Chow 163 :: VOTING :: Envoy of the Khemethar

[Aly Fell]

FINALS ONLY
-=ROUND 163=-
-= Envoy of the Khemethar =-

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http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii293/chowarchive/CHOW-LINES/CHOW-LINES-MEDUSA.jpg
NOT SURE ABOUT THE GUIDELINES? CLICK HERE! (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=117390)
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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/
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ACCEPTANCE TO POLL WILL BE BASED ON THREE CRITERIA:
1: DID THE ARTIST FOLLOW THE BRIEF? (allowance for creative takes will be made).
2: IS THE PIECE ARTISTICALLY SOUND? (Is the illustration "finished?" - did the artist pay attention to anatomy, perspective, other fundamentals?).
3: IS THIS ILLUSTRATION THE BEST ONE?

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SUBMITTING YOUR ENTRY:
1: You must submit ONE full sized image.
2: Make sure your name and CHOW # are EASILY READABLE on your entry.
3: Use the Standard format (Below);

http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i222/ChowPics/frame.jpg
:right: PLACE THE IMAGE IN A FRAME WITH YOUR NAME/TOPIC
:right: SAVE YOUR FILE IN THE FOLLOWING FORMAT:
Chow##_Nickname
example: "CHOW#100_Oregano.jpg"

THE REST IS EASY:
1: No comments before poll is set. They WILL be deleted with utmost malice and petty grumbling. >:{
2: Sit back and enjoy the show. BYOPC (Bring your own popcorn)
3: Good luck to all.


Please review these helpful reminders if you have not done so already.

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



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

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Quick Check: Have You Submitted Your Chow Properly?

- is it named correctly? (ie, "CHOW#100_Oregano.jpg")
- has it been uploaded using the attachment editor?
- have you also uploaded or linked to your wips?
- have you followed the brief?

Good luck!

[pahavasa]

"Khnum was one of the earliest Egyptian deities, originally the god of the source of the Nile River. 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."

pahavasa: concept art > characters > other > photoshop

[buffichar]

Had fun on this one. Learned interesting things bout Egypt while I was doing and actually finished something on a schedule. (bows) I'd like to thank all those people who commented on my work. I had more fun watching you guys knock it out of the park though.

[Migsta]

Miguel Lleras / ConceptArt / Characters / Other / Photoshop

Alot of great ideas, and thanks for all the nice comments!

[sony]

I totally loved many entries, waiting to vote them. It was fun round.

[emze]

Was a very interesting theme, looking forward to see all the entries.

Here is Maat. (Ancient Egyptian concept of truth, balance, order, law, morality, and justice.)

[Feil Magnus]

Feil Magnus / ConceptArt / Characters / Other / Photoshop
A lot of inspiring art was created through this chow that was great fun.

[ImaGEEnation]

Great job everyone! This was really fun! :yayca:

Gee Hale: concept art > characters > other > photoshop

[Hideyoshi]

Anubis:

[lkjhgfdsa]

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a134/jonoy/Soknopais_pose_3CA.jpg

The god Soknopais, which was depicted as a crocodile or a man with the head of a crocodile was a powerful and frightening deity;
in some Egyptian creation myths, it was Soknopais who first came out of the waters of chaos to create the world.

[dwinbotp]

One of the many envoys of the Khemethar, known as Thot. He gave science, writing and all other forms of geekness to the Egyptians as well as a hefty dose of walloping when warring factions became too close for comfort.

[Tommoy]

Heqet was a goddess of childbirth, creation and grain germination.

[Nephilie]

Selket
Goddess of medicine and magic, protector of the king. The scorpion is her animal

[gtgauvin]

OK, my take on Amun-Ra. Wish I had time to throw in some kind of background. Final is at the bottom.

http://conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=698910&stc=1&d=1245101096http://conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=702169&stc=1&d=1245398993

[Asahi-SD-]

Anubis god of death

There is a theory among ufologist that some human have been kidnapped by alien forms for their ressources , as maybe some of you knows the human body contain precious materials like plasma , spinal cord etc... Those kidnapping are hided by our governements that would be the reason why we never heard of it !
(you can believe it or not it's just a theory i found interesting to use for this CHOW)

Historical text and picture about anubis ...
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.
The picture associated to this texte PICTURE (http://www.crystalinks.com/funerary.jpg)

So from this theory and historical text , we could believe that Anubis was more like a doctor taking care of body conservation by embalming for futur "exportation" to his homeland, in purpose to extract from dead bodies the valuable ressources , to sell or to use we don't know, as for the heart it's still unknow why they were weighing it.
Last thing , Thoth was in charge to write records of heart's weight ,it looks like they were dealing with merchandise more than a death cult .

[Novbert]

Naunet, godess of watey abyss - depicted by the ancient Egyptians as a snake-headed woman.

