ChoW#221 :: VOTING :: Sun Wukong - The Monkey King

[Martheart]

FINALS ONLY

-=ROUND 221=-


-= Sun Wukong – The Monkey King =-

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http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii293/chowarchive/CHOW_Headerimage/QUEENOFCHOW_logo-1.jpg

NOT SURE ABOUT THE GUIDELINES? CLICK HERE! (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=117390)




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ROUND #221 :: Sun Wukong – The Monkey King



DESCRIPTION


Sun Wukong – The Monkey King

Now this is a very interesting character from the Chinese epic novel “Journey to the West”. The novel tells the story of The Monkey King accompanying a monk on an epic journey to India. Sun Wukong is incredibly strong and has the power to transform himself into 72 different creatures and objects; however when he turns himself in to a human form, he’s not able to hide his monkey tail! The myth of the Monkey King inspired many movies, tv-shows and manga like the 2008 movie “The Forbidden Kingdom” and ofcourse the manga and anime “Dragonball”. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journey_to_the_West_in_popular_culture)

Now it’s time this character inspires you!

Design Sun Wukong, The Monkey King!


Think of his attributes, like his monkey tail (when in human form) and his staff.
Setting can be anything, but make him recognizable as the Monkey King!


Some inspiration and information:


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Wukong
http://www.china-on-site.com/monkey.php

Good luck!



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

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

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


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

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



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

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Quick Check: Have You Submitted Your Chow Properly?

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

Good luck!

[Vaejoun]

Sun Wukong - The monkey king

[JRamz75]

http://img703.imageshack.us/img703/4407/chow221jramz752.jpg (http://img703.imageshack.us/i/chow221jramz752.jpg/)

Uploaded with ImageShack.us (http://imageshack.us)

[SaintLConcept]

thanks guys, its been a great challenge

[emerging]

Here is my version! He is not as crazy, more serious and mature now! Still riding the clouds though! One of my Asian friends saw this and said I am turning into an Asian now too.. lol so we decided to go all the way and I made a Chinese Seal signature in the corner for Chow info lol

[monotony]

1100993
1100995

[PokketMowse]

Here's my take on the monkey king's prankster persona. Noodle thief!

1101073

http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/7571/processmonkey.jpg

[caanan02]

- Monkey King Final -

Had a blast with this one. I went with a mix of the asian and Indian cultures - lose clothing and the brass beed colar mixed with the elaberate headgear and armor you see in the indian culture - as he takes flight on the cloud returning to earth. Great job everyone!!! can't wait to see what's next!

Be blessed

†

http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/1900/monkeyking2.jpg

[IDP]

Sun WuKong

1101203
11012041101205

[Kafka Dreams]

Truly staggering talent on display here.

I don't enter to win. I enter to improve.

My mischevious monkey entry

[Onnophris]

1101248

1101249

[JanJager]

Sun Wu Kong

[MCL!on]

1101253

1101254

[SwitchbladeArchitect]

Hey guys....My idea here is of a metal-punk street-tough monkey King. Here i'm depicting him after defeating 100,000 celestial warriors from heaven throughout earth destroying cities in their wake.

[ENBE]

Only had today to really put pen to paper but its a result, really enjoyed the variety everyone went considering such an established character.

I played on the reality of king being an older character, and just keep the colours rich. Could be much 'tighter' but time got away \, anyways hope you enjoy

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5699990/CHOW%23221_ENBE.jpg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5699990/CHOW%23221_ENBE_MainSketch.jpg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5699990/CHOW%23221_ENBE_Thumbs.jpg

[dannE-B]

Just trying a more modern version, thanks and goodluck to everyone, nice work.

[fudoki]

wish i'd had more free time. didn't get to do half of what i'd wanted. oh well...

[buffichar]

The monkey king

[Carnifex]

Carnifex/ConceptArt/Characters/Fantasy/Photoshop
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Had to rush this one in the end. But i'm glad i got it done.

