Team Chow II :: Sad Panda

[morgalahan]

So here's the sketchbook for Sad Panda, the team that ran out of cookies. This team includes Tiki Snakes, FalyneVarger & Morgalahan

I think I may shamelessly copy Daestwen and reserve this spot for the Final Work.

For now, the Team Chow topic and information:

TEAM CHOW II: GOOD AND EVIL
DESCRIPTION

This month's Team Chow is going to be a little different! This time, we are creating fantasy portraits for player characters - with good and evil versions! It's both a wide open brief and a very strict one! Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to create a random team from the options given to you below, and to create 4-8 fantasy portraits that read well together and still look awesome separately. Thus, as a team, you must create a compatible 'look' for your characters.

ConceptArt.Org is going to be running game design activities and it is our hope that some of these characters could really inspire people doing activities on the other parts of the site too! Fuel for their fire so to speak. :]

Also, Jason has allowed me to offer you some fabulous prizes!

The winning team will get four downloads of their choice each and a pass to an upcoming live streaming course right here on conceptart.org!

Also, individuals within teams are also up for a prize! These will be given for leadership, and for extra effort in making great characters. This prize will consist of four downloads and the pass to attend ca live streaming event.

On to the nitty-gritty:

Here are the rules!

1. Teams of two MUST create at least 4 portraits, teams of three or four need 6 and teams of five need 8. You are perfectly welcome to create more images that the requirement if you feel your team is up to it.
2. You must take a random selection of the choices below. Please don't do 4 elven fighters, or only orcs, for example. Please take a randomized selection. If you would prefer me to give your team a specific assignment, I will generate the selection for you. If I see teams doing more select parties, then I will request you to change to something more random.
3. You must follow the format provided. See it below, please!
4. You must do a LIGHT and a DARK version for each character, please! This means that for each character you need two portraits.
5. You must submit a paragraph about each character. Do a short write up for each character you create. I want to see some interesting, stereotype-breaking stuff here, folks!

PLEASE SELECT ONE OF EACH CATEGORY FOR EACH CHARACTER.

Gender: Male / Female

Race: Human / Elf / Half-Elf / Dwarf / Orc - (and anything else you can think of!)

Class: Fighter (Barbarians, Knights, Dark Knights, Brawlers, etc) / Thief (Assasins, Rogues, etc)/ Spell Caster (Wizards, Sorcerers, Druids, etc) / Healer (Priest, Cleric, White Mage, Medic, etc) - (feel free to make up something for this, too)

Alignment: Good / Evil (please do both for each character)

YES, THESE LOOK LIKE STEREOTYPES. IT IS YOUR JOB TO BREAK THEM. I want to see some really interesting, kick ass stuff!

Okay, NOW GO!


--------

SUBMISSION GUIDLINES

The Final Burning Thread will go up ONE WEEK before deadline. The deadline will be August 31st, at 11:59 pm GMT - 4, Eastern Daylight Time. I will accept submissions as long as it is August somewhere in the world, but after this I will close the thread. I am going to give myself 1-2 days to then sort out the poll and the voting, so please be patient.

1. One team member will be in charge of submitting the final entry. How the entry is presented will be up to you, but keep it consistent and coherent.
2. Remember that you will need to submit wips. If you decide to make a group sketchbook for this activity, a link to that will suffice.
3. Also sumbit a list of Team Activity. I want to see how well you worked as a team - who was in charge of what and what each member did.
4. All other ChoW rules apply. If you are not familiar with the usual chow rules, please read the guidlines thread sticked at the top of the subforum. Including, 3/4ths rule, no paint-overs, etc.
5. Please submit files with this naming convention: TeamChow_TeamName_Image001.jpg
6. Please keep to the format of the image below. We're gonna be a little bit more strict about presentation this time - each portrait should be portrait-aligned, like so, and the figure about as big as the one you see below. Full bodied figures, please.

[morgalahan]

well, I may as well post some updates. We're painting characters that should be fantasy D&D themed, since we're both major D&D fans. Tiki is doing a sorcerer, and I'm doing a magic and sword fighter. So far, Tiki's sketched his character and I've created a rough version of it.

I dare say that these are rough as rough can be, just character sketches and ideas. I'll get my character up at some point as well. I expect major evolutions to follow.

[morgalahan]

Mood board thingy

[morgalahan]

Here's a sketch of MY character, guess which version it is and you get a cookie =P

[morgalahan]

sad panda is sad

[morgalahan]

working on the good version of my character. I'll render it a some more tomorrow.

[ImaGEEnation]

Hey you've got a cool name for your team! :D haha! Looking good so far! Where are your team mates?

[morgalahan]

Thanks ImaGEEnation, it's nice to know that someone's actually looking! =P My team mates? They're um, out there, or HE is...I've actually posted an advert on the sign up thread asking if one or two more people want to join this team. Oh well.