704063

704060

[benu]

Envoy of the Kemethar: Thoth

The planetologist Thoth was one of the first Kemethar to set foot on Terra about 6000 earth-years ago. In the following years, he studied the planet and the native population of the species that would call themselves homo sapiens sapiens millenia later. With his gleaming exoskeleton and bioluminescent crescent horn, he appeared to be a being with magical powers, and the technology he used made the natives believe even more in his power and wisdom. But they also learned something from him: The notebook Thoth was seen writing in frequently, inspired them to develop their own hieroglyph writing system. Later he should be known as the god of wisdom, writing and the moon.

704092

704091

[leuparaleu]

Nice topic. It's been a pleasure working on it.
I've chosen Thoth - God of Wisdom, Time, Writing and the Moon.

704088

704089

[Reymus]

Envoy of the Khemethar: Ba'al.

Reymus/Concept Art/Characters/Sci-fi/Painter

[Slaving_maniac]

Final Entry: Based upon Osiris

[Sulk-Sal]

I did Pakhet. Just glad to get her done. Good warm up for the new chow ^.^

Jason Licht - Conceptart - Characters - Fantasy - Illustrator

[Boostmetal]

Envoy of the Khemethar: Osiris
704398

WIPs:
704402 704404704406

[Felicia]

Here is Taweret (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taweret), the Egyptian goddess of fertility and childbirth.

[DynamiteDill]

Nekhbet - Protector of the King. The Egyptians depicted her as a woman with a head of a vulture.
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704582

[DIMAGYAN]

Diego Garcia
Conceptart
Characters
Sci-fi
Photoshop e6

Bat goddess(ancient cow goddess, cosmos deification)


Universe cartographer of the Khemethar envoy

704616

704617

[Gavage]

The captain's consort of the visiting Envoy of the Khemethar became something of a favourite amongst the people of Egypt. Less intimidating than some of her masked peers, the one that came to be known as Isis on planet Earth was cherished as a loving wife and mother, gentle and beautiful yet a strong figure whose powers went beyond the realms of life and death.

Jay Howell > ConceptArt > Characters > Sci-Fi > Photoshop

[IIKII]

Sokar.

704854

704852

704849
iikii: concept art > characters > fantasy > photoshop

[Cam Sykes]

This alien visitor was viewed as a god but really just liked showing off his glowing red ball trick.


Cameron Sykes>ConceptArt>Characters>Scifi>Photoshop

[Djehuti]

Hey everybody! This is my first piece of digital art in about two years...I recently decided I'd put down my tablet for long enough, and this seemed like the perfect way to start practicing again -

http://home.comcast.net/~samsausum/CHOW163_Djehuti.jpg
In my concept, the Khemetar, despite their technological potency, are a species with a very weak constitution, and therefore require large life-sustaining suit-vehicles in order to exist anywhere outside of their home planet. The bright orbs which the Egyptians interpreted as solar disks were in fact pockets of stellar energy needed to power the suits (and placed on the head for temperature regulation). The three ambassadors depicted here were the Khemetar who came to be associated with (from left to right) the gods Djehuti (my username! aka Thoth), Osiris, and Bastet. Several of the features of the elaborate suits were incorrectly interpreted by the Egyptians, such as the arced breathing-support tube mistaken to be an Ibis' head, or tools and defensive instruments attached to a suits' arms as the crook and flail.

here are my WIPS:
http://home.comcast.net/~samsausum/Process_Djehuti.jpg

This was a lot of fun, I can't wait to see what everyone else creates - it's good to be drawing again! :-)

[daestwen]

Fiiiiinal.... Still lots of tweaks I want to do it, but no more time today!

Nut, Goddess of the Sky, often pictured as being made of stars. Her first glimpse of earth, the planet she comes to love more than life itself.

704980

704981

[harris-ejaz]

Maat - ostrich feather theme. Sekhmet - Fierce aspect of Maat, Hathor, Isis.
This image was my starting point:
http://img199.imageshack.us/img199/5747/133993809tp.jpg

Progress:

http://img233.imageshack.us/img233/5886/chow163roughs1.jpg

http://img199.imageshack.us/img199/2285/chow163roughs2.jpg

Final concept:

When the Matriarchs of the Khmetar assume their Sekhmet battle aspect, they become planetary-level threats, capable of sterilizing continents and decimating fleets.

[Adi.]

heya all :lineart:

Khephri The Great Scarab...

[Carnifex]

Anubis,field biologist and first aid technician.
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the khemetar are actually from some water world,so they need walk support and gasmasks to counteract the very dry oxygen. since osiris is the communications/translations guy,he's out most often,with a special wetsuit,which doesn't prevent him from eventially succumbing to the sun and falling apart,upon which anubis has each part encased in special boxes to be put together and re-animated back on the ship. since seth is the first one to find osiris,people assume he's murdered him,and we get that absurd legend.
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i actually wanted to show more khemetar,but alas i came upon the idea too late,so it's only this one.
Carnifex/Conceptart/Characters/Sci-Fi/Photoshop

[MJ_Alcazar]

This was an awesome topic. I was going to have her in color, but alas, I ran out of time.

Sekhmet, goddess of physicians, protectoress of the pharoah, Maat, and Ra. Associated with war and destruction but only in the pursuit of justice, death was never chaotic with her.

