EOW #37 Happy Town

[Hyver]

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/images/EOW.jpg



Round #37

Topic:
Happy Town



Deadline:
Wed, Oct 18th 2006


thanks to gethsemane for the topic suggestion - this one particularly struck me as in good contrast to our last few rounds ;)

The Happy Town. It was an ideal place -they made sure of that. It always had beautiful weather and no crime or homelessness and jobs aplenty and room for all and yes, all this perfection came with a price, a horrible price they saw every day, everywhere they went, because it hung over the town like a storm cloud, but wasn't it worth it? Wasn't any price worth it?

[artiphats]

great topic, I really want to do this one, I will try and make time!

[PianoForte]

hmmm, i have lots of ideas, but i'm not good enough to put them on paper, *shakes fist at sky**curses nonspecific deity*

[Ryan DeMita]

hmm interesting, reminds me of a short story called "the ones who walk away from omelas" by ursula le guin. its a pretty interesting story, check it out. it might get the creative juices flowing..

cant wait to see these ones
-ryan

[Justin.]

I LOVE Omelas, it too was one of the first things I thought of;


Basically it is a story about a town- Utopia, it is perfect and everyone is happy in everyway, except for 1 small boy who is in a closet. The thing of the story is that 1 suffers for the rest to be happy; Some pity him so much they leave to "ease his burden".

Another story I thought of was the Lottery, but it isn't as applicable.

I also thought of the huge Castletown in Shrek... lord Farquads or whatever.

[Evil_Sloth]

When the people of earth can not stand to see deserts of metal and industrial waste that is now their towns and cities they resort to projections of images of beauty to make them happy.

http://img137.imageshack.us/img137/8430/happytownfinalth7.jpg

[Wilderness]

Sad but true.

[vonky]

I think I'll die if I don't give this a shot... yet the walls of time are closing in from all directions :(

[dragon4lunch]

vonky don't die! Just draw/paint NOW!!! I want a new topic. :)

[Hyver]

what, too hard? ;)

Just do what Evil Sloth did, follow the title more than the description... this activity isn't about me being a dictator about the rules. It's about giving you something to be creative with and create as much kickass art as possible. Right?

[Hyver]

on second thought, forget what i said about Sloth's piece, i realise now it fits the description perfectly! great job ES.

But my point stays valid - go! :)

[Ryan DeMita]

ohhh, nice paint sloth! great concept.

[dragon4lunch]

Hmmm. It's already Wednesday where I am. And thus far I can only see one entry. I guess the winner is...

[Johnnyhorse]

I think we need more grandiose topics and outdoor scenes (battleships, guns and alien-like helps) for a lot of people to join in.
Even though in theory it is a great topic--in practice it is pretty hard to express (or atleast I think so).
I think we need to zoom out a little and create grounds instead of scenes.
Anyway, that's my two cents

I did enjoy the only EOW I did... hopefully I'll get to join in some more, sometime soonish!

[Johnnyhorse]

Ryan, your image isn't showing up. I tried looking through your sketchbook and it isn't showing up there either.
Unfortunately I don't have any sort of real solution...
perhaps photobucket? Works for me

[Hyver]

ryan, your image isn't showing because it contains errors.. in most cases that means it's a cmyk jpg, which means trouble for most browsers to show.

[Ryan DeMita]

ok is it workin now?

[Johnnyhorse]

si

It's got some nice depth, but the perspective seems a little off, and the this town certainly doesn't look ver happy!
The details in the foreground are pretty fuzzy and vague, and perhaps could use some more variety.
Also... get the eraser and sharpen up/chisle those "red eyes" in the sky, along with a lot of the edges through the picture!
Sorry, I'm in a rough, rambling crit mood right now, and I need to stop.

[Johnnyhorse]

Evil_Sloth's turn.

Wonderful image--nice panorama.
Two things that could vastly improve this:
The shading on his back is flattening out his entire body... everything is pretty well rendered on him, save for those flat squiggly lines--you know what to do.
Also, either the visual projection, or the metal frame beneath the glass is out of perspective. I think it's just the metal beneath the glass that needs to be more horizontal than diagonal.
You might also consider cropping off a little of the right side and see how it looks (just a suggestion).
k, done.

