He found a rose... UPDATED Feb 11th.

[John P.]

THE UPDATED IMAGE IS NOW IN THIS URL:



http://home.online.no/~johmoe/art_portfolio/He_found_a_rose....html


:)

[tyboogie]

hey john--i really like the way you executed that bot--reminds me of some of doug chiangs stuff--

http://www.dchiang.com/dchiang_flash.html

the blood soaked grass was easy to read and your composition and angle over the action is good

when i first saw it had a little trouble connecting the robot with the gun--only because the gun is from this time period and the bot is not. Had the gun been something that fit in more with the robot( ie--futuristiclazerbeam ) i think it would have been more succeddful. You can always use an object as reference and then build, change, ad on top of it.( rifle reference)

the grass has a good texture( must have taken you a while)

aslo just a thought--arent rose stems straight? something seems a little off there.--

thats all though--from what ive seen of your previous work your quickly improving!keep it up and keep posting!--ty

[ummo]

hey i like this alot. Have you ever seen the music video for Bjork's song All is Full of Love? In the video two robot versions of bjork make out :cuddle: (the stuff of dreams i tell you! :dead3: ) and your bot reminds me of them. Very cool. Your gun looks very well done and same with the design of the robot. Two small crits tho and i think they both have to do with the shadows in your pic. The ground looks a little too flat, maybe this is because the robot doesnt cast a very strong shadow on it or maybe the grass texture is alittle repetitive? Also the shadows done on the robot don't seem dark enough in some places like under his left arm and thigh and stomach but on second look the shading goes a long way to make the robot look plastic and mybe you shouldjust ignore me.
Job well done:chug:

[John P.]

Thanks for the crits. :)

Yes, on second thought, roses have pretty "hard" and straight stems, so I might change that.

The gun I used for reference was listed as a prototype, so I thought...

Plus I'm not sure it belongs to the robot, but perhaps to the guy the blood comes from.
But I'll think about either making that clearer, or making it a more futuristic gun.

EDIT: I also thought that guns haven't really changed all that much the last hundred years, at least not in appearance, so I thought maybe they won't change that much in a hundred years either. Ok, I'm reaching here, but.... :D

The shadows could be a bit stronger now, I guess something happened when it was finished and I messed around with levels and colour adjustments.

The grass texture consists of three layers; I first hand-drew the lightest grass layer one straw at a time in a diagonal flow from upper left to bottom right, which took a looong time. Then I duplicated that layer two times, and changed the brightness(levels) of the two other layers. Then I moved them apart a little bit. And I put them all on top of a brownish background that I also used some Noise on.


I posted this as soon as I finished it yesterday, as I always do - I don't have the patience to actually wait and see if I should change anything before posting it....:rolleyes: Which is strange, 'cause I DO have the patience while making it, but I guess I'm just so happy I want to show it right away...

I'll revisit it today, and see what I can do. :)

[John P.]

Ok, I've updated it. I think I adressed all the issues, except the gun, which I kept the same for said reasons. For now at least.

I found some pictures of roses on Google, and some of them were kinda 'bendy', so I only straightened it out a little, and added some leafs.

I added a soldier's hand, and strenghtened the shadows a bit.

(If the image looks the same, you'll have to empty your Internet cache, and reload).


EDIT: As for inspirations, I don't really have any - hadn't even heard of Chiang before :o, except maybe in some thread here.

I guess that to a certain degree though, everything you see on forums like this, or at artist's sites will register somewhere in the back of the brain, and come out as subtle inspiration when you draw stuff.
Chiang seems to be lightyears ahead of me though. But thanks for the link, his stuff is inspiring, now that I've seen it! :)


EDIT 2: Update. I added some 'dirt' to his legs. Figured he'd probably have some of that after having walked/ran on the grass for a while.

[brads3d]

The concept is really beautiful. I'm not sure I got the whoile idea until I read the story though. I wasn't sure if the robot killed him, or what. That doesn't matter too much though.

[MindCandyMan]

I really like the perspective and the concept and all but I want to make a suggestion. This is more of a stylistic thing so take it or leave it. I would add more grit to the pics that you do...all your stuff is tight...and well rendered...almost like it was done in illustrator. I would add some more grit to your pictures. Don't render everything out...use more sweeping brushstrokes. Try to get a little messier...move some paint around. I think it would add more character to your works. Like for instance how the grass is basically all pointing the same direction...there are no irregularities in the way it is growing...etc... When I look at this it feels too setup to me. I don't know if that makes sense. But I hope it helps cause I know in that write up you said you feel stuck on a certain technique. Try painting something without blending at all just to see what happens

You have the skill that's obvious. Take or leave what I am saying because I am a rookie so I don't hold much weight. Good job though man...the expression of the piece is really good.
jon ;)

[John P.]

Thanks for the comments, MCM. :)


I'm quite new to digital drawing, so I still have the fear of ruining my drawings by doing too much to them. Of course, in digital drawing, there's not much chance of that, so I should be much more free when I draw/paint digitally than I currently am. It's a big adjustment for me. I can't help but have that instinct still in me.
But I'll try to experiment more.

Yes, I should try to loosen up my brush strokes and "go outside the lines". But I'm such a perfectionist when it comes to things like that; I was one of those kids who, when drawing things at the age of five, always stayed within the lines when colouring, when the other kids would smear it all over.

So I guess I still have that instinct in me as well.

The grass could perhaps be a bit more diverse, but on the other hand - if the wind blows, the grass will move in that direction, so.

I could of course go over it again and add a bunch of straws.

I feel kinda done with this piece though. We'll see.

Again, thanks for the comments. :)

[MindCandyMan]

I'm glad you can take constructive criticism :o ;) ...the reason I say it is because I am the same way but with other things...I like to draw small and in a controlled way but my teachers aren't letting me...they are making me use stupid charcoal sticks for everything (which I hate because it really isn't precise at all) and they are making me draw huge to get me out of that. I have found though that my previous tendencies were really a hinderance to me...so i am trying to be more free in that area. It is hard to break out of that mold but being stretched is a good thing. Ya know what might help. Do a master's copy of a monet painting next.

Try one of these:

http://www.artrenewal.org/images/artists/m/monet_claude_oscar/Monet_The_Seine_at_Bougival_in_the_Evening.jpg

http://www.artrenewal.org/images/artists/m/monet_claude_oscar/large/The_Artists_Garden_at_Vetheuil_CGF.jpg

http://www.artrenewal.org/images/artists/m/monet_claude_oscar/large/Jeanne_Marguerite_Lecadre_in_the_Garden_CGF.jpg


I am working on a Sargent one right now and it is helping tremendously...Try it out and see what happens...try to match every single brushstroke. Hope this helps.

[John P.]

I get 404 errors on all those links, MCM.

But it doesn't really matter - I think I'll try and take up on your advice. Sounds like a smart thing to do. :)



-And when I've copied one of the old master's paintings, I can post it in the OOHs & AAAHs forum as my own work!
:p

:D

;) j/k

[MindCandyMan]

Oh sorry man...for some reason you have to delete the http:// and then it works...that is bizarre...sorry bout that.

Hehe...we can't say that hasn't been done heheh

[John P.]

Ok, I've done a fast job on it, and I thought - 'why not ditch the gun altogether?'.

So I need some intput on this update.

I removed the gun, added some....grit, texture, camoflage...whatever - to the bot, and added another grass layer.

I also used a slightly lesser amount of contrast/levels/colour adjustment than I did on the original jpeg posted here.




OK - THE NEW UPDATED PICTURE IS IN THE URL IN THE FIRST POST OF THIS THREAD. :)

[MindCandyMan]

This looks much much better. Next time you do a piece go looser with the shadows and all I think it will make it look a lot more spontaneous...but great work on this...the direction you are heading is much more pleasing to the eye...keep it up.

[PzYcHe]

I really like this one. The meaning it has really did it for me. Great job.

[John P.]

Ok, thanks for the help guys. Since you liked it this way, I've now also updated the webpage. :)

[battlemonkey]

great idea, i love the idea you cant really see whats goin on, just the blood and the hand... one comment though. his belly looks a little odd. as if the crotch and the abs are all the same piece. if he was a working robot, wouldnt it be sectioned up a bit? or it looks almost as if the bot is pregnant? i'm having trouble explaining, but his abdomen area looks a little odd.

still, very impressive, :chug:

just noticed something else, his ankle on his left foot, seems very tiny, not sure if you meant to do that on purpose, but that looks odd as well.

[Bathgate66]

Is there a story that accompanies this painting? I'd love to read it what was the concept behind it. I have my idea but I'd rather hear yours. Good job by the way. :D

[John P.]

Thanks battlemonkey and Bathgate66. :)

Yes, there is a short story to it. If you click the link in the very first post in this thread, you will see it there.

I'm actually back working on it now, to fix a few things.

I did a couple of mistakes when sketching this; I didn't use vanishing point/perspective guides, and I didn't sketch fast sketches of how he would look if standing upright.

I've learned something from it though.

However that may be, I'm happy to say that even with the flaws, this piece was chosen to be "Pic of the day" over at gfxartist.com yesterday. So I'm happy about that. :)