[Jazz]

I'm peeking in too! Awww, don't be sad, panda! :3

You're doing what you can, and that effort is great! You have an interesting way of showing the good and evil characters. The evil one at the moment has a much more powerful "glow" going on, where the good character has a softer look, and is smiling rather kindly! Nice contrast!

[morgalahan]

Thanks Jazz, it's really nice to know that there are actually people who look =P My personal opinion about good and evil is that it doesnt always have to be glaringly obvious. Sometimes it's about expression, body language, or even more subtle things. =D

Yay! Sad Panda has a new team member! Woot! Welcome to the team FalyneVarger!

On a side not, I really think we outta try and work like this (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=154540) team did. So, we should all create our characters i.e. design them then we pass them around so that everyone can work on them. That way we'd get a unified style so that everything looks good.

[FalyneVarger]

Glad to be here! >D
So I'm thinking about a female elven archer character. I'll do some sketches tomorrow and we can sift through them.

[morgalahan]

Here's another reference board. I'm making a few. This one's for clothing and armor.

EDIT And another for weapons

[morgalahan]

an armor study for my character, good armor and evil armor =P

[FalyneVarger]

The spear in the bottom right is my favorite. I'd love to do a character with a similar weapon.
I don't think I want to do a female elf anymore though. Isn't that what the character you've created already is? We should try to keep more variety in our teams. But to be sure (because I'm not lol) what are the races and jobs of the current characters?

And, from what I understand, since we are a team of three we need to create six characters, right? And two version of each one, good and evil, so that's 12 pictures in all. At least that is how I understand the brief.

[FalyneVarger]

I think I should let everyone know I won't be able to post or help on Wednesday, I have a heavy workload then and when I'm done I just come home and pass out. Also, I work nights, sleep during the day, and my next semester of school starts in less than two weeks. So I'm busy a lot of the time. Right now I should be able to contribute. :) My school work isn't that hard and I think my sleeping is more of an issue time-wise.
But I work fast! So that helps a little.

[FalyneVarger]

So here is a rough character sheet for a male Hare thief. (rabbit boy HUZZAH) His outfit design is probably closer to what will end up being his "evil side." I figure for the good one he'll lose the jacket and bandanna, wear his ears up, and have more of a tunic shirt. Of course, all of that is subject to change because our characters need to match each other.

[FalyneVarger]

And since I had some time (ten minutes lol), here is something for the team! >3
Feel free to adjust it.

[FalyneVarger]

I think that if we banded the good and evil teams together with a common theme that it would make the designs a whole lot easier. From the characters so far I think evil could go with a "punk rock" theme. And maybe good could have another, lighter, genre of music. Sadly the only thing that comes to mind for that right now is country and I'm not sure how that would play in with the fantasy theme. What do you guys think?
Anyways, I'm tweaking my Hare thief to fit the theme. At the very least it makes him more evil.

[FalyneVarger]

So here is another sketch for the thief. I think he is more rock than punk, though. So perhaps we could use rougher music influences for the evils and lighter for the goods.
That's my idea, anyway. I'd be just as happy going with another theme.

[morgalahan]

Wowy Falyne, you've been really really busy!

So far the characters we have are:

A human male sorcerer

A elf/elemental sword and magic user

As per Daestwen clarifying things, we need to create 6 PORTRAITS, so we only need to make 3 characters. We are allowed to make as many as we want to really.

What we may need to discuss is some worldbuilding.

It seems that a lot of other teams are actually going a lot more in depth with this than simply creating character portraits. We need to decided if we want it to be a new unique fantasy world, some unifying themes we can all employ (like your music influence) and what style we want the eventual portraits to be in. I like the idea of maybe doing them in a sort of classical oil style, as if the characters were actually posing for their portraits, but that may be a bit to cliche. At the least we need some way to present the finished work so that it all fits together nicely.

So maybe some backstory for the characters would be a good start, for example, how did your hare thief come to be part hare? Was he born that way or transformed after he broke into a wizards tower and set off a trap?

I'm sort of thinking that even though I really like my character, we can always come up with some new ones to fit a different theme if we want to. We should also decide on how many we want to end up painting. Do we want to stick to the minimum of 3 or do 5 maybe? it all depends on how much time and effort we can put into this really.

BTW, I like the logo ;)

EDIT

I just had an idea. What if there was some sort of reason for our characters to be evil other than simple lifestyle choice? What if there was some sort of magical plague that made them insane and evil, made them serve a dark master. Think being turned into a vampire. Bit like the ones from Buffy. Not neccasarily souless, but corrupted. Something that would be physical and show easily in the portraits.

