bit and make it clear where the plane of her back is - the angle + lots of stuff is making that unclear, not to mention the overlapping of that one wing. Love the wing/dress combo, looking real good so far. I also love the shadow of the knee, but I'm afraid it might be in the wrong place! Her lower leg is *really* long if you judge from the knee to her foot. Either her leg needs another joint or i would move the knee down... Maybe lower the top step a bit so you still keep that nice light/shadow contract on the wings? Also the back leg looks off - either too short or not angled enough in order to match the length of the other one. Her helmet/headress looks really nice so far though the horns still need to be angled out properly (but I can tell you haven't really gotten to that yet, so there you go), expression is good... I'm personally not too fond of the hands, though I know you love drawing hands like that. :P They look kind of unusable for someone who had to piece their husband back together. :D But that's just a personal thing....

[Nephilie]

Selket, she stood for medicine and magic. I choose her because scorpions are her animal and I like them =)

Blueman: I kind of like her feet and how you design the sun disk on her head. I`m looking foward to see if you manage to get her lovely ;)

PixelFish: I like it how her body fits to the attributes of a snake. Interesting design =)

Bishos: I'm glad to see that someone started Set. This gas mask is a great idea to explain his strange snout

[Wiggers]

Not sure about the little people, i think i will get rid of them.

[Razorleaf]

Gawd, these are excellent, so many wonderful ideas. I especially like those that incorporate a bit of action. :)

Emerging - love the animation. And your choice of colors really strengthens the end result
Cosmitron - love the sketch - its so comic like
Pixeltuner - the detail is great, its got that MadMax kinda thing going on
Dimagyan - Great sketch and her expression is so intense
ImaGEEnation - Love it! Really looking forward to seeing where you go from here, great action
AhChu - Your character exudes pure presense, very nice!
Ghostbrush - Your angles give your characters such perspective and sense of emotion, great!
CamSyko - Your detail is stunning, can't wait to see color added
Daestwen - I really like the direction you take your characters - they are so outside the box
Luness - Your character is so StarWars, love it!
Muninn - So much is going on with your character, its one those that your have to really look at to get the full scope of the image, nice!
Mohog - Love the contrast, looking forward to how you incoporate color!
Avis Nocturna - I am really liking your pose!

[Lewis]

I like the topic :)
This is my Work in process. Osiris. The egyptians interpreted his oxigenmachine as a black beard.

[SaiVix]

1. Headpiece
2. Body poses

This was the head I chose, after doing a lot of them. I got tired doing poses though. Hopefully I can come up with something better, after I rest. More to come

[Gavage]

Feil Magnus: Thanks for the crit! I know the pose isn't perfect but I'll probably stick with it, I couldn't find anything that seemed much more appropriate. In reply to what you said about the head-dress - my general idea is that weight is a different factor on other planets and chances are that there would also be a variety of different materials out there too (which I'm hoping to find a way to paint convincingly by the end of this). Thinking of things like light, flexible metals and stones... perhaps a liquid cloth for the veil.

Worked in Osiris. The whole story about his murder and his still-missing penis and Isis putting him back together kind of romantic... in a sort of really disturbing Flowers in the Attic way. Trying to convey something tender but very strange by having the smoke from Isis' head dress turn into a slight figure that will be stroking the side of Osiris' face. His head dress is a life support machine with wires attached to numerous parts of his body, the prosthetic penis Isis made* being represented by a canopic jar-esque thing.

*Funnily enough, I don't remember this part of their story being in the books on Ancient Egypt I read when I was little.

http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/1595/isisosiriswip.jpg

[Marsch]

An update, im going for a more descritive concept, rather than a "action" one.
Its a green Osiris (lots of Osiris today, Huh?) alien, I will put the true Osiris beside it with the equipment and fake head.
Its hard to show/concept things, that are meant to disguise the subject!!(the skirt/legs)
Please critice it, to help in its improvement.

[PixelFish]

Not sure about the little people, i think i will get rid of them.

I think you should keep the little people. The sense of scale is better with them in. I like the BIGNESS of the god-aliens.

[Droid]

I think you should keep the little people. The sense of scale is better with them in. I like the BIGNESS of the god-aliens.

I agree with that.

Like my primary school art teacher always said, "Big is beautiful".

And them aliens is mighty big. 0.0

[Feil Magnus]

indeed Wiggers the little people bring a good sense of immensity to your gods.
Here's another wip.
(Set's naughty pitbull is from ref, never thought i'd study pitbull anatomy one day).

[benu]

I thought it was time for a chow again...

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[luness]

Some quick replies. I’ll try to post some more during this week.

Muninn – I don’t know why you think of Jar Jar, but it’s almost offensive, haha. Anyways, great concept, I really like it, good job!

Carnifex – that’s very disappointing man. Instead of writing “fucking damn hot Luness” I think you should write “that fucking Luness” instead. Listen to what CKLamb said. I mean, if you were thinking about the same idea, then move your bum back and start developing what you had in mind. We’ll give you critiques, feedback, just like we do to each other. One of the things I like the most about the community activities is how quick you get feedback, faster than when we post stuff in our sketchbooks, so it eases the design process, and we learn, we share, all that good stuff we all get at the end. I’m glad you like what I posted but you should take it as an inspiration rather than a deterrent or obstacle for your creative process. I can’t imagine myself quitting just because there’s a Carlos Huante out there, or a Bjorn Hurri, or a Marko Djurdjevic, or Andrew Ley, or Khang Le, or all the incredibly talented artists you can see in a banner at the top of this page or within the different CA threads; I can’t imagine either to quit because most of them have BFA degrees on their backs and I can’t afford a formal art education overseas (because there’s nothing worthy in my country) and I have to learn everything on my own, and I’m 34 and there are younger guys like Whit Brachna or James Hawkins kicking asses out there so I feel older and hopeless…I mean, crap like that will NEVER do good to me and to my desire and dream of working in the entertainment industry one day. If that’s your way of thinking, fine, but I suggest you to relax, take it easy, and come back, alright? It’s all good

Djinn – thanks so much for the kind words! In your design the perspective is a bit off and since there’s plenty of time left, I think you can manage to work on it some more, so keep it up, looking good so far!

Giorge – very cool mask on the right side!

Cartogriffi – thank you!! About who’s who, from top to bottom: the two at the top are based on Thoth, then you have Mertseger on the next line and the other three are based on Khepri. Below you have two helmets based on Ash, and the one with the big crown is based on Anuket. The group at the bottom would be inspired by Anubis.

MoHog – hahahahahaha, funny. I really like your character although I think you should work a bit more on the perspective and foot placement.

Pixeltuner – thank you! I’m working on them right now.

PixelFish – thank you very much. You’ve got a pretty good concept too!

The Original [E], Feil Magnus, Razorleaf - thanks!

Marsch – work on the structure first, do some gestures, watch out for proportions, check that with some reference, then jump to clothing and details. I will help you to get a better anatomy and pose.


Anyways, see you guys soon!

[Pixeltuner]

updaate. small steps now :)

[pahavasa]

Progress.
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[CKLamb]

Wow, that's freakin' awesome pahavasa. I really dig the colors and form.

[Reymus]

Inspiring work by all!

Pahavasa - I love the organic head, you can contrast that well by breaking the legs into the more techno you've started to do, and some warmth into it.

