Team Chow III: Milk of Amnesia

[fluorine]

I figure it's time to start a team sketch book.

Milk of Amnesia currently has 4 member:

Beelow

Fluorine

LancerMoo

Nightblue

[comixnut]

Damn looking forward to your work ppl! :)

[Moai]

Good luck, Grace and Faye! I know you girls will create something wonderful yet again!

[Nightblue]

Hi hi :D omg a team sketch book! This'll be so much fun!

I'm popping back into my vacation now, frozen frigid in China :P Looking forward to this when I come back!

[LancerMoo]

Just posting to say hi, I'm looking forward to working with both of you! :)

[Janos]

Hey I am looking for a team. Are you interested, because I really am. Give me a quick pm just so that I know if I have to keep on looking.
I think I can contribute, and learn a lot.
Cheers

PS: Links to my work in my signature, check out my sketchbook, the newest stuff is there.

[Nightblue]

I am back! :) Welcome Lancer! Sweet stuff, can't wait to work with you.
I might start doing some warm up character sketches if I don't get too distracted by the many Asian games I bought :P Maybe at least I'll do some gesture drawing. It's been a while since I last did characters.

[fluorine]

welcome back~~~ Finally~~~ we're all together. Can't wait for them to announce the topic.

[Nightblue]

saw an interesting blog today and here are some facial studies (with animal-like feature) from the middle ages, or something:

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_hVOW2U7K4-M/SewRW_ImT-I/AAAAAAAA_Wo/tVIWY92WL6c/s640/tkuteyjrthfg.jpg
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_hVOW2U7K4-M/SewRXAdB9GI/AAAAAAAA_W0/saG2utWL89M/s640/t7u8ily8uilyiukik.jpg
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_hVOW2U7K4-M/SewRXeCgdHI/AAAAAAAA_XA/wQrZ0LFUUN0/s640/utiltyiklykgjmh.jpg
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_hVOW2U7K4-M/SewRXgKunFI/AAAAAAAA_XM/-L9uiB4iHgc/s640/dryjtyjgyujhyuk.jpg

has nothing directly to do with team chow, but I thought you guys might find it interesting also :)

[fluorine]

The faces are awesome!!! Once again, proved my point, nothing is original~~~ haha.

[Nightblue]

Main thread is up: http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=177363

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

TEAM CHOW III :: TAROT

DESCRIPTION

Hello boys and girls! Once again, we saved something special for team chow. This is a liiittle different then what we usually have going on, so please pay close attention!

This month, Team Chow will be attempting to create it's very own Tarot Deck! For those of you who don't know what that is, it's a deck of cards very similar to the usual 4 suited deck, but with 22 extra cards called the 'major arcana'. The four suits are also different : Swords, Cups, Wands, and Pentacles/Coins. In the following post there will be a list of all the cards.

For those of you who don't know much about it, please allow me to send you to a couple of sites to read up on it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarot
http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/

Though often used as a form of divination, we'll be approaching it from a strictly design perspective. Each card is meant to tell a very particular tale (though this tale often depends on the reader) and has many symbols and meanings attached to it. The goal will be to do each card as a character-based (this is still chow) illustration to illuminate the meaning of the card. However, the specific meaning and the symbols will be up to you. We will, however, be following mostly to the Rider-Waite deck, with the exception that we will be using Princess instead of Page.

If you have any more questions about the above, please feel free to ask.

And here are the Rules ::

1. Your team will choose TWO CARDS per person to illustrate. So, a 2 person team needs 4, a 4 person team 8, etc. This is the minimum requirement, you may choose more.
2. You may only take major arcana for half your cards, please choose Lesser Arcana (The Suits) for at least half. Bonus points for those who do mostly Lesser Arcana!
3. You will post your choices in this thread. I will allow 4 teams per card. First come, first serve. If we get all the cards covered by at least four teams each, I will then be open to letting you pick cards that are already full. We want to make sure to get a full deck!
4. Please make sure that your files can be sized down to 9 cm by 15.5 cm (or 3.543 x 6.1 inches) at 300 dpi. I'm exploring the option of seeing if we can get it printed, so please make sure your work is print-quality, or please write "OPT OUT OF PRINT" when you submit your work so I know you're not interested in having your cards printed as part of your deck.
5. PLEASE DO NOT START DRAWING UNTIL JANUARY FIRST! Right now is the time to get everyone's cards assigned and start brainstorming, but please don't start drawing as it's unfair for the other teams.
6. That's it, Have Fun!

Thanks, and Good Luck!

[Nightblue]

Please go to the thread linked above and pick your characters. Please keep in mind that we need to have at least 50% of our cards be Lesser Arcana (The suits.)

I staked out for myself XVI - the Tower and King of the Wands. I'm open for trading if any of you would like to do one of these instead :) Have fun!

King of the Wands

Lions and salamanders (symbols of Fire) adorn the pillar behind the King of Wands. Like the Page of Wands and the Knight of Wands, his robes bear the sign of the salamander, and a live salamander waits at his feet. His bearing is one of authority.

This card represents self-assertion and ambition. The King of Wands focuses on finance and business - particularly the aspects of planning and construction. Your strength lies in your leadership abilities. Be confident and self-reliant and direct your efforts in areas where your strength can bear fruit.

As with all Court cards, it is also possible for a King to represent a person. The astrological sign for the King of Wands is Aires. A mature man who is noble and generous, yet hasty and passionate, maybe indicated. Other adjectives to describe this person might be: optimistic, capable, idealistic, hot-tempered, impatient, daring, and energetic. This King may represent the vocations of: real estate, building construction, planning or any leadership position.

The Tower

A tower is struck by a bolt of lightning and bursts into flame. Two figures fall from the wreckage. The tower represents material ambition, while its ruined crown represents materialistic-centered thinking. The lightning is pure spiritual insight destroying this mindset in an instant. The hebrew Yods in the air around the Tower represent the life-force.

The Tower indicates a major overturning in one's life or beliefs. Expect emotional upheaval, and distressing events, but be assured that what is important will be preserved. The lies created by ambition, desire, and the ego will be laid bare leaving a solid foundation of Truth on which to rebuild. Cling to the belief that everything will be all right, because it will.

[LancerMoo]

Hey there guys! :)

Wow, I actually rather like this topic! Hurray for no forced sci-fi, haha.

I took the liberty of signing myself up for The Hermit and the Seven of Wands, these two in particular caught my eye as I was browsing through the card descriptions.

Thought maybe it'd be useful if I posted the descriptions from one of the sites provided:

The Hermit:
A robed man or monk carrying a lantern. A barren landscape.

After a long and busy lifetime, building, creating, loving, hating, fighting, compromising, failing, succeeding, the Fool feels a profound need to retreat. In a small, rustic home deep in the woods, he hides, reading, cleaning, organizing, resting or just thinking. But every night at dusk he heads out, traveling across the bare, autumnal landscape. He carries only a staff and a lantern.
It is during these restless walks from dusk till dawn, peering at and examining whatever takes his fancy, that he sees and realizes things he's missed, about himself and the world. It is as if the secret corners in his head were being slowly illuminated; corners he never knew existed. In a way, he has become the Fool again; as in the beginning, he goes wherever inspiration leads him. But as the Fool, his staff rested on his shoulder, carrying unseen his pack. The Fool was like the pack, whatever it was he could be was wrapped up, unknown. The Hermit's staff leans out before him, not behind. And it carries a lantern, not a pack. The Hermit is like the lantern, illuminated from within by all he is.

Represented by Virgo, the Hermit is a card of introspection, analysis and, well, virginity. This is not a time for socializing; the card indicates, instead, a desire for peace and solitude. Nor is it a time for action, discussion or decisions. It is a time to think, organize, ruminate, and take stock. There may be feelings of frustration and discontent during this time of withdrawal. But such times lead to enlightenment, illumination, clarity.
In regards to people, the Hermit represents a wise, inspirational person, friend, teacher, therapist, someone the Querent usually sees alone, someone the rest of the Querent's friends and family may not know about. This a person who can shine a light on things that were previously mysterious and confusing. They will help the Querent find what it is they are seeking.
One of the important things about this card is that the Hermit is always shown on the move. He's never locked away in his reclusive cell, he's always out wandering, searching. The Hermit is the restless mind of the Virgo, always gathering information, analyzing, making connections. Virgos are skeptics, and if anyone is going to stick a lantern into a dark place and take a good look at what's going on, it is a Virgo.
The Hermit is a card of connections and enlightenment.


Seven of Wands:

A man defends himself with one wand against 6 others. This is the "under siege" card. The stakes are high, and suddenly, the Querent is under attack; often when they're tired or vulnerable. This is when others look at what you've done and get jealous or greedy. The Querent is being criticized, maybe someone is trying to take over his project. He's on the defensive. How can he take back control? The card urges the Querent to stand his ground. Don't give up, don't surrender. If you do, your enemies will take control and show you no mercy. Fear not, success is near to hand.

[LancerMoo]

Oh, and hello Nightblue! Nice to meet you!
And wow, those faces are really interesting... animal faces? hahaha. :)

[Nightblue]

Hi Lancer :) The Tarot theme is looking to be a lot of fun, that's for sure! I need to look up the description for my cards later, as I'm not very familiar with Minor Arcana.