[FalyneVarger]

Told ya I work fast. ;)

Glad to hear that. That takes a lot of work off. ^^;

Yeah. I wouldn't mind doing them in an oil color STYLE, but just posing is kind of boring and it stifles personality. It would put a lot of restrictions that I don't think we really want here.
I think the corruption idea sounds pretty good. It gives a decent reason why the same characters would be split between good and evil. In this case how about we start with four characters? I could easily handle three of the portraits, probably more. That way we'd have eight pieces to do. I have no problem scrapping my Hare to fit the world we build.
So as to a style for the clothes, I figure we can choose either a time period from different cultures, a certain fantasy world that already exist (e.i. lord of the rings), or from a music genre.
How bout we have a hero that lead our party on some kind of quest, but somehow along the way they become tainted. Like they discovered a cursed jewel and were consumed with greed? I guess in this case the hero might need to be rather obvious. (aside from naming them "hero")

I wish our hours weren't so backwards. 0o All the work I'll be doing is while you sleep. I think the only time we are both awake is between 7 and 10 a.m. (i normally try to be asleep by 10)
I need to wake up early tomorrow (for me lol) at 7 p.m. because my grandmother is coming to visit. I'll probably only be free after 9:30, then I expect you'll be going to bed. But I'll try to come up with some other ideas in the meantime.

[morgalahan]

lol, yes, timezones are a bitch

But yeah, liking the ideas. So, 4 characters, I was really drawn to a sort of celtic/tribal vibe when looking for armor refs. Not quite lotr, but close I suppose. To have the 4 characters start the journey, and a special hero leader, would be awesome. I thought then that maybe the 'good' portraits could be the starting point of the journey, then we show how they end up with the 'evil' portraits.

My preference for classes and races is a weird mix a lot of the times. I'm a D&D player so I'm exposed to character creation a hell of a lot. Is there any game you play that you'd like to draw inspiration from?

I love world of warcraft, lord of the rings, most D&D worlds and settings, lots of vampire stories and so on. I'd probably draw inspiration and ideas from these worlds and settings almost without noticing. Trying to come up with something new and different is the hardest things around. I'll do some quick character concept sketches of different things, and maybe we can all choose the ones we like the best from everyone's sketches and ideas. Or we could stick with the idea of creating our own characters and going with them. We'd need to be careful of not becoming too attached to them since we should be passing the characters around so that everyone has a chance to work on them.

So far here's a list of basic fantasy races and classes off the top of my head:

Human
Elf
Dwarf
Halfling
Gnome
Orc
Troll
Goblin
Beast-races i.e. minotaur, cat person or any mix of animal
Fae, the scary freaky kind
Dragon
Gryphon

Fighter/warrior
Monk
Thief
ranger
Sorcerer
Wizard
Cleric
Barbarian

I could just go on and on...

I had a thought while writing those up, what about mixing some classical greek mythology into it? We have all the awesome monsters and races from that time. I think a fusion world would be fun, greek influences in monsters and races, with a celtic culture/theme mixed with some interesting magic. For some reason crystals come to mind, like using crystals and gems as magic. Or any ancient culture that has interesting mythology. I have a friend who's been stydying that sort of thing for years, so I'll ask him about it. Think of the old cultures, gaelic/celtic, persian...I think we should stay away from Asian tho, since a lot of people are already using that, as well as south american, and african.

I'll post some sketches later :)

[FalyneVarger]

I read a lot of Dragonlance books. Right now I'm reading the Legends trilogy. You should google Raistlin. :) As for games, I started to play D&D years ago, but stopped because my team fell apart. Odin Sphere is really inspiring though. It's based on Norse mythology. I know a lot more about that than I do Greek myths. The Valkyries in particular are noteworthy.
I know that quite a few people (at least two) are going for an African tribe inspired look. So we should probably leave that one be.

We could have our hero be a halfling of some kind. To make them stronger and more interesting.

I think I like the Fae and Beasts.

[morgalahan]

http://morgalahan.deviantart.com/art/Raistlin-Majere-Wallpaper-76394118

lol, ignore the picture quality, I was still learning how to paint.
I have to admit I'm not the greatest fan of halflings...but norese mythology is interesting :)

I did some very rough sketches here, as a tester.

[FalyneVarger]

Seems like a good place to start. We can keep messing around with the races until we get it right.
I'd like to handle the Cleric in particular, if you don't mind. :)
I also like the idea of having our leader be a female. She could have short hair and a spear or two blades.
I'll do some more sketches soon.

[FalyneVarger]

So has Tiki Snakes quit the team? I'm just curious. We've already decided to go ahead with four characters despite our number.

[FalyneVarger]

So here are some random clerics characters. My love of elves tells me to choose her, but we are supposed to stay away from stereotypes on this. I actually kind of like the Dwarf cleric. More than I thought I would at least.

And also an elf hero idea. The style we do this in is really going to effect things.

[FalyneVarger]

You know, I was thinking.
I'd honestly love to do this with a vampire theme as you mentioned before.
In a style similar to Ayami Kojima's http://www.creativeuncut.com/art_castlevania-lament-of-innocence_a.html
http://www.creativeuncut.com/art_castlevania-symphony-of-the-night_a.html
http://www.creativeuncut.com/art_castlevania-aria-of-sorrow_a.html
Evil would be easy-peasy. The only problem with that would be how to do the good team.