Pixeltuner - Awesome. There's this weird thing going on with his midsection though like his stomach is shifted in the opposite way his pants are seated.

Wiggers - Go even bigger! Make them sitting in the Nile Delta, the Mediterranean behind them, with a fledgling Alexandria in front!

And Luness, I used to work at a certain toy company where I was in the bottom rung at 22, and having no formal background myself it was obviously harder to catch up to guys 30, 35, 40 who'd been sculpting half their lives. That said, one of their top sculptors was also a guy who finished only high school, went from Blockbuster Video cashier to head sculptor in 3 years, all self taught.

I'm trying to teach myself now Max, Maya, Zbrush, Painter (and photoshop when $$$ is available). I think you're dead on that we all have down times, but if you just hammer away, it may take years or a decade, it'll pay off in time.

[Phaethon]

Man, these threads fill up fast!

My pick is Wadjet-Bast, a later combination of the two individual goddesses. I started thinking about what facial features would look cat-like without actually giving her a cat head. And then, I remembered the other half-cat/half-person creature in Egyptian mythology - The Sphinx!

[AvisNocturna]

Wow, so much cool stuff in here already! I'll write c&c for everyone tomorrow!

I actually didn't want to work on this much further but it turned out to be a lot of fun!

700778

[Feil Magnus]

pixeltuner, about your last wip, I love your thot but I would prefer him with a darker skin like in your first post (and don't forget his tatoo on his arm^^ love it)
Phaeton, longer legs for your girl and she would be really sexy :)
AvisNocturna, with longuer hair she would be my girlfriend...lovely girl :)

[DynamiteDill]

Here is Nekhbet - Protector of the King. The Egyptians depicted her as a woman with a head of a vulture. Since that's not hot at all ... I came up with this interpretation:
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[Novbert]

update here

700836

[Supervlieg]

There doesnt seem to be a lot of Ra in this thread. It was the obvious choice for me. Ra is the Sun god, or more specifically, he started out as the god of the midday sun and got upgraded and was believed to command the sky, the earth, and the underworld.

My version of Ra will be a kind of energy container, powering the whole convoy with his personal nuclear fission floating above, what we suppose is its head. The link the egyptians made with the sun when seeing him would be obvious, and since he seemed connected to everyone, they envisioned him as the leader and commander of this group of deities. Or something along those lines.

[harris-ejaz]

Superior work from all involved!
I think i'm going to be throwing my hat in this week. Will require some considersation though... difficult to come up with something that doesn't smack of Enki Bilal or Stargate or whatever...

phaethon maybe you should lose/change the shoes... it makes her look like a dwarf

richlyons you composition is exciting here, i'm looking forward to where this goes

wiggers i had something similar in mind... dang...

pixeltuner cool.

Muninn yout concept is the awesomest

missile i like where that's going

lennon i don't know where that's going but i like it

imaGEEnation I like where that is going, but i think you should do a little photoreferencing.

Ghostbrust fuck i love that. i love it so much i wish i had visited this thread earlier and thought if it before you.

luness I love that crocadillian.

Dynamitedill, awesome.

superleig, awesome

[Supervlieg]

Missile: I like the last iteration.Try easing back on the saturated colors. And try to blend more by layering the color on a lower opacity.
Reymus: Nice, But maybe you can work on the pose a bit more, make him do more with the tesla rod.I like that you got rid of the big cloth. The metal part work better. Higher res please!
Posh: Awesome composition. Maybe she's a bit too menacing, witch like with the hands/feet like that.
Daestwen: Nice design, I would love to see how far you can take the dress of stars. I think she's leaning a bit to much, like she would fall over. Maybe extend the frontal leg a bit more, or make her lean back a bit.
MJ Alcazar: I think the second looks more menacing. But I think if its the god of war, it should be even more extreme.
CKLamb: Im not quite feeling the feline angle in this one. Seems to be a bit more elfish. Maybe extend the nose and mouth a bit. Love the heads, but the ears make the feel very elflike, except the guy on the top right.
Migsta: Nice silhouette. The design feels very much like stargate. Especially the top part.
gtgauvin: Looks good. I actually like the color version best. Even if its the more static pose. Maybe try a lower camera angle to make him seem more impressive. The big eyes tend to make him cute.
Cosmitron: The top part looks great. Those legs look a bit short though.
Baxter: Nice design, very doglike. The tailthing is a bit weird though. Maybe make it fatter, and segmented to gieve it a more mechanical feel. Of the new heads, the one with the tentacle is the best.
pahavasa: Great colors and pose: I like where this is going. Only thing I would suggest is turning the front leg even more towards the camera, giving the lower leg a bit more foreshortening.
Mohog: I like the helmet. Maybe the pose is a bit too static.Try to loosen him up.
Random stranger: A bit hard to see those thumbs. Try sticking to b/w before going to color. This will help you sort out the pose and composition before you have to worry about colors.
Pixeltuner: Nice design. Love the combination of the various inspirations. The left hand is a bit weird though. Plenty of time to fix that though.
Novbert: I like it. But I think the body and top legs need more fore-shortening. try flipping the image to spot anatomy issues.
Supersubie: NIce, but upsacle and try to work in more details. Try to think of the composition, the character in relation to the background. If you decide to keep it on white, try to center it a bit more, and give it more white space around him to avoid the cramped look. Try to take a picture in that pose to figure out anatomy issues.
Dimagyan: Love the concept. Maybe she could be looking at the floating spheres. That would involve her a bit more with her surroundings.
Dazdaryl: Try to upscale and add details. The design could be taken a bit further.
ImaGEEnation: Cool, very dynamic pose. Lets see more.
Feil Magnus: I dont really see this fitting with the egyptian feel. I dont think anybody would see a god in him. Overal though I think the pose needs to loosen up a bit, try taking a picture as reference.
Ahchu: Very doctor doomish. I think you need to upscale to be able to add more detail
Ghostbrush: Nice viewpoint. Some foreshortening issues with the upper arms and hand though.
Camsyko: Nice one, bring on the more alien vibe.
That fucking Luness: Lol, j/k, looks awesome and very inspiring. I would love to see where you take this with the body designs.
Munin: Nice, but something got lost from the thumb to the color picture. Try evening out some of the colors into shapes and you will get back to a more readable form.
Djinn: Upscale and add more detail. Try to find a lightsource, and add shadows accordingly. It could help to put an arrow showing you the direction of the lighting
Giorge: Love the face/mask on the lower right. The main dude's pose is a bit too rigid I think.
Marsh: I would suggest a bit more thumbnailing to figure out more of the general shape. Dont focus just on the head, the body also needs more design.
Machine Breath: I actually like the feel of this one. Could be more alien though.
Darklogic: NIce helmet. Lets see more of the body.
Goog: Maybe it's a bit too much creature like, but I like the helmet part.
AvisNocturna: looks nice. Maybe she could be a bit more godlike, the detail on her head is a great start at this.
Lennon: Well job to you to. Looks great so far. What god is it?
Buffichar: Lets see more iterations on that one.
Blueman: Nice helmet, the rest needs more work.
Dwinbotp: Looks like an impressive pose. Maybe it works better if both wings are in the picture.
Pixelfish: Good start, but her pose could be more fierce, more godlike.
Bishos: Looks funny, not sure if that was intended, but the belly and the hanging trunk give him a comical feel.
Richlyons: Great pose, lets see more!
Nephilie: Nice, I think the connection between the body and the scales needs a bit more attention. Also I would suggest moving the front legs to a more forward angle. It seems like she could fall on her face since her weight isnt supported.
wiggers: Nice, keep the little people. Its all about the little people!
Lewis: Nice. Try to work with less saturated colors before you add the bright ones.
Saivix: Great helmet design. I think you need a pose to display the helmet better.
benu: Nice, but make it bigger!
Phaeton: Good start, I think the lower body needs to be a bit more elongated.
DynamiteDill: Great pose, very angelic. Maybe the vulture armor could be more defined.