In reality, Sekhmet was one of the military special forces of Khemethar. She's a trained medic and often has to employ her skills to help the humans and other "gods".

[Marsch]

Here is my Osiris.
Not enough time/skill to make good legs, so i chopped them away(lol)and i think the final gaussian blur, messed all.Well next time ....

[LogicINK]

Meretseger - goddess of the valley of kings. She is said to have three heads: a cobra, a woman and a vulture.

Great work by all on a really cool & unique topic! I'm lovin' this CHoW thing!

Cheers!

Bit rushed this week...ah well...here's what I got:

[Phaethon]

Wadjet - associated with the cobra, the cat-headed goddess Bast, and the solar Eye of Horus. Originally the patron and protector of Lower Egypt.

[Lewis]

Yo, didnt totally finish :/
deadlines........raaaaaaaaaaaaah

Envoy of the Khemethar: Osiris

[xgabo]

The Devourer of human Hearts.

[Pixeltuner]

didn't really put the icing on the cake, but this will do I hope.

copyright: Lennart Verhoeff, Concept Art, Photoshop, Sci-Fi,

wips:

http://conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=2304788&postcount=150
http://conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=2303343&postcount=109
http://conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=2301914&postcount=58

[sketcheth]

Osiris, the head of waste management on the Envoy of Khemethar. He often padded his wallet by disposing of the evidence of other crew members' bloody disputes by use of incinerator. Disfigured from his own unfortunate encounter with another crewmember, he came to be identified as the very personification of death to the Egyptians.
705194705197705198
FINAL:
705201

[daestwen]

THREE HOUR DEADLINE EXTENSION.

You've got a little extra bit of time if you want to do touch ups or if you're still furiously working to get it in on time.

Posh edit: Can I also remind people NOT to post comments till the poll is up! Pretty please, with sugar on top no comments yet!

[Quike Garcia]

Bastet, guardian of Osiris, snake hunter and spirit of vengeance. I pictured her as a special operations agent, kind of a Seal or an SAS. Coming from a feline race, not necessarily the same as the rest of the Khemethar.

Wips & My first ChOW :P

Quike García/ Concept Art/ Characters/ Fantasy/ Photoshop

[emerging]

Seth. Lately have no time to finish these with higher detail :(

Dimitri Sirenko/ Concept Art/ Characters/ Fantasy/ Photoshop

[rinjii]

ugh, barely managed to finish.

anyway, here's NUT - or the Navigation UniT to the Khemethar. she is the sentient Artificial Intelligence of the Khemethar's ship, and often treats the crew as her 'children'. since she cannot explore the new world herself, she manifests herself to the Egyptians as a hologram so that she too can see the sights and its people- as well as watch over her 'children'. she often beckons to them to return 'home' to the ship, as she often worries about their safety.

seeing this maternal being seemingly place itself among the stars, the egyptians eventually began to refer to her as the ship itself- and thus the story of Nut was born.

Copyright: rinjii/conceptart/characters/sci-fi/photoshop

[Djinn]

Set was one of the earliest of the Khemethar envoys to Earth, he was sent to conduct weather studies to ensure safe use of Khemethan technology, so he came to be known as a God of Storms. He grew furious with his fellow Envoy--especially his brother Osiris--when they began to freely teach the hard-earned knowledge of the Khemethar to the Humans. When the others rejected his protests he grew bitter and vengeful, running off into the desert to wage his war in solitude, thus he came to be known as a God of the Desert. No one ever knew when he would launch an attack from a cloak of sandstorm, so he came to be feared and loathed, as the God of Chaos, Conflict, War, and Darkness.

Connor Cleary / Concept Art / Characters / Fantasy / Photoshop

[Auren]

Auren/ConceptArt/Characters/SciFi

[daestwen]

NO ENTRIES PAST THIS POINT.

Ten minute grace period.

[Tavarilyn]

Dangit!

I've been working on this straight for hours... take it or not. Sup to you. :/

Love you guys...

[daestwen]

Sorry, Tav, I'd already put the poll up by the time I saw this. :/

No Quality Cuts, but a few rules cuts today:

Slaving maniac : No Wips
Boostmetal : Not enough of the character shown - 3/4ths rule.
Marsch : See above. 3/4ths rule.


other notes:

buffichar : Please name your files correctly! I didn't cut you this time, but if I had too many entries, I would have!

[rinjii]

this was a fantastic round- i really enjoyed egyptian lore when i was smaller so this was like coming back home. unfortunately time got the better of me and i really had to rush this- thank god for that 3hr extension or else i would've dropped out!

everyone's interpretations of the various gods and goddesses are really interesting, and i must say i am glad that there are so many different deities represented- i was afraid that we'd be over-saturated with the obvious choices :D

that being said, my votes ultimately have to go to hideyoshi, novbert, harris-ejaz, phanteon, dimagyan, leuparleu and daestwen [excellent job with Nut, girl!] for technical prowess and awesome interpretations.

