E.O.W Round #178: Nazgûl Nest - (Winners TIE: noche & Pixeltuner)

[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










ENTRIES:





hekatoncheir

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

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=1384651&stc=1&d=1324174628
















noche

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.

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=1384612&d=1324170892

















APW

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=1384679&stc=1&d=1324176890

















AdrianNagorski

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=1383052&stc=1&d=1323954095


















Nishan K

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=1382445&d=1323877868

W.I.P.

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=1382444&d=1323877647
















unruhe

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=1382419&stc=1&d=1323873765

















android411

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=1382302&stc=1&d=1323853175

















Vyse

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


















Corrick

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


















Pixeltuner

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=1377861&stc=1&d=1323264863










Vote for your favorite entries and leave some comments!

:yayca:

[takashmen]

hekatoncheir
like the colorsheme and atmosphere but at first i thought i'm looking on graveyard
i think you should have better show water -> reflections also some object showing the scale might have helped
if you feel good in rendering and you show it :) focus on presenting the topic in most let's say epic way

noche
love your work, colors, scale, design
what you messed up a bit are the eggs? looks quite too big
keep it up

APW it's good you started with B&W but next time try to differ some areas more

unruhe
nice style and design, but tell me one thing where do you place nazgul nest?
everything wolud have been great when you had placed somewhere in fumes shapes of this round topic

android411
this time the bg works well but this things which looks like eyes are messed up
you didn't adjust them much to the painting and it is visible
maybe leave for a while photo manipulations and paint some still lives :)

Pixeltuner
very clean render, colors work great, but i think you should have given a clue what this green fumes means
maybe come skeleton of nazgul or a shadow of flying one
hope you know what i mean

great entries everyone keep rolling :)

[android411]

thanks Takashmen, totally agree with you that I need to do more studies, but I had fun anyways, never played gta cause I play more adventure games, so I most likely skip eow this week and do some studies hopefully

[coool_brain]

Cool entries

Just so that you know... I am not a pro. Not even close to it. These are just opinions and I am not judging when I say...

@hekatoncheir: simple composition, simple colors, great mood, good job. By the way, simple doesn't mean cheap. Keeping it simple is great, most of the times.

@noche: nice composition, nice concept, great color work, great scale. I saw your wips. You took some really good decisions, composition wise :)

@APW: good job. composition is good. I think you should start playing with colors. (That is what I am doing now :)) Also, try to imagine a light source that is lighting your environment. Try to show the temperature from that source in your painting. Those rocks are missing highlights. Hope I am making sense.

@AdrianNagorski: good job. composition and colors are ok. the biggest problem that I see is, you are rendering the background more than the foreground. I also think you are having problems with converting from black and white to color. Try to work on that. I like that way you are trying to use color variations. keep working. keep it up.

@Nishan K: nice concept. I like the green smokey character there. The problems that I see are, you lost your perspective setup on the statue and mountains. Also you could have shown some lighting from the torches on the surroundings.otherwise I like that dark creepy mood of the painting.

@unruhe: good compostion and perspective. I like your rendering style. A description would help understand the concept more.

@android411: The environment is great. great mood and all. Only downside is that creature statue with fire in open mouth. Thats feels it doesn't belong to this environment. Its looking more cartoonic to me. Otherwise the colors and mood of the painting are awesome.

@Vyse: good composition and color palette. render of the egg is great, but I would like to see some of the ennvironment also rendered to some extent.

@Corrick: Hey man! nice work, but you know that we expect more than matte work from you :)

@Pixeltuner: One word, Awesome. I love that rendering style. Great composition, great colors and values. I have never seen your work before, but I can sense your pro-ness :) I don't even care if it goes with the topic. Its just good art. Keep 'em coming... God! you really tune pixels :)

[noche]

@takashmen, thanks. yep, maybe they're way to big, not sure bout the size. anyway those flying things behind are suposed to be bats, and its maybe my only scale reference here.

ok here's some comments and crits. if it helps you take it, if it doesn't, leave it.

