C.O.W. #180_Beast of Revelations_WIPS Thread

[scorge]

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/images/cow/cow.jpg

For more infos and details about the rules go here:
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=110879


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Round #180 Beast of Revelations

Topic:
#180 Beast of Revelations

There has been much clamoring in the topics thread lately for the Beasts of Revelations, and in honor of Round 180 (60+60+60), we should go for it. You will have the option to use the existing descriptions of the Beast found in various places on the web, or to create an entirely new Beast for modern times. In a new twist on the COW, you must include the mark of the Beast (which you make up) visibly displayed somewhere on its body. Because of the many rounds that have focused on creatures from Hell in the past, the challenge here will be to imagine a fresh concept based on an extremely old theme. Keep in mind that one of the Beast's traits is its ability to coerce and connive, so you don't necessarily have to create a huge tentacled creature that wipes everything out in a blind rage. As always, be creative, do some research, and take us to Hell on earth.


Deadline:
Thursday June 17th, 2010.

Finals go here: ="http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=180865"http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=180865

[acb]

omg...you just said "creature from hell" and "or to create an entirely new Beast" in the same description....cool!(gotta love those hellish opened to interpretation themes !)
btw if its 60.60.60 and not 6.6.6 it means it has to be 10 times the original lool.

gl everyone and hf ^_^

[Ludic]

I've always read these threads for inspiration but now that i read this topic i just had to try to make one.. Feedback is very much appriciated :)

http://www.deviantart.com/download/167256826/wip__CoW_by_Ludic_Sama.jpg

[Homerid]

Hell yeah :P I'm in.

[(lark]

ludic welcome! Nice first sketch. Is that fire on the end of the tail? I like the idea that the beast isn't so much a giant destructive creature, but can be something small that tricks people. I think I may go a smilar route. Remember to put the mark of the beast somewhere.
Speaking of which, it can be anything right? Like for example I could make up some runish looking symbols that aren't based on any real mythology at all right? Or does it have to incorporate the 666 thing in it?

[Ludic]

It is fire, yhea i thought so too but painting a huge beast would be kind of cool too
I've added the mark in his forhead as im writing this, might post another wip later :)
I'm pretty sure it dosnt have to be anything like 666 or something that exists in mythology. Thanks :-)

[Si_Swe]

I have a few goals for myself this week. Finishing the piece is one them, heh. I'm really trying to push myself over the limit this time. I want to really get across the feel of an Amano painting but in my own style. I want the feel of the old enemies in Final Fantasy. Ones like Zeromus, Neo Ex-Death, The Tower of Kefka. That kind of thing. Something that is simultaneously a thing made of other entities yet is one creature. I'd like to have as little "explanation" with this creature as possible, keep some kind of wonder or fear if I can. If I can get across even a fraction of that, I will very happy.

I've taken elements of the actual description of The Beast, but I've mostly just gone off in my own direction. I'm planning on having plenty of incorporation of human elements such as the trapped angel throughout the design. I'd also like to get across a sense of pollution coming in behind it. Looking forward to seeing the brilliance that is what all of you guys can do.

[Si_Swe]

Sorry for the double post. It's the end of the work night for me. Here's what I have right now...

[Labrynthine]

ludic - I like the concept so far! Interesting twist on the deciever. I can't wait to see how it develops!

Si Swe - Ooh, I always loved the conglomeration beings of Final Fantasy. Can't wait to see how your creature picture turns out.

Since the big trait of the Beast is deception, and one of the big no-no's in the Bible was the worship of false idols, why not make a creature with an idol for a head? I also decided to make the idol head canine since many depictions of the beast make it have a dog-like head. Hopefully if the design seems okay I'll start working on the entry picture tonight.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v622/SpectralArtist/cow180.jpg

[NickyBeats]

whoa. never entered one of these before. sweeeet entries so far!

Ludic - nice one man! love the gnarly teeth! -he looks like the deceptive type.

Si Swe - holy crap sauce that looks wicked! full blown hell beast imo!

Labrynthine - awesome concept! love how his tail is rooted in hell constantly. and of course his digestive ding dong! nice touch haha!

ill try to sketch out something for this one, but im wicked bad at finishing stuff, so i need solid ass kicks when i bring it!

[porcupine]

Hey guys!

I'm completely new to this, it seems fun and a good exercise to become better at drawing so I'll give it a try.

I did some research and found in book of revelations about the second beast being a lamb-like creature but with the voice of a dragon so I decided to make some sort of dragonsheep.

Here is first sketch, hopefully I have time to finish it in time.

[Labrynthine]

Welcome to COW, porcupine!

Got a basic sketch for tonight. Anyone see anything weird with the composition or something? If not, value time!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v622/SpectralArtist/cowbeast2.jpg

[Ludic]

Labrynthine, Damn thats looking cool, i espcially like the hands and feet, The tail at the end is looking cool , great concept :)

[Duman]

Well, this could shape up pretty nicely, sadly I know little of these "beasts of revelation".
To the Wiki cave, Batman!
I'm thinking it would be something to do with pestilence, apathy and excess. Maybe a little bit of war sprinkled in for good measure.