[lennon]

Wasn't able to enter in this one.
Great job everyone!
My vote goes to dwinbotp, he has -in my opinion -the best combination of skills and ideas.
Special mention goes to Harris-ejas (the render is good but I don't think that the design is very original), and to Adi (I think that it was a great sketch that didn't pop-out well in the steps that followed). Also Benu, Taweretand and perhaps migsta and xgabo did an interesting combination.
Some people profit from the fact of their drawings are being display as thumbnails, and some people got damaged by this same fact.
Conclusion: good chow.

[Quike Garcia]

I just have to say that this chow has produced really great artwork.

Thanks to everybody for the critiques (Even though I wasn't able to correct the thinks they were pointing out, I'm really clumsy sometimes..) and I'm glad I was able to make it to the poll :)

[Pixeltuner]

Voted for a lot of people, cool artwork all over the block.
Dwinbotp: Really nice idea, details and rendering but your piece suffers from some anatomy issues in the right arm/shoulder which were prevalent in your first wips and could have been fixed easily. That said, it's still an awesome piece :)
lsksjkhsdgdh: (random letters, to lazy to look it up) I really like the details and the almost snake like appearance on yours. Shame about the sandy background because it hurts the silhouette and doesn't let the character stand out.

On a general note: I see lot of stuff being almost copied from Egyptian lore instead of looking like something that inspired Egyptians to visualize their gods. Not necessarily a bad thing, but I think Luness (even though he didn't finish) stands as a bright example how to think out of the box :)

[Marsch]

Voted on benu because is very alienesque and egiptian at the same time, and has a lot of verisimilitude

[elliste]

I was sorry to have not been able to participate in this one. It was a neat topic. There were a lot of awesome ideas in this one.

Felicia The body lighting with the bubble quality really caught my eye. I thought it really made the character unique

Missile I'm amazed you were able to complete your piece in just one week. There's a lot of detail and it flows so well together.

Novbert I thought you really nailed it on the head with the idea of the Egyptians' misconceptions of technology. I also really loved the angle that she was drawn!

Migsta I really liked the armor style and detail. I only hope I can someday paint and blend the colors as smoothly.

Phaethon The angle you decided to go with turned out wonderful. I liked how you made her so petite and gave her the grace of the feline.

Seth I just loved this character. My eyes kept going to the armor with the very detailed lighting. I thought the form was simplistic and helped to focus on the character detail more

Pahavasa That guy is creepy, but wow! I thought he was very original. The colors you picked, I thought suited the organic feel perfectly.

Daestwen I really liked her pose and the detail to her clothing. I thought her face showed a lot of expression. My favorite part is the outfit though.

Xgabo I thought you depicted the feralness (i think I just made up a word :P) in this character. The detail is phenomenal. I thought the pose you chose worked really well. I think my favorite was how you drew his hand and feet, still humanoid yet there is still some beast to it.

There are so many other wonderful pieces, but it is time for me to head to work. Hopefully I will be able to participate in the next one with you all. :)

[Razorleaf]

My vote goes to Xgabo!!

Pixeltuner - very nice! The detail really pronounces this character and brings it to life.
Sulk-Sal - your style brings a whole new level of imagary to the canvas, compelling yet subtle,
nice!
Migsta - I love the power the eminates from your character, and your colors are perfectly suited
Phaethon - I loved your original sphynx angle and would liked to have seen you bring it to poll,
still your finished image is lovely
Dwinbotp - there is no other word to discribe your character but “striking” - the details, colors
and composition create a memorable character.
AsahiSD - I love the atmosphere you created for your character, very nice!
Benu - As I’ve said before yours is very nice, theres something about incorporating the Ibis, or
bird image, into the image that draws it off the canvas and into the realm of true fantasy
Anuke - I love the “action” you’ve created with your character
Xgabo - I like your character very much. There is so much suspense and drama with your
character that it could have done without the blood. An entire story is being told in this single
image. Very very Nice!

[Novbert]

Voted for

Pixeltuner for those smooth gradients and beautiful skintones, though bacground and pose could be more interesting
emze for the nice tribal look though those legs look extra weird, and the whole pic should be more polished (just a question: Why the hell have you voted for every single entry? - I'm just curious...)
harris-ejaz for the elegant way he (she?) handled the integration of ancient egyptian elements with a very original high-tech design. I found the color scheme a bit boring, but on second thought it's in harmony with the simplicity of the overall design
Migsta for the simple and clear design - again
Adi for the original design, though the pic is a bit too monochromatic
dwinbotp for that monumental creature. Some really strange color choices here, but the whole thing somehow works
emerging for the great rendering - though reference to ancient Egypt is not obvious - this is definitely my favourite. Cool gears and pose.
LKJHGFDSA for the handling of the croc-god-theme - though lighting could be more definite.

[Cam Sykes]

Ok here's some crits and comments. Decided I need to start doing these. I felt the guilt of taking so much from this community that I really need to give back to it too. So the least I can do is these crits. Hope they help.
Disclaimer: I am by no means professional, if you find what I say helpful that's great, if you don't agree with it that is purely up to you and you don't have to.