[Koh]

Finished up!

Kinda messed up my wip#2, sorry about that.

[TheAlchemy]

http://static.diary.ru/userdir/1/4/4/4/1444314/62386818.jpg

[Lodin]

Hi all,

My entry :

[Woodenduck]

Really enjoyed this Character, hope you do x

[AndreRuben]

this was some hell of a round! =D

[Paolo13]

chow_221

[Smolin]

Not as finished as I'd have liked...oh well!
WiP #1 (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=2919516&postcount=78)
WiP #2 (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=2922221&postcount=170)

[Swordhand]

First of all, really good topic this week.
Here's my entry - Journey to the West(Side) 8)
Got no idea why my WIP looks that way.. just a really weird screen shot.

[sone_one]

not as "mature" as i would have liked, but unfortunately had no time for the rest of the week >.<

ill edit in the wips asap but didnt want to be excluded because of a few minutes...[edit] done

1101602

1101604

[LJS]

http://ljsabourin.com/Blog/wp-content/uploads/CHOW221_LJS_Final.jpg
http://ljsabourin.com/Blog/wp-content/uploads/CHOW221_LJS_WIP.jpg

[ArtbyWard]

Deadline! Few minutes grace...

[Mincx]

Here's mine

[snootchy]

couldn't get as much done as i wanted to but here's what i got...

great job all

1101642

1101646

[kittymeow84]

So many good entries I really dont know who to pick!

[Carnifex]

agreed,it's damn difficult.
although i've come to the conclusion that monotone's is my favourite. the overall atmosphere is just awesome,total mysticism. not sure the character would work as well in any different environment,but in this setting,he's perfect.
edit: further votes went to ljs,lodin and switchblade architect.

[kittymeow84]

I voted for:
ENBE
montony
pokketmouse
vaejoun
lodin

Thats already too many - its gonna be a close one I think. Really really awesome stuffs everyone :D

[CrookedHorn]

i voted for a good amount this time 'round.

ill have crits after work today to share

this is as far as i could get with mine probably will finish it up tonight and start on the that awesome steam punk super hero.

[Vaejoun]

@crooked horn:
Nice, though I am not sure what that hairy long things on his head are. Usually I would say feathers (like on asian generals) but here...

reminds me of King Ceasar from Godzilla:
http://bp1.blogger.com/_QfaCg-DskZY/ReB23fYaN_I/AAAAAAAAAGc/QBZhIwwL67Q/s320/King+Caesar+pic.jpg
^^

[CrookedHorn]

Vaejoun:: HA! well played. yeah they might not be needed :)
by the way, great job this week! I am rooting for your victory, you deserve it :rocker:

[emerging]

great work everyone but im kind of disappointed in the way the voters judge people's work. It's not just about the rendering detail and color. Big part of it is also nailing the character which in this case is of Chinese Origin. It is a Monkey King. So I would go off of two criteria which is the fact that he needs to look somewhat royal/fancy and that he needs to look really asian. Unfortunately some people seem to misunderstand the purpose of the CHOW which is to portray the description as close as possible. There are quite a few people whose rendering skills are superb but many works look rather more African than Asian to me. I believe there is one work that is being underappreciated in this thread and that is the Monkey King by Enbe. Superb pose and colors. You nailed the asian mood and it really does look like a monkey king. Of course this may be just my opinion but most of the other works voted better than that one do not have nearly as much of that oriental feel and do not come across as Monkey King to me if not for the title.

[Paolo13]

mmmm Emergin, I will give you my point of view in my bad english sorry. I understand your feeling about the voting system, but many of as know that we are not going to be judged just by pepole that work in the field of game. As of takeing the character out of its original context, I think that, sometimes, it helps a lot to produce originality. Something like the monkey king can be a character that offers you the chance to create the feeling of the character in a simple pose or a kind of coloring mood, but all in a diffrent background or enviroment. I do not feel that the artwork of other artist has been underappriciated just becose it is not winning, actually the fact that you like it means a lot becouse of your tallent and passion for the industry. I got less votes but that will not make me think to be underappreciated but the opposite, it means tha my art is viewed and taken in consideration, positive or negative, and from this I try to learn how to improove. I am sure you feel the same way and sometimes it is nice to have these points raisen in the thread so that we can talke about them.