[Arbinn]

Here's a sketch of the beast I kinda like. The head has two faces sharing one of the eyes in case it's unclear. :)

[NickyBeats]

Arbinn - that looks sick so far dude!

ok heres my weak attempt. i think hes gonna change alot! im thinking his body is a bit too human-like. i gotta make hime more monsterish.

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=997636&stc=1&d=1276364190

[Cyanicman]

Just doing Linework so far...

[Freddzie]

Labrynthine, I love your idea so much

[(lark]

nickybeats: looks cool, but watch out for the rule about clothes and accessories. It could keep you from getting to the finals.

[NickyBeats]

Porcupine - love yours! looks great so far!

(lark - woops, thanks for the heads up man! ill change this up.

[Parsakoira]

here be my wip! very nice topic!

[Homerid]

Ludic - Nice concept, I like the kind of goblin creature type you have going on there

Si_Swe - Awesome creature, it does look like the enemies in Final Fantasy, I love the structure and the various creatures "welded" onto his body, keep going

porcupine - Dragonsheep lol, that sounds really cool

Labrynthine - Great concept, it already looks like some sort of sacred creature god ;)

Arbinn - Your creature is looking great ,it reminds me of the long legged elephants from Salvador Dali's paintings =)

Here's my first WIP, I decided to go with the description of the Second Beast from the land, and took it to a more grotesque and macabre look. So this is what came out :)

[Parsakoira]

last one before going to bed :P

[Si_Swe]

I can see some strong stuff coming together...
Homerid - Thanks man, I will keep going. You have a strong start, push it as far as you can.
Parsakoira - Really interesting and cool design. I love the magical feel to it and there is a great sense of despair in the piece. Keep pushing that.
Arbinn - I really like to 2 heads/1 eye you have going on. I'm looking forward to seeing the detail on the rest of the creature.
Cyanicman - Take a look at the anatomy of your creature, The way it's arms should connect to the body, the way that an animals neck and body come together. Take a look at some animal anatomy and see what happens.
Nickybeats - It's a great drawing, but like (lark said, accessories, clothing are a no no.

Here's what I have at this point... I think I'm ready to start adding colour and detail.

[Arbinn]

I really like your creature Si_swe, but I think you should smoothen some areas. The leg for example suffers from the vast amount of lines imo. It's also in the middle of the picture so it kinda steals the show. :)

[Si_Swe]

Thanks, Arbinn. I'll try and clean up the composition elements of it. I realize that business is an issue I'm going to have to struggle with on this piece, so I really appreciate being able to home in on problem areas. Cheers.

[Homerid]

Parsakoira - Great creature, looking forward to see the progress

Si_Swe - Thanks. Your creature is coming along really good, can't wait to see some colors on it. Changing the subject, is that a General Electric logo there? LOL

Some progress, and a fast color thumbnail. :devil:

[Labrynthine]

Started slapping down some colors and such. Does the red portal distract from the creature and composition? (I tried laying some red around the ground to balance it out, but that may not be working. I also need to brighten up and make more shiny the gold bit of him, from the looks of how its going.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v622/SpectralArtist/cowbeast4.jpg

[porcupine]

Ludic - Haha I can imagine that thing promise the moon and then bite ur ankle ^^

Labrynthine - Thanks for the welcome! Interesting concept you got there and looks like its gonna be very cool.

Si Swe - That really does look terrifying.

NickyBeats - Looks nice, gonna be fun see it without clothes and weapon. (oh and thanks)

Arbinn - Sweet beast :)

Parsakoira - That has a really nice feel to it, those things shattering(?) around his neck looks really cool.

Homerid - I really like the face and horns on yours and also the pose looks nice. Gonna be fun "compare" it to mine when they both finished since we based them on the same description :)

[Parsakoira]

Thanks Porcupine, Homerid and Si_Swe! your pieces are looking great!

update!
http://attachments.conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=998002&stc=1&d=1276415489

[Arbinn]

Here's my current Oh-So-Red- WIP.

I have to figure out what kind of texture I want on the creature. Currently it's quite random and boring.

[Veshkau]

Some great designs so far. Labrynthine especially - I love it! Not sure if I'll get round to doing a final but here's a few quick silhouettes I have so far.

[Harmageddon]

I've been sketching a somewhat mundane take on a seven headed beast..

998348

[Lilly Wolf]

some very awesome stuff going on in this WIP thread. Labrynthine, yours is coming along really great cant wait to see the end result of this.

So I have not been too active here in months but I decided since my art has much improved I would like to get back into doing the C.O.W and what better way than to work on the beast of hell =)

My idea revolves around the biblical and mythical aspects of both the creatures and intent of this beast. The top head is the one that communicates with hell/satan and passes judgment. This head is founded in biblical being jaguar in look with massive horns. The lower head is the deceptive one. Represented by a fox like creature of my design since in many cultures foxes or kitsunes are known to be creatures of deception and cunning. The last little tidbit I have set in stone is the tail which can be super heated and is used for branding the mark upon the ones the deceptor converts.
I wanted this beast to have a feel of beauty but also of immense power to go along with the ability to device and strike awe in people so they will believe it is a god and not hell spawn.

[Harmageddon]

Si Swe: wow, nice conglomeration of beasts, has HELL written all over it. Nice!
Arbinn: great stuff! Good to see you coming up with your Arbinn take on things. I like the humorous element, the people being ignorant because the creature speaks so soothingly hehe, nice.
Experiment along on it's hide, I say! Just go with what feels right. And slow down, will ya ! :P
Parsakoria: great drawing, I wonder what the end product will be.
Homerid: I've just been reading on Wikipedia as well, apparently there's a first beast (from the sea) and a second beast (from the land, indeed). I like how you chose the 2nd, the messenger beast. Nice drawing, push on!
Nickybeats: like others (and yourself) have said, ditch the human elements. Now it's a werewolf (which is a man/wolf). Try and push it in different directions, although, as you can see from homerid, you need not go entirely into the realm of slithering insectoid squids from hell. :P
Cyanicman: As Si Swe said, try and check anatomy. You need not produce a Rubens or Rembrandt on your first take, but fiddle with geometric easy shapes (like cilinders and barrels) to get a feel for 3dimensional elements.
Labyrinthine: another conglomerate! Hehe I like how the main face is kind of a friendly dog/god, and how you put it in 3d. Keep on pushing yourself!
Veshkau: nice silhouettes. I can't really choose between them although my preference goes to 2 or 3... 2 for being the lamb, but not quite, 3 for being .. well a strange hellish man/worm/conglomerate.

[NickyBeats]

Harmageddon - thanks man! - yea i ditched the old idea, im gonna switch it up alot more. btw, yours is looking awesome so far! tons of potential in this one!

Lilly Wolf - that looks sweet! really wanna see this updated!!

Veshkau - love the sillhouettes!!! all of them are sweet, but i think #2 has alot of potential!

Arbinn - nice dude!! great update!

----------------------------------------

i decided to trash the first idea, and im hesitant to even post this because its still very very loose. just a new direction to head in.

is it ok to have a foreground human character, w/ accessories like a sword and stuff? the actual demon in the bg is gonna have nothing on him, just nasty details. i hope this is ok, because i want the little dude to help establish scale.

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=998412&stc=1&d=1276461410

[porcupine]

Nice with even more concepts, I must say everything so far looks interesting in some way or another, and it's fun that theres so many very different ideas! :)

Here's an update on my progress, any feedback would be apreciated, especially on his pose, I feel I have some problems nailing it. Also I'm thinking I have to flatten and lower the base of the tail, it kinda looks like its sitting too high, I'm not really sure tho.

I hope I have time to finish it, has been kinda busy but time will tell...

[basti0n]

i gots ideas for my creatures, id like to have both of them in there but i dunno how imna find the time and technique to execute them. nice designs so far and good to see so many ppl working on them.

[NakedZergling]

Veshkau......#2 all the way. That is too good to not do.

[Naxfish]

:mod: Tbh i have no clue what I'm drawing, or how it will look in the end, ....Just kinda going with the flow, to see what it will end to, so any help is appreciated ^^

[NickyBeats]

i had to update it a bit because it looked waay too sloppy in here with the rest of these beauties.

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=998562&stc=1&d=1276471718

[Homerid]

Parsakoira - You're welcome man, and thanks. Again, awesome creature, it somehow reminds me of the concepts done for Devil May Cry. I really like his expression, and the background with the blood river.

Arbinn - Really disturbing creature you have there, I like it :)

Veshkau - Nice silhouettes, I think number 2 has more potential, but number 3 also has some interesting forms.

Harmageddon - I like how you chose the 7 headed beast concept, are you going for a dragon like creature? Waiting for the next sketch.

Lilly Wolf - Great concept and idea, you have pretty much nailed the description there, keep going.


Update.

[Si_Swe]

That's lookin' pretty fantastic, Homerid, and yes it is the GE symbol. It's a placeholder for the Mark if the Beast.

I'm playing around with colour right now. I want a very toxic palette, but I may change a lot on this. I'm going to be adding blues in a lot of places. Background is also a placeholder here.

[emerging]

what he heck is mark of the beast?

[APW]

so does it have to be evil?

[Si_Swe]

APW - I think it's up for interpretation. In Revelations the two beasts were sort of the harbingers of the apocalypse so if that means evil to you then go with it.

Emerging - In Revelations the "Mark of the Beast" was the mark the beast bore representing sin. I believe that many interpretations have 666 as the Mark. It's really up for interpretation.

[Featherwurm]

MAN I am loving this one. But then again I love messing with traditional iconography anyway...

I liked the idea of the 'Second Beast' who classically appears with the face of a lamb and the body of a dragon (at least if Wikipedia speaks the truth), serving as the voice of the 'First Beast' (or seven-headed whatsamajigger as I usually call it) bringing people to falsely worship the first. Just sketches so far.

[APW]

Thanks Si_Swe, I am very familiar with revelations and i was going to go for the for one of the four creatures with eyes all over their body, unfortunately ive been at the lake and I found out my sister took my tablet with her on a trip. So ill probably not turn anything in for this one. Good luck to all!:yayca:

[Migsta]

Here are my inital silhouettes...I might change the design tho, looks more like a minion.

http://www.miguellleras.com/Chow180_Migsta.jpg

[Aldebaran]

OMFG this is a hell of a Round, so ok I am in too, have to come up with something cool....

[Fiddzy]

^ "HELL of a round", haha nice. Gotta love puns.

Hi guys this is my first COW for few weeks, finally been getting my imagination back.

This is going to be an epic round, already got an idea of a shuffling skeletal golem, with a body made up of various animal/human bones and the central head of a elephant/mammoth skull, with glowing lava like eyes. Not got anything to show yet besides a tiny biro scribble, however I will start some more sketching once I have done some skull anatomy studies.

Already some awesome and demonic designs in here, loving Si_Swe's eclectic chimera, lots of great little touches suck as the hidden octopus.

By the way, 616 is also believed to be the original number of the beast, and may be the number I use to brand my minion.

[Veshkau]

Thanks for the feedback guys :) At work at the minute so will post some crits later hopefully. Looks like some really great designs so far though!

[porcupine]

Migsta - wow thats beautiful in some weird way, love the face

Think I finally sorted mine, had to completely change the head but gonna try keep the mad expression in some way, now to clean up and finish.

[JanJager]

Some grate beasts.
Hers is my vision.

[Harmageddon]

here's my 2nd WiP, I went with the traditional lava/brimstone/fire colors,
still figuring out what to do as I move along.
I like where it's going, but any comments/critical remarks are welcome.

.. and some critical remarks:
Si-swe: nice color palette, very. .. sickening :)
whether or not you should change it round is up to you, you could just as easy go fire and brimstone I guess. I've been struggling too with color choice, landed on yellow/red (and a little brown/blue).
Homerid: yeah I'm going for a dragon like creature (oh, dragons..*sigh*)
Nickybeats: much better, and yes, a little guy in the foreground is allowed.
Porcupine: what are you trying to say with it's pose? Right now, it's sitting there, smirking.
Wait, nevermind. I just saw your update: much better!
Naxfish: just go with the flow, see where it takes you. And follow your tag ;)
Homerid: nice, I like the colors, and the flame between its horns.
Although it's legs tell me it's just been taking a crap or something :D
Sorry, no means to offend you or anything, but I'd suggest a more, dramatic, pose.

998841

[Featherwurm]

I haven't done digital coloring in quite a while, but I wanted to give it a go for this for the sake of improvement (also gives me a chance to test out Photoshop CS5). I'm still working on it, I don't like the neck to body transition much, and I think I may change the approach of that. I am rather pleased with the head though, I got nearly exactly what I wanted and now it just needs refining.

[Arbinn]

Great job everyone! I'll try to drop some comments tomorrow.

Here's my current WIP. I didn't have much time to draw it today. Drawing small people sticking out from the creature is surprisingly difficult. :S The work needs a lot more crows too. :)

I have to remember to add the mark of the beast at some point.

Cheers! \o

[Homerid]

Si_Swe - Great choice of colors.

Featherwurm - Nice interpretation, for the neck transition you may try blending more the colors, fading from the orange skin to the green scales, and the same way to the head, just a suggestion. Keep working it, it's looking good.

Migsta - Creepy creature, looks like a small sneaky demon :). Can't wait to see your next step.

porcupine - Nice face expression. Waiting for that cleaned update.

JanJager - The image is looking good, thou I can't distinguish the form of the beast very well, keep working it.

Harmageddon- LMAO, no offense taken, thanks for pointing that out, I'll try to use some reference for the legs and give it more of a minotaur look, I realize right now that they look like weirdly bended long human legs, in a crappy position :P I'll post an update later
Nice development on your creature, definitively look like it came from hell. Thumbs up

[meganite]

My favorite so far is Labyrinthine's ... just a perfect interpretation of the concept I think, something designed to mislead. I'm definitely thinking of participating in this round, but no idea if I'll have enough time. I've already been thinking about coming up with something in this concept, since I read Revelation last week to remind myself of the imagery. I'm also thinking of doing a more modern/technological spin on things. Good luck everyone!

[NickyBeats]

some serious updates everyone! crazy stuff all around!

trying out a color pass on mine.

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=998966&stc=1&d=1276545416

[Phade01]

Love porcupine image!

Arbin: your images are improving with every round of cow!

im very curious how migsta's image will turn out, cool thumbnails!

Man i really love this topic! Going for the original 7 heads description:
999002

[Aedant]

Im not sure if it's finished yet. Crits and comms would be greatly appreciated.

http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2010/165/6/e/The_Beast_W_I_P_by_Narseith.png

[Ragnj]

Really cool creature Aedant, it looks more alien then hellish to me tho, maybe some sort of mouth with sharp teeth or some wicked lookin eyes implemented somewhere could do it more hell-like. Its really good as it is tho so Im not sure a change would lead to the better and I see you went with some sort of decievin lamb style so it might ruin youre theme. Love the horns.

Phade01: Aaaaaaah! Scary!

[Featherwurm]

Aedant that's really awesome, very different, I love the floating head bits and the body texture. The tail in an infinity loop is a nice touch too! I don't have much to critique on it, although at first glance the lighting on the tail confused me a little, since it goes very quickly from the deeply shadowed body to brightly lit at it's base, it looks like it's coming toward the viewer, when in fact it goes behind the beast. I just love the design, and the mark of the creature seems particularly ominous.

Still picking away at mine, this will probably be the last WIP I post, just want to refine it further, particularly the hands and body. Any crits are very much welcome though since I'm using this to practice getting back into digital painting which has never been my strong suit.

[AestheticMachine]

don't really have time for this as it's finals week, but wanted to try a sketch :I

a lot of symbolism mashed together. i guess its like a parasitic creature: snakes with hypnotizing voices that sing false prophecies, the lamb offering the blessings of the prophet while blaspheming against the heavens, a mane like that of a rooster's tail and a great snake attached like a leech, with a devilish crown of horns and dragon's crest.

[Harmageddon]

Wow, some awesome stuff happening, nice to see so many people join :)

Phade01: nice! holy crap I like the colors and looseness of your drawing.
Aedant: cool, I like what you've got going on. Interesting take on the beast.
Featherwurm: I think you're headed in the right direction, just play around with light (which is hard to do convincingly). As for digital painting, I'm a total noob so not much help there I'm afraid.
AestheticMachine: hehe the middle figure is just stuck there, between a rock and a hard place, sort of :) Would be interesting to see you develop it further, if you have the time !
Nickybeats: that's more like it! Great development, good stuff. Now push it to its limits :P
Homerid: I'm curious for your next update!

Here's my WiP3; I've been further detailing things all over the place. Currently working on the lava, and top heads; new scan tomorrow. Hopefully it's near finished by then.

999699

[Arbinn]

Wippety wip wip. I like the creature more with snakelike back side.

Harmageddon I like the colors of your creature but it would be nice if it was more defined and popped out from the background more.

AestheticMachine Cool sketch. :) Too bad you don't have time to finish it. :(

Featherwurm Your beast looks like an oldschool bible monster. :P I like the head and especially the colors and lighting! The human torso and hands just ruin the piece quite a bit. Good that you're working on them. :)

Aedant Interesting view. I like the colors and the smoky background. The tail doing infinity loop is very nice!

Phade01 Awesome! Great lighting you got there. :) The creature is too human to my liking but the piece is great nevertheless.

NickyBeats Creaturize your monster a bit. The knight is a nice detail but currently it almost steals the show from the actual beast.

JanJager Cool concept and it looks great. The beast is just very unclear. It's just a bunch of blurry underwater heads. :/ I'd like to see some more monster. ;)

porcupine The lamb part really adds something biblical to your work. The front legs are too back and the creature looks too leaned forward. Work on it and it'll surely be great. :)

Migsta Nice silhouettes, but as you said yourself they do look more like minions or imps instead of biblical beasts.

Si_Swe One of my definite favourites! Add some highlights and super highlights for eye candy and it'll really pop. ;)

Homerid The design is quite basic but otherwise the picture is awesome! I like the lighting and the ruined city in the back. The flaming mark of the beast is just damn perfect!

Naxfish Your beast looks like it's missing a pair of big wings and multiple pairs of hands imo. :)

Lilly Wolf I'd like to see how you've continued your beast. The head on top of the other looks weird. Like it was just slapped there. Not much else to criticize at that stage.

Veshkau Really deceptive and cool silhouettes! I want to see how it turns out. ;)

Parsakoira Very well executed piece but I'd like it to be bigger, more epic and less centaurish. The bloody street and the shattered pieces are nice ideas.

Labrynthine Awesome concept!! I want to see it finished! The human body- part just seems very stiff. You might want to loosen it up a bit.

Cyanicman You might want to take a look at some reference pictures. The legs look off. The other front leg for example seems to be coming from the beast's neck/chin.

Ludic Heh. Nice grin. :) The creature looks too much like an imp or minion to be biblical beast of the revelations though.

[Homerid]

Phade01 - Fantastic beast, I like your take on the seven headed creature, it's looking awesome. It may be a little confusing what the mark of the beast is, the inverted cross or the pentagram (but I would say the pentagram). Great rendering

Aedant - That is a really interesting design, can't wait to see how it will develop.

Featherwurm - You're doing great man, I like the lightning in the image, looking good.

AestheticMachine- Nice sketch and mix of concepts.

Harmageddon - Like Arbinn said, the creature is kind of blending with the background right now, try to define the form a bit more, colors and lightning are looking nice.

Aribnn - Yeah, I kind of went with the first thing that popped into my mind :P, but I thought it would work given my limited time and knowledge of the book of revelation.
I liked the "big head" sketch from your previous update, but this last one is looking great as well, the skin texture and details are disgustingly awesome, now put some color on it :)

Update WIP. Redid legs and some details. Any critiques/feedback very much welcomed.

[Aedant]

Phade01 I don't think this creature could be more hellish! I love how your picture is dynamic. It's something i have a hard time to accomplish.

Featherwurm The notion of biblical being is really present. It's posture is kind of noble and threatening at the same time. I'm anxious to see the final version!

Arbinn Because of you, i had only two words in my head today : «Sounds legit» I kind of found it real funny! And for your creature, it's pretty promising : looking forward to the final version!

Homerid Your environnement reminds me of the hell in Constantine movie. The creature is really frightening.

Okay, tried some minor changes, but in fact i'm pretty happy with the composition. Tell me what you think about the changes. Are the hole in the head and the floating rocks interesting, and wich color scheme do you prefer? Or is the first version better? I NEED YOUR OPINION! :P

[Featherwurm]

Aedant I love the hole in the head, personally my eye is more drawn to the blue color palate, it's less overtly hellish, but makes the red 'mark of the beast' stand out more. Perhaps something mid-way between the two would be best?

[porcupine]

Si Swe - your beast is very nightmarish and i really like the placement of the mark.

JanJager - thats really different and the color scheme is beautiful.

Arbinn - Thank you so much, your feedback really helped! :) And I agree with Aedant, those words really stuck in my head, its great, makes one remember your beast and it looks nice how the humans are talking to the small heads and not noticing its really a monster.

NickyBeats - I like yours, its giving a threathening feeling. As others pointed out tho, make sure the guy in the front doesnt steal the focus.

Phade01 - Thanks :) I absolutely love the light in yours and the head of your beast is also very nice.

Featherwurm - I like it :) The arms and hands look little rough compared to face, you could try add small details with a very fine brush like the details on the face. Also one thing that often works is to use a hard brush with very low opacity and just blend colors from outline and in, while keeping outline still sharp. Since its lights and shadow you absolutely dont wanna blurr and blend it all together but simply make entire part of creature thats in focus have same amount of details on it while parts that are further away dont have to have details. Man I hope I make sense, english is not my native language.

AestethicMachine - Love the head, feel sorry for the woman! ^^

Harmageddon - nice shape of the body, gonna be fun to see how it turn out.

Homerid - the fire above the horns are a nice idea, it looks great and the crater aswell. Only thing I think of you could improve is the hoofs. I dont know exactly what kind of species hoof your going for but as they are now they look round, and its kinda confusing to what the directions the toe pointing. Goats, sheep, deer etc usually have two small toes on the back of the hoof, horses two round muscle-thingys, bhae I cant explain this, but try find a reference photo for the animal-type you are going for and make them have a front and a back.

Aedant - very different and interesting. Personally I liked the bottom picture background color and the top picture foreground color, perhaps a combine :) The hole in the head sure is interesting if theres a good story to why it has it, else I think it might be just weird.

Veshkau - Simply love nr 2.

Kinda had to rework my crature pretty much so no update for now, hopefully I be done soon because honestly I think I'll puke if i have to draw much more sheep wool :D

[(lark]

i went with a traditional description, that i found on the internet. it says that the beast (the second of the 2) appears as a lamb with the voice of a dragon. porcupine i think is on my same wave length here.
1000076

i still need to work in a few areas i think. any thoughts would be awesome.

so far i'm really digging phade01, homerid, and aedant, alot. but everyone seems to be really putting their best foot forward so far. its really looking like it'll be a great round.

[Harmageddon]

(lark: hopefully you'll get yours finished. Good start so far.
Homerid: Thanks! I hope to make it more "lava" feel. As for your piece, nice work, legs are a lot better. :) Definitely an eerie creature.
Arbinn: you are absolutely right. Thanks for pointing that out. I'll try!
Aedant: I think the blue one is better. But that's just my opinion.

final wip; I hope to pull the creature from the background more.
Does anyone have any ideas how to do that? Other than push the colors of the surroundings back, keep it a little more vague, I don't know how to push depth to a more extreme level. Help?

Also, I'm no longer sure whether it's a beast of revelations, but I'm too far ahead to quit. So there it is, final wip.

1000270

[Arbinn]

Worked on the background a bit. I might continue the wider version of this picture simply because it looks more interesting and isn't as crammed. There's still more to be done than what I think I can get done in one day but I'll do my best.

EDIT. Next I want to get rid of that massive amount of black on my beast. I really don't like that extreme contrast. :(

[Fiddzy]

Not got time to comment on all, so heres afew quick one's...

Aedant - Love the design, looks both elegant, mystical and truly demonic. Personally out of the two colour palettes I prefer the more red/dark purple one as it looks more hellish when compared to the blue, which gives it a more heavenly appearance.

(lark - Looks great, cute yet evil, love the divide in the landscape. Maybe add something to give scale, looks like a giant here, not sure if that was the intent however.

Arbinn - Looking good, always interesting to watch your ever morphing creature designs.

Now here's mine, started rather late however if I focus I may get the rendering done just in time. Still need to consider the rear arm also.
My creature is a Calcium (Bone) Golem, born in the fire's of hell and held together by an ectoplasmic entity, creating a living Exoskeleton.
What do you think?

[(lark]

fiddzy: that's badass man! I love the jaw bone on the feet. Super fucking cool. You have to finish it!

[Labrynthine]

Here's another WIP. Hopefully I can get it finished on time.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v622/SpectralArtist/cowbeast7.jpg

[Veshkau]

A few thoughts - sorry to those I've missed, and feel free to ignore..

Fiddzy: Nice idea with the bone exoskeleton and the way it's made up from various animal/human parts. The one thing I'd recommend though is giving him larger feet and arching his back a bit more to keep the weight of that massive head over his centre of gravity. It should look a lot more balanced and weighted that way.

Labrynthine: Absolutely love your design - really looking forward to seeing it finished. I like how you make use of the people in the bottom-right to give the beast a sense of scale.

Arbinn: I really like both of the possible designs but the one you chose is probably my favourite. Coming along really well - keep it up!

Nickybeats: Coming along really well - nice composition and a lot of atmosphere. Looking forward to seeing it finished.

Harmagwddon: Nice design and atmospheric background. Would like to see some stronger light/shadow definition though - looking a little flat in places. Good job though so far, and traditional media - woo!

Lark: Love it!

Aedant: Unusual and well painted- good stuff.

Homerid: Nicely done. Really liking the cityscape apocalypse theme. One thing I might suggest though is to shrink down his right "back arm"/wing slightly and bring his right arm into the silhouette, as at the minute his right wing is reading as his right arm at first glance (at least to me).

Featherwurm: I like this a lot. Very scary in a biblical way.

Phade: Great design and tasty rendering.

Thanks a lot for the feedback - went with the people and chose the sheep! Only had a half hour to work on it so far, but will hopefully get some time tomorrow night before the deadline.

[porcupine]

Btw when is the deadline, since I'm not in the same time-zone as you guys, is there any forum-time or something?

[Aedant]

I'm done! I've just posted my final! I'm pretty happy with it! Thanks for all the opinons ans suggestions!

(Lark I just love how freaky the head looks on that little lamb's body! The texturing of the face is incredible!

Labyrinthine The splatter of red in the background is awesome. It really looks like it has been traditionnaly painted! I hope you'll have the time to finish!

Fiddzy That's a cool idea! Jaw bones as toes is pretty unusual! Looking forward for the final version!

[NickyBeats]

AWESOME UPDATES EVERYONE!!!!

thanks for those who left me feedback!! ive been reworking this all day almost, i ditched the antlers because my buddy said he looked like "Bullwinkle from hell", so i trashed em haha. -as far as the knight in the foreground goes... im not sure what to do honestly. i know hes kind of taking up alot of real estate on the page, but should i move him? leave him as a few suggestive brush strokes? keep him in silhouette? or just move him towards the beast and shrink him down? im not sure really. i guess ill mess with some ideas in my sketchbook first. as always, feedback is much appreciated!!!

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=1000633&stc=1&d=1276741757

[(lark]

nickybeats: cool update. I think the only real problem with you composition is the placement of the sword. 1st thing is that it reads like he's resting it on top of his head. Its a tad akward. The other thing is that the blade of the sword runs into and stops at the creatures hand. That makes it almost read like the creature is holding it at first glance. What I would do is move the guy with the sword over to the right a little bit. Then raise the sword up a bit so it looks like he's just holding it up, or move the sword down so it looks like its resting on his shoulder. Just my 2 cents, hope it helps.

[Si_Swe]

Well... this sucks. I'm probably not going to have the time to finish mine by deadline tomorrow. I sure will try, though. I've started to do some more rendering on the heads, going back towards the body and legs. Cheers!

[NickyBeats]

(lark - thanks dude!! yea, your definately right. i didnt even notice that it ended at his hand, well at least not so much to notice that it could seem as though the giant was holding it. great ideas! im gonna try em out, and see what happens! thanks again man!

[Arbinn]

Little fixing here and there. Changed the head into a three faced lamb though it doesn't really look like that yet. :D

[Labrynthine]

Well, it's 4:30 AM and there's still some more rendering to be done:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v622/SpectralArtist/cowbeast8.jpg

[Arbinn]

Looking great Labyrinthine. I'd just like to see the torso twist or bend more. It looks so stiff. :/

[Labrynthine]

Arbinn - The gold torso of the monster or the big torso?

[(lark]

nickybeats: no prob man. thats what this place is all about. getting another pair of eyes to check on your work to see what we miss.

well i'm posting my final now. could probably do some more minor things to mine but im pretty happy with it. and im completely out of time (working all day tomorrow).

good luck everyone, and hopefully see alot of you next round! MOAR COW!

[Arbinn]

It's getting there surely but way too slowly... :S I'm going to suffer because of the background... Either I leave it fugly or stress myself near to exhaustion trying to get it right. :S

All tips and advice are greatly appreciated!

Labyrinthine: The golden torso.

[Si_Swe]

Depending on when the poll goes up, I may be able to get the piece up. It may not be the fully finished piece. Well here's what I have now before I head off to work.

[(lark]

si swe: you can do it man! Its too good to not make it to the final.

[Homerid]

Just posted my final, good luck to all!

porcupine - I love the hypnotizing evil expression on your dragonsheep :) Thanks for letting me know about the confusing hoof, I worked a bit on them, hopefully now they look a little better.

(lark - Fantastic work on the face and textures.

Harmaggedon - Thanks man. I see you have managed to separate your creature form the background a bit, try to accentuate the contrast between them a little more, just a suggestion.

Arbinn - Nice updates man, don't kill yourself to get the background right, at least that's the way I think, sure a cool environment would give an extra to the final image, but if the creature is well designed and developed I don't think is that necessary. Looking forward to the final.

More comments later, I've got lots of work to do :S

[Arbinn]

Last WIP.

I won't work on the background more than this I think. I might do something to the foreground though.

I'm getting more and more depressed and angry the the closer to the final I'm getting as I don't like what I see at all. -.- Just like I did with my previous works as well. I don't like my style but I don't know what the *** I can do to it...

[Arbinn]

My piece is in the finals- thread now. It is very rushed but I don't want to wake up and see the poll up without my work in there even though it's not nearly as good as I wanted to. Neither is it as bad as I feared it would be though. I managed to save some of the work by playing around with brightness and colors.

I will hone it a bit further in the morning if I have time.

Off I go now. Alarm is set at 7 AM. It's 1 AM now... X_X

[Harmageddon]

Arbinn: yeah, I know exactly what you mean :) Changing the creature at every post makes it hard to finish of course ;)
Too little time, or as Douglas Adams would have it, "Ahhh...deadlines. Don't you just love the whooshing sound they make as they fly past?"

I'm still honing my piece, and now the paint's wet and I can't scan my latest progress. . crap. When is the poll going up? Tomorrow morning I can at least put up another one (the current one, dry) but even then. Ah well.

*keeps fingers crossed*

[(lark]

si swe: justin beiber hahahahahahaha! That made my day.

[J-Sun]

Incredible entires guys.
I'm late to the table with this one - I'll definitely post comments in the voting thread.

Meanwhile, here's my entry, still a little rough around the edges:
http://www.digitaljungle.com/cow/J-SunCOW180.jpg


:yayca:

[Harmageddon]

Meh, final is drying at home, while I'm at work.
Scorge: One more day? Pweeease? *pouts lips, enlarges eyes and tries to look female and innocent*

Labyrinthine: hopefully you'll get yours finished. Looks very nice! Very cool idea, and beautifully executed (so far :P)
Veshkau: cheers! And yeah, traditional media! Woot! I want to understand paint better, so that when I get a tablet and play around with digital, I'll have a solid understanding of the real thing. At least, I hope that's how it works.
Other than that, I just love the traditional stuff!
Nice colors on your sheep btw, I'm looking forward to the beast!
Arbinn: go, go, go! Hopefully you'll get it done. Maybe we get an extra day? I like how your beast is now also firmly rooted in hell.
Si Swe: keep at it man, hopefully you'll get yours finished too.
Homerid: cheers! And I'll take your suggestion to heart, in fact, I've been working on that yesterday night. Now at work, got up too late this morning to scan the progress. . . meh, had to rush to work.
Oh and I like what you changed on the legs, much more solid now. I like the summoning circle, and the "end of days" you made with the cityscape.
J-Sun: welcome to the fray! And nice work, how long did that take you?

[Arbinn]

Hello again.

I worked on the beast about an hour and a half before starting to do some actual work and managed to fix multiple flaws. It looks much better now and I don't consider it a complete fail anymore. :) I put it to the finals thread.

Nice round everyone! I hope Labyrinthine can make it in time.

[scorge]

Poll's going up tonight guys! If you need a little more time to polish anything now's your chance.

[(lark]

scorge: hey man. Any chance we can get 181 up today before the poll?

[Lodin]

Yeah Thanks Scorge !

My concept : a demon who's born under a azteque temple... i will explain later a little more

My wip
http://img690.imageshack.us/img690/327/cow2v.jpg (http://img690.imageshack.us/i/cow2v.jpg/)http://img375.imageshack.us/img375/9211/cow2step2.jpg (http://img375.imageshack.us/i/cow2step2.jpg/)

[Migsta]

Was a busy week with E3 and stuff, didn't finish...

This is all i got...

http://www.miguellleras.com/Chow180_Migsta.jpg

[J-Sun]

J-Sun: welcome to the fray! And nice work, how long did that take you?

Thanks Harmageddon!
I must have worked on it for a good 4+ hours last friday...
I was looking to get a jump on this one and put a lot more time into it.
Unfortunately I wasn't able to get back to working on it until last night - scrambling to post in time and skimping on certain areas - like those feet - gah! :wip:


Cheers!
:yayca:

[Dead Dude]

si swe: Mark of the beast? http://smartsearchfinance.com.au/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/ge_money_exit_fees_waived1.jpg

:P

Cheers
-DDW

[scorge]

Sheesh (lark! Don't you have anything better to do?! ;) It'll go up tonight my friend. Still thinking about it. Can't rush these things.
Migsta: If anyone can pull this one off it would be you. :D

[Si_Swe]

(lark - Thanks, I figured with all the seriousness of the apocalypse I can at least take solace in shitty music going down with the world.

Dead Duke - I didn't really feel like making up a symbol and I wanted it grounded in a "modern" apocalypse scenario even though it's a fantastical creature. Thus I figured I'd use a corporate logo. I didn't want to go with something as cliched as McDonalds and no corporation terrifies me as much as GE.

[(lark]

Hahaha sorry scorge. I just had some free time today and wanted to get a head start because I'm busy all weekend. No rush, I'm just really getting into these cows. No pressure.

[scorge]

Here we go!