Auren: has some nice things going on in it, but looks a little too earthbound. I think the alien aspect and overall design could be pushed further.

Feil Magnus: It's good to see you trying and participating as much as you can. I like the idea of the holographic armour. For some reason when I looked at this image the composition confused me, because of the angles and placement of things. not sure what it is, sorry I can't explain it. but yeah keep at it.

Felicia: Really cool. My only crit is that the different animal parts, although a good combination, it can make the design a bit inconsistent. I think this could've been improved by including the different textures on most of the body parts. Like the legs and arms could have some of the scales like on the tail. I think this would help. It would make the design look more whole instead of different parts sewed together.

Hideyoshi: Love your work. It's a great concept. My crit would be although the pose is dynamic, I'm a little confused about his purpose/intentions.

IIKII: Cool concept, colours and composition, but there's rendering and anatomy isssues that let this piece down. the anatomy issues that jump at me are his left arm, and left leg. As for the rendering I think it needs more blending.

Lewis: Nice idea and I like how you've made the beard an oxygen mask. As above I think there are just rendering issues that let this piece down, and many parts look a bit too unresolved. OVerall though I think you did really well, and it's all about getting better right.

Missile: Again, really nice idea let down by rendering issues. Also I think reference for the environment could've really helped here.

Nephilie: Interesting piece. Similar to my suggestion for felicia, I believe a continuation of the textures couldve helped here. For example, including the same patterns on the scorpion body on the human part of the skin to tie things in better.

Novbert: Good to see an underwater concept. Fun idea.

Pixeltuner: Really like the design of the armor and costume. It reminds me of degenesis too, which is a good thing. Not sure if it was intended but the skin looks a bit plastic.

Sulk-sul: it's difficult for me to comment on this one. It looks really flat to me.

Emze: Well designed costume and props. Only crit would be to think about the mobility factor of the amor. for example on the left arm the armour seems as though it would restrict full rang of movement with that arm.

Harris-Ejaz: Nice dude really cool piece, alot of cool angles happening. I think a bit more variation and some reflections happening in the armour could improve this piece.Not to say the treatment of the highlights and all that isn't great. Metal tends to have shapes and colours within it caused by reflecting objects and the environment around it.

Djehuti: props for doing a variety of concepts.

Djinn: anatomy and rendering issues going on here. I guess just use more reference and study more anatomy mate.

gtgauvin: likeable character. Designs engraved on the armour couldve have improved the design I believe.

Rinjii: use of reference and lead-up studies could've improved the end result here. It looks really unresolved to me. If you want to improve as mentioned to others, really knuckle down on the anatomy studies and do life drawing if you get the opportunity. Highly recomend Loomis, bridgeman, and hogarth, just to name a few.

LogicINK: Again, rendering and anatomy issues. One of the main things I noticed is that the character doesnt pop off the background enough. this could be solved by darking the background or doing an overlay of a complementry colour like purple. Yeah purple and yello really sexy combination, and looks incredibly royal.

Migsta: No suggestions here man, really nice piece.

Quikenobi: The pose looks a little off balance, and rendering seems a bit rushed. I guess just take a bit more time with it.

Adi: This is great. My main problem with it though was the scarab hand. I can understand why it was included, being a scarab god and all but making his hand a scarab seems a little arbitrary to me. As in, it doesn't really serve a purpose.

Phaethon: I can tell you really tried hard on this one. There's just some issues with the elipses and the colours aren;t really working for me. I think a bit too dull.

Reymus: Cool ideas happening here. JUst rendering issues and the colour relationships aren't working for me.

Dwintbop: Well exectuted and cool concept. I also like the idea of the envoy teaching them how to build pyramids. I could be wrong about this but the ellipses around his legs seem to be tilted at the wrong angle. I get the feeling they should be tilted the same way as the ring around his collar.

emerging: I enjoy the pose, it's as though he's just landed on earth. Yeah not much to say, but I like it.

MJ_alcazar: some colour please.

tommoy: I'm liking your art more and more. keep going with what your doing mate. Just ore work on the hands woud've done alot of good because the face is obscured by the mask.

hathor: rendering issues here. at the moment it looks like a block in for further painting.

asahi-SD-: Nice. I guess just think more about reflected light in this situation. there'd be heaps of bounce light coming from the golden floor he's standing on that would be picked up by his metal armour.

dimagyan: Yeah I like it. I think perhaps abit more stuff going on with the silhouette of the character.

dynamitedill: Personally not a fan of cartoony stuff. But I rekon you did pretty well. And good thigns happenign in the design of the suit.

leuparaleu: Not enough expression of the character through the pose in my opinion.

pahavas: Very cool and you definately pushed the alien aspect. Really reminds me of that old game Xcom 3: apocalypse.

sketcheth: It's cool, but too me there's not much being pushed with the design of it, and perhaps a bit rushed.

CamSyko: finish your friggin piece man, I mean look at that dodgy block in, spend more time on it. (Yeah I only spent 15 mins colouring I just wanted to submit before deadline).

Benu: Really nice man. Love the design.

Carnifex: Looks really rushed man.

