E.O.W Round #178: Nazgûl Nest

[Vulgar`]

E.O.W Round #178: Nazgûl Nest
http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e181/chaosrocks/EOW2.jpg


TOPIC = Nazgûl Nest

Topic suggested by Kan Muftic
http://kanmuftic.blogspot.com///


Brief:

“Those who used the Nine Rings became mighty in their day, kings, sorcerers, and warriors of old. They obtained glory and great wealth, yet it turned to their undoing. They had, as it seemed, unending life, yet life became unendurable to them. They could walk, if they would, unseen by all eyes in this world beneath the sun, and they could see things in worlds invisible to mortal men; but too often they beheld only the phantoms and delusions of Sauron. And one by one, sooner or later, according to their native strength and to the good or evil of their wills in the beginning, they fell under the thralldom of the ring that they bore and of the domination of the One which was Sauron's. And they became forever invisible save to him that wore the Ruling Ring, and they entered into the realm of shadows. The Nazgûl were they, the Ringwraiths, the Úlairi, the Enemy's most terrible servants; darkness went with them, and they cried with the voices of death.”
— The Silmarillion, "Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age"


Now... you’re probably thinking. How can a Nazgûl be “born” if they were already born as men? My answer to you is to think of doing something less connected to the mythology. A mythical creature in some kind of tangible environment, like you would see in a natural history museum. Of course, that environment could be anything as long as it makes some kind of sense. Imagine for a second that the Nazgûl can be born and your job is to illustrate that.

What not to do: Don’t draw a Mordor landscape! I think this offers a very exciting theme with an iconic creature in mind. I would suggest to try to come up with something that would actually work in the real world and require you to do some wildlife research. It can vary from terrifying dark cliffs to beautiful mountains. Imagine a Nazgûl feeding it's chicks on a bright sunny day. :) Could be interesting.





“The Nazgûl came again . . . like vultures that expect their fill of doomed men's flesh. Out of sight and shot they flew, and yet were ever present, and their deadly voices rent the air. More unbearable they became, not less, at each new cry. At length even the stout-hearted would fling themselves to the ground as the hidden menace passed over them, or they would stand, letting their weapons fall from nerveless hands while into their minds a blackness came, and they thought no more of war, but only of hiding and of crawling, and of death.”
— The Return of The King



- Please specify which image is final in this thread!


DEADLINE: Saturday, December 17 2011

***NOTE***
The due date could be susceptible to change due to a possible crossover activity coming soon, but you will have at least 7 days and might have two weeks, but try to plan around the week to a week and a half area. Again: 7 days is guaranteed, but two weeks is a maybe.

[Rob Powell]

Hmmm, this should turn out to be quite interesting...I might be able to wip something up for this...

[Blankstate]

Um...yeah. Who? Where? What was the topic again?

[insert nonsensical late night scribble here]

[Mila]

I'm not saying I dislike the latest topics, but it seems to me that EoW is becoming more of a IoW. :P

Nonetheless, I might cook something up for this round.

[Vulgar`]

^How so? I will try to improve on that.

[revenebo]

Mila All the better, environments aren't always wide-angle shots of natural landscapes. What if you are asked to design the interior of a spaceship??

[Damien Levs]

Just one question...Does the Nazgul have to be born in more of a "real world" context? Like from an egg or womb? Or can they be born into this environment from a magical element, like as be conjured perhaps. Maybe a ritual performance from other Nazgul?

[Mila]

Mila All the better, environments aren't always wide-angle shots of natural landscapes. What if you are asked to design the interior of a spaceship??

The interiors and exteriors are that which matter ( in this community forum atleast ) The emphasis seems to lay more towards a person, verhicle or other subject in the last few topics.

[Vulgar`]

Just one question...Does the Nazgul have to be born in more of a "real world" context? Like from an egg or womb? Or can they be born into this environment from a magical element, like as be conjured perhaps. Maybe a ritual performance from other Nazgul?