As we might end up doing different suits etc, I'm thinking finding a preferred style might be the thing that tie our team together. Not saying we all have to conform to the same style, but having a common inspiration might be the way to go. An exterior nudge for us to try a style slightly outside of our comfort zone may be fun too. What do you guys think?

Off to help bf's family with dinner and will be back later :) What time zone are you in, Lancer?

[LancerMoo]

I'm in California, so PST.
Fluorine told me that you guys use MSN for planning and such, if you'd like to add me, I'm lancermoo25@yahoo.com

Oh, of course! A combined style or theme would probably be helpful, so we're not all over the place or anything. :)

For me, I think my tastes are kind of a little bit of everything. My dislikes usually have to do more with subject matter than with style, so I'm alright with pretty much anything.
Generally, I tend to like working with softer, more muted color schemes. I also really admire work that makes good use of strong silhouettes and interesting lighting.
My favorite thing to draw tends to be trees, closely followed by monsters and beasties of all kinds. I like drawing intricate patterns/runes/stitching/tattoos/whatever, as long as I don't have to worry about symmetry too much... haha.
Thematically, I tend to lean more towards "fantasy", but not necessarily "high fantasy", if that makes any sense...

If there's one thing I tend to suck at, it's machines and robots and stuff... but I'm willing to try if that's what the group decides on. :)


So... here's a few random images I quickly threw together, just to help illustrate my rambling up there a little bit. (I've never done something like this before, hope I'm not doing it wrong)

[fluorine]

Sorry guys, I'm late~

I just picked the Magician and Queen of Cups for our team.

The briefing doesn't really have specific requirements as for style or time period or whatever, so I guess we might as well do something that's different from traditional Tarot cards. The first thing I can think of is either do a modern/urban theme, or a culture theme, such as oriental (I know... I know... we did oriental inspired theme last Team Chow...), middle east, egyptian (since Tarot card is originated from ancient Egypt), Greek (the problem with greek is the costume, there's really not that much variety), Japanese (that'd be fun), Russian, Native American...

Anything but Celtic, we have enough Celtic tarot cards.

It's holiday season so we're all pretty busy with all those parties and family functions, so I think we might need to set up a "meeting time" or something, so we can get together and talk~

[Nightblue]

I'm at my parent's house without my regular work computer and reference stash, so here are some random images from the intertubes for starters: Brom's dark and beautiful art style, and thrones from different cultures.

[LancerMoo]

Nice references Nightblue, Brom's work is really awesome... At first I was wondering why you posted thrones, and then I remembered our group has both a king and queen to illustrate. ^^;

Someone else posted this in the main thread, but I've been meaning to post it here too. I really like how she handled her tarot card illustrations - you guys might find it useful, even if it's not the style we're going for:
http://puimun.deviantart.com/gallery/#Tarot-Series

Anyway, I thought I'd post the descriptions for the rest of our cards, just so we have them readily accessible. I think I'd keep in mind that these descriptions are more like guidelines rather than strict rules. A starting point, if you will. I don't think we should feel the need to conform too strictly to the description, as long as the major idea/theme behind it is still there.
I edited the two major arcana a little bit for brevity's sake, some of them can get pretty long. @_@


Major:
The Magician:

Red & White coloring, the lemniscate (infinity symbol), a small wand, a table displaying a chalice, a pentacle, a staff (wand) and a sword.

Skillful, self-confident, a powerful magus with the infinite as a halo floating above his head, the Magician mesmerizes the Fool. Raising his wand to heaven, pointing his finger to Earth, the Magician calls on all powers; magically, the cloth of the pack unfolds upon the table, revealing its contents. And to the Fool's eyes it is as if the Magician has created the future with a word. All the possibilities are laid out, all the directions he can take. The cool, airy Sword of intellect and communication, the fiery Wand of spirituality and ambition, the overflowing Chalice of Love and emotions, the solid Pentacle of work, possessions and body. With these tools, the Fool can create anything, make anything of his life. But here's the question, did the Magician create the tools, or were they already in the pack? Only the Magician knows - and on this mystery, our eloquent mage refuses to say a word.

The Magician is the male power of creation, creation by willpower and desire. In that ancient sense, it is the ability to make things just-so by speaking them aloud ("And God said 'Let there be Light!' and there was Light"). Reflecting this is the fact that the Magician is represented by Mercury. He represents the gift of tongues, a smooth talker, a salesman. Also clever with the sleight of hand and a medicine man - either a real doctor or someone trying to sell you snake oil. The 4 suits laid out before him remind us of the 4 aces, which in the Tarot symbolize the raw, undeveloped, undirected power of each suit. When the Magician appears, he reveals these to you.

If any card in the Tarot is the Tarot, it is the Magician. If the reader believes the Magician stands for the Querent, then the Querent either is, or is currently finding himself eloquent and charismatic at this time. Both verbally and in writing, he is clever, witty, inventive and persuasive. People listen and agree with him. It's important to remember that the Magician can as easily be clever as skillful, a trickster as well as a magician. This is someone with a magnetic personality, someone who can convince people of almost anything. For better or worse, his words are magic.

Most importantly, the Magician card stands for the "reveal" - as in a magic trick. The handkerchief is draped over an empty box, the Magician waves his wand, *presto!*--now there is a dove in the box. The Magician card does the same for the Querent--only what it reveals is not birds or rabbits but NEW ideas. Emphasis on NEW. When the Magician card appears, the Querent is likely to say: "Now there's an idea! Why didn't I think of that before?" Truth is, the Querent had that idea in his head all along. The Magician merely revealed it to him. But what will the Querent do with this idea?


The Tower:

A tower on a rocky outcrop, a powerful bolt of lightning, one or two figures falling from the tower, sometimes waves crashing below.

Inside the Tower, at the top, arrogant men still live, convinced of their rightness. Seeing the Tower, the Fool feels as if lightning has just flashed across his mind; he thought he'd left that old self behind when he started on this spiritual journey. But he realizes now that he hasn't. He's been seeing himself, like the Tower, like the men inside, as alone and singular and superior, when in fact, he is no such thing. And to his astonishment and terror, a bolt of actual lightning slashes down from the heavens, striking the Tower and sending its residents leaping out into the waters below.
In a moment, it is over. The Tower is rubble, only rocks remaining. Stunned and shaken to the core, the Fool experiences grief, profound fear and disbelief. But also, a strange clarity of vision, as if his inner eye has finally opened.

With Mars as its ruling planet, the Tower is a card about war, a war between the structures of lies and the lightning flash of truth. The Tower stands for "false concepts and institutions that we take for real." When the Querent gets this card, they can expect to be shaken up, to be blinded by a shocking revelation. It sometimes takes that to see a truth that one refuses to see. Or to bring down beliefs that are so well constructed. What's most important to remember is that the tearing down of this structure, however painful, makes room for something new to be built.

No card scares a Tarot reader like the Tower. It is however one of the clearest cards when it comes to meaning. False structures, false institutions, false beliefs are going to come tumbling down, suddenly, violently and all at once.
They're about to get a very rude awakening. Shaken up, torn down, blown asunder. And all a reader can really do to soften the blow is assure the Querent that it is for the best. Nothing built on a lie, on falsehoods, can remain standing for long. Better to tear it all down and rebuild on the truth. It is not going to be pleasant or painless or easy, but it will be for the best.



Minor:

Queen of Cups:

Often a healer, counselor or psychic, this is a woman who seems to know what's wrong even before you open your mouth. Call her the emotional fix-it woman, but she seems to have exactly the right solution to problems relating to home, friends, love. Sometimes she is shy, self-effacing, you might not even notice her; other times she can be a little scary, dreamy, mysterious, a creative storyteller. Affectionate and loving, she is a "mom's mom" always there to hug, heal and bake cookies for her children. Her intuition is uncanny, her temper...well, it runs very deep and you don't ever want it turned against you. Talk about scary. Unfortunately, this is also a queen who can suffer from female hormonal problems, depression, moodiness, alcoholism, drug addiction, psychological problems.


King of Wands:

Call him "The Preacher." His dream kingdom is a philosophy. He fills a room when he walks in, expansive, full of energy, charisma, fun. You know this man; he's the motivational speaker, the charismatic church leader, the warm politician, the bullying coach who turns losers into winners. He loves danger, adventure, challenges. A great innovator, he can turn a company around, with employees working overtime to please him. This is Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Henry V. He always has to lead the charge. He hasn't friends so much as worshippers; people either love him or hate him, and the same goes for his family. Not that he doesn't love his family; he fell in love with his wife at first sight and wooed her till she loved him back; and he's great with kids. No dad was ever so inventive or fun. But he fully expects his family to come with him, wherever he goes - like an impromptu African Safari - support whatever he does. If they don't, his other side can come to the surface, one that is jealous, impatient, tyrannical. It is not surprising that sometimes his wife or children will rebel against him.

[Nightblue]

Thanks so much for the card research! The descriptions I found are slightly different (see the thread above where I claimed the cards). I guess that's an invitation to be free. I'll look into more versions and find the pivotal point and try to narrow in what I'd like my two cards to represent.

I researched thrones because Tarot seems to be organized around the orders of a kingdom or several kingdoms (emperors, kings, queens, their guards...) Also, the decorative nature of thrones allows for a different angle to dig into costume design. More culture research to come tomorrow!

off-topic... Just saw Avatar. Cheesy story but the lines are mostly better than I expected, and the visuals are frigging... frigging... amazing. Holy cow.