Deastwen: love the mesmerised expression. I guress I don't see enough egyptian influence in the costume is all.

Imageenation: the way the colours and rendering has been treated makes all the body parts look as though they are on the same plane. think about values mroe and how colour relationships can make things pop or recede. See ya at school.

sony: basic rendering, anatomy and proportion issues that really let this piece down. but yeah keep working at it and get better dude.

lkjhgfdsa: Really nice design. My problem with it though is the light source is inconsistent.

xgabo: pretty badass character man.I think introducing some colour in the shadows could help improve this piece.

sorry if i forgot anyone.

[luness]

Pixeltuner – The brief was what inspired me to go in that direction, trying to ignore the first ideas that came to my mind and instead, workout the creative muscle a bit more. Wasn’t easy but I learned a lot. Thank you for the kind words!

So, it is today afternoon that I finally could hold the pencil again. Oh well, I’ll keep working on what I had in mind and then I’ll post them on my SB.
My vote goes to harris-ejaz's piece. From the beginning you wanted to stay away from the obvious references and other designs of similar nature. I applaud that. I also enjoyed the amount of constant revisions and minor variations here and there, trying to keep your original idea but not afraid of doing small changes. The design is very original, it shows you what is based on but it's fresh, different and somewhat unexpected, in other words, a nice surprise.
Great work!!!
Another favorite was Hideyoshi’s. Great approach with hints of Egyptian design elements; although I favor character (and also creature designs) when you can see and enjoy more of their details. I don’t mind silhouettes as long as one element of a pair (let’s say, legs) shows some details and cool and useful information. It’s just personal taste, so no big deal.
Phaethon, Djinn – I like your final pieces a lot, and the hard work full of revisions, feedback, and dedication warms my heart and it’s a great inspiration to me. Good work!

And that's it. I hope to join the CHOW again. It was a fun ride.

Cheers!

[harris-ejaz]

We're only supposed to vote for one person? I voted for 12!!
[including my own piece, but only because i thought i deserved it :p]
Thank you everyone, I was very intimidated by the participating in CHOW at this heavy forum, and getting as many votes as i have is an awesome awesome welcome by this community.

I am baffled that people like Felicia, pixeltuner, tommoy, Adi etc haven't been voted for more often, i thought these people's work were better than mine.

lennon i acknowledge that my initial workings started off very reminiscent of Tsutomu Nehei's blame and biomega (i'm often surprised at how his influence creeps up unexpectedly in my work). But I thought i'd moved away from that into my own territory. I'd be interested to know what my final piece reminds you of, because i'm thinking about it and i can't come up with anything...
Thanks for liking it anyways.

Luness I think it is a sacrilege that your piece was not up there for me to vote for. I've only just started looking around conceptart and your SB blue my mind.

***
I'm going to refrain from crits because i wouldn't want to accidently influence the voting. I'll wait until the votes are closed...
But of course, very humbling work on the whole from participants.

[Pixeltuner]

Camsyko: Thanks!, I might have overdone the skin a bit with the highlighting, but the intention was to make it a bit otherwordly.

Novbert: I could have done more with the pose, but since this is 'character' of the week I'm afraid I can't agree with your background comments ;)

[daestwen]

We're only supposed to vote for one person? I voted for 12!!
[including my own piece, but only because i thought i deserved it :p]

Ahm, I'm afraid I'm going to have to delete a vote for you then. It's kind of against the rules to vote for one's self, sorry.

But there is no voting limit, you can vote for as many as you like, but some people limit themselves to one.

[harris-ejaz]

daestwen I'm sorry, I'm new to this, and wouldn't have done it if i hadn't noticed other people doing it. So it's quite cool

[harris-ejaz]

novbert Yes I consciously sacrificed colour variation in favour of elegance. not sure if it was a smart risk to take...
And i'm a he. ;)

[Reymus]

I voted for a few, but the one that took 1st for me was Felicia's, it was well executed, playful and had a Jungle Book or Sword in the Stone type look to it.

I'll add more when I have time.

As a note though can we tell what specifically people need to do in order to get better and learn? Because I personally don't feel like I'm improving in Painter at all, and just about to dump it for Photoshop.

[Pixeltuner]

I voted for a few, but the one that took 1st for me was Felicia's, it was well executed, playful and had a Jungle Book or Sword in the Stone type look to it.

I'll add more when I have time.

As a note though can we tell what specifically people need to do in order to get better and learn? Because I personally don't feel like I'm improving in Painter at all, and just about to dump it for Photoshop.

I sincerely don't think that your choice of painting app does or doesn't have an effect on your improvement. It's all about drawing practice, and studying things like anatomy, colour-theory and light. Painter and Photoshop (and Artrage, Sketchbook Pro and whatnot) are just tools to put that knowledge into practice.
I personally do prefer Photoshop but that's because I've been using it as an image-editing programme for almost 10 years now, and know pretty much every nook and cranny of it. But that doesn't make my drawings any better ;)

[Reymus]

I know that it's all practice practice practice, but looking through COWs and CHOWs, you know, usually it's all Photoshop, and I've read dozens of testimonials of why it's the best hands down for digital work. So my frustration with Painter is always in comparison to PS vs what I really should be worried about which is how to work in Painter.