[Ryan DeMita]

ok, atleast its can be veiwed now, for better or worse.thanks johnnyhorse for the crit, although i dont think ill have time to clean it up for tomorrow (today). it was worth a shot i guess, oh well maybe next time.

-ryan

[Johnnyhorse]

Hah, yeah you're probably right. I guess most of the time when I crit I don't mean to actually suggest people change their pictures, but instead work to improve on things in their next picture.
That said, I do like your picture, and I'm positive it's very much appreciated in a round with so few entries like this.

[Ryan DeMita]

i agree johnny, i wish i had a little more time to refine the image, i had some time last night to sharpen it up and fix minor things and hopefully ill have some time today to make bigger fixes (such as the perspective and details.i couldnt get it to the crisp render level last night.

i know today is the deadline, so im not sure if we are still aloud to make adjustments or not...

-ryan

[Hyver]

considering the vast amount of entries we had for this round so far: yes :)
i'm keeping this one open for a few extra days, i think i'll give it a shot myself as well.
i'll put up a new topic though for all you sissies that are too scared to draw this one :p

[Ryan DeMita]

hell yes!


thanks hyver...
now its time to do a proper job on this painting.

edit: my buddy and i sat down with my paint and we were able to come up with 15! things that could use improvemnt or complete revamping. thats what i love about being in industrial design, no bullshit crits :) anyhow walking away from that mini-crit, the paint looks very very incomplete.

-ryan

[Ryan DeMita]

oh and people who are too scared to paint this CLASSIC topic.....
you're gonna have a tough time in concept art because themes like this are livid in the industry.
:)

-ryan

[Ryan DeMita]

alright guys, thanks for the crits on my last one. this is my final image. i started working on another one last night but it turns out it will fit great with this weeks prompt!! anyhow. fixed some stuff and changed it a bit. still alot of fun although unresolved.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v151/kingsal/EOW1rework-1.jpg

[arttorney]

http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m214/arttorney/happytown.jpg
Nobody really knew what the government was putting in the water supply these days, but everybody agreed it was "frikken awesome." Frankly nobody really cared. Nobody cared about anything but the water supply. Suffice it to say the water board was re-elected every four years like clockwork.

The following editorial is not a part of the description:
Aw gee whiz people! I wish trash talking was enabled on this activity. The above was done in a lousy 3.5 hour from a four color palette. Don't tell me you can't do any better! I know y'all be hatin' on expressionism here! Show me what you got!

[Ryan DeMita]

?

-ryan

[arttorney]

Don't worry Ryan. You and Evil Sloth posted images. I'm just trying to shame the other forum people into entering.

Come on! You can draw better than a guy who paints purple clouds, can't you?

[Johnnyhorse]

Er... okay, I instantly feel a rush of adrenaline to pump out an image in... what... I have no idea how much time we have, but gosh darnit I need an idea...
Arttorney, Ryan... no time for crit!

lol, yeah, Arttorney, ever since this last 3CHW round I've been wanting to trashtalk to everyone online (bad habit, but atleast it's honest).

[Ryan DeMita]

ugh, i could spend a month on this topic. oh well. instead i spent one highly caffinated evening and created a big timely mess of color and... people with masks...

rumble in the jungle is sounding pretty sweet though!! i promis better results next time

-ryan

[Johnnyhorse]

Okay, well i got excited and started painting way too many different concepts without good underdrawings, which results in many failed attempts.
Here's the only one that may have some opportunity. I hope it's decent:
WIP
[EDIT]
Final, I guess :(
The inhabitants of Caliville, a small town near the coastline, had very little to worry about in the way of crime, misdemeaners and crooks. This was a town of zero tolerance and any deviance would be made example of. As a result, the population of Caliville remained very low but eventually they weeded nearly all malevolence in the surrounding area; the inhabitants were truly free to enjoy the brisk, clean, golden land--that is, if that's all they did.

[EDIT 2: I don't want to post an image until it's a finished piece.. which may never come--i can't pull my stuff together. Hyver: Don't wait on me! Sorry guys, really. I just wanted to enter a piece since there were so few entries, but it's more insulting to post an unfinished quick sketch late than none at all I think.