[fluorine]

I find this link, you guys might want to check out for some reference.

http://www.78tarotcards.com/ancient-egyptian-tarot/

[Nightblue]

Photos that are rich in personality:

http://www.faheykleingallery.com/featured_artists/laita/exh_createdequal/laita_01.htm

I would very much like for our characters to feel real, with real attitudes etc, no matter which genre we are going for :)

[fluorine]

Memo:

Nightblue and I had a light discussion about the theme today. Since Tarot is such a over done theme (meaning everything you can ever think of, someone has done it already). Might as well go for themes we would enjoy painting, instead of going for the "shock factor".

We're thinking something on the line of high decretive Steam punk, Goth or Heavy Metal. Either can go dark, and with crazy decorations.

Another theme we discuss is combine mythical creatures/Characters with the card. Although it might be an (unnecessary) hassle trying to find the correspondent mythical creature/god/goddess/hero.... that fitting of the tarot meaning.

We also discuss the post apocalyptic urban mix. Good thing about post apocalyptic style is that we can mix anything with everything, we can go high tech or low tech, and we can go mutant for interesting character design, and we can have dark or light theme.

Regardless of the style, Nightblue mentioned and I totally agree that the biggest thing for this project is to create characters with realistic, complex, strong or subtle attitude with depth, rather than just look generically nice or angry. We want to have a character that looks as if he/she has an interesting story to tell.

That's about what we discussed today~

[LancerMoo]

(First off, sorry for missing the conversation... I went to sleep without logging out, my bad. @_@)

Alright, so from what I can gather, we've narrowed the theme down to gothic/steampunk/mythology, right?
I'm alright with any of those, really. I just want something that will possibly let me stick a monster in there if I so choose. ;D

The mythology might be hard to do correctly, and would probably require more research, but I actually think it might be really cool if we manage to pull it off without making it too obvious or cheesy or anything. Plus I'm always better at more fantasy-themed stuff, so that's a bonus for me. ;D
If we decide on this theme, the link below might be helpful... it's a pain to navigate through, and a lot of the articles are redundant or only have a sentance or two written, but it does have a pretty big list of legends from all different cultures.
http://www.pantheon.org/

Another approach we could take, is instead of taking a god or hero, we could take monsters and/or creatures (from sites like www.obakemono.com or http://www.monstropedia.org/index.php?title=Main_Page) and turn them into human-like characters? I mean, I personally like doing stuff like that, but maybe it might get too complicated, obscure or weird for this brief. Just an idea that crossed my mind... or maybe we could combine the two in some way? Monsters/gods/legends/heroes?

Gothic and/or steampunk (gothic steampunk? XD) is ok with me too. It sounds like you two might be more comfortable with something like that? I've never done steampunk, but CHOW is all about trying new stuff, right? :)
I quickly googled some trinkets and such, it doesn't seem like it'd be too hard as long as I have something to work from.

[fluorine]

The Mythical idea is just something I throw out there for fun, but looks like we can really do something cool with it. For something as symbolic as Tarot you can't never have "too much" research. Like Lancer said, if we can pull it off without making it too obscure or too cheesy, we might end up with something really interesting. Personally, I like the painting with a lot of little stuff I can look into.

The Hero or gods or monsters we're illustrating don't need to be recognizable, but it might offer a good starting point for creating a character with strong personality. I personally think making the classical monster more "characterized" would be a good idea. For example, Pan can mean freedom, lust, playful ... If I was to do Lover, I might use Pan instead of a person. Gorgon can represent vanity, rage, self distraction, that's actually pretty close to Tower...

As for style, i actually think Michael Parkes' style might fit. Although... He's probably more on the cheesy side... especially since he has been painting like that for at least 30 something years...

Here's a link of his works

http://www.theworldofmichaelparkes.com/html/artistresults.asp?thetype=Paintings

---

As for Steam punk and Goth, both of them can go crazy decorative, and go dark; both of them are victorian based, so shouldn't be that hard. I remember Nightblue wants to do some decorative frames for last team chow, we didn't have time to do it, but we can definitely try it out this time, and it's more fitting with the Tarot theme.

[fluorine]

Guys, I can't reach you from MSN, so figure I'll post it here. I got a PM from Beelow this morning requesting to join our little team. You can find his works here

http://brycesmithconcepts.blogspot.com/

He also has a rather impressive sketch book here:

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=76562

Personally, I think he'll make a great addition to our team. But I also understand we're already in the stage of brainstorming, and we intent to keep the team small for better management. So let me know what you think. I tell him I'll get back at him today, and meanwhile he's free to ask other team.

Happy Holidays guys~~~ The new year is almost here.

[Nightblue]

I vote yes :D Beelow has sweet stuff with lots of motion, and I think we can use the dash of energy.

Sorry for not being on much in the last couple of days. My bf got a bad case of food poisoning and is just now getting better, and my mom comes back from China tomorrow so I'm trying to get everything all nice for her. If I miss any major discussions, I'll be cool with any theme we choose to go with :) My preference is "no tribal" and "maybe not asian," but even if we did go with one of those two I'll still be able to find plenty of new ways to interpret the theme.

[fluorine]

Ok, we have a new member: Beelow!

2010 is here, guess we better get started~

[Beelow]

Hey team I am here. I look foward to working with you all. Let me do some reading to catch up to speed to see what is going on. Be back in a few.

[Beelow]

Hey everyone, I think I am about up to speed on what is going on. Here are the 2 I picked. I am really interested in doing the Judgement one. Should be interesting. I will go along with anything that you all want to do. I second on the anything fantasy, it comes easiest to me. I am willing to take another stab at steampunk again. Whatever you guys are willing to do I am down for. Thanks again for allowing me to work with Milk of Amnesia.

Queen of Pentacles

This is the practical, down-to-earth woman. An enthusiastic outdoors woman, she's always encouraging friends and family to exercise. She also owns her own successful business. Her accounting is scrupulous, but that doesn't mean she's afraid to spend. She loves beautiful things and has an artist's eye. Her home is impeccably decorated with paintings, furniture, and trinkets. Her garden is also beautifully maintained. Tasteful is the perfect word for her; likewise in her dress, jewelry and make-up. As in work, nothing less than giving her all to her family will do for the Queen of Pentacles. She wants them to have the best so they can succeed. But this can put a lot of pressure on them. The queen does not understand that buying a child a Steinway piano will not make them Beethoven; also, this Queen's pragmatism, her dislike of anything strange or distasteful, may exclude anything unique or imaginative - solutions as well as people. Her children or partner feel that they can't be themselves and still be loved.

Basic Tarot Story

As the Fool leaves the garden of the Sun, he feels that he is near the end of his journey, ready to take a final step. But something is keeping him from doing this, holding him back. He gazes up, hoping to find guidance from the Sun; instead he sees above him a fiery angel, beautiful and terrible.

"You are right," the Angelic figure confirms, "you have only one last step on your journey, one final step to completion. But you cannot take that step until you lay your past to rest." The Fool is perturbed. "Lay it to rest? I thought I'd left it behind, all of it," he says. "There is no way to do that," The Angel observes. "Each step wears down the shoe just a bit, and so shapes the next step you take, and the next and the next. Your past is always under your feet. You cannot hide from it, run from it, or rid yourself of it. But you can call it up, and come to terms with it. Are you willing to do that?"

The Angel hands the Fool a small trumpet. The Fool is hesitant, but he knows that this is a final decision. Either to go forward, or stay where he is. He blows, and the trumpet's song echoes across the sky, its vibrations seeming to crack open the Earth. From under the Fool's feet, memories rise. Images of his innocent youth, challenges, loves, failures, losses, success, disillusionment and wisdom.

For the first time, he does not try to leave them, ignore or forget them, but accepts them. They are, he sees, nothing to fear. They happened, but they are gone now. He, alone, carries them into the present. With that understanding, the memories vanish. Though they remain in his mind, they no longer have any power over him. He is free of them, reborn, and wholly in the present.

Basic Tarot Meaning

With Fire as its ruling element (or Pluto as its ruling planet), Judgement is about rebirth, resurrection. The idea of Judgement day is that the dead rise, their sins are forgiven, and they move onto heaven. The Judgement card is similar, it asks for the resurrection to summon the past, forgive it, and let it go. There are wounds from the past that we never let heal, sins we've committed that we refuse to forgive, bad habits we haven't the courage to lose. Judgement advises us to finally face these, recognize that the past is past, and put them to rest, absolutely and irrevocably. This is also a card of healing, quite literally from an accident or illness, as well as a card signaling great transformation, renewal, change.

[Nightblue]

Happy new year teammates :) Hi Beelow! Look forward to working with you.

The myth idea sounds interesting as long as we do not try too hard to represent both the myth character and the tarot character. In a chow I did a while back, I referenced "Peter Pan" when doing "Icarus" and that seemed to have confused a lot of people, even though I just tried to borrow the child-like, immature qualities of Peter Pan. I still think it's doable as long as we keep the original myth character strictly to the sideline and just borrow qualities from them, or use certain myth species whenever appropriate. We could also try going straight out and saying "Poseidon as King of Wands" or "Hades as Judgment" and make a myth-themed tarot, although I personally would prefer to stick more with tarot cards as abstract characters rather than reinventing myth figures.