I wish there was a SOW (Sculpture of the Week!) as well, there's all kinds of little maquettes and busts waiting around.

[daestwen]

I know that it's all practice practice practice, but looking through COWs and CHOWs, you know, usually it's all Photoshop, and I've read dozens of testimonials of why it's the best hands down for digital work. So my frustration with Painter is always in comparison to PS vs what I really should be worried about which is how to work in Painter.

I wish there was a SOW (Sculpture of the Week!) as well, there's all kinds of little maquettes and busts waiting around.

There isn't a sculpture of the week, but there *are* sculpture challenges sometimes, in the 3d and sculpture forum.

[Carnifex]

also,i think it's not outright against the rules to submit a maquette for chow.

[no_name_brand]

I couldn't get this on time but I liked the result. it was a experimented on style as much as it was a fun character to come up with.

[Asahi-SD-]

no_name_brand> bad that you couldn't post it in time , you would certainly had a vote from me ;)

Good Chow everyone , that was awsome , too many good entries ^^ .

[Migsta]

No Name Brand....got my vote!

[Novbert]

Novbert: I could have done more with the pose, but since this is 'character' of the week I'm afraid I can't agree with your background comments ;)

Agree and disagree. I think the well-chosen background can really support the character and a weakly rendered one can have negative effects on the piece as a whole. There are samples in this very round of good nonfigurative but supporting backgrounds (in the entries of emze and emerging) or more figurative supporting bacgrounds (in the entries of harris-ejaz, migsta and pahvasa) or even no background at all (leuparaleu, dimagyan and felicia). Apparently using a backround is totally optional, my point is that your chosen (figurative) backgound doesn't add too much to the pic and it's not aligned with the topic (I can see some green(?) hills instead of desert, pyramids and all the Egyptian stuff).
Your piece was maybe a bit stronger without that bg than with it.

[Gavage]

Just a few more comments.

Nephilie: This was a cool idea but I don't think it fully works how it is currently; the human parts don't really flow into the more robotic/arachnid-type ones. Two possibilities would be to bring the 'scorpion' parts a little further up, perhaps have them starting somewhere high on the stomach, either blending them into the skin so there is a more gradual change from skin to metal, or to have the machine parts gripping the figure more to look as though it is more like armour.

Harris-ejaz: Nice work, I like the tones and colours you went with in the end.

Pahavasa: I love the purple in this, the very alien figure and that head... the only thing that bugs me is the way he is facing directly on and everything above the shoulders is quite symmetrical, but the body is looking in another direction.

Daestwen: It's a shame you didn't keep the Earth looking like a hologram because that seemed like a unique idea for this, but of course this is 'character' of the week so that would have just been a bonus anyway. Nice concept with the 'star' outfit. :)

LogicINK: Looking from your WIPs to the final piece, it's a shame a lot of the detail is lost in the image up in the poll. I think the earlier colours you were using (pale tones with some red) worked better than the gold, to be honest - using mainly one colour to decorate an image can work but I think it's become a little overpowering here. One thing I'd suggest is maybe trying out a more 'cartoon' way of colouring - I think it could compliment your work quite well.

[lennon]

harris-ejaz: It doesn't remind me of anything, that actually wouldn't care that much to me. It's just that I don't see much ideas in the design, I don't see anything that makes me say "how interesting, I really would like to know more about this character", it's pretty much an egyptian robot (all metal), there is also that sort of thing that may be a machine to fly, or anything, and it's ok, but without that, it's pretty much just a metallic egyptian with some little design in the limbs. I mean, it's a fine robot, it has even a few lights, it's just that I would have waited for a more developed concept.
If for example I were to describe you an alien from the "alien" movie, I could tell you lots of things: of how it has that shape in the head, no eyes, and a little mouth inside the mouth, that body that it's like hard as if it had some sort of insect's exoskeleton, the tail that sometimes make the character look more as a 4 legged thing and sometimes a biped. The slimy saliva dropping from it's teeth (teeth that btw look sort of metallic). And a thousand more...
There's also that other type of alien that jumps to your head, and a baby alien jumps from your chest. This could also be heavily described. Even the eggs are interesting.
What I'm trying to say, is that there are lots of ideas there. I think that one could tell if there are ideas in his concept if one could write them down.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that you're the only one displaying this problem, I just said that that was why I didn't voted for you.

[Quike Garcia]

Thanks a lot Camsyko. To be hones it was very rushed, I caould only work a couple of hours on it.

No_name_brand, that would have really had my vote too :)

[Pixeltuner]

Agree and disagree. I think the well-chosen background can really support the character and a weakly rendered one can have negative effects on the piece as a whole. There are samples in this very round of good nonfigurative but supporting backgrounds (in the entries of emze and emerging) or more figurative supporting bacgrounds (in the entries of harris-ejaz, migsta and pahvasa) or even no background at all (leuparaleu, dimagyan and felicia). Apparently using a backround is totally optional, my point is that your chosen (figurative) backgound doesn't add too much to the pic and it's not aligned with the topic (I can see some green(?) hills instead of desert, pyramids and all the Egyptian stuff).
Your piece was maybe a bit stronger without that bg than with it.