EDIT-
I guess we might be able to leave the good side human, but I'm not sure if that would count as a race change or not.

[morgalahan]

I have to apologise for my silence for the last few days. My PC access time has been cut a bit due to the fact that more people need to use the computer than me, and I can only use it late at night for my own use. So...yeah. I've also been feeling cappy the last few days, so when it DOES get to be late at night, I feel more like going to bed :(

But I'll try and get a move on tonight ;)

[FalyneVarger]

I was wondering what happened to you. 0o In fact I was starting to think I'd have to drop out of this event altogether. I guess if it comes down to it I can find another team. :(

But then again there is other art that demands my attention.

I hope you can find some more time on the computer. (give it a few more days lol)

[morgalahan]

I did some rough sketching last night. I like the idea of having the bad guys be undead corrupted shadowy thingies, possibly vampire themed possibly not ;) I love vampires but we ARE trying to stay away from cliche.

I think what we need to do is just define our characters, get them down so that we can start sketching and painting them in different poses and good/evil versions. If you want to do the cleric may I do the female warrior hero elf? It's one of my favorite things to paint. Then you can pick either the sorcerer or the thief and design them and I'll do whichever one you dont pick. Then we can get those characters down and go ahead with the rendering of the final images. We may need to discuss styles when we get to that stage. You like an anime style and while I dont DISLIKE it, I prefer a realism style when painting, to a degree. But thats for later =P I'll try and coax Mr. Tiki Snakes into actually getting off his ass and working with us, or find out if he's withdrawn or not. Either way, I'll sort him out tonight :D

I've been going for a celtic theme, but I think just high fantasy is OK for now. If you want to add a norse vibe to it, or something similar, I'd like to see it :)

I think just to sum it up, the classes we're going for are Warrior, Cleric, Sorcerer, Thief

If you can come up with variations on those to create something interesting, all good. Create your own races or use pre existing ones. I like your elven cleric a lot, so how about changing it in some way to go from the standard clean and shiny elf from lord of the rings, to a more wood elf tribal cleric? Or something...hmm, trying to figure interesting characters is tough.

Oh well, I'll post my super rough lame sketch of the warrior...

Oh, and you know how some people on DA create 'character sheets' for their characters? What do you think about doing that for our characters? Just to make it easier to paint them all and stick to the same character. Something like this. (http://ionen.deviantart.com/art/Adel-Character-Sheet-68563577)

[morgalahan]

Hello fellow Sad Pandas! We have another new member as per my head hunting...sort of. I was originally looking for one or two more people to join the team, and I happily got the talented FalyneVarger to join the original team of Tiki Snakes and myself. Now we are joined by another new member, Mordus (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/member.php?u=113163), who's sketchbook (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=165879) I have found by being a sneaky person :D

As it stands we are still in a very rough phase of work. I'm going to go art a bit now and try to nail some more sketches of character ideas. I shall update later with mah noo stuphz

[morgalahan]

playing with my chain mail brush. And a fur brush.

[Mordus]

Ok. IM in now, so id better get something done. My first target is to establish what a member of the race im using actually looks like before we start tagging it with good or evil.
I apologise for the extremely light figure. The scanner has screwed it up, and you can hardly see the shading. Try tilting the screen if you cant see anything.
DROAK:
http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/nn208/Golly5/Droak.jpg

[FalyneVarger]

So then you'll be handling a female elven warrior then? I'll have to do something else for my cleric in that case. I don't think we really want too many of the same race. I'll try to work up some more stuff. I'm not really sure what a Nord cleric would look like. lol I'll probably just make some bunk up for him. (I have an urge for a male now) Anyways, if you actually look at historical references the vikings actually have a Celtic style. :) So we probably have something similar in mind.

The style might work itself out as we pass the characters around. ...Hopefully. lol But if it comes down to it I CAN work in REALISM. http://falynevarger.deviantart.com/art/Jack-Sparrow-FLD-gift-113282134 http://falynevarger.deviantart.com/art/Tia-Dalma-watercolor-71471797 I just really prefer to work in my own style. ^^; Whatever it is called.

Character sheets sound fine to me. Is there a specific format for the final entries?

And I think your chain mail brush works fine for the skirt and such, but not for the rest of the shirt. It's too monotonous. We'll probably have to paint those parts by hand for quality's sake.

Welcome to the team, Mordus! >D

[FalyneVarger]

Your character sort of makes me think of a cross between a minotaur and a faun (pan's labyrinth style). I can see the lines pretty well on my desktop.
Looks good so far!

