C.O.W. #219. Frilled Sand-Surfer - VOTING!

[Si_Swe]

Round #219 - Voting!

Topic: Frilled Sand-Surfer

Deadline for voting: 1 week

this weeks requirements... (read BEFORE voting)

- Creature must reside in a sandy environment
- Creature must in some way "surf" on or in the sand within said environment
- Creature must have frills present in the design

[Rob Powell]

Artist: Rob Powell

Concept: Frilled Sand-Surfer


Though fairly small, these creatures are very agile as they run on the desert sand, whenever they come across a downward slope on the sand dunes, using their legs, they spring forward onto the sand, sliding very quickly down the sandy slope, giving them added speed as they avoid predators or chase after prey.
1270571

[Scriar]

Artist: Scriar

Concept: Frilled Sand-Surfer

This Frilled Sand surfing creature is considered to be an evolution of the desert scorpion. Using a flower like tail to attract insects; the frills of the tail fly back causing the stinger to thrust forward striking its prey. The creature body surfs on dunes using its front legs for manoeuvring, the creatures tongue much like a lizards is used for sensing its surroundings.

[Rist]

Artist: Rist

Concept: Solitudo Fish


The Solitudo Fish, or more commonly known as Frilled Sand-Surfer, is a unique blend of a fish and a slug. This gigantic can grow the size of a tree and can whip out at those too distant for its huge maw to grab. This particular breed likes to swim in the sand and surf on top to show its huge bulk and create fear in its prey.

[DoctorDigits]

Artist: DoctorDigits

Concept: Frilled Sand-Surfer



These creatures lounge upon the sandy beaches in their burrowed homes, when turtles come upon their beach they proceed to launch themselves in a frenzy to get the turtle's shell before another has the chance. . . after all, they need the shell to show off their gnarly sand-surfing skills to impress the ladies!
1271234

[The Shazam]

Artist: Shazam

Concept: Saltatio Ventus Lacerta

The Salatio Ventus Lacerta (Dancing Wind Lizard) has adapted to the harsh climate of the dessert and the great gusts that come with it. Instead of waiting for their dinner the Dancing Wind Lizard opens the frills around it's neck to ride the wind then quickly closes them to catch their insect meals. Sometimes when the wind becomes powerful enough the lizards seems almost like they're surfing on the sand.

[Mr. Corlan]

Artist: Mr. Corlan

Concept: Lesser Wind-rider
The Lesser Wind-rider is a common sight amid the dunes of Altenar IV. Though rather slow and helpless crawling on the ground, when it spreads its leathery frills to catch the wind it can cruise over the sand at impressive speeds, its body held aloft by the wind and its specially adapted tail. Enlarged vertebrae in its lower tail form a bony, disc-like structure upon which it glides across the sand. It can even use this appendage as a hydrofoil to skate across water for short distances.

[warburton]

Artist: Logistic Puppet

Concept: The desert arcinam

It felt like I had been walking across this endless desert for a life time in search of the hidden temple of life. I had given up hope a long time ago that the temple even existed, it was only when all faith was lost that i saw the shiny structure amidst the golden glow of warm light on the horizon. Had i finally reached the answers I had been searching for my entire life? Was this the edge of the world where men met gods as the stories foretold? Only as this thought past my mind did i see a shimmering in the distance and the faint sound of hissing breaking the silence. Busting out of the sand and elegantly skimming the surface of the desert was the guardian of the temple and father of the deserts, the Arcinam. He swam through the sand like liquid silk, speedily making his way towards me. It was a strange feeling, like being brought into the world for the first, I felt no fear, only nervous excitement as the creature made his way towards me.
"I'm ready for your blessing great beast" and as these words left my mouth, my mind was filled with memories of past worlds and universes, and my second journey had begun.

[snippet]

Artist: snippet

Concept: Frilled Sand Surfer

This beetle is a cousin of the cicada, and shares a similar mundane life cycle. It has adapted to living in a desert environment. Much of it's time is spent being dormant underneath the sand, but it awakens during mating season. The beetle lost it's use for it wings, and eventually evolved frills to help it "surf" down the giant dunes in search for other mates.

[Lege1]

Artist: Lege1

Concept: "Frilled Sand Surfer"

The ancient Egyptians left remnants of secret information, about an ancient beast that used to scower the infinite sands of the mystical Sahara deserts for food, in their hieroglyphs. These creatures were known as Frilled Sand Surfers and were named this by the pharaohs and peasant workers of many, many years ago. These creatures were said to work for the gods by covering up certain sacred history in the sandy desert like royal talismans, and weapons that were to be concealed by the desert strictly for use by the gods. Frill like appendages fanned out from the creatures neck as it glides and slides over multiple rows of sand dunes, thus giving the appearance to those who witnessed it from afar; a surfer.