I think an urban, hip flavor might be pretty fresh for tarots, even though that would be a great personal challenge to me since I have no idea how to dress hip. Straight-up fantasy works for me too - funny thing is I don't think I've done it since a long time ago.

[fluorine]

I actually like the urban theme, or something like modern fantasy or urban fantasy. (as long as we won't end up looking like Harry Potter or god-forbid Twilight.......) I think it'd be a refreshing approach, I've been checking out all the tarot design out there. I have seen mythical theme, goth, and various culture theme tarot, but haven't seen a modern/urban one.

Although we don't need to go for the "shock factor", it's always nice to have a new perspective.

But it'd be a challenge to interpret Tarot symbolism with modern ideas... and since I rarely do urban/hip stuff... it'd be a nice change of style for me.

[LancerMoo]

Hey there Breelow, nice to have you with us! :)

Hmm, urban fantasy sounds alright, as long as we don't get too realistic, haha. Like I said earlier, I'm pretty okay with anything as long as there's room for more imaginitave elements...

We seem to have a lot of ideas sort of noodling around, I've heard goth/steampunk/mythology/fantasy/urban(modern), that's a lot of different themes to work with. We should really try to come to a decision in the next few days, maybe we can combine a couple of them in an interesting way...

I think the best way to go would be either
modern/fantasy
mythological/fantasy (or mythological/modern, for an alternate take on it... :D)
gothic/fantasy/steampunk,
I think it's a good idea to keep fantasy elements present no matter what we choose, since that seems to play to our strengths.

Anyway, Since I'm anxious to get started, but don't feel comfortable with starting to design characters until we have a solid theme set - I thought I'd start thumbnailing some compositions...
Here's the seven of wands - I looked up several definitions, and the common thread seemed to boil down to "courage in the face of adversity".
Sooo me, being the monster person that I am, thought maybe it'd be cool to have the figure battling some kind of multi-headed beasty. The description I posted mentioned that the figure had one wand, battling against six others, so of course my mind jumped straight to "six headed monster". XD
(Ignore my writing, it's just me messing around, haha.)

[Beelow]

Hey there LancerMoo. Any theme is fine with me. I am a bit overly-anxious to paint, LOL. Like I said I am cool with anything. I second on not reinventing characters, but if everyone wants to do that, I'll go along with that. Modern/Urban Fantasy is cool with me as well. Just stick fantasy with anything I am good, and I'll sleep better at night, LOL. Had to take me a power nap a while ago so I kinda missed all of you when everyone got on. I will keep my messenger running throughout the duration of team chow, so I am easily acessible. Just hit me up. If I don't respond, I am probably off doing stuff and or working on commissions. I'll see it.

I was thinking the same thing as far as doing comp studies. I'll get to that.

[Nightblue]

Haha, sounds like we are all in the same boat. I'd very much like to start painting as well! How about starting a vote? I think it's safe to say we want a combination of two or three themes. Please vote for the top 3 themes of your choice and we can maybe do the combination of the two themes that got the most votes. If I missed a theme we discussed, do bring it up and vote for it!

Also, I think we should go with the same or a similar aspect ratio, seeing that we are doing tarot cards and all. Any suggestions here? Traditionally tarot cards seem to be long and thin, but there are many other shapes as well, even circular ones.

[Nightblue]

a couple of color doodles when I try out art rage 3 :)

[Beelow]

I second nightblue to the choices made. A C E are my choices as well. Same aspect ratio is better for me. I would like to see try to keep these cards consistent with each other. It's going to be tough for us to keep styles consistent with each other, so I think the best thing is to keep the design of cards and size the same. Colors of the cards can be a bit different though Just same designs, if we go that route with decorating the cards with borders and more graphic design elements.

Nice mood studies nightblue. Reminded me of some Fowkes work.

Here is some Nathan Fowkes for a bit more inspiration as far as what we can do in terms of mood in our paintings, that may work out:

http://nathanfowkes.blogspot.com/

http://nathanfowkes-sketch.blogspot.com/

[fluorine]

Sorry for the absence. I vote for High Fantasy + Steam punk + Mythology. Although I actually want to stick with Victorian based theme, so somewhere between steam punk and goth with a touch of Fantasy would be nice.

[Nightblue]

Some head sketches for the king of wand. Still trying to decide whether he should be a philosopher king or king of finances. Either way, I'm picturing him to be a man full of energy and conviction, no matter his age.

[LancerMoo]

Without considering how everyone else voted (:P), my gut feeling would be to go fantasy/steampunk, with urban in there as a distant third.

Nice color studies Nightblue, I really like the pink+green+white color scheme of the first one. I think maybe both could benefit from a little desaturation, though, particularly in the greens and blues (respectively)

Drew up some thumbs for the hermit, but I don't think I'm too happy with any of them yet... I think this card will rely pretty heavily on the theme we choose, so once I have the character's design worked out I'll go back and revisit these.

[Nightblue]

So here's what our vote amounted too:

a. high fantasy (DnD) 4 vote - NB, Beelow, fluorine, LancerMoo
b. steam punk2 vote - fluorine, LancerMoo
c. gothic 2 vote -NB, Beelow
d. ancient mythology1 vote - fluorine
e. urban hip 2.5 vote -NB, Beelow, LancerMoo
f. post-apocalyptic
g. scifi

So here is our theme: Combination of DnD high fantasy style and urban flare, with overall mood being kind of dark as we all discussed earlier. Add steam punk elements or gothic decorations when suitable.

Please scream out if you do hate the theme - sorry if the voting method was a little silly :P

[Nightblue]

Urban research. There's the rough and gritty, as well as the glamorous and glittery. The boundless attitude seems to be the unifying factor.

[fluorine]

High Fantasy + Urban sounds like a unique approach and would be fun to illustrate! Thank you for putting up the vote, NB! Urban can almost be anything, actually, vivienne westwood is urban and goth (I think...) and punk.

a little bit Vivienne and some goth picture I collected. (I don't like Vivienne though... she's too loud, but for the design purpose, I think her attitude is what we want in this exercise).

Also, google harajuku girls, those girls has some crazy urban fashion ideas.

[Raoul Duke]

Based on your ref it looks like your going to have a blast. Urban/fantasy sounds like your set will be a real stand out.

[LancerMoo]

(Haha, .5 vote... XD)

Urban fantasy looks like it'll be fun, especially after ref-hunting for an hour or two.
Anyway, just to add some more to the ref pile...
Some of the outfits were giving me a kingdom hearts kind of vibe, so I threw in a couple of those just to see a more fantasy approach?

[fluorine]

Most of the square enix character design is actually alone the line of urban fantasy, because the game is sort of high-tech steampunk + fantasy. Since we're doing urban fantasy, we need to stay away from Final fantasy/kingdom heart/shadow heart and all that, simply because it's very unlikely to beat the final fantasy character design...

one thing we could try to do to draw distance between us and FF series, is to lean on the hip-hop side. since FF series is more on mainstream victorian side. .. if that actually make any sense...LOL

[Nightblue]

:P Lancer, 0.5 vote is what you get for saying "distant 3rd!" I guess a ranked voting would have worked better, aka each person's 1st choice is worth 3 votes, etc... next time :P

I'll have to second the "use J-pop with caution" notion. Square has turned that into their signature look. Mixing in the more traditional high fantasy elements might help though, so it wouldn't hurt to try. One thing Square doesn't do - their costumes don't often look functional (Lulu in FFX, for example :D). If we lean more towards what people might actually wear, we might end up sufficiently different from them.

I am now back at my own home and reunited with my lovely cintiq. A couple of thumbnails... was going to do more but I got sucked into the 2nd one. This is why I am bad at doing thumbnails.

[fluorine]

yeah....LOL JPRG's character design can go crazy from time to time...You end up wondering why they didn't trip on those crazy clothing/oversize weapons all the time.

[LancerMoo]

Oh, I didn't mean for it to be an example of the style we're going for, but rather an example of fantasy characters using elements of modern clothing in their designs. Of course I don't expect us to go all JRPG styled, I mean, we did just get done deciding "high fantasy", not "final fantasy", after all. XD
And if I got something wrong in regards to style, well, feel free to ignore it, haha. I'm quite fashion-illiterate, so I was just posting stuff I found interesting; I thought there might be some cool shapes and ideas in there to tweak and mess around with. And hey, better to post stuff nobody finds useful than to withhold information that could make our jobs easier, no? :)

And hahaha, they can get quite ridiculous... by all known laws of physics, some of those characters shouldn't be able to walk comfortably, let alone battle, in some of those costumes. I think sometimes the ridiculousness is part of the appeal, though - there's a place for everything, after all, even 7-foot-long swords and permanently spiked hair. ;D

[Nightblue]

more king of wand sketches - trench coat and hip-hop inspired, respectively.

[kynu]

Niiiiice sketches dear Nightblue! I'm kinda excited what more can you do with this hip-hop inspired line. I like it.

[LancerMoo]

Spent some time working out some compositions, and a bit of the monster's design... ignore the people, they're just placeholders until I can work out the character.

-First image is a couple compositions I scribbled out. Three is probably the most dynamic, but I like the overall "feel" of one more - I might need to change the person so he's doing something more interesting, though.

-Second image is me working out the design of the monster's head... the bottom one is me trying to combine some elements from the above heads. If it doesn't fit with the theme please let me know so I can maybe tone it down a little.
I'll go back and fix it up a bit later, but this is what I have for now.