Okay, Im off to sleep

[Felicia]

Here is mine so far: The Goddess Taweret (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tawaret)

[CKLamb]

Supervlieg- Thanks for the feedback, I really only wanted a dash of feline influencing the nasal area and ears....result...something kind of elf-like I suppose. I want to stay fairly sapien, but not elf....I'll play with it more.

[klortho]

Very well thought-out character design, Felicia.

Here is my Set, maybe 60% done.

[Phaethon]

Does this read as Sphinxier? Or should I just nix the idea and give her regular legs?

[Djinn]

Please keep in mind that I'm no expert, so please take my advice to be worth what you paid for it.

phaethon Keep in mind that the sphinx isnt a centaur-ish creature, but is a leonine body with a human head. That aside, I think the lion-bits need to be a lot bigger, it kinda looks like she might fall over for being too top-heavy, and I think some lion photo-reference would be a big help. I like the curls under the eyes and the headdress, but take a second look at the neck, it looks a little uneven. like it gets bigger just under the jaw than it was when it left the shoulders, finally I think the head might be too wide, or the shoulders too thin.

felicia Great shading, great form, I think you win most original and unique interpretation of the brief, at least in my book. The scarab headdress is incredible, and I dig the Venus-Of-Willendorf-esque shape Rock on with that big crocodile venus!

klortho While I really dig the staff, and the helmet (though the helmet is a little hard to read at the moment), the costume itself seems a bit simple and primitive in comparison to the seemingly complex helmet and staff.

supervlieg Awesome concept!! Great idea, awesome 'body' shape, and I'm looking forward to seeing what you do with that headdress

novbert Nice color theme and great idea, I think your piece is screaming for more contrast though, more brights I think. Perhaps introduction of a slightly bluer hue to the piece? maybe some bluish volumetric light?

dynamitedill sexy, the face and body remind me of feng zhu's females, her right leg looks like its contorting in a strange way though.

pixelfish cool idea, but i think you might need to take another swing at her proportions, I'm not sure but i'd say either the body is too thin or the head is too bulky,

bishos your take has SO much style, my only concern is that the legs don't really match the style of the arm(s)

richlyons pretty hard to read that first rough draft but you've got me very very intrigued, hurry up and post your next wip please! haha

nephile cool idea, cool style, one idea I had: I feel like your goddess would look more unified and less sewn together if her lower abdomen tapered into the scorpion body, kinda hard to put into words... but I feel like her belly should go further down and taper triangularly, while a plate or two of added scorpion exoskeleton should be higher up on her hips, I hope that wasnt too confusing!

wiggers ahem *puckers up* your work always blows my mind, so would you please hurry up and post another wip so I can drool all over my keyboard? kthnx, haha.

marsch this is a great idea, I like the hidden view-port on the hat/crown, =) and youre right, it's really hard to indicate form beneath flowing cloth, maybe you can get a friend or family member to strike the pose for you with a bedsheet or something around their legs? having a photo reference might help you get a better understanding of how drapery hints at the underlying form (and I really should take my own advice on this point!)


phew, ok, sorry everyone I didn't get to, but this is an awesome round as usual.
----------------------------------

Thank you so much to everyone who gave me feedback! Very helpful!

I didn't have a whole lot of time today but I wanted to mess around and try to figure out how I could make him look taller and more imposing. I didnt get a chance to really clean it up after toying around and making the new proportions but wanted to see if this fixes most of the glaring issues:

(I have a lot to learn about lighting and form, but chow forces me to really study and work on these things, and Thanks again for all the crits!)

[CKLamb]

Phaethon- I think it works. The legs looked disproportionate.

[Kerberos]

DynamiteDill: Your comment about Nekhbet would have made me spit milk all over had I been drinking any. I really like where your going with her.

Supervlieg: I was also thinking about doing Ra and/or Horus, even though they kind of run together later on. Horus has always been my favorite among the pantheon of Egyptian gods. Great form and interesting angle.

[nashi]

well, this is my first CHOW, though i've been following them for a few months now. Now that high school has ended, i feel like i have enough time to participate. I've chosen Nut and Geb for this one. Geb is the green one as he hasn't really been done up yet. As for Nut, it's supposed to be like she has all of these sparking cables coming off of her and making the stars. I guess. I need to come up with a more solid idea for them while i'm working on this.

http://i1016.photobucket.com/albums/af281/nashi93/forca.jpg

[Hexokinase]

Guess I might as well join in this round.

I decided to explain the blatant human looking bodies as being actual human bodies (not the most original idea in the world I admit). The gods are a parasitic race of aliens that bond with hosts of various planets so that optional locomotion for any particular planet is achievable.

Here's my Horus:

701230

[Novbert]

Supervlieg and Djinn

Thanks for the crits and suggestions. The main issue here is that the image is kinda flat now. Forshortening, volumetric lighting, definition of focus by adding brights... - I guess I need to do all of these to add more depth and dynamism. Not ot mention the background. Thanks again

About your stuff:

Supervlieg: Cooli idea. so far. I love all those wavy lines you use. Can't wait to see how far you push it
Djinn: Don't stop workin on it, start to define the main light source (I'd use those sparking hands) and start the coloring. Some shadows around the feet to define the ground would also be nice. And fix that left leg! Now it looks somehow distorted and also longer than the right one.

:yayca:

[Asahi-SD-]

Freaking awsome work around O_O

my entry for this chow is Anubis .

Egyptain version of the death process : The deceased enters from the left guided by Anubis. His heart is placed on the scales and the result is recorded by Thoth. Then Horus takes him in front of the judge Osiris for the final verdict. Behind the throne stand Isis and Nephtys.

My version would be more like those guys looks like merchant , the human body contain actually rare materials such as plasma and more who actually could be used as ressources for alien life ( the ressource used by alien is a well developped theory by Ufologist ) so , they take parts of human dead body to send it to their homeland as precious ressource to be selled in some galactic market (same theory), Anubis would the one in charge of the body conservation and quality checking as Thoth looks more like an accountant :)
As for the anhk , it would be kind of a transmitter ... or galactic cell phone hehe :D

Well enough talking , crits and comment welcome .. and sorry for the english

http://img198.imageshack.us/img198/7499/step1z.jpg

[Migsta]

Some cool stuff coming out of this topic!

http://www.miguellleras.com/chow/CHoW163_Migsta.jpg

[Feil Magnus]

MIgsta : waow awesome
Supervlieg : indeed he didn't look god-like untill he had his cool energy-suit turned on^^ here goes (and yeah he looks a bit stiff i'll use ref next time, thanks for the feedback)

Set was the god of the desert, and necessary chaos. Set also was viewed as immensely powerful and carried the epithet, "His Majesty", shared only with Ra.
Another common epithet was, of great strength, and in one of the Pyramid Texts it states that the king's strength is that of Set.
He 's also called "the red god" (thus the red hair), master of thunder, lightining and disorder,
god of the desert and aridity, god of foreign countries.
Was ("power") scepters represent the Set-animal. Was scepters were carried by gods, pharaohs,
and priests, as a symbol of power, and in later use, control over the force of chaos (Set).