[lkjhgfdsa]

Artist: lkjhgfdsa

Concept: Jeweled Wingmen

Surfers of the long desert, the Jeweled Wingman use the wing cover chitin of their ancestors to learn to surf. Once they reach adulthood they purposefully maim and remove one of their own wing covers so as to create another surfboard for their offspring to carry on the surfing tradition.
Weirdos...

[McGhoul]

Artist: McGhoul
Concept: Sand Surfing Clawed Toad

The Clawed Toad is an evolutionary marvel. Two long bony growths on the forearms allow the toad to "surf" down the dunes over the sand when locked together. The toad has grown additional arms and "handles" to offer much more stability and allow it to quickly throw its back legs in the air and use it's frill to take the wind and allow faster speed. The toad normally travels using all six legs for locomotion with its back clawed feet opening 90 degrees to create a foot. Not being incredibly fast in this state they bury themselves in the sand and ambush their prey by grabbing it with their claws when it gets too close.

[alive]

Artist: alive

Concept: Desert Rabasta


Although the Rabasta cannot actually fly, it uses it's massive wings as paddles to swim through the desert dunes at incredible speeds. Unfortunate are the ones who are caught in it's path during a sand surf. It has been known to level entire cities.

[Lege1]

A lot of nice work this round. I voted for Mr. Corlan.

Mr. Corlan: Great work and I really like that your creature stands out from the rest visually. Looks like a traditional oil work indeed maybe with some digital paint over in it. What ever it is, very cool and got my vote no indeed. Cheers and look forward to seeing your interesting work in other rounds.

[Rob Powell]

Voted for lkjhgfdsa! Will post crits tomorrow! Good round this week guys! Keep it up!!

[heimdayel]

cool, can't see my final..better luck next time I guess? whatever; this round was full of great paintings, sorta hard to pick just one...

voted for Alive - great texturing and colours, even if that big beasty is more winged than frilled..poor little guy going to get caught in the beast's wake

[warburton]

Great round, massive thanks to all who gave their crits and comments during the week, without you guys theres no way i would have finished my entry.

Rob Powell Nice entry, its cool how you've layed it out, i want to model this ;p As was suggested in the week theres perspective issues with its feet and they look a little out of place. I think the lighting and values on the action shot are perhaps a little off also (something i struggled with alot this week myself) Remember the sun is very strong in desert environments and its very hot. Check out images of deserts and desert animals for reference to address this issue.

scriar Cool design, lovin the colours also of that flower. The white background doesn't do your design much justice as it makes it feel abit unfinished. Also i think it's legs look a little odd, i think the perspective is abit off with them. I think the values are abit off as well, especially around the red part of its body, the creature looks to be made out of one material and theres no real direct light source.

rist Interesting concept, i like the textures on this creatures body and also how you've displayed them on the design sheet. I think the action shot could use abit of work though. The composition is abit off which makes it hard to read. The tail at the back is hard to see and also the people and the castle are too blurry to make out and also hanging off the edge of the image. Without the description I would have had trouble seeing this creature as big. Try to incorporate different points of interest in your composition and make a flow which brings to eye to different areas of your image.

doctordigits LOL, awesome description, would loved to have seen an action shot of this ;D. I like the actual creature design also, looks like he means business. His back legs looks abit weird and out of perspective and scale and i think a more direct light source would also help in selling the mood and values of your creature. Although the shiny texture on his body makes him look slimy and amphibious the lighting is abit randomly directed which makes the design look a little flat. I think you captured the surfin and frilled aspect of the brief very well, good job ;)

the shazam Cute concept and great action shot. I can imagine this creature doing as your description describes. I think bringing more hard edges and value/colour contrast to your creature would have brought more depth and perspective to the design because at the moment it seems a little flat. Theres no real contrast between the creatre and the dunes behind it.

mr corlan Great design dude, the values and perspective shot are very nice. Its interesting how you rendered that exploding sand effect, I struggled with that alot in my design. Alot of people would probably disagree with me here but I think the only real crit i could give is that the design feels unfinished. The tail area and sand on the dune especially feel unfinished. Regardless still a solid entry and great concept, nice one.

snippet Cool idea and the rendering is prity nice. I think the design itself is tough to read though. Its hard to see where its head is and its legs which makes it unclear in terms of design. Also I notice the shadow spreads to the bottom middle/ left of the page, but the lightest parts of the creature are coming from above the viewer. The surfin and frilled aspect have been capture well though so this part of the design is very good.

lege1 Very cool concept mate, Lovin the description and also the rendering of your creature.The colour variation is also very nice. I like how you rendered the sand behind i also. The only thing which really jumps out at me is the shadow. Especially around its left wing which looks out of perspective, other than that a solid concept and good entry, nice one.

lkjhgfdsa Lol, love how you took the surfin aspect very literally ;D
Cool design, beautiful colour variation, nice lighting and lovin the wings rendering. Ive seen those wings before on previous entrys, do you use a custom texture or brush? its very effective. Have you put up any wips or tutorials before? I love your style alot. Got my vote dude, good job.

mcghoul Awesome concept dude, very original design. The creature looks very static at the moment and theres not much movement in his pose. Think about the angle and perspective you choose when developing a concept design, perhaps having the camera angled more and showing more of the dune its surfin down to show depth and scale would help. More colour variation perhaps could make your desing more exiting because at the moment the pallete is very muted. I like how you rendered his skin and also his face, nice one.

alive Awesome entry dude, lovin how you rendered this piece, very dramatic. Perhaps more shadow on the under part of this creature. I'm thinkin about where the sun is hitting this beast and its intensity, surely would created more shadow. This would also sell the scale of the creature more so. Could be wrong here but the back tail also feels slightly out of perspective. Still a solid entry, nice one.

[Scriar]

Nice work everyone, and thanks to all who gave critique.

logistic puppet: thanks for the critique, I see what you mean.

[Rob Powell]

@Scriar: Some nice looking colours here. The sandy textures look a bit odd on the white background, and it distrupts your creature's form as well. It's almost always a good idea to avoid using white backgrounds because it overpowers your creatures values and can flatten it easily by making the lighter tones look darker. Also the edges on the creature is looking a little blurry in some places and need to be cleaned up a bit. As for the design I think the creature would've benefitted from having some extra features or modified features as opposed to removing it's scorpion claws, cuz now it looks like it's missing something and the flower design is nice but I can't really make it out as having frills on it's tail.

@Rist: An interesting design, though it looks like its lacking something anatomically, considering its able to freely move through the sand without any obvious means of locomotion, there's no fins or legs or anything and it's body isn't exactly long enough to wiggle its way through the sand at a decent speed either. In your illustration there are a lot of blurry egdes on both your creature and characters making it difficult to read a lot of what's going on, though I can assume (but you want people to know what going on, it needs to be clear) and that tentacle does nothing good for the composition either. I'm also a little puzzeled by the leafy textures in the sand. I'm still feeling like the bottom shots are a bit fuzzy on the edges, and the value of the creature in some places almost matches the background it's on, so the form doesn't show as well as it should.

@DoctorDigits: Neat looking creature. It is lacking some darker values making it seem quite flat and a bit harder to read in the central region. I would've liked to see this guy in motion seeing as it uses the traditional method of surfing, on a board (err leaf board rather). It's foot looks a bit too puny under neaththis guy, becasue it looks like it has quite a bit of weight that would be rather uncomfortable too support on such small feet. Also a little more detail on the face to make it stand out a bit more than the body.

@The Shazam: The edges are looking a little blurry, and there isn't really enough contrast between your lizard and the background. The lighting could use a little work seeing as there is no obvious shadow underneath the creature. Design wise I feel like you could've done a bit more, becasue it too closely resembles a frilled lizard to stand out as a unique specimen. It also doesn't look like it's surfing on the sand, more like it's just running and kicking the sand as it goes.

@Mr. Corlan: Interesting creature and a nice painterly style. However the angle the creature is presented in makes for a good illustraion, but the design isn't as clear as it should be. It seems to be bordering the surfing aspect, since it is technically gliding over the sand with the tail stabilizing it, and the frills seems to be more like wings. It would've been interesting to see a bit more colour on your creature as well. But a nice traditional looking painting. With some really good textured surfaces!

@logistic_puppet: Awsome piece dude, and a well thought out back story. Your improving and it shows well in this piece. The compositition is quite well executed. The texturing on the sand feels a little overdone to me, and I'm not sure if it's just me but the foreshortening in some places seems a bit off. And the front end of the creature looks a bit stiff. Addind some more sand around the creature to give it a better sense of power as it surfs throught the sand, such a larger creature would cause a lot of disturbance in the sand, and it seems quite minimal here.

@snippet: I can see the resemblance to the cicada here. The lighting is still a bit iffy here, becasue now, on the background everything is fairly lit up while the creature still seems rather dark. The shadow seems quite awkward underneath as well, and it makes it seem like it's floating above the ground rather than surfing on it. Some more colour variation on your creatre could also make it read a lot better as well.

@Lege1: Some pretty good rendering going on here. The way the creature's snout contrast with the sand really makes it's head stond out. As logistic puppet pointed out the cast shadow doesn't exactly match up with the creature. And the yellow sand coming from the creature looks a bit odd on the red sand.

@lkjhgfdsa: As always you've got some awesome stuff here. From some of your previous works I can tell your quite comfortable with these bug-like creatures seeing as they turn out to be your coolest looking ones. Here you've got quite a good attention to detail and some nice texture work. The lighting is well executed as well. I'm noticing some hard black edges in some places, making it seem like your working from a silhouette maybe?, but I think you could benefit from trying to get rid of those dark edges and building stronger forms. One way to do that (assuming you are working from a silhouette) is to start off with a base colour so the black doesn't stand out as much. Also I feel like the background is looking a bit unfinished, but that's not too major. In the end you did an awesome job and earned my vote!

@McGhoul: Your rendering is getting better from your other stuff. The use of textures really helps a lot, and helps gives a better understanding of the materials your creature is made of. Though The anatomy still needs some work in some places.

@alive: Another epic creature. I do have to point out that it doesn't exactly have frills, but the sand surfing part is well executed. The lighting doesn seem off, seeing as the lightsource is shown above the creature where as the creature is being lit up quite a bit at the front. Some stronger cast shadows on the ground would also help give this creature some dominance in your piece, becasue there is a lot of mass that should block the sunlight, but it isn't. A pretty good scene overall!

[McGhoul]

Wow, I had a tough time voting this round. A lot of great entries, I wish I could of voted for a few.

Rob Powell Very crisp rendering, I like how your style has evolved. I get an aquatic feel from him (actually from a lot of the entries including my own lol) but I am left wondering what allows him to surf on the sand and not dig in? Is his stomach covered in a special material? Still I like it.


Scriar The flower/stinger idea is pretty cool. I think the design could of been pushed a little more though. The frills and surfing could of been a little more prominent in the creature. I definately get the sense hes gliding across the sand from the pose but the white kinda throws it off, still nice job.

Rist The fish/slug combo is a good idea. I feel that the colors wash it out a bit though. I'm glad that you did a full creature image to show the body but swimming in sand would be very difficult, I would of liked to see the design pushed a bit to show how it was able to do this. Good job.

DoctorDigits I like that you have incorporated an actual board into the design very cool. Going the different route with the aquatic them was also neat. I do find that with the values it has it is kinda hard to read at first glance but the face is awesome!

Shazam I know im sounding like a broken record but I would of liked to see the design pushed a bit more. Like someone has said it does look just like a lizard surfing on its feet. Rendering is a little blurry , which I have suffered with as well. I found using too many soft brushes and not building forms first was my issue. Keep it up though bro!

Mr. Corlan I dig your style for sure but the only thing I can comment on is I dont get a good sense of the creature? I wish I could see more of it and up close I guess is what I am saying. Still one of my tops picks for sure.

Logistic Puppet I was waiting to see what you would do after saying you were having trouble and man I think It turned out fantastic. This looks like its straight from a fantasy book. The only thing I can say is that it doesnt look like its coming up through the sand but I assume you did this to showcase the creature a bit more. Also one of my top contenders.

snippet With the creature the same color as the sand it makes the image a little dull. (I had the same issue lol) Also I feel the forms are a little hard to make out, I had to really study it to understand what was going on. I really like the way you did the sand trailing behind it. I'm not sure but where you going for a back light type scene? The lighting seems a little off and someone already mentioned looking like it was floating I think but keep at it.

Lege1 I'm glad you switched to this one from your first sketch. Very believable, I feel this thing could exist. The only other thing I saw was the tendrils? coming from its mouth, would they not be curving behind it as it moving forward but still Great job man.

lkjhgfdsa Happy to see another creature to use an actual board to surf on. As usuall looks awesome, the articulation in the legs/arms is sweet looks like it was made to surf for sure. The different colors you used makes me wish I could figure that stuff out too. Also great write up, I laughed. Top contender for sure. One question, if it can fly does it just surf for fun?

McGhoul (Logistic Puppet) thanks man, I see what you are saying about the pose and will keep it in mind for next round. I will try to make it more dynamic. Also color variation has always been a problem for me, not sure what color to do shadows etc or adding interest but also something I will keep in mind. (Rob Powell) Thanks dude, I love these weekly challenges as it forces me to try to do better each time, I know I have a long way to go but at least I feel im taking steps to get there. Thanks for all your crits and comments, its not easy to do this every time.

alive The texture of your creature is awesome! I dont like that the wings are cut off but still very cool illustration none the less. If you had frills you would of been another top contender for me.

So i had to go with lkjhgfdsa with logi a close second, nice round guys.

[lkjhgfdsa]

Hi!
No custom brush for the wings - I was lazy and used google for dragonfly wings (it was a bit of a rush job) and did a multiply layer for a paintover (they ended up a bit to 'real' comared to the rest of the render me thinks).
I tend to work from a sillouette so as to create an appealing shape/design before getting tonal.
They surf for fun and chicks!

[Mr. Corlan]

Hey Thanks Logistic Puppet, Rob, and McGhoul. Excellent crits, I totally agree with all of you—work harder and finish, better view of the creature, and stick to the brief better. I definitely should have spent more time on it overall. I'll try to keep all your advice in mind for next time. Thanks!