-The third one is me (sloppily) pasting the head into composition one, just to see how it would fit with the body...

[Nightblue]

LancerMoo: These are great compositions, and I love the monster head designs, especially the last one. The first composition is my favorite as well. I am in love with the contrast in proportion between the man and the monster. My one concern is the size of the character - this is a character of the week challenge, which traditionally focuses on character design. I remember peeking into team Acehole's sketchbook and seeing them face the same dilemma with one of their pieces as well.

One way to solve this is to do character-centric cards and add mood illustrations as side pieces. What do you guys think? Do we have time to produce extra pieces? Any less lame ideas? :)

[fluorine]

Sorry for the absence again~~~ Here's my first attempt for Magician, the hip hop dancer inspired high fantasy elven magician.... wow that's a mouth full...

[Mark Tarrisse]

Very nice work in here :)
Nightblue you've got some very nice design for the king of cup.
Fluorine the elf is nicee ! but I'm not sure of his legs, maybe it's too bold.
LancerMoo : Man wtf ! Love the 3 compositions ! they all are great, I'm jealous....

Keep them coming ! :yayca:

[LancerMoo]

Fluorine, I really like the direction you're going with the magician! I think if you're going to leave his torso and arms bare, it might be cool to slap a really intricate, magey tattoo on there somewhere? ;D

Nah Nightblue, I don't think that'll be necessary - it seems like I'm pretty much the only one who would have that problem, as the rest of the cards we have seem to be pretty character-centric... kights/kings/queens and such. (except for maybe the tower, that might be tricky).
If the design of that one card turns out to be wrong for this contest I'll just change it rather than give everyone else more work. ;D

I do see what you're saying about the guy, I was wondering about that myself... besides being really small, I was also worried about his back being turned, haha.

My aim was to treat the monster as the "character" for this card, rather than an extension of the person? When I read the card description, it seemed like the person was supposed to depict the querent - so I assumed my job would be to give form to whatever troubles he's facing.
But then, maybe you could make that argument for a lot of the cards. I don't know why, but this one just gave me that feeling. XD
(I hope I don't come off as defensive or anything, I'm just trying to explain myself a little bit, haha.)

I hope that's not a problem, as I was under the impression that "characters" didn't have to be humanoid as long as they got the point of the card across? I think I saw Daestwen saying something to that effect in another topic, I'll have to go hunt for it after I sleep a little bit... If it does turn out to be against the rules, I have no problems with changing it. :)

Anyway, here's another idea I had... this guy doesn't have 6 heads, but he does have 6 eyes, 6 legs, and 6 tails... plus I actually managed to fit the whole body in there. XD
(Once again, please ignore the person's clothes, it's horrible placeholder crud that will be changed)

[Janos]

As my team mate Raoul said, your idea of urban fantasy is really good. Keep at it and you'll stand out for all the right reasons.

[Nightblue]

fluorine: I love the energy in your sketch! It might be more engaging if the elf turns to look at the viewer, or maybe simply turns his eyes to look at the viewer, or something. The legs might just be too uniform in width. My friend showed me to a blog that's very helpful to me, and check these two posts out in particular if you have time: http://radhowto.blogspot.com/2009/12/more-on-shapes.html and http://radhowto.blogspot.com/2009/12/rhythm.html . Your costume idea is brilliant - a mage that shows skin rather than hide behind huge robes is really refreshing.

Lancer: The idea of the monster being the character is actually very cool, and damn... that's a badass looking creature! It should work if you accessorize the monster a bit and give it some individuality later on. You could also add bodies that dress identical to the last dude alive to make sure he does not read as the main character, rather one of the victims. CHOW has accepted non-humanoid characters before, but has always emphasized on the creature's "personality". COW (creature of the week), on the other hand, stresses that they are all about a creature species, rather than an individual creature, so I think this'll help us draw the line.

I may not have to work OT tonight, so I'll have time to do some serious sketching I hope :)

[Nightblue]

King of Wand design a bit more fleshed out.

Edit: changed the pose a bit as well as the lighting to be a bit more sinister. I'll sleep on this... can't decide which one I like more.

[fluorine]

I think the first one looks more righteous. The second one has more substance. I like the second one better... I don't like those overall just totally righteous character.

[fluorine]

I thought I'll try something different this time. I normally go right into the final pose and work out the composition, color, lighting, character design...all at the same time.

This time I thought I start with straight up character design. If I can get my character look interesting standing straight with a poker face, I think I can make him look interesting with some crazy pose, dynamic composition and dramatic light~~~ maybe not too crazy.... LOL

This is my hip hop inspired elven magician. Apparently... the only thing I know about hip hop is half way down baggy pants with boxer showing and a lot of bling bling....

[Nightblue]

fluorine: Great design sketches! I like the pants of the first one best and the head silhouette of the third. If anything, the top halves of these sketches look a lot more traditional/tribal and the bottom half look straight up hip hop. Finding a way to mix the elements up might be the way to go. The skinny top versus baggy bottom silhouette is really working for me, though.

[fluorine]

Thank you nightblue~

I was actually thinking about the same thing, 1 the top part is a bit too tribal, I think it's the feather and all; 2 the two style doesn't mix that well.

Ok, an update~ more fantasy looking hip hop magician. I only borrow the silhouette of the baggy pants and boxer. everything else is... high fantasy~ LOL.

[Nightblue]

Paging Lancer and Beelow to come out of hibernation :P Don't disappear! Even if you are too busy to sketch, please do comment so we can bring our visions together.

Fluorine: I really like this new sketch! The design of the pants look great. If you want it to be less tribal, consider getting rid of the feathers on the shoulder - they do add variety to the silhouette but is also pushing it away from the baggy, flowy hip-hop shapes.

Some random pictures:

http://sc4.stylefeeder.com/thumb/yr/2r/yr2rbwk7/yr2rbwk7-200.jpghttp://c2.api.ning.com/files/CVhuw02OKjGl827F2om6Ob7usUdvbWswMDMfOhsabUMgeaD7tm eseMsVBPknRiwiYV-FCyWx-7GKdMWIwiqv9ur38xbgQbnP/TaMoko.jpghttp://kiwibiwi.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/salt-n-pepa1.jpg

lunch time sketch - messing with colors. Don't think the mass amt of purple is working. I'll do more color researching tonight.

[fluorine]

I think the purple works OK, probably would be a bit stonger if add more red in it. But that's just me... I like red. LOL. The secondary lighting is really good create mysterious feeling. But I feel that the primary light source should be a bit stronger on his face.

I'll work on my mage... I mean, magician~ LOL. I really like the feather, but it indeed pushes the design towards tribal... :( ... seeing your work helps a lot, we need to create characters that fits in the same "world" so to speak. I think I'll give him some interesting shoulder plate instead. Traditionally Magician is almost always associated with red and white, so guess i don't have much choice with the color.

Another thing we both need to be careful, I think, is the shoes. My elf is wearing regular sneakers and it really doesn't go with the rest of the high fantasy design. I can't quite tell about your shoes, but it looks pretty modern to me, so might want to tone it down a bit.

[Tommoy]

Fluorine, you've nailed the fantasie/urban combo in you're very clear sketch, looks quite promising.
Nightbleu, you're concentrating a lot on the lighting witch results in a nice effect around the face area, but I'm missing the Urban/Hip hop elements yet.
I'm also wondering if Fluorine's Indian and Nightblue's Arabian angle aren't too far apart.

[fluorine]

yeah....now that you mentioned it....Tommoy... mine dose look indian, and nightblue's looks more on the arabian side....hum...... maybe it's the hood. but I just really like that purple coat/jacket.

[Nightblue]

Had a very late day at work today but I'll reinforce the hoodie feel I was initially going for tomorrow :) I don't think yours would look too indian if you change the feathers... and I definitely don't want mine to look arabian, so I'll mess with mine more, haha! Thanks Tommoy!

[fluorine]

Here's a color one, just test out the red/white color combination, harder than I expected. And... I just can't drop the feather~~~ red/white is a bit too boring, so I added some colorful/playful feather~~~LOL, hopefully he'll look more like a magician/jester than a tribal indian sharmen.

[Nightblue]

Fluorine - The large field of white and striped pants is giving him more of a mime look, which takes him closer to another card - #0, the Fool. My suggestion would be to not worry so much about the color combination that's in the card discription. I've seem many versions of the Magician that do not follow red/white at all. Just do what feels right to you, and maybe add hints of red or white if you'd like :)

Sorry for taking it easy and/or getting distracted lately. Serious updates coming tomorrow!!! I've said it so now I can't slack of again, haha.

Edit: Do we need a general color/lighting theme? New round of research?

[fluorine]

that's good to know~~~ i mean, not to stick with red and white. the stripe pattern is an after thought... his white pants just look too plain, totally boring... And, I just really into those pale white+vibrate color face paint lately... probably not a good idea for the Magician though. And I'm totally not happy with her arm plate thingy. Looks too "robotic". Ah.... so many things about this design is not working for me.

I'll give it another shot tomorrow. Somehow I kind of see him in some more earthy, muted tones... Magician is "creativity", maybe I should play with that idea more.

As for general color and lighting theme... I haven't think that far really... what do you think? since we're doing hip hop+ high fantasy, anything we can borrow from them? High fantasy is mostly dramatic lighting, but hip hop I feel like is more down to earth, like everyday casual (but cool~).