(Set never had any pitbull but that's one animal vision of chaos and disorder)

updated: Thanks Missile and Asahi for the comments, the "badass guy" thing is quite funny ^^ changed some stuff to attract attention on the mask that already was lying on the floor :)
However, seriously speaking I do not see how a robot looking character or an alien is more adapted to the brief, it's said Khemethar come from space, space marines do come from space too ^^ (Khemetar may have some space marines as well :p)

[Gavage]

Feil Magnus: The glowing lights are quite distracting at the moment, particularly over the eyes as they take over a lot of the face. The other thing - if he is lighting a cigarette, there would be more of a light coming off the flame. The picture might benefit from showing more reflections from the lights rather than having them glow so much, for example the light from the eyes would illuminate the side of the hand and so on.

Migsta: Loving the use of blue and gold.

Asahi-SD-: Clever idea. It's looking good so far.

Felicia: I like yours a lot. She looks just the right cross between endearing and horrifying. Are those scarabs in the headgear?

Slight update on mine, adding some detail to Isis, jewels and a little throne on her helmet. I know most of this won't be visible from the final image but my obsessive habits have taken over. @_@

http://img196.imageshack.us/img196/7316/isiswip4.jpg

[Asahi-SD-]

Migsta> Awsome work , i like the fantasy style you put with many shiny elements :) feel like a mix between W40K's eldars and some fantasy's dark knights .. great job so far :)

Feil Magnus > the picture is hard to read due to all the lightnings , also it would have been great to see the mask , even on the floor , at least to figure out wich god he was without text , and maybe to fit more the brief ... i don't see much of an ancient god or Extra terrestrial entity , juste a badass army guy with some special gear and some Egypt souvenirs like the lighter as items ^^

Missile> I would only recommend you to work more on edges , alternate with smooth brushing and hard edges so you don't have the "dirty" shadow on the skin anymore but some smooth shadowed skin :) anyway keep it up :)

And sorry if i sound rude ^^ it doesn't mean to be !!


next step

http://img197.imageshack.us/img197/8136/step2t.jpg

[sony]

Hi guys this is fun round.
Here's anibus; i know, i know i need to culturally enhance.

[Razorleaf]

AvisNocturna - lovely, the pose gives the character more emphasis and your lines are subtle and soft also giving this character a sense of surrealism :)
Phaethon - I like how you incorporated several different egyptian themes into the sphinx, nice!
Migsta - I like the "authority" you give your character with the pose you chose but I think it is the detail and color that make it "pop" off the canvass, very nice!

Gawd, I know I'm late but I hope to have time to come up with something too.

[buffichar]

Initial colour pass. I decided to go with green and black as base colours because of the Egyptian connection to the Nile. Those were the descriptive colours and man I hate green but i like it here (phew!) Having fun on this one (Thank God) It's making my (cough cough) not seem so bad.:yayca:
well back to work
:wip:

[Tommoy]

Migsta, looks great.

I've made some sketches but i'm not sure where any of them is heading. Didn't pick a god, maybe thats the problem.

[Carnifex]

luness and ck,thanks.
i might get back,but i have a bunch of paid commissions to do aswell,which is possibly higher priority right now. luness,seeing your work made me go "maaan why didn't i think of that",which is why i don't wanna go with the same idea now,because i feel i'd be ripping you off somehow.
i'm quite indecisive right now...

[Pixeltuner]

Tommoy: Well they're pretty awesome sketches anyway, but it can't be hard to put some more Egyptian god-shapes in them :)

[dwinbotp]

Supervlieg You're right about the wings, I'm gonna try place them both into my piece soon, thanks man! :)

Tommoy I don't care if you never thought about using a God, your stuff looks really cool!!!

pixeltuner Loving yours, my fave atm!!

Migsta Fabulous use of the blues and Gold:D

My piece on the other hand, has been collecting some dust due to workload, hoping to play catch up in a day or two, Keep it up guys, lots of juices flowing already!...that didn't come out right ^_^"

[harris-ejaz]

Initial thoughts: bodywise i figure this is a seeder race, so i intend to make them feel like greatly evolved human beings - big eyes, large irises, receding chins/brow/nose. Also, they're so advanced they can travel interstellar distances individually in thier personal suits. evolving in varying gravities is reflected by thier bone structure: narrow, long fingers etc.

My mission=take this as far away from stargate/nikopol as possible, while keeping it techy.

[benu]

Phantastic stuff from everyone!

Update:

701660

Not sure what to do with his legs, if he has an exoskeleton or armor, and about the angle of the book he's writing on.

[MJ_Alcazar]

Ok, I think I like this design, we'll see how I feel in a few hours. I'm going with Sekhmet.

[Djinn]

MJ_Alcazar that looks awesome, I'm looking forward to seeing where you take it. I think you should take another pass at the headdress though, either it's at a real funny in comparison to the head or it's not reading as you intended it-- is the orb being held up by 2 prongs at either side, or 3 in a triangular shape? If you were going for 2, maybe lower the rear one, and adjust the angle slightly, as per the head-tilt and perspective. If you were going for 3, maybe move the disc up slightly and add a shadowy indication of the third prong at the rear left of her skull to complete the triangle. Her pelvis might be a tad small, and are you going to indicate the ankh-ish thing's purpose? I really dig the lights and finger-shape btw.

[pahavasa]

I guess I'm done now. I won't be around for the rest of the week and I have busloads of work to do, so there's no way I can keep painting this one on the weekend. I truly appreciate the feedback I got from you guys, the comments and crits are the reason why I love these weekly activities so much. Keep up the good work with your ancient Egyptian sci-fi aliens!
Feedback still welcome, of course, even though I consider this finished.

Let's see if I can be of any use...

luness, whoah, I adore your helmet sketches! Unbelievably cool.
dwinbotp, your sketch looks a bit like the mechas in Zone of the Enders the game, which is certainly not a bad thing. Looking forward to future progress of this one, so you'd better get back to work.
CKLamb, I like the way you've made the sheet to make different kinds of faces/helmets/costumes, I'm bound to steal that idea.
RichLyons, great pose, I like where you're heading.
buffichar, the lower legs seem to be a bit too long compared to the rest of the body.
Wiggers, I agree with PixelFish and Touchstone - please keep the little people!
Pixeltuner (see, I spelled your name correctly! I checked it twice!), looking really good. I almost asked about his navel, but then I remembered that Adam and Eve shouldn't have navels, either... face, meet palm. That helmet is stunning.
Felicia, really original, looking great so far, especially the head piece is fabulous.
Migsta, I loved your first wip and I love the final design. The golden details work out really well. The colours catch attention very well, brilliant brush work.
MJ_Alcazar, the torso seems to be a bit too long.

May I present to you, Khnum, the "God That Created All Other Gods", no more pressing his own button:

[Aly Fell]

Final Burning is up:

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=160964

[buffichar]

migsta woah! hello!
sony awh come on. he's cute. i'm keeping him even if you aren't

[rinjii]

started this much later than i'd normally like to, but i think this will be quicker to complete. here's my start on Nut.