[Mordus]

Hes a Droak, basically a Celtic-type Goat-Faun. Pans Labyrinth probably pushed my hand. I plan on draping him in bandages (easiest clothing to wear with odd body shapes) hung with charms, skulls, teeth and bits of stuff. This particular one is a Seer - like a prophet, but only sees one side of the future. The bad stuff or the good things. This obviously shapes them as a person - my evil version sees only calamity in the days ahead, while the good one foretells happiness. Both are right...they just dont see the whole thing. While staring into the future, they manifest extra eyes. Check out my "Watcher" Devil for an idea on this...The idea of goats with extra eyes has been
knocking around my head for too long.

http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/nn208/Golly5/EmbryoDevil_0006.jpg

[Mordus]

Falyne: DONT.HURT.YOURSELF.
I know what it feels like to force a particular style. My painted work and color studd is worlds away from my pencil work, and different again from my BW ink pieces. But tehy all share a common denominator. Realism may win applause, but when doing art, do it the way that makes you happiest, net result better art regardless of style. I love your stuff anyway in your slightly more cartoonish style. Preachy Rant (tm) over.
On an off note, were you ever featured in ImagineFX?...I remember seeing some work in there like yours...
Meh. Im going to go do a full body sketch and some gear for him.

[FalyneVarger]

Watcher is good so far, too. :3
Goats always make me think of evil things. 0o They're pretty scary. But then I've been attacked by them more than once. I bet it would look interesting to see one on the good side.
Thank you. :) I prefer my style that way too, but sometimes a more serious look is need...I guess. lol I'm sure the three of us will be able to find SOME kind of common ground for this.

Ah. No, I haven't. My friend is trying to get me to send some stuff in, but I haven't gathered my courage quite yet. I feel like I should improve a bit more first. I'd like to see these pictures though. I hope the only thing similar with this person to my art is style.

[Mordus]

Like the lazy fool I am, I continue to doodle in the margins of life.
Trying out some ideas already for the more evil side (My favourite!)

http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/nn208/Golly5/Droak2_0001.jpg

http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/nn208/Golly5/Droak2_0002.jpg

http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/nn208/Golly5/Droak2_0003.jpg

Trying to catch up on what ive missed.

[FalyneVarger]

That tongue is the freakiest thing I've ever seen!
I LOVE it. :D
Keep it up!
I'll try to get some sketches in tomorrow.

[Mordus]

Its time to develop the background.
The Droak are a peaceful, isolated gatherer community hiding deep within the verdant depths of all the worlds great forests (and some deserts, notably near the cliffs of Shayle). They live alone, wandering in small groups of 3 to 4, hunting all they can and scrounging for more. Every 6 hundred and 66 years however, one kid (infant goat) will be born with bulging eyes filled with the stars. This kid has the curse of Seeing.
He looks deep into the future, knowing all that is to come. At first, for a while, he will see the good side of life in the days ahead. He will tell of plentiful food, great harvests and foresee storms in order to avoid them.
This does not last.
Slowly, as age crawls over him, smearing his youth with its black fingers, he will come to know only the darkness. He will be unable to scream out the various misfortunes, and will soon become a degenerate sub-intelligent beast, using all his life to wail doom at thr world while his body twists and warps in the grasp of the Curse.

Im a twisted person.
http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/nn208/Golly5/Droak3_0001.jpg

http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/nn208/Golly5/Droak3_0002.jpg

Need MOAR TONGUE?...

http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/nn208/Golly5/Droak3_0003.jpg

Glad you like the piccies. I hope to move onwards soon to a full picture.

[morgalahan]

OK, wow. This is the first time I've come back to a thread with so much done! wow!

I like the droak, he's freaky as all hell on the evil side, reminds me of a chiropterran from Blood and also of Vemon a bit! Absolutely scary! I can imagine him on the good side as well, looking very serene and mystical. Goat eyes always freak me out with those weirdly shaped pupils 0_o

Falyne, with my warrior, I was actually thinking of turning her into a half dragon...dunno. What I'd like is for all of us to sketch a version of each other's characters. My picture at the top is only a thumbnail really, nothing there is solid. It's just my idea of her so far. The chain mail IS hand painted in a way, I painted each of those rings by hand using a photoshop brush I made of a link shaped like a C. Made from an actual typed C :D But I know what you mean, I'll go in by hand in the finished version and make sure they look more authentic.

Question: Are we adding the Droak to the list of characters or replacing someone else with him? I'll try and do some thumbs of the other characters to get some ideas down. I have some ideas for the rouge/thief person :D

Style: 0_0 I'm not saying stylized is BAD. Lord knows my own work is somewhat stylized. By realism I mean sort of the style I've painted a few of my pieces in. I started drawing only in anime, and I'm trying forcibly to change that into a realism style. It's just my belief that it looks better when it comes to this sort of thing, but I'm not trying to impose my belief on you guys =P So I'm pretty certain that the style will work itself out as we pass the characters around :) By realism I meant something like this (http://morgalahan.deviantart.com/art/Tessah-Feral-Druid-121998423) and this picture. (http://morgalahan.deviantart.com/art/Tiefling-Assassin-117115008) As you can see, they have realism to a degree.

I just wanted to ask Mordus, do you digi-colour as well? Your pencil sketches are pretty amazing.