That's fine. It's all up to your interpretation. Think of the guidelines as a mild form of guidance. Its encouraged to go off on your own creative pursuits.

Mila, feel free to take this topic as an interior or exterior.

[merl1n]

This topic seems great Vulgar. I'm definetely in this time and very curious about what people will come up with. :)

[noche]

Huh? I'm really confused. The Nazgul, the ringwraiths were doomed people. Now, they mounted on black horses, horrid flying beasts, etc. Are we talking about those flying beasts or the wraiths? Or somehow mixing these two? because then I see things like "feeding it's chicks" and "born out of an egg" (the flying creatures)?

So... it's just a nest of some mythological creature. And I may leave behind the Nazgul element to it because it's confusing me a lot.

Like for eg, think of these topics: "Hall of the Nazgul" vs "Nazgul's winged mount breeding nest"

[Vulgar`]

'Nazgul's winged mount breeding nest' sounds like a really good topic actually, but try to go with a scenario like 'What if the ringwraiths could be born in another situation other than 'reborn' as doomed men under the control of Lord Sauron?'

It doesn't make complete sense to me either but that might mean it's all up to your interpretations. There aren't any right or wrongs here - think of this as a lopsided, sort of confusing set of instructions from a game designer to come up with something that falls under the description of 'Nazgul Nest.' Your challenge is to make the best of an 'abstract' guideline and conquer versatility through your own vision of what the theme could mean. The key words here: Birth, conception, nursery, creation. Maybe 'phenomena.'

Now, even though that probably makes the topic brief more vague than before...

Draw! :bounce:

[Max Challie]

I like that last word! Got the base for mine done (yesterday or the day before or something, before i read your post Vulgar, not entirely knowing WTF i was doing lol) and will post it either today, or Thursday (GMT+12/nz). Later will mean more progress i guess, though i'm still working into last week's EoW haha. WTF am i doing posting this, should just go do some work ;)

[Mila]

Hummm okay, my idea was a summoning of sort, involving necromancy, old tombs, etc. etc.

Why not re-wake the dead and give them a new terrible form; a Ringwraith.

Here's a quickie. I'm not sure about it yet. I think I'll start over with some small and quicker thumbnails first.

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=1376673&stc=1&d=1323118376

[noche]

ok, ive been dabbing aimlessly haha. i don't know what i want and i don't know where im going. mila's direction i think

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[Pat Thompson]

I must say I was thoroughly confused with the brief - but then Vulgar did address it later, saying just go with your own interpretation if I'm not mistaken. I'm starting to imagine wraiths in black robes emerging from Urak-Hai like egg sacks or something... :)

And just for everyone's information, the Nazgul are the dudes dressed in black, that go into the Shire to terrorize the hobbits, and then eventually ride the most badass creation of Weta Workshop + Tolkien - what's actually known as the "Fell Beast". The Fell Beast is the winged mount of the Wraiths in Jackson's LotR. So there you go, proper name supplied!

And since I'm a Rings nerd, I don't think I can stay out of this one. My hat is in!

For Death & Glory!

[AdrianNagorski]

Maybe its not to landscapee enough, plus its not dark enought well i might start again. . . . .

[noche]

Adrian mate, i like your work so far
if you dont mind the quick overpaint here's a bunch of things i see,

you can tweak the colors sky/mountain, and make them join together, be close to each other, it could help, also darken them if you want so. landsacpes like these have a lot of atmospheric color. background elements will catch a lot of this (sky colour mainly) - you may needf some bcgkrd middleground elements to help your foreground elemnts stand out (mountains on the left). also consider widening the canvas a bit, maybe it help the composition?
and study rocky mountains for reference

also the dragon is way in the center right now in this overpaint. it might be better to keep it a bit more on the left like you had it, if you happen to resize the canvas.

hope it helps

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[AdrianNagorski]

noche: thank you for that, I didnt save my original psd!!! so i had to use
my posted pic to work from LOL I was actually gonna give up until you pointed
out a few things thank you,
struggled to get that cold blue color you got, my image is still way too bright but im still trying to work the composition out a bit more, heres what i did.