[luness]

Reymus – I wrote what I wrote because I had the impression that he was quitting for the wrong reasons, not because I feel like I’m doomed or anything like that. Thanks for the encouraging words anyways, inspiring for many of us.

Carnifex – it’s ok man. If you can make it, feel free to explore and expand the initial idea you had. It is possible to feel inspired the same way. Maybe we listen the same kind of music, maybe we watch the same kind of movies, maybe we read the same text before starting sketching, and that’s why there’s a good chance that we got inspired the same way, maybe it’s the other way around, who knows. I won’t feel it’s a rip off, at all. Cheers.

I’ll do my best and give you guys some feedback later on. I still want to do some more design studies for Thoth, and then I will start with the final, but things have gone hectic at home (due to the upcoming Father’s Day and my broken truck, for example) so I don’t know when I’ll be able to jump back on this. Sigh.

Anyways, more helmet and torso sketches. Thank you for the kind words! See you guys later…hopefully ;)

[Cosmitron]

Hey mates! I've finally found some time to work on it again.
I've kept the posing, but turned it around and managed to draw longer legs ;)
So here's a quick sketch
http://bolospoilerman.free.fr/Chow/Khemethar/01.jpghttp://bolospoilerman.free.fr/Chow/Khemethar/02.jpg
http://bolospoilerman.free.fr/Chow/Khemethar/04.jpg

[Mock]

Ffffffffffwwaaaah. How did I just now see this topic. Must start entry.

[DynamiteDill]

Migsta - Gorgeous piece, like always. I'm Lovin' It.
Cosmitron - Coming along nicely, but maybe if her drapery wasn't so stiff, it'd help with the fluidity of the drawing. I really like the jewelry.

Thanks to all who commented on my sketch, I really appreciate it. Here's my update: worked more on the silhouette, and brought out the vulture-ness in her design.

701796

[Novbert]

having totally changed the lighting now I'm really not sure if I'm going in the right direction with it.
C&C are more welcome than ever

701798

and some cheap idea: HUESHIFTING - yeah

701802

I like this second one better, though red water (red sea? :P) looks veird

[Djinn]

Novbert the piece is more focused now, which is a good thing, the highest point of contrast is the face, so that grabs my attention first, which I would guess is the intention. I think you should flatten/fade back the flippers/feet just a tad, the near-black-on-light-water contrast is fighting for my focus with the face/helmet.
As far as color (I'm terrible with color so don't take my word for it) maybe you could try shifting the Cyans more toward blue just a pinch and then add some slightly-desaturated 'shaft of light' kind of things at varying distances to add more depth (down-right diagonals would probly compliment the existing composition). I think you should consider opening up the frame a bit more and adding canvas on both sides and maybe at the top too, throw a bit of light on the rocks and then hit them with some desaturation or water-color-haze for volumetric distance. Good luck! I can't wait to see your completed piece.

[dwinbotp]

Had a bit of time to finally get something on this, still a bit of a ways to go but it's a start, any crits will be helpful, havta add more accessories soon.This MIGHT also be Thot, the wise one.

[Supervlieg]

Luness: Those are awesome ass kicking designs! More more more!

[Ghostbrush]

DWINBOTP! noice!

[Sorknes]

Haven't gotten do to anything the last days myself, hopefully I'll have time this weekend, but I just wanted give a big thumbs up to everyone! <3

No matter that I love the topic itself, but the ideas and imagination applied to a lot of this is looking good. And more to come I hope. :)

I have a feeling a lot of this is gonna end up in the inspiration folder that's about getting and working on ideas. :) (Especially luness' work, but a lot here is really imaginative :) )

[Gavage]

Novbert: The hue shift might have just been a quick experiment but the golden colours actually bring out the face quite nicely. (Not so sure about the red sea though.)

[Venger]

Luness - that's a lot of design for a CHOW - you should make a separate thread for those.

Wiggers - you gonna finish this one John? looks great - I'd make the little people slightly larger - but that's just me - good link to the Egyptian art style (important people are larger :D) - to much like work for me :P

Posh - looking forward to seeing yours painted Aly, I love the wing = see-through cloth, its very fitting.

Lots of interesting views and ideas - waiting patiently for the voting :)

[rinjii]

just like my amsterdam pic, i'm stuck between two variations.

since my interpretation of nut is a hologram [the sentient AI of the Khemethar's defensive/navigational system], i'm wondering if i should go the humanoid route or the robotic route. here's the two side by side- which works best?

[Smirt]

Beautiful sketch page, Luness.

Asahi: I think you could show more of your character, his shape doesn't take a lot of space in your format.

[Djinn]

Phew, after many many alterations I settled on this figure, my original intention was to have a diffuse sky-light be the light source but it just wasnt working, so I took the advice of... can't remember who but thank you! .. to make the light sources the gems on his hands.

I know the "shading" work is really rough, but I was determined to figure out HOW to make this thing look as 3-dimensional as I wanted it to look, so I think I've got a good foundation now. Gonna be super busy in the next few days and I'm still REALLY slow at these things but I really hope I can make it in before the deadline.

Any more crits would be welcome, and any ideas on a color scheme? or should I just stick with black and white, really work on my value work, and not risk screwing the whole thing up?

Finally, I added a second image because this is driving me crazy, someone mentioned way back that the torso seemed flattened against the perspective plane and I didnt really understand until I remembered to start flipping the canvas, any advice on how to make him seem less flattened against the red plane?

[M!CK]

great stuff all, might start somthing when i get home tonight =)

[harris-ejaz]

Pahacasa: I like where you've taken yours.
MJ alcazar: your concept is good but your drawing's slight anatomical shortcomings are distracting... maybe reference your figure?
luness, dwinbotp, cosmitron, dynamitedill, like where yours are going
Novbert: who cares if the water's red? the red/green contrast in the second picture looks better, although you might want to push the bottom away from the fleshypinks
djinn I don't think it's a perspective issue. i think the spine is too horizontal from the waist up. it's skewing the visual centre of gravity, your figure should be hunched over just a bit more.
also the composition is toublesome. the figure is centered on the canvas, and the image is a bit too rightheavy.

Good stuff from all involved.

[luness]

Thanks again for the nice words, I really appreciate them.
So, time for some feedback:

Supervlieg – thanks for the kind words man! The idea behind your design is fabulous, so please keep working on it. Looks very promising. Remember to show some more of his body.

Phaethon – it does read as a sphinx but the torso+abdomen is too large, maybe? I don’t know, it looks a bit odd. There’s still plenty of time so how about if you try the regular legs, perhaps very long and stylized (think of a supermodel) and/or somewhat athletic, some feline facial features (eyes, for example), and perhaps even a long and elegant tail? Give it a try.

Djinn – cool idea, it really is, but what I really want to say is that I admire the hard work and persistence you’re showing. It actually looks much better than your previous posts, so kudos for you. To make him look less flattened against the red plane you would have to change the pose a lot, changing arms direction, foot placement, perhaps leaning him forward, that sort of thing, in a way to get a more aggressive and dynamic pose. You’re saying you’ll be very busy so I don’t know if you’re up to do all that change. I kinda like it b/w by the way.

nashi – excellent!!

Hexokinase – I llllllllove this idea, keep working on it!