Hope to not have sound rude or talking like someone who has all the answers.

Ciao se you on the next COW, I need to catch up on your stars

[Carnifex]

problem also being that a lot of people who don't actually participate do vote,and they tend to go for "the pretty pictures".
i take some pride in actually having done research for this chow,although the outcome was weak nevertheless. (picture-wise)

[CrookedHorn]

i agree with everything all three of you said.
Carnifex, Paolo13, and emerging


lets be fair, if the voting was solely between the competitors the outcome would be very different. I personally love the fact that the general public(other members of the forum) can vote on these competitions. It shows the artist who compete here how their work resonates with the rest of the people on the this site.

I believe the ability to follow the brief and communicate with outside voters visually is a hard thing to achieve but something we can all strive for.
In the end it is up to the Admins to put their foot down on following the brief and other rules as well. all we can do is rock out as hard as we can. winning the vote is just icing on the cake.

as a note, this is usually how i vote:
quality of form
interesting pose
improvement
personal taste

everyone did a great job this round.

[PokketMowse]

great work everyone but im kind of disappointed in the way the voters judge people's work. It's not just about the rendering detail and color. Big part of it is also nailing the character which in this case is of Chinese Origin. It is a Monkey King. So I would go off of two criteria which is the fact that he needs to look somewhat royal/fancy and that he needs to look really asian. Unfortunately some people seem to misunderstand the purpose of the CHOW which is to portray the description as close as possible. There are quite a few people whose rendering skills are superb but many works look rather more African than Asian to me. I believe there is one work that is being underappreciated in this thread and that is the Monkey King by Enbe. Superb pose and colors. You nailed the asian mood and it really does look like a monkey king. Of course this may be just my opinion but most of the other works voted better than that one do not have nearly as much of that oriental feel and do not come across as Monkey King to me if not for the title.

I am going to respectfully disagree with you on this one. Part of the reasons I liked following the CHOW contests is to see what new ideas the artists could come up with, not just with the character but with the theme itself. I love the Asian-inspired Monkey King pieces and the research that went into them. But I also love just as much the different takes on the Monkey King character, taking him out of the bamboo forest and giving him a leather jacket and putting him in a post-apocalyptic wasteland or some such. I think that it makes the CHOW all that much more interesting. Instead of seeing a line of 'Different Asian Monkey Kings' you get all sorts of Monkey Kings doing lots of different things in different settings and themes!
I don't think it's a matter of artists misunderstanding the rules of the contest. I think it just comes down to a matter of opinion, really.

[Carnifex]

i agree with everything all three of you said.
Carnifex, Paolo13, and emerging


lets be fair, if the voting was solely between the competitors the outcome would be very different.


i'm not so sure about that. yes,it would be different,but most people still go with presentation instead of concept.
i admit,i hardly ever thought about the outside public while creating though.

[SwitchbladeArchitect]

i really disagree with the asian criteria suggestion....its about the story and the story you tell with your character...i see alot of asian in all of these but not necessarily alot of story...and by that i dont mean adding a bg either...i think if we all based ours off being chinese it would get stale....alot of great things in pop culture our ideas we borrow and adapt from other cultures and histories. Clearly, i feel that why because i did not make mine chinese and im glad i did not....dont get me wrong i liked what i saw here but why make them all so similar

[emerging]

I totally understand where you guys are coming from but the brief and the topic exist for a reason. If we are to be judged on our originality to a point of absurdness then we might as well create an open competition where everybody paints whatever they want and puts as much detail as they want. What is so original about a monkey king thats african for instance? we have seen it 100s times before. Easy example - Lion King - the Monkey Shaman idea is so overused so is it really that original? But dont get me wrong i have no problem with the pieces being original - original in its form, design, color and STYLE. Let us not forget that we are recreating an EXISTING character here - and a very specific character indeed. I just think that to make this character japanese, african or anything else is not following the rules and doesnt even make sense. If you are asked to draw an elf you wont draw an orc will you?