Today is the 12th, we still have roughly 2 weeks to play around with ideas. I think we need to come up with a character line up with a unified style/color/design no later than the 24th (Sunday), that'll give us a week to finish up the final pieces. Considering we're both working, we might actually need more time working on the finals. remember how we were last time, coming up with frames, presentations at the last minute.... let's try... not to do that... (Although I had a feeling, we probably will end up the same way...LOL)

[LancerMoo]

Hey there guys! Very sorry for the absence, I've been very... distracted lately. (That, and I haven't been getting any notices from this topic? :( )
I've been working like a madman on mine, but I don't have anything to show for it besides a ton of failed images. I finally think I'm on the right track now though, so I'll post what i have later tonight when I have the chance. :)

@Nightblue: I REALLY dig the layered jacket, very cool and ornate... I do agree that the hood reads more as an arabian head covering than a hoodie, though. And I don't think the purple is working too well either, but you probably already know that. ^^;

@Fluorine: I personally like the feathers as well, haha. ^^;
I'd agree with nightblue and say that you shouldn't be worried about limiting yourself to just red and white. maybe changing his skin tone will help a bit?

[fluorine]

LancerMoo: Don't worry about "failures", whatever you have, post them. even in a weak design, there might be strong or interesting elements in it you want to borrow. And getting some critique/encouragement is always help~ so post them!

[Nightblue]

Second fluorine's notion about no failures! Post what you got Lancer and we can all bounce things around. I also agree with fluorine on borrowing lighting from either urban or fantasy theme - somber, realistic lights versus dramatic, colorful lights. Here are some combinations I think will work well for us:

A. Overall clothing silhouette and colors- urban, accessories and details - fantasy, lighting - urban

B. Overall clothing silhouette and colors - fantasy, accessories and details - urban, lighting - urban

C. Overall clothing silhouette and colors - fantasy, accessories and details - urban, lighting - fantasy

Any thoughts on this?

[Nightblue]

King of wands revamp, + tower pose sketch. Tried and failed at the pose of a falling woman many times and still am not happy with what I have... ref time.

[fluorine]

Nice attitude with the King, big overside sweater create really nice modern silhouette, but accessory keep it high fantasy, very nice. I like this one more than the colored one. It really has that hiphop feel (from whatever hip hop I know...)

[LancerMoo]

@Nightblue: That looks a lot more obviously urban, but I do miss the layered jacket of the first design. I think adding the baggy pants was a good decision, though. :)

Regarding the lighting and stuff, I'm not really sure what you mean by it? I mean, urban and fantasy are both such diverse genres - I don't find myself associating specific lighting or colors with either of them. I mean, there's plenty of colorful urban stuff (graffiti?) and plenty of somber/realistic fantasy stuff, haha.
I don't even know what direction I plan to go in right now, I'll have a better idea after I do some color tests...

Anyway, after a few more hours of getting nowhere, I got fed up with photoshop and just penciled the dang thing like a sane person. And what do you know, I had all my problems resolved in less than an hour... figures. There's still some minor anatomy errors to fix (making 6 legs work is a lot harder than I thought), but it's a lot better than what I had before.
I tried to take Nightblue's suggestion of making it more of a character than a creature, but it might need some more work before it reads as an individual...

[fluorine]

LancerMoo: nice design, I like the flow of the lines, and the dynamic pose. But at this point, he's more on the creature side then character. It is rather difficult to have a non-humanoid character, how do you show the audience his intelligence and personality? When look at something new, the first thing we do compare it with the things we already know and find similarities. that's how we process new information.

For example, in the movie avatar, when the new hummer head creature running out, the first thing the audience might think is:" hey... these alien creatures looks just like Rhinos, I know rhinos!" That's why when you create something new, you always based on something already exist, it's a lot easier for your viewers to process the new information.

So for your character, the first thing I think is a tiger. A tiger is generally consider a creature. So in order to make him a character, you have to give him something "human" for your audience to compare to. The best way is to create humanoid face, eyes, expression, or attitude. Once Chow did a dragon round, you can check that out and find some inspiration. You can also go see the Lion King, Disney is actually really good at making animal "characters" instead of "creatures".

I hope this helps.

[Beelow]

Urban Hip hop= Ball Caps, Chains, baggy clothes, blunts, swisser sweets, black and milds, mo chains, pankay rangs, hoodies, J's, skull caps, braids, dreads, white tees, watches, spinnin rims, gold or platinum grillz(teeth), afros, low cut fades, watches, sometimes tight fitting clothes(seems to be the new in thing, mainly east coast, west coast thang). Just look up rappers.
big booties, tight fitting clothes, big hoop earrings, braids, gucci, coach, prada, clothes, anything with text graphics on it anything that represents africa, or black panther and hair weave.

Just some things to consider when designing your characters team if you are struggling with the theme of hip-hop a bit. I am just looking at what I and my chick wear since I am familiar with the theme.

Be careful flourine that you do not stray to far away from the theme. It looks more native american than hip hop. Keep at it. Looking sharp.

Nightblue, just throw a ball cap under the hood and do something nifty with the ball cap. Maybe some fantasy text of some sort on it. Just a thought to get rid of the arabic look if you think its a problem. It can pass as hip-hop-ish feel to it. Looks great.

Lancermoo, I am not sure what is going on as far as the feel of the theme, but beasty looks good in my opinion. It's still to early to tell what direction you are going, but sure it says hip hop. I like your work from one of the chows that you did. I see your influence by the way you deliver your work. It says joy ang and James jean all over it.

Check out some Mike-T to help out with the hip hop theme. The Boondocks cartoon can also help you a bit as well.

Another note, attitude is going sell the hip-hop look. Arrogance, aggressiveness, and laid-backness(if smoke dat dro) are attitudes that you can add to have that impact.

I can throw some names out for you ladies to get more of a feel of what hip-hop is that you can google search:

Lil Boosie, Webbie, Lil Wayne, Bun B and Pimp C(UGK), Eightball and MJG, Nelly, Snoop Dogg, Common, Nas, Dave Chappelle, Notorious Big, Tupac, Dr. Dre, Paul Wall, Erika Badu, Alicia Keys, Keisha Cole, Nivea, Superhead(she a video hoe so be careful with her), Mary J Blige, Kimora Lee Simons, Meagan Good, Lauren Hill.

[fluorine]

Another attempt of the Magician. redesign the bracelet, borrow from the thick fingerless gloves, redo color and shoes, get rid of the ridiculous face paint...

but....I just can't give up the feathers~~~

[Nightblue]

Fluorine: I really like your design except for the feathers :P sorry but they really look tribal. The tiny dagger things on his chest belt also makes him look more like a fighter rather than a mage. How about experimenting with some magical accessories like potions, bottles, spell components and scrolls?

Lancer's design is looking really cool. The challenge now is 1. how to make it look more like a character, and 2. how to make it more urban/hip hop. I second the notion that the monster could use more human-like qualities, especially the eye. In one of the imagineFX artbooks there was an article on how to make monstes/aliens look intelligent, and human-like eyes or expressions play a very large part. It is just how our mind works - we relate to things that look like us, narrow-minded isn't it :P As for the hip hop thing, we could all go for urban, somber lighting - as much as I like fantasy lighting, I feel like the more somber, down-to-earth palette might really set us apart, as well as tie our divers characters together in to an unique twist.

Just my 2 cents :) I've been overwhelmed with both work and... work, lately. Sorry for the lack of updates. I promise it will happen :)

[Nightblue]

update: more lunch sketch revision - more wands for the king, hehe.

[fluorine]

Since everyone is having problem with the feather.... I get rid of it.....and add some bling and stuff. And change the hair. and I actually like the new design better.

[fluorine]

Coloring up~~~ LOL. remove the feather due to popular demand, and little daggers. He actually does look better. So yeah..... I'm about done with magician design. I need to move on to Queen of Cups.

[Nightblue]

fluorine: much better! Dig the blings too. Love the belt, the armguards, and the boots.

had a very busy weekend, apologies for the slow updates. inching away...

P.S. just saw your update fluorine - are you giving up on the earlier, more awesome pose? :P

[fluorine]

Thanks NightBlue, the new design come out as a surprise to me as well, I'm hesitate with the feather, but looks like the design it better without~

For your King of Wands, I really like the front holding thingy and all the wands that attached to him in creative ways, offers a lot of interesting details for the viewer to see. However, I feel like the top sweater looks too much like a sweater, i can almost see a zipper. I think it might help the design to make it look more traditional, without the zipper looking closure, and elastic cuffs.

The boots actually look pretty cool even I can hardly tell what it is... Looking forward to see more developed piece.

[Beelow]

Here is the Judgement Card that I started. I had more sketches, but Painter crashed on me. Any suggestions, I am open for. Let me know what you ladies think. We have some work to do, hehe.

[fluorine]

Queen of Cup, first try.

Well, A lot of things are not working here. first, the costume is way.....way too modern. She's a hip hop inspired queen, not a hip hop queen... I need to redesign her clothing. Second, Queen of Cup is more like a wise, older, sometimes sexual, and motherly woman, I'm not sure if this one quite go with the card. I like the movement though, movement is not really my thing, so I try to push it here.

Anyway, I'll sleep on it, and come back tomorrow.

----

Beelow: Love the design, he looks like he's enjoying himself~~~ like the Jazz master of doom or something. Really cool.