Asahi-SD- - such a nice mood, looks like a movie shoot, I love it. I like the color palette a lot, as well as the pose. Perhaps you could make the design even more special by twisting the typical Egyptian look a bit.

Migsta – nice!

sony – quite fun indeed!

Tommoy – even though you didn’t pick a god, I really like the second sketch, and the upper part of the third. Keep it up!

harris-ejaz – great idea! Your decision to stay away from the Stargate look makes me smile. It’s what comes to our minds right away when we think about the alien+Egypt combination, so keep squeezing your brain for few more thoughts and ideas, post for feedback if you want, and then develop them as you wish. Looks promising so far. Cheers!

benu – the idea of the exoskeleton is pretty cool. One thing though. I think you should repeat the blue curly element a few times more because, since it’s isolated as a single element, and it has a different color, and it’s right below the waist, it kiiinda looks like a curly penis...I'm just saying ;)


I'm missing a few but that’s it for now. I gotta go. Looking good guys!

[Sulk-Sal]

Heres mine so far...Doing Pakhet. Not sure how I feel about her but hopefully I can finish her for no other reason then I wanted to do the last few ChoWs but life kept ripping me a new one. There is some great work here, hopefully I can supply some crits soon.

[Phaethon]

Thanks to the folks who commented! I enlarged the lion part of the body, as per Djinn's suggestion. Hopefully it looks less disproportionate? If not, legs it is.

[lkjhgfdsa]

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a134/jonoy/Soknopais_pose_1CA.jpg

[Smirt]

Djinn: I think it's not a matter of perspective or position. The light and volume you did on the torso is done a way that shows the volume is going inside. You have to put more light at this place to show the volume, I mean mass light instead of a line of white on the border of the clothes. The flesh is domed under these clothes, so they don't have to be so hiden from the light at this place.
Also to show the perspective better you should keep details and clean stuff on the part that are closer to us and get softer shapes to the part that are far.

My wip entry so far. Not my usual style.
http://img41.imageshack.us/img41/2838/chow1copy.jpg

[sony]

sony – quite fun indeed!

luness: sure buddy.
http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb207/yahyaehsan/chow163-sony_wip2.jpg

[CKLamb]

Smirt- make sure you include at least 3/4 of the character or it's invalid. Nice work, would hate to see it not posted up for a vote.

So, I had a little time to work on my concept sheet today, paper dolls at the moment. You can probably see why I chose to go with very...very sapien like aliens....this will hopefully save me a lot of time in the future. Hopefully I'll be able to do a finished piece in time, if not I'm not sweating it.


Feet and hands..I'm aware.

[gtgauvin]

Update on Page 2. I'm pleased enough with the design, but the process and composition needs work. It's been a hellish week, and I've had neither the physical nor mental energy to give this project the attention it deserves. Not giving up, though. I'm going to go for a run in the park, go into town for dinner, maybe take in a movie and leave this whole mess alone for a while. Then, hopefully my head will have cleared enough by tomorrow that I can dive back into it and get it done by the deadline.

[ImaGEEnation]

Phaethon- I think the main problem is the back of the lion. The legs are too small, as if you haven't drawn the thighs and the top bit (connects to the body) wouldn't be showing if the lion is in that pose. But, I do agree that it's way better than the previous wip you did. So good work! :D

Holy crap, guys! This CHOW is Fire!!! Can't wait to see them all done!

[Cam Sykes]

here's a sketch I did at college today, during my lunch break. I see alot of problems with it but pretty much a sketch at this stage so will work on the issues as I go. I'm pretty happy with the colours atm.

[humboldt squid]

Migsta, looks great.

I've made some sketches but i'm not sure where any of them is heading. Didn't pick a god, maybe thats the problem.

I like the one on the far left best, personally.

[BionicBadBoi]

Interesting Chow this week.
I like Raymus' idea about the aliens wearing masks.
-Perhaps to appear more friendly to the Egyptians.

I'm thinking about doing Thoth, Ma'at or Heru.

[sony]

Cosmitron; you have captured an Egyptian moment cool.
DynamiteDill; thats cool. her right legs seems odd.(knee angle)
Novbert; i think you are off from the topic. may be its just me. but counter check it.
dwinbotp; looking forward to your final.
luness; super hot!
Sulk-Sal; nice anime style. looking forward to your final.
Phaethon; Vevy nice, just make sure she does not up as a Hitler, I mean cleft of the upper lip seems mustaches. pull the value a bit.
lkjhgfdsa; seems chaotic to me, but nice stuff. I like the bird like feet.
Smirt; CKLamb is right, demonic, something missing to be instant for an Egyptian,
CKLamb; I just noticed a face in your body torso. is it intentional? if not you need to get rid of it. nice variation on heads. there skull seems small[upper part. parietal bone and occipital bone] seems small. just counter check it. Good luck.
CamSyko; he seems very helpless and tired, you need to work on your gesture first. before value/colors stuff. Good luck :)

[Razorleaf]

Gawd, I am coming into this one so late. This is all I have so far, there is so much more that needs to be done I may or may not make it to poll. And there are so many fantastic entries, I can't wait to vote. :)


Removed images to try a new idea .....

[Feil Magnus]

Omg why did this girl come to my mind, well sorry, here comes isis godess of healing
(wanted to share this twisted vision of mine "sorry" guys)

[Tommoy]

Djinn, For colors, why not pick a nice drawing from one of the pros and copy colors from that. Its a great way to learn and understand colors. Also try to think three dimensional as if the torso, legs, arms etc were cones.

Dwinbopt, looking great, its not finished but I like it already.

Pahavasha, very nice too, have you tried too warm the colors up a bit to get a more desert feel?.

Benu, looks great although I like the upper part much more then the lower part.

Luness, great sketches, hope to see something finished.

Cosmitron, Again a beautiful girl and interesting angle but I liked the very first sketch the most.

I puzzled a bit and this came out.

[lkjhgfdsa]

update with colour...
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a134/jonoy/Soknopais_pose_2CA.jpg

[buffichar]

sony i think i truly love your entry. Awh! :)

[Asahi-SD-]

sony> nice one , maybe it missing a bit of contrast but i like the overall style a bit cartoonish
Smirt>can't wait to see you final piece , it's nice that you're trying something different from your usual style although i quite like you usual style
lkjhgfdsa> nice details here , amazing O_O
Razorleaf>It's a bit too close from the egyptian's representation , i think it couldbe improved with some sci-fi/fantasy parts on them to make them looks more like alien life form , my though ^^
CamSyko> the color scheme and the overall look , looks very good , maybe some anatomies issue but as you said it's a sketch , i'm sure you're aware of those issues ;) nice !!
CKLamb> nice research there , waw :) can't wait to see what you will come up with in the end , the anatomy rocks !!
Phaethon> you've got a nice piece here , but i see many small issues that you could easily fix i think , like the rear leg looks very short and not folded (not sure about the term here) , her left front leg is not folded enough compare to the right one , and maybe too visible , from this angle we shouldn't see it completely i think , the right leg should hide it a bit , and the connexion neck-head look a bit strange also , but those are not major issues ^^
Sulk-sal>Be careful with the hip , i think it's really too small even for a cartoon/manga style it's still too small :)
Djinn>my opinion would be to smooth a bit your brush work now that you have the global shading :) cause it looks very rough and a bit hard to read on details , keep edges or important part roughy or hard brushed , and plane surface a bit more smooth in the rendering :)
rinjii> not sure about it , but her left leg should be shorter than the right one whose is closer from the spectator no?
DwinBotp> WOW nothing much to say here , or maybe the right forearm is a bit long compare to the left arm , but still WOW
Novbert> I prefere the second lightning test , it looks more ...can't find good words , but i prefer the ambiance of the second , it fit more your character , nice work :)
DynamiteDill> she looks hot , and that's enough for me .... :D no constructive comment sorry :p
Cosmitron>I've seen few of your works recently ,i fell in love with your style . awsome all the way !!
Luness> thanks a lot for your helpfull comment :) , and your research are awsome , very nice !! same here can't wait to see your final piece
Pahavasa> really nice rendering and material really nice piece of work!!
MJ_Alcazar> You've got a problem with legs and hip they seems out of place , the upper body is ok ^^
Benu>I really like it , like the mood , the look everything , it may be my favourite piece actually :)
Harris-ejaz>Looks too human with exosqueletton armor for my taste but i wait and see :)

EDIT:TOMOY> FANTASTIC PIECE I LOVE IT !!