As for character sheets. I'd say they're just so that all of us have an idea of what goes with the character when we're painting/sketching them. Lets try and get our characters designed as far as we can go on our own. Not necessarily rendered but just defined. Then we can save the character sheets and use them as refs so that we can sketch out each others characters. I dunno, maybe I'm just over complicating.

As for the final format, I don't think it's defined. Lots of other teams have different ideas on the final format. It's a CHOW so there are set rules about the character presentation. It works if it's some sort of action scene. Like a wizard casting a fire spell to attack something off scene, or a warrior swinging a sword at an enemy and killing them. Just something like that. Not terribly complicated, but interesting.

Oh well, thats all I have to say for now. I'll get some more art posted later :)

[Mordus]

I dont digi-colour. I have no access to any kind of program, Painter or otherwise. In my sketchbook you can see some of my watercolour pieces with ink-lining added. I can do a really advanced version of those, but it may take a few days. I can post up some samples.
I would like to do a sketch of your characters head if she were to become a half-dragon. That might be fun, and a break from drawing horns and fur.

Mordus

[morgalahan]

Haha, sure, go for it. I was going to make her a half dragon in a subtle way, not too animalistic, but go for whatever you want to try. Nothing's sacred at this point :D

As for digi-painting, I'd then suggest that you draw your character and shade it in pencil as much as you can, then one of us with tablets and programs can do a paint over, if that's OK? I can say with a lot of certainty that we'll be doing our stuff digitally. So we need the style to be consistent.

[Mordus]

Good. But id like ta do a watercolour in any case.

[FalyneVarger]

Ah. I thought that there was something lizard like about your elf. I like the idea. :3 I think I've got my cleric now. I just need to do a quick full body sketch for her. (sudden rush of inspiration lol)

I see what you mean about the realism. I don't really like doing it like that though because you need to rely too heavily on photo references. But that is another debate for another time. Let's just concentrate on our characters for now.

I vote the Droak be added to the character list. :D He's freaky cool. And I agree that we will probably have to let Mordus handle his characters while we paint over them. For the sake of consistency.

[FalyneVarger]

So I was trying to find a way to make my cleric non stereotypical and here is what I came up with.
Another awesome made up race. :D

[FalyneVarger]

Mordus: Even if we don't use your watercolor for the final entry I'd still like to see it. I'm probably going to end up doing more with some of these characters once we're done with this project myself.

[morgalahan]

I only use photo references when I'm actually trying to learn. For the rest of the time I use what I've learned so far and wing it =P but yeah, lets concentrate on the characters :D

I agree, he's added. So that means we have 5 characters, which is all good for 4 people, or 3...

Mordus, do a watercolour sure, I'd love to see that. Both of you seem to have worked in watercolour a lot, I havent ever. For traditional media I've only ever worked in acrylics during high school =P My love is digital.

Looking forward to all the upcoming art! I'll only be able to get something up much much later, like in 12 hours when I can use the PC and I'm back home.

As for Tiki Snakes...he told me he'd post something last night, but he must have been busy or something ¬_¬ He's been working odd shifts lately, so I assume he's been tired. I'll speak to him tonight again and see when he'll get stuck in.

Hmm, I could always do some pencil sketching....we shall have to see.

[morgalahan]

Oh wow, thats awesome Falyne! I love that race and the character design! Are they some sort of avian air elemental race?

[FalyneVarger]

Refs are good for figuring out anatomy and lighting and such. ;P But yeah....lol I'm shutting up now.

Depending on how the fleshing out of the rest of the characters goes, it might be a good idea to perhaps drop some. We don't want to bog ourselves down too much. Especially since we are a bit behind.

Watercolor is probably my favorite medium to work with, but for things like this I think digital is best. More flexibility and easier to share.

So he lives? 0o

Pencil sketches are always good. :D I kinda did my cleric in both digi and pencils.

Thanks!
The Pilars are magic based beings that are charged with guarding a domain or special building. They usually follow a master so if we have end up with a mage/sorcerer, that would be the tie in. They're mostly good or neutral, but when exposed to an exceptionally evil force they can be corrupted.
I tried to mix a wasp, a bird, and a human for her design.

[morgalahan]

well it rocks, and I cant wait to see her rendered a bit more to flesh out those details so to speak :D I'm itching to start drawing, but I'll have to wait a bit.

About the characters, lets do one each for now, our main one, and then decide later if we want to add any more or not. We are a bit behind, especially in comparison with the other teams around.

I went hunting for refs for the Droak's gear, I found a few pics that may work.

[Tiki Snakes]

Yeah, um, Hi. :) Didn't quit the team as much as quit being a person for a week or so there. Back now, reading through, catching up on what's been happening and all that jazz.

For the record - I love the idea of the Good team being how they started out, and the evil team being how they ended up, and especially the concept that they stay a team throughout.

Vampirism could be a good 'falling point', I'd also considered the concept of 'making a deal with the devil', personally, but the team being turned en-mass (by an implied, shadowy and powerful master) is kind of...I could see it being visually quite cool.