The only thing I have for the design (and I had the same problem myself) is that it's too modern, too obviously hip hop. I'm under the impression we're going for a more subtle Hip hop inspired high fantasy feel. Maybe the baseball cap and the sweater needs to be tone down a bit, try to make it look more high fantasy but keep the over all silhouette.

But over all~~~ cool design~~~

[fluorine]

Just a reminder guys:

1, SIZE. Unlike most CHOW, we do have a size requirement this time: 3.543" x 6.1" 300 dpi or proportionally larger. It's a long rectangular shape, so when doing composition, keep that in mind (note to self as well).

2, TIME Today is the 21, we have 10 days left. We need to have all the characters and composition ready by 25th, reach an agreement on style, background, etc, so we'll have a coherent look. If we're on schedule (we probably won't), we'll have roughly a week to render the 2 final pieces. Keep that in mind, because most of us are a bit behind (which is normal....) .

[fluorine]

another Queen of Cup. I like the idea of the snake woman, but feels like she's too high fantasy, not hip hop enough. and the beehive hair make her look more 60's style than hip hop... But the problem with hip hop is that, it's a generally casual/urban style, how could I make it looks regal?

[Rambozo]

Fluorine : maybe add excessive bling and feather ear rings ?
http://lecloset.com/files/2009/11/mr-t-gold-chains-sparkling.gif
Ok so maybe I just wanna see more Laurence Tureaud action !! ;)

Seriously though jewellery says regal I suppose, although I must admit this could be a challenging mix regal and hiphop. Not to mention I dunno if the T.'s really goin' for the hip-hop or bling-punk or, what would you call that style anyway ?... Not to mention the feathers would tie in with your elven character nicely. Still, might be an idea. If not then hey, at least I've reminded you of Mr.T for today hehe

[Beelow]

flourine-Did you google search Mike T? That could help you out with the hiphop feel with his paintings. He does other stuff, but for the most part he does hip hop portraitures. It is just the mainly attitude and posture that you are going for with doing hip hop. The clothes that hip hop artists wear has its own entity. We are not aiming for urban. I think we are aiming for more of a hip hop feel mixed with the fantasy if I am not mistaken, from my understanding. Check out rappers and how they pose. Check out video vixens as well and how they dress. Check out how lauren Hill dresses. Common, Dave Chappelle, Erika Badu, India Arie all have a look that is hip hop. There is the dirty souf look, which includes Ludacris, Pastor Troy, Underground Kings, TI, Eightball and MJG, Trina, Nivea, Outkast(more big boi than andre 3000), Paul Wall. And there is the west coast, Snoop, Cypress Hill, Game, Devin the Dude, Dr. Dre, Tupac.

Most common trait is the hoodies, ball cap, baggy clothes, chains, expensive watches, with women hoop earrings, booty shorts, mini skirts, sun glasses anything with graphics(gucci, prada, baby phat, couch). Most hip hop type like to match, no more than 3 colors from head to toe so be aware of that. Try hybriding the fantasy with the hip hop look. That is what I am doing. This will help make your search easy and you will have a good idea of what hip hop is. Hope that helps a bit.

First one is cool just gotta watch your forms and make sure you shapes are reading right. Hand above her is too big, head seems too small and back leg, from my understanding of the sketch is too long. pull ref if you need to. Second one is too centered. You want focus on giving it a bit more interest by moving shapes around the composition. You can have a centralized figure, just need to take some elements that you will be incorporating within the painting along with the figure and move them around. How you arrange your painting can either make or break a piece. Take the time to make numerous sketches to get a feel of what is to be a better choice for the direction you want to go in with your painting. Nothing sucks more than painting on a bad paint and trying to salvage it. If it doesn't work it doesn't work. You dont want to get into that trap.

Thanks for the crit. I will see what I can do to lessen the hip hop a little.

Here is an update, still unhappy with the colors a bit. I'll get it right though. I think it is my values and just my color Hierachy that I screwing up. Any tips would be helpful.

[Nightblue]

Great updates Fluorine and Beelow! Sorry for being less than active this week. Will aim to have my pieces mostly done over this weekend... heheheh... tall order to fill. Somehow we got last-minute as usual.

Fluorine - I was facing the same problem with king of wand. What i decided to go for was a more urban style clothing and a more regal expression/posture, like a dude who's on top of the world even if his clothing isn't all tidy. Don't know if that's helpful. Giving her some kind of urban top might help too.

Beelow: I like the composition a lot! The colors are awesome, and the mix between fantasy and hip-hop is quite good. I'm not quite sure if this CHOW follows common CHOW rules, but normal CHOW's have a 3/4 of figure / knee-up requirement, meaning you need to at least show the design of one of the thighs.

Less talk and more painting. Thanks for pointing out the size req Fluorine :) We picked ourselves a challenge to meet and we are struggling a bit, but it's great to see everybody doing something that's a little different than what we usually do by default.

[Nightblue]

king of wand update. Colors are a bit wild right now, will see what I can do to reign it in.

[Nightblue]

King of wand almost finished - another few hours of polish coming tomorrow.

Moving on to the tower. Brr, scared :| No idea how it's going to turn out. I guess that's what makes things fun!

[fluorine]

Two updates for Queen of Cups. I actually like the centered composition, so I'll keep her as she was. I feel that in the end, there'll probably be a lot going on in the painting, so I want to keep the figure simple, not too much accessory.

Anyway~ That's the final design of Queen of Cups, I need to start final rendering for both pieces.

----

Nightblue, good job with the King of Wands! I think you achieved what you set off to do, give your character some attitude. Can't wait to see your tower.

[LancerMoo]

Hey guys, sorry for the absence, I've had a lot going on recently. =/

@Nightblue: Nice job with the king of wands! I think you really nailed the fantasy/hip hop combo, everything meshes well and looks like it belongs. If you're going back into it later, I think I'd recheck some of the folds on the right (our right) leg - they're making the knee seem awkwardly bent to me.

@Breelow: I kind of agree with them, in that maybe you'd want to show a bit more of the character? I like the colors and design though, it seems to fit in with Nightblue's card.

@Fluorine: This probably won't be a problem in the final illustration, but keep in mind that the snake part needs to look thick/strong enough to support the weight of her torso. Otherwise I can't critique the design too much, it looks good to me. :)

Anyway... still working on this thing. It's still kind of bad, there's a lot of things I need to fix. Finding a way to fit it in with the theme is... hard, haha.
You guys were right about the face, hopefully it has a more "human", readable expression now?
And I hope the meaning of the card is still readable, hopefully I haven't strayed too far...

Edit: Yeah, I'm probably going about this the wrong way. Maybe something like this would be better, with the humanoid shape and all. Plus, it actually looks threatening... maybe I can give it kind of a "thuggish" feel, with chains/tattoos/piercings or something. =/

[Nightblue]

fluorine - I like where you are going with the Queen of Cup, especially the top piece. It still feels a bit too much fantasy and not enough hip-hop - maybe give her some kind to top that feels hip hop?

some quick image refs that may or may not be helpful:
http://static-p3.fotolia.com/jpg/00/05/14/70/400_F_5147068_e4AdsPHPIbcbCS0lsRT8WtSY6fzkH5Pm.jpg http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff179/hinata_demon_angel/kisukafra.jpghttp://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m131/altimet_komy/Misc%20Hiphop/Yacko1.jpghttp://img478.imageshack.us/img478/3939/fbabygirlcovm81df73due8.jpg

Lancer: The humanoid version looks much more character like. I do really like the beast version though... maybe you can finish that one as an alternative version when you have time. Great shapes and scale as usual. Hope you get to finish! haha, hope we all get to finish :P

[LancerMoo]

Moving right along... rendering in grayscale, and the basic layout of the jewelry. Don't worry about me finishing Nightblue, I'll probably be done with this one tonight or tomorrow. That should leave plenty of time for the other card... :)

I might end up making the human a little bit bigger, but hopefully he's got the right "attitude". :P
Colors will be coming shortly, as soon as I finish up the limbs and tail!

[Nightblue]

Lancer - guy is looking BADASS. love the patterns on his horns. I'm not sure what would make him look more hip-hop ish... maybe give him a really tacky belt? I like all the rings you are planning to put on him except for the ones dangling above his head. At current scale they draw my eyes away from his face.

Couldn't skip the life drawing session tonight... too much guilt... sorry! I should be able to get this to semi final stage tomorrow though... really hunkering down! Now presenting the rough sketch of "the tower".

[LancerMoo]

Not exactly finished, but pretty darn close. It's mainly the lower half that needs some more color work and overall polish, plus there's some minor symmetry problems up in the face/horns, but otherwise I think maybe I'm about ready to move on...
Oh, and I do plan on giving him some kind of belt, i think...

@Nightblue: That's a very different direction than some of the other tower cards I've seen, so that's good! Judging from the background it seems that you meant to have her falling, but right now her pose doesn't really convey a lot of movement to me. It seems a bit too "unsure" and kind of stiff for a falling figure, if that makes any sense? I think the way her limbs are all tucked fairly close to her body is causing the problem, the legs especially, since they're both right next to each other. Maybe a more extreme expression on her face would help as well, to cement the violent nature of the tower card? :)

[Nightblue]

Lancer: Thanks! loving your color palette. the silhouette is very strong, and it has this cool illustration look to it.