Sorry for all my lame english again

well i've tryed to follow Luness 's advice to make it more .. egyptian look, but i'm lost with the legs , dunno what to think about it , if you have any idea or opinion anyone i would be glad to read it :)

http://img188.imageshack.us/img188/9945/step4b.jpg

[MarkDN]

Righto, just done some studies of Egyptian statues in the British Museum. Amazing things - they really come to life if you stare at them long enough.
702333


Looking forward to developing this some more.
702332

Lil pilot dude in the glowing head orb
702526

[Marsch]

An update ,put a better pose and trew some test colors.
now to correct all that dont fits properly(he looks like he is wanking?!).
Please give-me crits/feedback for my improvement.

[Reymus]

Asahi - With the legs, you can do the same type of armor that you have going on with the body, get some segments at the knees, hip, ankles etc. With those types of images, for sculpture at least, it's good to look at 15th/16th century Italian composite armor, light and layered, there's a lot of material there which you can use.

[Kerberos]

Phaethon I like the sphinx idea. Right now I would move the cat’s paw a little to her right, because at the moment it looks like she’s leaning over (or maybe you plan on putting her next to something.) Maybe a shift in the horizontal would reveal it.

CKLamb So far, middle row, far left is my favorite head design. It’d be interesting to see the clothes or armor.

lkjhgfdsa That helmet is awesome. Is the tail functional or aesthetic?

Tommoy Keep it up! I’d love to see more of this guy. Is there a certain god he’s supposed to emulate?

Asahi-SD- Really cool. You might think about making the material around his waist more flowy, or perhaps oppositely tighter to his thighs. I’m interested to see what he is holding.

These were some ideas I played around with. The pharaoh looking head is supposed to be Osiris.

[daestwen]

Feil Magnus: I'm afraid yours is too off brief. There's nothing to link her to the ancient egyptian culture at all - she's wearing a modern shirt, has a needle, and has a cross behind her, which is a very west europe symbol for medicine! I suggest you do some research and figure out what symbols would be more appropriate.

[Gavage]

Another WIP for the pile. Replacing the boots with something more pointy and segmented, aiming to get them looking vaguely posable. Trying for a more space-desert background, not sure about the pyramid though.

Edit:

Slightly changed WIP - added the tattoos to Isis and a sign to the pyramid to try to get the piece looking more Egyptian. The idea floating around being that the aliens influenced much of the culture and architecture while on earth, so pyramids originate from their planet where they are more decorated. Was a little worried about adding the tattoos to Isis, paranoid they'd make her look a bit messy... I think it's okay so far, though if anyone has any more suggestions they're most welcome. I'm unsure whether to keep the sky black or blue.

http://img197.imageshack.us/img197/6170/isisosiriswip6.jpg

Here was the earlier WIP - http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/6844/isisosiriswip3.jpg

[benu]

Luness The penis thing is actually intentional. :D It's kinda wierd- There's boobs all over the place and no one minds, but people go "OMGWTFohnoes, PENIS!!!" if someone draws something that reminds them of one. This happened in the minos chow too, IIRC. BTW, awesome sketches, good habit to spend so much time with the study and design process.

Novbert In the red version, the focus is more on the face because the yellow appears brighter. For the water, I'd suggest murky blue-green. The nile carries lots of sediment so I doubt you could see very far underwater; this effect would also help to focus on the face and add depth.

Djinn The angle of the arms looks off, and the legs too short.

Tommoy Is that one of the frog goddesses? The helmet is awesome. And Thx for the comment, I'm not so happy with his lower body either.

lkjhgfdsa Awesome detail, dude!

[b]Asahi-SD-[b] Great lighting! I think it's clearly Anubis now. What about robotic anthro (digitigrade) legs? Just a thought.

[Carnifex]

luness - cheers man. looking forward to your final.

myself,i had an idea on the bus today i really like,let's see if i'll manage to make a finished piece on time.
i kept thinking about the whole silhouette thing that impressed me so with luness' pieces,and at some point this came up.

[CKLamb]

Carnifex- I really dig the bio-mechanical aspect of that design so far.

[Asahi-SD-]

MarkDN> wow that is really awsome ,love the lightning , your studies are very nice also , an other master piece going to the poll !!
Marsch> si think there are proportion problems between upper and lower body , leg are way too short , so i know it is not human but even not human there is some kind of organic structure and proportion to stick to a bit , to make it looks working , for example , i'm not sure the the legs can support the weight of the upper body in your case , well you can go crazy with anatomy but if you look at all the monster and alien form made by masters around here it looks believable cause of those "rules" :) keep working on ^^
Reymus> thanks a lot for you advice, i've choose to keep the first roogh's legs , they fit better the design , but i completely agree that next time i should investigate more on composite armor to help me :)
Kerberos> you're right , it looks like he can lost it anytime haha , i like the way you're heading on the pharaon like face :) it remember me some creature form a game or movie but can't remember what exactly .. (or maybe it was a comic , ok found it it's a french comic called "sillage" the guy's skin color is blue hehe )
Missile> It's getting better , i quite like your interpretation but it's missing the small detail that will make anyone seeing this piece " oh there are some egyptian references here" i think it's not so hard at this point to make it look a bit more egyptian ,just few details , keep on ^^
Benu> Thanks ^^ , you mean half organic half mechanic ? thanks i don't think enough of mixing organic and mechanic , and i should :)
Carnifex> like where you're heading , want to see more !!

sorry again for my lame english !! (i should insert it in my signature )

so my last update for tonight , i stop spamming the thread hehe , crits welcome , i plan to work details , background , texturing and adding more specular on his back , but any advices or crits are more than welcome !!

Thank you everyone

http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/3384/step5a.jpg

[Razorleaf]

[Razorleaf>It's a bit too close from the egyptian's representation , i think it couldbe improved with some sci-fi/fantasy parts on them to make them looks more like alien life form , my though ^^

Ya you're probably right ..... :)

[xgabo]

Quick WIP... Probably won't have time to finish it, but I'll try if I have time.

[kjdawson80]

So I've been working on this in my moleskine, but I finally got to "digitally ink" it today at lunch (brought my laptop in for work related purposes). I don't know if I'll have time to get it done before the Final Burning thread closes, but I'll do my best!

I went with Horus, because I thought everyone was going to do Anubis, Osiris, Isis, etc... but turns out I wasn't so original.

I imagine Horus as an aerial defense unit for terrestial exploration, who reports directly to Amun-Ra. I'll probably get a straight-on head shot showing his face - as some myth said that one eye was the sun and the other was the moon, I figure I'd show how one eye lens was very bright (infrared/UV imaging), and the other was normal so he could see what the current inhabitants saw.

The long "dreads" that Horus had are actually power conduits - some go into his wings, while the others go into the giant glowing power source on his chest.

I tried to make him taller and more gangly, to invoke an alien vibe. I don't know how well I did, but maybe I can fix it up once I work on the values and color...

CHEERS to everyone who's posted so far! I want to give individual comments, but I'm about to head out the door from work and start prepping for a huge BBQ I'm throwing tomorrow >_>

[Smirt]

CKlamb: Thanks to remind. I worked on that.

Tommoy: I like the motion, and design too. It misses a focal somewhere on the head.

kjdawson80: The body puts its weight on one leg that is straight. The other leg rests bended. Your Horus is resting on the bended leg, he's gonna fall to his left.

Mine with the rest of its body. Not yet finished.
http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/7691/chow1biscopy.jpg

[Felicia]

Here are some crits (sorry I missed a few):

Phaethon- Looks good so far! I really like the costuming and head design. I think her lion parts need a little bit more work though especially the hind leg and where the tail connects to the body.
Here are some lion statues that are in a similar pose.
Lion ref (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_TcwbPuj2SZ0/SOXltcZeE2I/AAAAAAAACvA/ULVpIjHvapc/s1600-h/Lion-nelson-column-trafalgar-london-uk.jpg)
Lion ref 2 (http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1008/1086560442_d0cd2f386d_b.jpg)

CKLamb- I like the second row second head for the male and the 3rd row 3 head for the female. Nice development so far!

CamSyko- I like the palette and the design so far. His legs feel more like one is longer then the other rather then 2 legs in perspective. Maybe shorten the one closest to the viewer.

sony- I really like yours but maybe just a little more contrast.

Razorleaf- Nice start but I think they can be pushed more. They look like people in costume rather then aliens.

Feil Magnus- I agree with Daestwen.

Tommoy- Nice but which God is it suppose to be? Beautiful palette and details.

Ikjhgfdsa- Beautiful, it just needs some more contrast.

MarkDN- Nice studies! I love the British Museum. I really like the direction you are taking.

Marsch- Maybe pick just one to focus on. The arms look a bit too long and the lower body to short. His right arm is awkward and needs to be either bent more or less for it to look less like he is wanking (hehe).
Maybe holding the flail out to the left so it doesn't intersect with the body would help? I like the head and torso details in the all green one but the clothed one feels more egyptian.

Kerberos- Nice start. I like the throne idea, looks like a person of power while the design holding the staff (at it's current stage) looks like a guard.

Missile- Looks good so far. I really like how Isis is coming along. I wish Osiris' pose was a little more dynamic. The composition needs to be either more vertical or more horizontal. It is kind of in a too close to square zone that doesn't highlight your characters. Maybe have Osiris crouching looking toward her to make it more horizontal.
Some Alma-Tadema examples:
Horizontal (http://img.artrenewal.org/images/artists/a/Alma-Tadema_Lawrence/large/The_Conversion_Of_Paula_By_Saint_Jerome.jpg)
Vertical (http://img.artrenewal.org/images/artists/a/Alma-Tadema_Lawrence/large/Alma_Tadema_Sir_Lawrence_From_An_Absent_One.jpg)

Carnifex- Cool concept. Maybe where the dominant alien attaches to the head of the host body looks more like an egyptian headdress. Either fleshy or tech would tie in the theme. Which god is it?
http://www.swarthmore.edu/Humanities/pschmid1/essays/Nefertari/osiris.atum.jpeg

Asahi-SD- I really like his head and torso. Nice lighting on the forms. The cloth draped around him needs some work though. I like that it makes a nice contrast between the metal and the material but I think you need some reference so it hangs right.

Thanks for all the kind words. :)

Here is a color update:

[CKLamb]

Felicia- That's a bad-ass conglomerate, did you purposely give the scarab headdress a pea cock look? Definitely winning me over with this one.

Fudging along on mine, I'll have the sheet finished tonight. Giving me two and half days to complete a finished, sweet.

[ImaGEEnation]

Alrighty, I finished my ANUKE The Goddess of Armour. Took me around 12 hrs!!! Waaaa! It's up in Final Burning. And thanks to my buddy, Camsyko for giving me some custom brushes. Need me to do some school work now ihihi! :p

Damn, this week's topic is ridiculously awesome!

lkjhgfdsa- Really cool detail here dude! Nice study! :thumbsup:
Smirt- Looking good so far! It's also great to see you do something out of your usual style as you mentioned.
Sony- Congrats on finishing, bro! Diggin' it!
CKlamb- Hahah I like your nickname! Anyway, nice studies man! Need to see it done! :D
Camsyko- Yeah! This pose is better than the last! But, you've lost the sick textures you did with the previous one! Can't wait to see it done, man!
Feil Magnus- I like the idea, man! But, I think you need to fix that left leg of hers and crotch area. I want to see more!
Tommoy- Very nice painting technique here! Needs more Egyptian feel to it I think. But, so freaking awesome!
Asahi- SD- Love where this is going, man! AND your English is fine. It's not lame! OK!? :D
MarkDN- Wicked studies! Hope to see the finish piece soon!
Marsh- Hahah! He kinda does look like he's wanking waahhah! But, I think the main problem is the proportion of the legs. His arms are really long? Or is that the intention? I think if you make his waist a bit thicker and legs longer, it'd help. Also, how about, if the stick goes all the way up, so it looks like he's holding it with both hands. Maybe turn it into one of those Cane with the curvy end in a shape of a snake head? Hope that help. Keep it up!
Kerberos- Nice sketches! Hope to see your colors soon, man!
Missile- Nice so far! And you did more than one character! Respect! :D
Carnifex- Glad you're back, man! Great idea with this one!
xgabo- I hope you finish it. Looks really cool!
kjdawson80- I want some bbq! haha anyway, good sketches! Hope to see more!
Felicia- REALLY REALLY NICE! I love that hat!!!

Anyway, sorry if I didn't crit on some people. AWESOME WORK YOU GUYS!!!

[Hexokinase]

Update. Probably shouldn't have jumped right into the painting so early though.

702856

[dwinbotp]

Thanks for those who commented, some progress update. Will add some armor and glyphs and motifs much later:)

[Mock]

There is so much win in this thread. I'll have to do comments in the final burning thread later, so much to do and only a weekend to do it!

Working off of inspiration from Nepthys, a death/funeral deity. About two hours in so far with big huge gigantic plans for this.

[MJ_Alcazar]

Thanks for the comments guys! I tried to follow the advice. I don't think I went far enough on fixing the hip area, it still looks a little odd. I was going off a reference in a slightly different pose and trying to imagine how it would look if the person shifted their feet where one was flat and the other was how I have it.

[gtgauvin]

A little something new. I decided to be a painter for this one. Feels a bit looser and freer, and I'm not so wound up over what layers go where Just hope I can squeeze in enough time to get it fully finished.

[Phaethon]

Yeah, forget that lion stuff. Legs it is.