Perhaps our questing heroes find themselves lost in the mist (http://comunafc.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/ravenloft.jpg)...


[edit] Having read the second page also now... Ehhehe, blimey. It might be because I've not been up long, but man, that Goak is really freaking me out. Which isn't easy to do. Nice work, Mordus.
Remember though, we'd need a good AND an evil version of him.


I'm seeing a real woodsy, nature theme developing here. With the Fur-wearing Elven warrior, Leafy Air Cleric, and the vaguely tribal goat-person seer (who would fill the mystic/sorcerer slot quite nicely? Assuming I'm recalling the rules properly, we basically each need to produce at least a good and evil of one character each. I'm going to spend a few minutes thinking, and maybe start tinkering with a 'theif', see if I can twist the concept to fit the theme we seem to be accidentally developing here. :)

[Mordus]

Good to have you aboard, Tiki Snakes.
I did do some thinking about the whole good evil turning point. This may be slightly self centered of me...but what if the Droak turned them?

Originally his odd Seer status had him outcast. He joined up with various other people and formed a small group who acted as a team to prevent the bad things he saw in teh future. Slowly though, as the darkness took over, they became fatalistic, depressed. He twisted and began corrupting them all, as slowly they fell into a @it will all be the same in a hundred years@ attitude, leading to sheer nonchalance in the face of horrific murder and greed. One by one, the Curse of the Seer took them all under his wing.

Im terrified how much posting was done while I was away. Ive gotta get some stuff done!

[morgalahan]

Hey hey! Tiki lives!

Yes, we DO have 2 pages in this thread now, and I have a feeling we're close to moving to 3 pages. So, lots of reading a looking for you to catch up on :D

Hehe, so we have a woodsy theme do we? I was going more for celtic/nordic with the fur wearing. The characters all have a lot of room to grow, which is great. Hmm, I just went on a brush downloading spree *sigh* I promised myself I wouldnt go crazy over photoshop brushes again...since I tend to download a lot and never use em all. I AM looking forward to trying new techniques with these images, and I'll probably use the one's I've made so far again somewhere else. Push character development and ideas as far as they can go. Anything weird/freaky is great, as thats the most likely way to come up with something new and interesting. deals with devils, undead-ness, shadowy corruption...lets mix it all up and see what we get :D

We might need to come up with something specific to show with all the good characters, some similar trait that links them all together.

[Tiki Snakes]

Yes, intentionally or not, there is a definate 'primal' theme running lately, I'd say. And speaking for myself, Mordus, I rather like that idea. It keeps the meta-story as a part of the project itself, (rather than an irrelevant off-panel happening) and fits very well with the tragedy angle (A story is a proper tragedy if the ending is implied and inescapable from the offset, I recall.)

I'm going to do some scribbling around the idea of a 'trickster', now, I think. (Thief by any other name) and with a fey, wilderness feel to him. Will hopefully post more later. :)

[morgalahan]

Oh well, intentional or not, we may as well run with it. My current druid is very un-primal as it were, so I guess I'm putting it all into my art :D

And yup, and nice ideas for storyline are great :) I want to ask about this curse though, does it have the power to physically corrupt the characters? Or can it? Showing them tormented mentally as well as physically is a good way for them to be 'evil'.

Can we add somehow to the storyline that instead of preventing the disasters the Droak sees, maybe they end up causing them? Intentionally or not. So we would be able to see the characters go from one end of the scale to the other.

A fey trickster sounds great! cant wait to see it and hear your ideas on it :D

I think we should come up with a little more personal bio on the characters. I love yours so far Mordus, but I'd like to ask what the Droak's name is?

I'll work on my character as a half dragon a bit more and her bio.

[Mordus]

The Droak, as a Seer, is not given a name. They are expected to die soon, whether by their own hand or another. They sometimes gain names though.
Mine is called Speaker-to-nothing, so named by his distraught parents because of his tendency to talk to himself. And not in a good way.
Did a ten minute watercolor sketch for Morgalahan. Enjoy a half-dragon elf. I thoght her decline to evil might be a fight within herself - whether to follow the path of nature and adjust to the slow change of the world and her elvish heritage, or scrawl her dreams in blood all over the world as the dragon within longs to do.

http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/nn208/Golly5/SadPanda.jpg

[Mordus]

Oh, and my suggested topic "Half a Pound of Evil" has been selected as the new COW. So im very happy.

[dwinbotp]

Guys, especially to Morgalahan, I'm really happy for your offer to join up, but I recently just got a lot of stuff on my plate and unfortunately have to bow out. I will be watching and rooting for you guys instead and if you need any help, lemme know:) Thanks and keep at it! Practice makes it perfect!