@hekatoncheir
i like this idea. if i didnt read the desc i might think its a graveyard aswell. maybe you could add one of them kind of emerging and taking the sword to tell narrate the story in a visual way.
@APW
you could try adding some shapes/mountains? further on teh background to give the whole thing more depth? keep it up
@AdrianNagorski
i think you've done a gj since your first wips. in this image here, maybe the beast to the left, and the nest in the right are fighting for attention? maybe the smaller flying one could work better. keep it up man
@Nishan K
i dig the vastness and scale here. i think the statue and its head, catches my eye a lot, like it's the first thing i see and i go back to it, so the cool spawning thing below loses some attention.
@unruhe
very nice perspective and and sense of scale. the first thing that comes to my head is 'nazgul factory', i don't know if thats good or bad concerning the guidelines? keep it up!
@android411
it was worth it to start from scratch, i like the mood and focus in this. the beast to the right looks kind of weird as in the way its shaded. love the atmosphere in the bckground. keep it up android!
@Vyse
this is a very cool idea as a whole. and maybe imo, the one that made the most sense out of the vague topic. the environment, there are several areas that catch my eye a lot, and make it a bit confusing - if i didnt had the description. in this quick overpaint i threw some soft paint over those areas and drew a few more stalagmite-eggs (stalagmite missing). http://img403.imageshack.us/img403/6738/vyse.jpg hope it helps.
@Corrick
nice photochop! :) i dont think the thing in the middle, the one with the cyan glow (? lol) is blending in that well with the rest. the creature to the right looks badass!
@Pixeltuner
this so cool! nice sharp detail, lovely snow color and rocks. my two cents, the background is way too detailed/, my eye spends a lot of time checking the small village, etc. id try with a very transparent layer of atmospheric color to make that recede see what happens. also the fumes seem a bit way to bright and saturated. very nice man!

[Nishan K]

@ coool_brain - Now that I see it,I do agree with you on the perspective and the torches. Will keep it in mind for my next attempt. Thank you!

@ noche - I do admit I was kind of indecisive whether to make the face of the statue or the creature spawning underneath the focal point. Will work on not repeating that in the future. Thanks!

Critique

hekatoncheir - I like the colour palette that you went for in this painting. My critique will be try to make a distinguishable design for the swords as I believe it will be more interesting that way. And also,just spend a little more time rendering the foreground so it stands out compare to the background.

noche - I really like the colours and the mood of your painting especially the transition from orange to blue. It works harmoniously. My only critique will be the scale of the eggs seemed too big compared to the size of the creatures.

APW - The tower like structure seems interesting and I think by adding colours,,it will make your environment more appealing.

AdrianNagorski - I would suggest spending more time rendering your focal point to pull a viewer's eye. It seems to me the moon was given more attention and that is a shame as I find the cave interesting.

unruhe - The sense of scale and perspective is very nice. And it is interesting concept you have there by going for a sci fi element for a fantasy based creature. I think adding a little more colour to it will make it all the more appealing.

android411 - Cool design and nice mood! The only critique I have will be the red eyes thing are not blended well and instead seems really out of place.

Vyse - Interesting concept! I think adding more atmospheric fog to the background will make your subject pop out more.

Corrick - Badass dragon in badass environment! The pillar to the left of the dragon seems be randomly put there instead going with the flow of the environment and the faint greenish light from the smoke does not seem to interact with the objects in the environment.

Pixeltuner - Pretty cool environment! I would say there is a lack of subject to direct my eyes to as I find all the elements in the painting seems to be given equal attention.

[takashmen]

@noche
hah, thought they are nazguls
sorry for that :D

[unruhe]

I forgot to give some details on my entry...Niskan K nailed it concept wise. I wanted it to take place in a different environment ( my take on the no mordor landscape brief part ).

Some great entries....from interesting concepts to great use of colors, energetic and solid pieces.

[Pixeltuner]

Thanks for all the comments and critiques guys, I kind of forgot I entered this one with all the holidays and stuff. There's some valid points made regarding colours and to much detail in the background so I might take a look at that somewhere in the near future :yayca: