Spectrum & Expose Illustration & Character Concepts & Sketches/Mech UPDATE 3/5/04

[Chris J. Anderson!]

Hey everyone.

This is my first attempt at a full and finished illustration with more than just the character in photoshop.
I finished this in January. It was pretty fun to do.
It's doubtful that I get into Spectrum, but maybe I'll get into Expose.
Hope you like it. Crits are definitly welcome.


http://www.chrisjanderson.com/Forumimages/The_Coldest_Day_1.jpg


-Chris

[jca]

poor girl :(

[Silvertone]

Man, I feel cold just looking at this picture!

I also want to know what happened to get this girl in her predicament, and who the heck those creepy specteral figures are!

Just a few crits though-

I think you're giving too much attention to everything ,to me everything has the same amount of detail-the figure, trees,and the background.I like the dark hair around the girls face as a framing device for her expression but it seems like there are too many other competing elements. Maybe some atmospheric perspective?

Also the axe seems off- the handle looks to me like a belt with an axehead attached to it.The form of the axe head seems a little off to me too.

And I hate to say it because I DO think its a great piece of work, but dude-those feet are killin me! You definitely have to feminize them more.They also seem very different in size.

Not a crit but maybe you could put some steam coming from her mouth-I think that would give an even colder feeling to the image.

Great job though- I like the concept ,colors, and the female figure is superb-except from the knees down(sorry!)!

[JoshuaTheJames]

This is just the beginning folks.

Like I said before Chris, if this is one of your first fully realized illustrations..then I really can't wait for the 20th or 2nd for that matter. :cool:

-Joshua

[metaphysiks]

hey nice piece, just a couple comments, i have to say a lot of what sivertone did.
when i first looked at it, i had some trouble figuring out what i was supposed to look at. there is a lot of detail and care in the entire piece, not to say that is bad but it gives everything the same visual value. i think the trees in the front could be blurred or toned down to establish the foreground, and then use atmospheric perspective in the back to establish the background. this may in turn bring some focus to the middleground where the chick is. that may solve half of your problem. then try framing the details you want us to see. guide our eye.
lastly, i agree with the axe comment. doesnt look rugged or round enough.
i would also like to see more distortion of the feet since the water doesnt look too calm. other than that i think it is excellent. also take what i say with a grain of salt as i am in no way shape or form an expert.
cheers and good luck
meta

[nikia]

Real nice work. Considering how cold it looks there, I would say she should be standing on ice, not in water. Especially with that shallow of water and being as it's slow moving, it would freeze fairly quickly.

[theincredibleandy]

I knew you could draw, Chris, but geez! That girl is painted ferociously well! Here's what I think:

• Some depth focus would help. Like everyone else is saying, a little background blurring would be nice, since it's mostly hard edges back there right now.
• For more focus, I'd try lightening the more distant trees and increasing the value contrast on the axe–a little rim lighting from the warm sky that's all the way back there. Using that would really help that figure pop out more. If you do that with the axe, though, make sure the brushstrokes look different from the water on the bottom of the axe.
• Her right leg looks a little funny. It's like it's not quite attached to the hip, or the knee is too twisted. (I like the feet, though–maybe they're subtly masculine, but I don't expect her to be a little princess, so I'm okay with 'em.)
• I don't think you need some of the branches near her face. With a little more space the crow flying at her would be more important, which would simply the piece a little.

Josh has been showing me your stuff for years, but you really knocked this one out of the park. By the way, some really lame stuff gets into Spectrum, so I'd say you got a good shot at it.

So when's the next piece coming?

[spiritform]

wow... this is intense! love the action and colors. very cold indeed.

[Ant4d]

wow. first illustration. and it looks like you've been doing them for ages. I can't wait to see more. very moody illustration. I love it

[giusep]

Tres beau style!
:)

[2kre8]

wow this blows me away, except some of the stuff that other people have said already. I remember your stuff from shane's site, did you use reference for this pic?

[R_M]

Beutiful! I really hope you make it in!

[Ra Havok]

djeezes, first illustration?

This is crazy good. Sucked me right in. Very intense indeed. I agree with de-focusing the background. Not necessarily blurring, but loosening up that little horizon line, for example.

Can't wait for your second one!! :)

[Chris J. Anderson!]

Hey everyone, thanks for all the compliments!

And thanks for taking the time to give this an in depth crit.
I've learned a lot already from what some of you have said and a lot of what you've mentioned, about her feet, legs, pushing the background back more in space, are all things I didn't realize were problems until I was almost finished with this and too out of gas to do anything about it. I'm definitly applying my new knowledge to the next illustration.

-Chris

[Chris J. Anderson!]

2kre8 - About reference, yeah I looked for a variety of reference for some of the environment elements to give myself an idea on how to approach certain textures and what brushes I would use to make them. Like the brick wall for example, I looked at a ton of different photos and also real bricks around the city to get an idea of how a brick looks that way and why, what kind of brushs should I use to get the realistic look I need. I did the same with the trees and learned a lot about the different types of pine trees that exist, and tried out some different effects. I had my girlfriend pose her hands for the girl, I wasn't sure how to paint hands in that angel outta my head. I also researched various painters of the past to get an idea about skin coloration, like when a bluish tone or greeninsh tone usually appears on flesh of the girls color. The colors I new where to paint was the pinks and purples, and reds and greys, I have that memorized, but blues and greens and even yellows on flesh I need to learn about more. BTW, i didn't know some of my stuff was on Shane's site!

Silvertone & Metaphysiks - Yeah i agree about not giving too much attention to everything. When I did this I wanted to make everything clear, nothing ambiguous because I was a bit tired of doing those kinds of paintings where everything is dark and hidden with a hint of detail in only a few well lit areas. And I was a bit tired of doing the Craig Mullins atmosphereic effect for backgrounds to cause distance. I was trying to see if I could get everything to all have it's own level of detail but still be very clear to see everything. I went over board. Looking at it now I see I could of relied on some of the old tricks but not too much, and with some other ideas in mind, to do what your saying. I had some trouble with that axe, I was starting to run out of gas by that point. The feet gave me problems, I've drawn feet many times, but rarely get a chance to paint them. I was so caught up in detail, I made em too big for her size. And I tried putting steam from her mouth, but the whole peice was getting too detailed.

Josh - I'm still planning out that second illust.:D

theincredibleandy - Hey man glad you like this. About the branches you mentioned, yeah I had a feeling I was crowding her head a little too much with them. I agree it would add more breathing room. Heh, that would be cool to get in Spect. I'll have a new illust, with all the problems you guys pointed out in this, taken care of in that. I'm gonna spend a long time on it, try to plan it out more like the old illustrators.


Here's a concept of one of the characters that will be in the next illustration. It's a bit of a failed experiment because the quality of finish on her didn't happen the way I wanted it. But I learned a lot from this drawing so my next ones won't be as crude. For this, I used no reference, I wanted to make sure each design for the armor and weapons were really thought out and explained.

http://www.chrisjanderson.com/Forumimages/Chiay_Bukio_Body.jpg

[sea minus]

Fucking cool my friend.:rock: I love the boots and the shoulder stuff. I also like where the dress meets her boots. She looks tall enough to be on stilts, however. But that's not a big deal to me. Can't wait to see how you drop the color.

[Chermilla]

It's a wicked drawing chris, I really like it, especially the water coming off the axe. :)

I wouldn't hold my axe that way if I was sh*tting my brick though! I think I'd hold it so the blade was facing the other way!! :D

[McNallyism]

Hey Chris, this illustration is INSANE with the amount of detail you put into it. The cloth is painted beautifully as well as the water and everything else for that matter. I'm totally impressed. I would agree about creating more of a sense of focus in the painting, but that would only take a little color dodge here and a darker wash there to unify the composition. This piece is a shoo-in for expose 2 and by all rights should be in the next Spectrum as well. I'll be upset if it doesn't get in both, considering the crap that somehow ends up in those books. Good luck, and I can't wait to see the next illustration...

-Sean

Edit: HOLY CRAP!! I didn't see that tech girl when I was writing this. Oh man! Quick, get to the colahhh! Do eet now! Yeaaulgh!

And I wonder what happened to the life raper 1 and 2....?

[chukw]

Kickin' some arse, Chris! You're getting a lot of great crit on that great painting. And nobody's jacked your thread whining about titties, either! :D I dunno if you're looking for crit on the "failed"drawing, but here goes. the stripes on her skirt need to be spaced differently- make it look more cylindrical. You've got a great light source on her face- carry it ove to the rest of the body- under the breasts, along the left side of the figure, and don't forget the shadow of the arm holding the "Life Raper 3" falling across her body... Then you can go in and add the secondary light form this intriguingly-named weapon. You're on a roll- :chug:

[JoshuaTheJames]

Sean and Chuk... You guys are crackin me up!


Chris is definitely Big Pimpin!

But Beware Chris...

The James is coming and will shatter all hopes and dreams...

:evilbat: heh.

-Joshua


EDIT: Sean? What exactly is a "colahhh"?

[Feng]

Hey Chris,

good to see you here! Nice work as always!

How are you these days? Been a while.....

-feng

[ChaosEidolon]

Damn straight man. Good luck on getting into the compendiums, you gotta have faith!

That tech girl design fantastic. I particularly love the mix of classical and tech influences in the clothing. Great conceptualization.
The style you have going is very unique as well. After seeing your first few pieces(megaman and some great facial studies) i could immediately identify your work when i saw it again.

The crits stated before are all good advice, so ill leave it at that.
Thanks for posting!

[Chris J. Anderson!]

Thanks all!!

Ted!! - I'm really glad you like battle Chick! Yeah I know she's a bit tall, theres a few things here and there I wasn't happy with. I can't wait to show her colored and in action.

Sean - Thanks man. I feel an adrenaline rush to start working on the second illust while all you guys advice are still floating in my mind! Oh, and about the Life Raper 1 and 2? Hahaha, number 2 was a legendary weapon, but the first one, it was filled with unspeakable evil, a sword too powerful for even the most strongest human to use.

Chukw - I'm glad you saw this! Haha, nope, nobody yelled about the hooters yet :p Thanks for the crit on the drawing of the warrior girl. The stripes on the girls dress, when you said "make more cylindrical, you mean add a curves to the lines rather than being straight up and down? About the light source on her face, yeah, I wasn't sure about how much shading I should do for this. I thought if I shaded too much that I might loose the design, but at the same time I thought it needed more, juts didn't know where to place it without killing the design. The places you suggested to add the shadows make a lot of sense. I think I won't be so afriad to add more shadows to show the form more. Hahaa, glad you like the wicked name of her weapon!:D

Josh - I can't wait to see what happens when you post your atom bomb.

Feng - Hey thanks for the compliment! I've always admired your work, everytime I see it, I see more and new great approaches taken in your work. That mall paint demo I saw you post here a few weeks ago was great. I've been pretty cool, taking on as much cool work I can to keep challenging my skills to get my drawing and paint/concept style where I want it to be.

ChaosEidolon - I'm glad you like the classical and tech style in the girls wardrobe. Thats exactly what I was going for! I was hoping I was able to get the designs across clear to some degree. It's a little busy in areas. By the way, I saw your 3D work, great stuff dude, that chick is sweet!

Icy - alright here's some more stuff, I was able to get finished....


This is a paint sketch portrait of Chiay Bukio, the girl in the battle armor. Here are also some expression sketches, and a 'in my opinion' overly tight line rendering. I messed up the wrinkles on her nose where her eyes meet. I' m not satisfied with that drawing but I learned from the mistakes.

Chiay Bukio color sketch...

http://www.chrisjanderson.com/Forumimages/Chiay_color_sketch.jpg

Expressions...

http://www.chrisjanderson.com/Forumimages/Chiay_expressions.jpg

Over worked line drawing...

http://www.chrisjanderson.com/Forumimages/Chiay_Beukio_Face_1.jpg


Cheers,
-Chris

[JoshuaTheJames]

Ka-Boom, Chris.... Ka-Boom... :cool:

[swampbug]

that stylized face is SUPER SEXAH !

[MindCandyMan]

Oh man wow that was you that did that illustration! I was looking through the entries and I thought man...that guy's is awesome!!!!! You will get in for sure with that image...definitely! You have mad skills man I will definitely be watching this thread...amazing.

[jca]

oh wow, that second character looks scary LOL

[simmi]

Beutiful! looking forward for more ! :D

[I.was.ink]

These are some really great pieces Chris. I've always like your work and your sketchy style.

Post more if ya got em! I wanna see what else you've got!

-iwasink

[trueping]

Great art work Chris!

[The TODDLER]

Awsome artwork, I love looking at all of the them.
They are really great...

[carlo]

DOOD ROXOR MY BOXOR! powerful piece man. I love how the things in the disatance are wrm rathether than the foreground. It seems to increase the sense of doom. This is my new desktop

[Scubasteve]

You have a realistic way of rendering eyes. They convey alot of personality. They are cool! My one critique would be that the girls all look very similar. Assuming they are not the same woman...If so, disregard prior statement! Very good!!:chug:

[JoshuaTheJames]

Originally posted by carlo
the sense of doom.

That sounds hilarious!

-Joshua

[Loga4]

Excellent work!

[ChadTHX1138]

Ka-pow Chris Ka-pow! aint that right Josh?

[Chris J. Anderson!]

Thanks guys! I'm glad you all are digging this stuff.

Treuping - Hey, whats up Todd! Thanks alot.

Carlo - hey I'm glad you like the painting. I've seen some of the new stuff you've done recently, I like the way you paint some of those faces. Cool shite.

Scubasteve - Thanks, I'm glad you think that about the eyes. The eyes are usually the first parts of the art works that I spend a lot of time on before doing anything else. You said that all the woman look similar. If your talking about all the women in the drawings, thats the same person. But if your talking about most of the women in my work, yeah, you caught me, I realize I tend to gravitate towards a certain look that I need to break away from. I am starting to find enjoyment in drawing women who have longer faces, bigger noses, different eyes, different hair, etc. I see now how an artist can get stuck with creating a certian type of person because it appeals for some reason.

I.was.ink - Hey thanks man. Yeah I'm trying to get more different types of art on my site, more paintings and other stuff. It will be a little while but keep a look out for more new stuff in the next few months. I still gotta redue my website.

Mindcandyman - Thanks! Haha, I new once I posted the painting in the entires section, someone was going to see it, I just hoped not too many people saw it before I posted it here.

Chad & Josh - Hahaha!

TheTODDLER, Simmi, jca, loga 4, swampbug, thanks!


I thought I'd share these sketches to show how I think when I draw sometimes to get designs that I want, poses, character, etc. These are various sketches of Chiay's armor, and face. It took some time to figure out exactly how I wanted her outfit to look. All I new at the time was, I wanted her to be covered in big mech armor and weaponry, but it all had to make sense and be unique.

This first one is the "Shoulder Blade" gadget. This holds a very powerful sword she uses rarely, only on massively powerful enemies. I was figuring out how the shape should be. It would be able to electronically move down her back to give her more room to do battle. It sits on her shoulder when ever she is ready to pull out her powerful sword, for easy access, or whenever it it used to charge up for special energy purposes.

http://www.chrisjanderson.com/Forumimages/Shoulder_Blade.jpg

Figuring out how the shoulder blade gadget rests on her, and what the shoulder ARMOR should be like. I didn't want your basic same ol anime shoulder armor. I wanted something different. I wanted it to look like it had different functions/ abilities. One thing, they work with her weapons, like a battery charger, and creates a small shield on her outfit for protection in battle.

http://www.chrisjanderson.com/Forumimages/Shoulder_Armor.jpg

I came up with those by getting inspiration from my girlfirends pots and pans, kitchen supplies, blenders, just cool shapes you see in life. Of course I didn't want to just throw a toaster on her shoulder, here I started to put some ideas together to get other ideas for cool shapes.

http://www.chrisjanderson.com/Forumimages/Shoulder_Armor_Ideas.jpg

I'm not totally finished with her design because I have to draw more of how her suit functions.

[Sularia]

Everything I'm seeing posted on your thread is getting better and better. I'm in love with those face sketches - you get such expression!!!

Sularia

[Chris J. Anderson!]

Sularia, thanks. It took me while to figure out what her face and hair should look like.

I had many sketches of her face that were no where near what I wanted. But here, crazy hair, and a few decent face marks, gettin warmer.

http://www.chrisjanderson.com/Forumimages/Chiay_Face_Sketches.jpg

I final decided on this one, the hair MUST be up! Because she's wild.

http://www.chrisjanderson.com/Forumimages/Chiay_Face_Sketches_2.jpg

Getting used to drawing her style.

http://www.chrisjanderson.com/Forumimages/Chiay_Face_Sketches_3.jpg

[Chris J. Anderson!]

Alright I know these are a lot of posts, I just have this one more to show for now.

Here is a sneek preview to some quick work I've been doing after work for other projects. Chad suggested I posted this.

http://www.chrisjanderson.com/Forumimages/Soul.jpg

[ChadTHX1138]

Awesome mech I was blown away when I saw it on your monitor earlier, BIIIIIG BOODIE KISS from me dude!

[JoshuaTheJames]

Lets just stuff this thread full!!!!

Here is Chris's sketchs for the "Coldest Day" Painting.

http://www.chrisjanderson.com/Forumimages/The_Coldest_Day_Process.jpg

[Rinaldo]

nice one Chris!


I dig how it's very clear and open. not so dark etc as you said. the eyeflow is good enough that the detail doesn't bog it down, and besides there is enough difference in focus between elements for it to work fine imo.
feels cold! could definitly see this as a good book cover, catches the eye great with the warm/cool alone.

whine-> her face is not as solid as it could be, erm,
I'm not very experienced with this type of illustration and I hate paintovers, but here's a hatchet job.

http://www.bugglefug.com/junk/Chrisa_butcher.gif

I think the main thing is the ear, was a bit low.
Idunno you might like it better the way it was, just a thought :P

[daok]

I really like your draw, it's amazing but I am from Canada and usually I do not see water and snow in the same time ;) Water freeze when it's cold :p

Very nice picture, keep drawing dude!

[Ulysses]

Your painting skills blow me away...I'm amazed....love the atmosphere of that first piece...great design on the pencil drawing of the girl too....very nice sir. :cool:

[Clandestine_IX]

This is fantastic! I really like the skin tones. There is a nice feeling of tension too. Though there could be a little more atmosphere between the girl and the dark figures. This is some really great work!