[Vulgar`]

Good luck guys.

Hints for ideas: Pleasantville, Suburb heaven..

[arttorney]

Ryan- timely is right. Only you and Evil Sloth met the original deadline, and that counts for a lot in my book. Best of luck.

[Ryan DeMita]

crits fo my people..

ES- nice image bro! very clean and crisp and pretty interesting concept. my only crits are some parts of the image are very flat, almost graphic, possibly due to so much texture use.. (the mentioned character and the large crane structure right of center seem flat). the other nit pick i have is the composition could use a little adjusting. the focal point (the holo image) could be placed differently to make it more dynamic. also some of your larger black shapes break up alot of the space. OTHERWISE, very cool and its definately great you decided to submit something. take care

arttorney- lol. i really like the three demensionality of the paint. the radiance of the tree is pretty interesting too. id actually like to see some more of this work, brought up to a another level. :) cya

johnnyhorse- pretty interesting idea however i think the image needs some more work. your focal point is hugging the edge and breaks up the page uninterestingly. the saturation on the trees sticks out as a bright "out of the tube" green. maybe some oranges would help.. also there are no shadows in the whole composition! no sense of a light source. i like the shape of the landscape. i just think with some more work, you will help define space, lighting, and composition overall.

(self crit)- the saturation level of the orange light is disturbing, its unrealistic and blends with the blues. some VERY unclear shapes in the foreground. composition is unteresting and feels very "crammed". the eye has a difficult time moving around. the ships are still not fully realized. concept is weak. however, i feel i achieved some depth and intereting brush strokes. working back into it is a waste of time, mostly because i didn't lay out a solid foundation to build the image on. doh! :nohope: maybe next time

thanks for all the good comments. this was fun and i learned alot!
take care
ryan

[arttorney]

Thanks Ryan.

If nobody else will post something, this round might become the lost patrol. Four entries is better than two, but it's still only four.

Evil Sloth- This looks like basically an analogous color scheme. I think it would pop a bit more if the warm color accents were more of a complement like red or orange instead of yellow. The middle ground purples (over the rail) are not engaging enough to make the yellow pop much. Making the purples more hot and perhaps more saturated would be the alternative if you really want the yellows.

Ryan DeMita- that brightness in the upper left kinda hurt my eyes. I would have liked to see more of a warren of alleyway going back into the distance (but with my piece I got a lot of room to talk, I know).

Johnnyhorse- Yeah, some shadows. I also thought some kind of sky would help too.

Self- Where the F. is the rest of the street? It disappears after one block. No detail, what's up with that. (To Ryan- I have painted a lot of trees with these greens but they never vibrated like this. This is a so called discordant color scheme known as Alternate Complement. I stepped outside my usual comfort zone about colors. The red-orange makes the greens much more green than they are. I was loving to look at this while I painted it. Unfortunately wet in wet impasto oils don't lend themselves to much detail. Look how the part of the tree that overlaps the building seems a different color than the rest of the tree. It's not, and my naked eye doesn't discern this difference, but it is caused from the green mixing with the wet color below as it is being painted on. To ratchet things up a little, I need to do the first layer of painting when the topic first comes out and then have a detail session on the last day when the first paint has a skin on it. I'm glad you liked it, like I said it was experimental.)

[Johnnyhorse]

Thanks for the crits guys.

I feel kind of bad about the half-assedness of my piece. I got really frustrated with it and was hoping to go for a more cartoony pastel kind of deal. I hope I can save it... im really disappointed in it.

Ryan - now that you mention it... i have no idea what I was thinking putting that crucifixion so close to the edge.. sheesh.

BTW. Arttorney, your description totally makes the piece 10x better :)

[Ryan DeMita]

dont be dissapointed JH, just make it better. it seems like you didnt do any preliminary sketches and color swatches. dont let yourself down, just realize that you will learn the most from works like this :)

take care bro
-ryan

[Hyver]

I must say guys, this round wasn't the best in EOW history in terms of quantity, but the way you are helping each other with honest crits, and the maturity displayed here, makes this thread more interesting than many others. Bravo!