[emerging]

ALSO very important, there is a difference between integrating an existing character into a new setting and background and SUCCESSFULLY intergrating an existing character into a new setting and background. To me in all honesty, most of the pieces who do try to push the boundary did not succeed in achieving the perfect balance. And coming back to my point it just doesnt feel right when you know the artist intended it to look asian but it ends up looking African - that my friends is a failure - an inability to deliver what you want to say. And that is why I personally mostly appreciated the work that depicted a Monkey King as close as possible. Inevitably, the Monkey King is still going to be a completely different character even if we all make him chinese. It's not just black and white. But honestly it reminds me of a creature or the week contest where i mostly participate. There, if you are given in the brief that the cannibalistic creature needs to be green then you wont win if you creature is pink but is a very very pretty image indeed. See my point?

[SwitchbladeArchitect]

i think maybe we are arguing in different directions...The brief said monkey king and it gave you the resources to research his history i believe i followed that....not to mention he IS a monkey and he HAS his staff he did all the stuff that they talked about in the wiki articl( as i designed him, maybe you dont agree but i dont think the brief said: make sure he's chinese ( maybe its implied) but, its totally different from your elf/orc comparison. I agree that a brief must be followed but there needs to be some range of what following the guideline is.....for the most part you're right but once in a while you gotta spice it up a bit and that's what i did this round since i thought reading through the story that he sounds like a badass metal dude....whats wrong with that? it has to happen once in awhile. i only started posting recently and i hope to continue, i'm sure you will see that not everything i do is in a grey area of the rules but i think once in a while you gotta go with what you know. as far as being pretty i only had time to make mine look ok because im laid off and hoping to make portfolio pieces that stand out to whoever it is that looks at them...( not artists and therefore i've made it flashy) but i focused mostly on design....but go to china....if the monkey king did infact journey to the west and is immortal im sure he could've discovered metal music eventually and loved it....that's my opinion.....

[emerging]

ithink so too man. i didnt want you to think that im attacking your work in particular or anything. Whenever i say anything argumentative i always mean it as a whole including myself. I mean there is alot i agree with in what you are saying too so i dont even view this as "arguing". More like debating :)

anyway its amazing how much talent is present on this website. Makes me feel good to be part of such online community as this! And obviously different people will have different views and there are no right or wrongs for themost part

[ozzymaru]

first of all i wanna express my awe for all the good art posted. i wish i was half as good as the artists present here. but i do agree with the earlier post about the brief. it said 'monkey king' but some of the art (even though they are kick ass) looked like 'gorilla king' or 'some other species of apes king'. so i'm just a bit confused there. please don't misunderstand i'm not saying the art is not good. like i said the art is amazing. but i just feel that sun wukong as a character has always been a monkey and reflects the characteristics and mannerism of a monkey (even in his human form).

[knockoffking]

I’m obviously very late on this submission; I missed this contest back in NOV. This design wasn’t created for this contest; something I did awhile back. I wanted to share this since everyone’s drawing monkeys all of a sudden.

The monkey king is one of the sickest character ever created from one writer’s imagination. A true Zen Taoist Necromancer versatile in all forms of deadly combat; wearing crimson metallic armor and holding a 13,500 pound Golden Scepter which he wields as his deadly weapon. This trickster monkey believe it or not is also a metaphor for the Morning Star.

Morning star = Lucifer/The Bearer of Light/Satan/the Devil…HAHAHAHA!

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