bots 18-19-20

[sparth]

gathered these in order to see the three at the same time, for the peeps who do not visit the speed painting threads.

bot 18, 19, and 20.;)
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/arth/art/stock/sparthbot18small.jpg
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/arth/art/stock/sparthbot19small.jpg
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/arth/art/stock/sparthbot20small.jpg

[Scott Robertson]

Sparth,

Very nice as always. I was just thinking it might be nice to see you zoom into the focal point and really tighten up an area? Just a thought. I know it adds time, but might be worth it occasionally.

Keep up the great work, you are an inspiration to us all.

[Hardcore]

Amazing technique ....

[davi]

i some what agree and disagree with your opinion Scott. Don't you think some artist`s style is actually shown by their "sketchiness"? By sparth making his work more detailed I think it could cause his work to seem alittle less unique, His strokes give off a somewhat.. Dreamlike feeling. A digital artist will add tons of grit and oddshapes in his work to give off the same feeling, sparth's looseness does that for him.

Yet, I do feel that in some pieces there could be more development, but i'm personally fine with the level of detail sparth provides.

Sparth, I LOVE the 2nd piece. Whatever that organic object in the background adds such a story to the piece. I think you should do more pieces revolving around that background/story.

[Jabo]

1 and 3 look so damn great, I love the bg in 2 and 3, your bgs are always amazing me!

[ljefe]

i think davi's right, my only problem is sometimes they're sooo dreamy (hehe that's funny...yeah) that I have trouble seeing the actual structure of the bot. I guess that adds to the effect of the piece, but occasionally it would be nice to see some definition on form. but i guess with the cool compositions and action shots you can't really do both. Sparth, do you ever expand your designs, or return to them in some form for a larger or different piece? and also, do you just paint and then get the bot design, or do you come up with at least a rough bot idea before you start? do any of them have specific functions you create for them?

[343guiltyspark]

hi. i was wondering if the reason fo it being blotchy is because it was painted?
:D

[leckronium]

i think all three are great. the first two i like better because the third i notice the loose brush strokes a little to much and its distracting to the overall image. but the image is still great. :D

[Prometheus|ANJ]

I really like your robots!

I'd have to agree with Scott on the focus thing tho. The distribution of blur and sharpness appear kinda random sometimes.

On the last one with the 2 guys it would be nice if they separated a bit more from the bot, sharpness, fog or saturation-wise. Perhaps a halo? Took a while for me to see them anyways.

[davi]

i agree, the figures are a bit hard to spot, maybe just adding some little lights on their helments and on their guns would make them easier to make out.

[Loga4]

Sparth,just awesome,bro.

[Prometheus|ANJ]

http://home.swipnet.se/zebes/sparthbot.jpg

PO experiment. I'm trying to learn this focus point thing. The only thing I did on this one is to reduce contrast, saturation and sharpness near the edges, and put more detail in the face. I darkened the around edges a bit too.

Better or worse?

And yeah, the big round thing in the BG on pic 2 is great!

[ElVeN]

Simply beautiful. personally i think the 'sketchiness' and sheer freedom of paiting is precisely what makes sparth one of my all time favourite artists. The dreamy nature prompts the viewer to generate the remaining details subconsciously, and suggests movement in the piece. I usually prefer peoples paint sketch pages to their polished works. It's that kind of freedom that characterises the speed and flow of painting style, and distances it from the rigid forms of cg. keep it up sparth

c'est vraiment magnifique

e

[sparth]

scott: you're definitely right, i should try to sometimes go further in some of these. i don't think i could succeed in having you amazing rendering, but i'll make a few tries with a different approach.

i love having that sort of free creative feeling, and, as many of you peeps mentioned, i guess these pics may retranslate all the fun i had in order to create them.

but on the other hand, i would like to sometimes escape from the abstraction process that i use in order to make this part of my art. for now, my process remains experimental, i do not literally translate concepts that i have in my brain. it is more a mix between a personnal vision and some technical experiments.
it's fine doing so, but i remain convinced i do not possess all the keys in order to control my own imagery.

also, this process has its own limits... hard to find the good paths, especially when you rely on abstraction to go even further. expressionism, blahblah hmmm.... i'm leaving earth, let's come back now. :D

hardcore: thanx :>

ljefe: i rarely come back on a digital piece i've done. probably because after giving so much "of your own soul", you tend to probably put it aside and get some mental rest.
it shouldn't be that way thought, as leaving images unfinished allow you to never close the door to improvement.
i always begin by opening a square document, take a brush, and bam... here we go. compo comes first, contrasts, lights...

bots don't have any specific function. in this serie...
as i have other designs of creatures and characters that are much more studied.

davi: tx mate. yea i should go back to backgrounds a bit, creating lanscapes... gonna do it!
true, these bots could be a bit more developed, it would not remove the basic spirit i guess.
as scott said, images can have different degrees of development. both concept and illustrative approachs are fine, and shouldn't be opposed.

343guiltyspark, leckronium, Loga4: many thanx to all of you. :D
e1ven: a huge thanx for this very kind comment.
i hope my upper speech will have enlighted you a bit about my approach.

prom: oh mama! i love it.
here's a little blurb about your paintover:

http://perso.wanadoo.fr/arth/analysis/sparthbot-prompaintover-analysis.jpg
1 - the part i like the most. more depth and color than before. the yellowish area in front of both eyes is much better now. the good thing is that you remained truthfull to the original: this area was the most important part (and nearly the only true interesting part of the image), and you concentrated your efforts on it.
we clearly see now that the inside of the carapace receives the light from the eyes, a very nice touch.
2 - i think it might not be that good to see the left shadowy part disappear and become green. i prefered when there was a gap between the outside carapace and the metallic greeny inside structure. it was important also in terms of compo.
3 - two noses instead of one? or is it me?
anyway it's more detailed, more rich. the face is really the biggest improvement on your version.
4 - less contrasts, you removed the light from the background. it's very interesting, as now there is no more duality between two bright lights, one coming from the right, and the other one coming from behind the bot.
on the other hand, the image balance tend to be heavy on the right side now.
5 - cool shadow. i love it. it add to the realism.
6 - typical prom "techno" touch. yummie! (kidding, i added the same kind of logo on previous bots). it's just a matter of choice, i guess i just wanted to change and add a tiny handwrited detail. i'm not surprised at all by your choice though :D:D:D
7 - details have been lost over here, especially for that right round rotative piece. (naughty you!)

many thanx prom for that version. it rocks. we should ....................... do some more!

oh my, this is my longest post ever....

[sparth]

http://home.swipnet.se/zebes/sparthbot.jpg
prometheus paintover.


your paintover deserves an honorable place here, not just a link!
if you don't mind, let me post it in here once again.
:D

[TJ Verhagen]

Incredible work oncemore! lovely... and a great inspiration!

[Prometheus|ANJ]

Wow, a countercrit!

I'll countercrit your countercrits!

1: I worked a bit longer on that. Perhaps it got too much details/sharpness. I used a sharp paintbrush and the saturation airbrush to bring a bit more focus on it.

2: That was the area I struggled with the most. Perhaps it should have been left black, since there's a lot of blakcs near the ribs too.

3: the nose looks like this from the front (=) and has a number of cooling things on a row.

4: The dual lights, Yes, I sacrifised those in an attempt to remove some focus on the edges. Perhaps I overdid it.

5: I just moved your shadow down a bit. I sorta got confused if it was a shadow or a reflected part of the 'hood'. If it was a shadow it shoud cover other parts aswell, so it's probably a reflection, but it doesn't look like one so I'm not sure how wise it was to put it there.

6: I had no idea what that CA thing meant, I just experimented a bit with the text tool that's all. I really enjoy seeing text and color stripes on vehicles or robots, it adds a lot!

7: I think you need more ribs there to suggest perspective a bit more, I didn't dare to add anything tho.
I think that it is inconsitant with that black being there near the ribs, and then have the arms blured a lot. I should either unblur the arms and darken them, or extend the blur into the rib area, and add more ribs details in the black to lighten up that area. I probably blured the arms a bit too much.

The arm gizmo could not longer have any lighting there cuz the lightsource bottom right had been faded.


Eyetrek:
I look at the head, then the arm/shoulder joint, which isn't particulary interesting. Then I feel uneasy. Perhaps a more intersting shape on the shoulderpad would allow some interesting rendering aswell, and thus bring balance to the force?

[eli]

Sparth:
At first I didn't agree with Scott, even though he is the master, but when I saw the prometheus paintover, I now HAVE to agree with Scott!

Your bots are getting sooooo good. I love em all but the second one is my favorite!

Do you have an idea in mind when you paint these? or is it just free flow until something appears? And how do you get that "spatter" effect? I use p.s. 7 and I guess the only way would be to use the distribution settings in the new brush engine? I dunno, how do you get that effect? OR maybe I should direct this towards Prometheus.... I think it is on his paintover that it is most recognizable....

simply wonderful~

[sparth]

prom, thanx for these enlightments. it's quite a pleasure trying to have a focus on images the way we just did.
an extra thanx to J for encouraging this sort of approach.

eli: thanx.
it depends, i sometimes start from a blanck area. i think i always know what is going to appear though.
so complex trying to figure out how precise was the concept i had first in my mind.
right now i'm exploring the new dimensions given by that dual brush - other dynamics combination in photoshop7. very interesting. and you've got to stay alert in order not to fall into any sort of gimmicks.

[Scotty]

Man, I love coming back once a week just to see these robots. I love them. Please keep making more. They have a quality to them that begs to be stared at. Extremely inspiring.:)