[Pixeltuner]

Hey guys, decided to chip in because I hardly do any environments and need the practice and extra portfolio material.. :) I actually went the classic 'mordor' route a bit with a (very) small twist. Not very original I know..

[Pat Thompson]

@Adrian:
I might have gone more of a 3/4 top down view instead of straight from the side, that way we could actually see what's going on in the nest. I do like the idea of a nest with temple/lava-fed elements. On consistency with Tolkien-lore, the mountains and clouds of mordor should be ashen, instead of snowy or white. I might also make the tower of Barad Dur shooting out the red lazer instead of Mount Doom. Right now the composition is telling me a lot about mordor, but not a whole lot about fell beasts, or nazgul, and my eye is being drawn to the nest enough - mostly to mount doom or to the 'mouth' you've got going. I might add some eye catching elements to the nest itself - a fell beast feeding it's young might do it....


@Lennart:
Your Mordor is looking spot on, with lots of good details. I'm loving the green smoke. However, I would love to see more of the nest, from what I can tell, it's that small area with the curved arms and the chains, right? that's a wonderful idea, maybe make it bigger, taking up more of that left corner? Or maybe add a second, closer nest? Again, like with Adrian the composition is telling me a lot about mordor, and I'd like to see more Fell Beast Nest.

btw, nice job on getting a full page in Imagine FX this month dude! I recognized your dark mage piece and said "woah, pixel tuner's in here!?" Well done!

@noche:
I love the cave idea - nazgul bats! hanging egg sacks, gnarly mineral springs filled with gore to feed the young... lots of exciting directions to go with this one. go nuts man, i want to see more!

@mila:
this is looking good, unique, like inside of Minas Morgul. excited to see more!

[Pixeltuner]

Thx Pat, hope it does something promo-wise, the ImagineFX thing :) I could use some work :P

It might be a good idea to create another nest closer to the viewer indeed, I'll goof around with it :)

[Mila]

Change of plans. I thought it would be cool if a necromancer was harvesting potential candiates out of the Dead Marshes to become a Ringwraith.

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=1378592&stc=1&d=1323372516

I might chop down the tree a little and make it more rooted into the swamp itself.. It's rather stuck on the horizon too.. I'll have to change that. Maybe I should go easy on the Minas Morgul / Death color palette as well. whatcha think?

[Corrick]

Photo CHOP!

http://williamwerk.com/art/nazgulnestsm.jpg

[Snafu]

http://th09.deviantart.net/fs70/PRE/f/2011/342/b/0/home_of_the_fell_beasts_wip_by_smoox-d4ik86e.jpg

gonna add the fell beasts flying and the nazgul sitting by a fire or something

[Max Challie]

Snafu, i like yours!!

WIP progress so far, and description is done, will upload that with final. Still need to work on that figure in the foreground, but aside from that i don't know what else to do with it. I think the grass field could use something, but i don't know where i could place little woods (miniature forests) without messing up the composition.

Any crits?
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[Vyse]

Cool stuff guys! Tuner and Corrick, i like! Snafu, nice brushwork :)

Despite of my lack of time, i wanted to through myself in again... been a while. The main idea is that the Nazgul are being born in a very slow process, inside a stalagmite, deep under a mountain. It is said that the trees of life grow on this mountain, with their roots reaching far under it, filling the earth with special minerals. These accumulate drop by drop, gathering inside the stone, creating a new, unnatural life. When the creature inside has gathered enough minerals, the hard stone shell weakens and ultimately breaks, giving birth to the Nazgul.

http://img507.imageshack.us/img507/3068/cavecopy.jpg

[Snafu]

update

@ Vyse, thanks! Nice idea and start, gives of a sense of discovery and mystery

http://fc06.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2011/343/2/1/home_of_the_fell_beasts_wip_by_smoox-d4ik86e.jpg

[takashmen]

this is it Snafu!
hope you will finish it

i think you should limit number of nazguls and show their mass

[android411]

I like the theme a lot, I thought of a kind of mordor clone factory where the nazguls are constructed by machines. I wanted to make the factory look like an ancient form of factory but it looks too modern right now. Will try to fix that or start with a new one. As I spend quite some time I thought I post it. the second one is a try of a more classical approach, not sure where to take though, lets see

[Licorize]

Messin around with this topic... Here's a (rough) picture of what i'm thinking of.

[noche]

ok, some stuff i've been having fun with. i'm still missing my main concept here. but the road there is more fun and interesting so here it is.

a wider, weird shaped cave. and just good o le gollum trolling on the dark lord's plans. with eggs or whatever those are.
1379479

another version of the cave.
1379480

oh a bizarre idea, that the dark lord had taken out of the depths of the sea, some greater evil (like Ungoliant) squid-like creature, and had been using it to nest and breed the nazgul through some dark sorcery. mhhh. poor creature.
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[Pat Thompson]

@ noche:
i just had to say that your work is really coming along nicely. I like version 1, but the giant squid idea is quite cool.

Ungoliant meets cthulu... hrm... is it spawning fell beasts or nazgul? and off its back or what? Maybe make some sort of tie between the giant creature and the fell beast, like maybe one is the mature version of the other? Fell Beasts just get bigger and bigger until one day they dive into the depths, ne'er to be seen again... turning more into a creature concept combo'd with a sweet enviro. But definitely awesome.

I'm loving the texture you created for the greenery. I'm trying to figure out how you did it (any hints?). Looks great. Overall, I think the simplicity and atmosphere of #1 is the best. The orange torches are a nice touch to compliment the teals.

[Quint_]

I like the concept, so fancied giving it a go. I am playing with the idea that the Nazgul are perhaps born from the flesh of fallen soldiers - the bodies are gathered in a cathedral of sorts where the creatures begin to grow. Started sketching a rough idea of the enviro...

[Alexey Chubrikov]

Once
:oneye:

[Alexey Chubrikov]

Next
:oneye:

[Alexey Chubrikov]

Up:yum:

[noche]

pat thomson the greenery and detailed rocks is just chunks of some pic i found online retouched a bit and set in overlay layer mode (or color dodged, soft light not sure) i needed some quick detail to test a few things nd didn't feel like painting it by hand -oh the hazards of the digital era-

thanks for your feedback mate. yes i'll probably stick with the first one, provided i find *something else* to put in there. i guess it'd make *art director* happier whereas the huge squid is more interesting to me but it could get a bit confusing the whole concept. i'll think about this.

[Quint_]

A bit more work 'fleshing' out the concept. Loving some of the work going on here by the way!

[android411]

I took the liberty to do a new one. Hope you like it.

very nice stuff everyone, noche - that´s getting really cool

[AdrianNagorski]

Wip 2 - still a long way to go :hugsmile:
1382109

[android411]

so here is my final unless I have a better idea for the nest...

[unruhe]

Nice entries so far!

This is my finished doodle on this subject....

[Nishan K]

Good job,guys! Here is my final.

Final

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W.I.P

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[noche]

woa, for a minute i thought it was final day with all the finals.
still trippin here. probably my last change in direction.
going for a huge-hole-nest-thing-above-inside kind of thing. i'll need to add something else to stress the nest idea. that mark on the right is a place im considering to crop.
and then polish like there was no tomorrow, cause i've lost most of my time switching ideas and drawing squids hah!

android that's so cool! nice contrast and style!
unruhe i do love that perspective

1382666

[noche]

adrian keep up the good work man. i really like the pastel atmosphere you have going on the background. that texture?? nice!
licorize i think this is a pretty cool, dim eerie direction your going. hope you finish it!

ohhh just read the brief. "Plan for a week and a hafl" F*ck. :)
any updates on this matter Vulgar?

[Vulgar`]

You'll have the full 2 weeks for this one, no worries noche.