[Mordus]

Well, its a shame you couldnt join. We would have won for sure...but maybe its a better challenge this way :)

[Mordus]

INFORMATION:
The Curse of the Seer

Do not meddle in the affairs of the Dead. Many years past, long and long ago, when the hare was still eating meat and the moon brandished fangs, the Droak, in their wandering, discovered a tree of black wood like wax, bearing fruit like skulls, and bare of leaves excepting blood red flowers. Intrigued, they ate of the Fruit of Death, and were forever cursed. Every 666 years, the Curse of Seeing would strike one of them down.
The Curse itself has been mostly explained, but to clarify, it causes physical degeneration, and causes the cursed to manifest extra eyes. Each eye sees another future. At first it seems to be a blessing: You can see the glories of the days to come, and by seeing them, you make them happen.
Darkness is not far away. Inevitably the poor wretch will drown in the horrors of future death, and know what it is to be omniscient briefly in fits of madness.
In our case, the Curse infects the others through their close contact with the futures he predicts. And yes, by being there, they MAKE THEM HAPPEN. This is what drives them to despair, and into the hands of darkness. They arent evil. They just DONT CARE.
Which is a thousand times worse.

[morgalahan]

quickly before I go to bed. I added some colour roughly to see what it would look like. I think I'll also add a tail at some later point. The scales on the face stood out more before I added the colour, oh well.

[Mordus]

Ok. For the next two weeks, I will be on holiday. Im almost certain I will have access to a computer (possibly with a scanner) for at least the first week, so im not totally out of the loop. I will continue to do work leading up my producing two highly detailed portraits of the Droak in pencil to be digitally coloured by you three.

Mordus, signing out.

[FalyneVarger]

Oh wow. 0o Lots has happened with our team since I last checked in. I had quite a day away from the computer with speaking to college councilors and throwing my older sister a birthday party.

Glad to see you up and about, Tiki Snakes. :)

I like the story so far. As for a name and background information...the Pilar don't name themselves (and they are not BORN). They're completely without emotion, their masters find them easier to command that way. There was, however, an error in the spell when the Pilar in our story was being created, giving her more a less a free will. Thus she has named herself Spirit. :D
lol Lame story is lame. Sorry.

I really like the newly added horns on the Dragon Elf. (I suggest her race be called Drelf)

Even if we are not following a directly nature theme, we're, at the very least, deep in magic and beasts.

I'll try to do some good and evil versions of Spirit since right now she is really neither.

[morgalahan]

again, a quick sketch before i go to bed. I promise to write more tomorrow.

Good version of the droak. I'm quite please with how I incorporated the '666' symbol into it :D

[morgalahan]

Err, why is no one posting anymore? Is it that people are more busy on the weekends than the weekdays? I can't think of much else I can do, except doing the evil version of my character maybe. If anyone else wants to post THEIR characters again it would be nice... =P

[FalyneVarger]

lol I noticed that I was not the only one neglecting this. :D
I have a lot of things that are keeping my attention away from here and the only art I can do is in my head. ^^; But hopefully I will have something to post in a few days. My classes start tomorrow and I still need to buy books! D;

[Tiki Snakes]

I think I'm going to have to officially drop out, actually. I just can't do it right now. Partly time related, partly personal reasons. Sorry guys.

I'm just not up to it.

[morgalahan]

Oh bugger bugger bugger, I really hope that we havent dissolved or something. I'm still quite keen to participate in this, but we need to actually do some art for that to happen :(

[Mordus]

IM not yet back. Nor do I have a scanner. But im watching. Dont lose heart! I love the version of the Droak ya did - clever 666.

Mordus (who will return in about a week)

[FalyneVarger]

Yeah... I'm not sure if I'm out or in at this point. I'm going to try to participate still, if I can. I'll wait another week before I decide if I'm dropping out or not. Hopefully before then I'll get some time to do some art for this.

[FalyneVarger]

Well, guys, it makes me sad to write this, but I'm officially dropping out of the event. My classes are taking up more of my time than I'd thought they would, and with only really a week left I see no way of finishing even one of my character's pictures. Plus, I'd hate for you to have to carry my weight.
I'll be watching and cheering for you guys! Good luck!

[Mordus]

I now have semi-regular access to a compy with internet...
SO I can post,at least. Scanning is out though.
Oh dear. We seem to have lost a few members. Nevermind. We keep on trucking, regardless of those around us. All this means is LESS WORK. We only good n evil versions of 2 characters now.
Long live the Sad Panda!

[morgalahan]

*sigh* Oh well, I tried. I'll try my damnedest to get my two portraits up, in time. I've got them planned out already, just need to get stuck in. At least my character has already been more or less designed. The evil version will be different, but with a similar theme. I'll post some updates when I have something to post :) We'll do our best Mordus

[Mordus]

Thats the spirit! Hang in there!

[vardoburrito]

Keep on trucking Team Panda, nearly there. :)

[morgalahan]

I'm not going to be able to finish them, no way no how. Not for the due time tonight. I may finish the images themselves as I go along, but there's no way for tonight. Sorry Mordus, and whoever else might be looking. I guess thats it, Sad Panda sadly does not compete.