I could get picky right now and say that the Nile-Delta actually is as green as anything you can imagine when it floods every season, but I won't.:asspat:
I tried to keep away from stereotypes and only use the colours in the bg with a little figurative elements for letting the character pop out.
That said, it's not a strong example of a good bg ;)

[harris-ejaz]

lennon I get what you mean. Coming up with a design like that would take me a bit longer than the (half a) week i spent on it, i think. ;)
Unless, of course, i got lucky.

[LogicINK]

Missile - Thanks for the thoughts! I completely agree about the gold. I liked it in concept a lot more than I was capable of executing it. Haha Thanks again!

Cheers!

[sketcheth]

dwinbotp, pahavasa, and lkjhgfda were my favorites I think out of the whole crop. I really like Felicia's character design, but I don't think it fits the prompt as well as some of the others...it seems like more of a depiction than a interpretation. They're all beautiful works though...good topic, great crop of work so far...

My votes go to pahavasa and lkjhgfda for creativity in design and technique in executing said designs. Masterful.

[Sulk-Sal]

I voted for Emerging (loved the choice and design), Migsta (for design), dwinbotp (great sci-fi feel), and emerging (angle, pose and texture). Would have voted for no_name_brand too.

CamSyko - Thanks, I've gotten this comment before, but I'm not exactly sure how to correct it. If it's lighting or understanding of form or perhaps a bit of both, but I know it's one of the many things I need to work on.

Razorleaf - Thanks!

Lots of great entries, looking forward to seeing what the next Chow brings out!

[lennon]

harris-ejaz, It's not rocket science you just think of an idea before drawing, that's all. May take 5-10 muntes. But of course, if you don't want the critique, don't make me wast my f#@king time. If you just want everyone to tell you how good you are, next time, turn off the computer and ask your girlfriend what she thinks.

[Pixeltuner]

harris-ejaz, It's not rocket science you just think of an idea before drawing, that's all. May take 5-10 muntes. But of course, if you don't want the critique, don't make me wast my f#@king time. If you just want everyone to tell you how good you are, next time, turn off the computer and ask your girlfriend what she thinks.

You in a bad mood son? I think you're wasting your time with getting mad on the internetz and getting a bit too personal in your remarks :)

[lennon]

Yeah, perhaps I was in a bad mood. Sorry for that, it's just that I'm running with too many people that comes here to hear how good they are, and I really can't get that. I've also made a couple of questions on this forums about how to do certain things (very simple things), just to get a tip, nothing crazy, just tell me if this is how you've done it, just yes or no. But no, they won't say a thing. So at the end, you start wondering why do all this people connect to the internet: they don't want to tell you a thing, they don't want to share a thing, they don't want you to tell them what you think, I'm just cluless. If it's not for the applause, then I really have no idea.
Well, probably just a bad mood as you said.

[Aly Fell]

Lennon - Chill out. harris-ejaz has done nothing to elicit that sort of aggressive response. I'm glad you apologised, but please keep your comments civil.

[Hideyoshi]

Just wanted to say that I am pretty happy with how many votes my piece got, many thanks to everyone who voted! :)

[harris-ejaz]

lennon dude WTF? I was agreeing with you!

The only quibble i have with what you wrote is with this:
It's not rocket science you just think of an idea before drawing, that's all. May take 5-10 muntes
I think i spent considerably more time than that before i put pencil to paper. If you had actually followed the development of my design to begin with on the other thread, you would have known that i did have a direction in mind. i knew what i didn't want to do.:). I think i gave it a good shot, and we never know for sure what we're gonna produce is going to be excellent. It's always a balancing act between elegance and interest, and there is some luck involved in the process, i think. otherwise everyone would be churning out Xenomorph-level designs consistantly.
If you read up, I have also acknowledged that some of the designs that didn't get voted for as much as mine did, were superior to mine.
I actually found the rest of what you said to be thought provoking and inspiring.

I asked you to clarify what you meant because i was genuinely interested, and i am here to benefit from peer review. You assuming that i was being assiduously defensive was you projecting. I'm sorry but you can't automatically assume that everyone fits to some stereotype you have of the internet-faring-artfag-queen.
You speak of bad internet habits and you're guilty of one yourself, letting your mood deprive you of your courtesy. I'm sorry if what other people do angers you but please don't take it out on me, especially when i'm actually admitting that you have a point.

Frankly your last post is bewildering and I had to reread all my posts to make sure i hadn't insulted you in some way.

Anyway. Apart from this last foray into the twilight zone, I found what you wrote quite helpful (if somewhat aggressive and unrealistically uncompromising). so thanks for that.
cheers.

PS I'm single for the foreseeable future. precisely because I want a girlfriend who speaks her mind, which is a trait that my society tries to breed out of our women. :(