Tried to make the pose better, but I cannot fix the darn legs. Better luck tomorrow I hope. haha, I've never realized how hard it is to draw a falling woman. If all fails I'll have to take the upside down route.

[LancerMoo]

Finished, at least for now. If I have time I'll go back and touch up a few things, but I really need to start on my other card now. @_@
(I'm not really sure if that border at the top is working or not, figured I'd see what you guys thought about it... I can easily take it out)

I think that pose is much better nightblue, but it's still coming off as a bit stiff to me... I think it has to do with the way she's situated in the frame. maybe you might want to consider rotating her a bit, so that her back is facing the ground, kind of like this?
(I hope this isn't offensive or anything, I just find it easier to convey my message visually)

[Nightblue]

thanks a lot for the PO lancer! Offensive? no way :) The tilt does wonders, and having her limbs off to one side really pushes the off-balance feel. Thanks a lot for helping me out.

edit: new pose. was too in love with the head of the old one and it got in my way. Hopefully the fresh start emerges better.

[Nightblue]

http://conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=890709&stc=1&d=1264657431

new wip. A friend at my sketch group gave me some great pointers on the pose.

[Beelow]

Here is the final on Judgement. I was thinking about putting some extra stuff in the painting itself, but we are running out of time and I need to move on to the next painting. I think I will go back and do some touch ups here and there, varying some edges, maybe some detail and add more shine to the bling. Hope you ladies enjoy.

[Beelow]

Nightblue- The first image can be push a bit further more into polish I think. Just the characte needs some attention. Background can stay relatively loose because of the time constraint. Put all of your attention to the most important parts of the painting. On the second painting, second direction works out better. the pose is working really well and gives it a nice dynamic. Keep pushing through it. It should look amazing.

Flourine- I second Nightblue on the hip feel. The ref she supplied is the direction that I believe you should impose on your paintings. Drawings are looking good though.

LancerMoo- Awesome sillouette for the second one. I think the hip-hop feel is still a missing element in the painting though. Maybe add an extra chain(rope chain) to it to help sell it a bit more, or maybe add letter character in the front of the chain with some diamonds. Here is a pic boosie with some extra bling around his neck. I think that is what will help with the more hip hop feel. Waiting to see the first one move into more or finished feel.

[Beelow]

Here is the next one coming up. I am just going to run with it. Any suggestions on background I am all ears for.

[Nightblue]

Beelow: great Judgment! Love the arm bands especially, and the lighting on the hoodie turned out very spectacular. One thing that may help the painting is pushing the contrast in his right wing (top bits) back ever so slightly. The details are really nice there, but they are competing with the main focus. I like the pose you are going after - yeah, we are getting pretty last-minute here, run with it!! haha.

nightly update.

[Tommoy]

Nightblue, great view on the Tower, my narrow mind didn't got so far concept wise, however the falling lady actually isn't the character its working as a Tower card.
One crit, I think the right cheekbone sticks out too much, ore you could tilt the nose and mouth a little towards the viewer.
I love your King of Wands.

[fluorine]

Guys, I'm sorry but I have to chicken out on this one. On going family business, I won't be able to do anything this weekend (moving). I'm sure you guys will do just fine without me.

Sorry again, and Good luck!

[Beelow]

flourine- It's all good. No worries, just handle what you gotta do. I hope I get to work with you again in another team chow. See you around.

nightblue- Hey, thanks for the crit. I was thinking of working edges there to bring the character more into focus. I was looking at that too. You are reading my mind, LOL. One crit, I think that you should rework that right foot on the chick. Looks like it is bent towards the right side of the canvas a bit much. Either that or its the heel is not there. Maybe you can correct it there.


Here is the latest on the queen of pentacles. I think I will do pentacles surrounding the main girl. Trying to work the composition a bit more to get more movement around the painting. Let me know something. I'd really like to hear some feedback on my painting, on the new one.

[Artofinca]

Great works here!

[Nightblue]

Tommoy: Thanks much for the crits! Fixed the face some and I hope it's better.

fluorine: No worries :) There's always the next team chow.

Beelow: The face is coming along really nicely, some nice colors and lighting there and you got the angle down for sure. I also love the flow you are creating with all the smaller discs. I'm not 100% on the pelvis area. Taking a second look, I think it might be the placement of the belly button? Not too sure. Keep up the great work!

Final tower. Hope I have time to polish up the king of wand tonight. Any presentation ideas? Heheh, aren't we the poster children of last-minute-ness...

[LancerMoo]

Quick update, as I still have a bunch of work to do on this... colors/contrast is still really wonky and needs adjusting. (And I just noticed the shape of the head is off, haha o_O)

That's too bad fluorine... I was looking forward to your cards! But life comes first, I completely understand :)

As for presentation, I think I've seen other teams making borders and stuff, do we want to try making something like that? Oh, and we have a team logo to use, right?
And since this is chow, do we need to name the final images anything special?

[Nightblue]

We could rip the old team milk of amnesia logo from team chow 2 if you guys don't mind :)

A border would be great. Does anybody have anything we could use? I'm pretty bad with making borders, but if it comes to it I could make something.

Got this from daestwen's post - Team Chow III Final Burning
(http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=180120)
http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii293/chowarchive/CHOW-LINES/CHOW-LINES-MEDUSA.jpg

TEAM CHOW III :: TAROT

DESCRIPTION


Hello boys and girls!

Okay, trying to keep it simple this time.

Deadline is Midnight on the 31st, anywhere in the world. I will be putting up the poll when I wake up the next day, so there is a bit of leeway, but remember if you push it you might miss it.

Please have one person from your team post all your cards. You do not need to post wips. To make it easier for me, if you could please make one image with all the cards in it (side by side) so that I can use it for the poll, that would be awesome.

Good luck everyone!

Who wants to be the lucky presentation guy? :D

[LancerMoo]

Alright, I'm probably not going to have any more time to work on this, so hopefully it's at a reasonable level of polish... not really that excited about it, but it's gonna have to do.

Using the old team logo seems fine to me.

And as for a border, maybe some kind of graffiti-ish border would look cool, something like this? Or maybe it's too much? XD

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f171/LancerMoo/hermitwithborder.png

[Beelow]

Here is the best I can do with the Queen of Pentacles. If I can get to this computer in the morning, I will try to post a final. I may be able to get an image in before 12 midnight if I can find internet access. My internet just got recently cut off. Here is what I have. If someone can help me with the croping then that would be cool as hell. Here goes. Hope I got the morning to submit final. Later team.

[Nightblue]

I will be at work tomorrow and will not be able to put together our final submission before noon, which is around when our deadline would be. Daestwen wants us to make all of our cards into one image. Would either of you be able to do that?

I like the border a lot, Lancer :) Haha, you've got the street thing down. It's been fun! Can't wait to see our final stuff together.

Final King of Wand.

[LancerMoo]

I'd be happy to compile our images for the final thread. :)

Edit: Ahh nevermind, I got it. XD

[Nightblue]

Lancer: That would be great!!! Thanks much for doing it. I normally use. jpg's. if you are talking about keeping the transparency of the frame, you could try use the background color of this forum in the transparent portions and it will look the same way. Regardless though, we'll probably end up with a fairly large file.

Looking at other team's entries, they have a place on the frame where they write down the names of the cards. Do we want that?

Here are our old logos, you can use either one: http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=164664

[LancerMoo]

Ahh yeah, I was talking about the transparency. I figured it out now, thanks! ^^;

Yeah, I noticed that too. I think it's probably a good idea to put it in there, I can either make a little pocket underneath, or work it into the existing frame... I'm leaning towards the second option, but I'm not sure if I like the bright white letters, they draw too much attention.

EDIT: maybe this is better (I'd have to get rid of that awful fade though)

[Nightblue]

Thanks Lancer!

I vote for the second one as well. Do you do graffiti in your spare time? :o

[LancerMoo]

Okay so here's the final final of everything, thought I should let you guys check it out before I post in the final burning thread incase I need to change anything.
And I was wondering which logo we wanted to use haha, since i found two over in the older topic :D

Oh, and I don't actually do graffiti, haha - doing a border like that by hand would probably take me hours. I'm a loser and use brushes. @_@

[LancerMoo]

Anyway, just letting you guys know I posted in the final burning thread - hopefully I did everything correctly.
...I need to go sleep now. @_@

[Beelow]

Hey thanks, LancerMoo. It sucks that I don't have the net at home. Sucky circumstances lead to that. I am dealing with it as best as I can. But, I can say that it has been awesome working with you 2. Time to move on to the next thing, painting some more. And, many thanks to you all for letting me join your team. I hope we can do this again next team chow.

Also, thanks, nightblue, lancermoo, and flourine for the critiques. I made some changes on judgement and forgot to save it on my keydrive, but I guess the first final will do for the time being. Thanks again.

Also, I am going to polish the second image some more and post it on my blog within the next day or 2. If your interested, check for the final there. I like the direction I am going with the image so I am working it up a bit more.

[Nightblue]

Thanks a lot guys, I really enjoyed working with you all :) I've achieved my personal goal out of this challenge, which is to get out of my comfort zone, thanks to the help of you guys. It's great to see the fantastic, out-there characters you all came up with. Wish fluorine could have made the final showing, your characters have a lot of great designs. A big thanks to LancerMoo for putting up the finals and Beelow for very to-the-point crits.