[Max Challie]

huh?? The finals thread isn't coming for another week? Or, two weeks from now? TF.. Ah, i'd like to start on another topic soon, but whatever man, will just go and draw some other stuff. :)

[Rob Powell]

Max Challie: no finals thread for EOW, just submit to this thread and state which is your final, Vulgar will then create a separate thread for the poll. :)

[noche]

@Vulgar
i liked your 'a little morbid sci-fi' piece of writing. this line was great:
"being as silent as machinery can possibly be"

[zenarion]

I like how the brief says "no Mordor landscapes" and half the images are Mordor landscapes.

[Licorize]

WIP number 2, though I think I need to keep away from making it too ' mordor landscape-y'... Got a few ideas in my head, but i'm open to suggestion. :)

[Mila]

Yes, it's a Mordor landscape I suppose... meh.
I need to start thinking outside of the box, but here's my (near)-final I think.

Could use some more action though maybe.

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=1382739&stc=1&d=1323908753

[AdrianNagorski]

Well my beast machine died so i had to take it in to get repaired, meaning i had to
again copy my file/last posted image from the thread and work from it on my antique, I'm
really proud of this piece, totally from imagination. :yayca:

[AdrianNagorski]

Me Brushes (100mb):
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=EKLZ08QU

noche: thanks, its not a texture its a random brush, i like collecting em
it might be in the pack i've included cant remember every couple of weeks or so i just
download a bunch of brushes packs and jam with em.
I like your environment you just totally pulled a rabbit out of a hat!! :yayca:

[littlemonsters]

Here are some thumbs! Would love to hear everyone's choice!

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[noche]

littmonsters i like the top middle one. it has depth but in a subtle way, mistery and it seems well balanced. gj.

mhhhh i'll make sure i thumbnail stuff next time.

[Vulgar`]

noche - Thanks for checking out the blog man. I need to update it one of these days, lots of new pieces of writing.


CONCERNING THIS WEEK'S EOW GUIDELINES:

I sort of apologize for the vagueness and indecisiveness of the brief this week. When I was initially discussing what the topic would be with Kan Muftic, who suggested it, I brought up similar things that were brought up in this thread: It doesn't make complete sense, so does this mean that its open to drastic transformation through personal interpretations? We both decided that it shouldn't be a Mordor landscape but something more natural and detached from the staple LOTR imagery.

That's not really very allowing for, let's say, someone to draw a darkly toned mountain range because it automatically makes one think of 'Mordor.' If you did a Mordor landscape, kudos to you because thats really what this topic asks for in a cryptic, indirect way. (With a little help from me of course, making things confusing ;) )

I think this week relates to the gaming industry because sometimes the theme will be challenging and what's being asked for is at times a bewildering assignment. That's how Kan communicated his reasoning behind the different styled topic of his choice. I liked how it sounded and as always I like to leave the opportunity to create unconventional, thought provoking and conceptually unique artistic creations in the hands of the enviro architects.

This isn't a response to "backlash" because I don't consider it backlash, but more like an address to the generally unanswered discussion in this thread so far.

Keep forging ringwraiths, hobbits!

Next week's topic will be HOBBIT HATCHERY! (Don't draw the Shire)
(*kidding)

[noche]

I hope you're kidding about that hobbit hatchery thing.


so here's this f***er, so far, i've had endless composition problems. it all started without...... yes! thumbnails and ideas!. so plan in advance people.

i wasn't really going to get into this one, but now im in for the ride. so you'll get the polish and hopefully some compositional miracle in a couple of days.



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[APW]

Here my WIP, iv gotten a ton better since my last appearance (if u don't believe me check out my DA page :P) Couldn't resist this badass topic! Cheers!

[APW]

Update

[APW]

Final!

[noche]

FINAL

Well, here's mine. The final image ended up kind of bland, mhhh. But the process was so much fun! - I think the idea behind this is the way a natural nest would have looked like, before the creatures were captured and used in war. Kind of.


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And the wipsss

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[hekatoncheir]

final.

I had the idea where they kinda rise from the water and take the swords... cause they need to have gotten the swords somewhere...