EOW #38 Rumble in the Jungle

[Hyver]

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



Round #38

Topic:
Rumble in the Jungle



Deadline:
Sat, Oct 28th 2006

no guidelines this time ;)

[Moai]

Awesome! I want to do this one. I will do this one. Kick me if I don't.

Edit: My idea is to have a huge, dormant, moss covered creature snoring on the forest floor. It'll be well-hidden, with plants and lichens growing all over it, so it'll still be an environment pic, not a creature pic.

[Ryan DeMita]

hahaha, thats funny because i just started doing a jungle scene for LAST weeks eow for a happy town. i guess ill just save it for this weeks competition.

[gizmodus]

Oh I'm the first one. :) I just couldn't resist this topic!!

http://img327.imageshack.us/img327/6747/rumblejunglezo2.jpg

[Johnnyhorse]

Ah, beautiful. I love the ground... I hope you can shape up the canopy to look as dynamic. Wonderful idea too--I really like the feel of this environment.

[Moai]

Awesome, Gizmodus. I agree with Johnyhorse about he canopy, though. It needs to look more tree-y. More individual leaves and less soft color masses would do the trick, I think.

Here's a coupla thumbs I did today.
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b320/metalukesurfer/thumb1.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b320/metalukesurfer/Untitled-2.jpg

[cesaraguilar]

My contri , in the jungle a new predator anounces...

http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/5878/jungla1ll3.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[arttorney]

Alright Cesar! It's dramatic. If you have time I think you should clean up the skeleton in the front.

[gizmodus]

Thanks Johnnyhorse and Moai!! Your right with the canopy but I don't know how to fix it. A scattered brush doesn't bring the desired effect. Do you have any ideas? (except handpainting all the leaves :bomb:)

Moai: Cool idea! The composition is in both thumbs good but I prefer the first one. Maybe because it's more dramatic.

[Johnnyhorse]

Gizmodus - I don't even think leaves are necessary to paint in the canopy (or maybe a 'hint' of leaves would be nice..) but instead I think the canopy needs to be very dark--much darker than it is now since I think of this as a night scene. You also should probably chisle out the tree's a little more.
Also, im going to extend the crit to say that the weight of the image is starting to shift a lot to the left, and maybe some cropping is in order. I might do a paintover if I have time, if it's alright with you, cause I really like the piece.

Cesar - Looks like a good start. It's got a very photorealistic lighting going on, save for the red--as for the red, I would tone it down a bit, or atleast explain it later!

[gizmodus]

Johnnyhorse: yeah, I agree with you in all points. And of course, I'd appreciate a paintover a lot! :)

[Moai]

Gizmodus- Thanks. After sleeping on it and hearing your words, I think I'll go with the first thumb. As for your piece, I agree with Johnyhorse on all points. The canopy should be darker, and leaves should be hinted at. Here's what I'd do. You said the scatter brush wasn't working, but I'd try it again, this time with a small non-round brush with scatter and maximum and count at minimum. Make it about the same color as the light source, since leaves are usually fairly reflective, and just put some light dabs of it here and there, so you get the texture of a leafy canopy while keeping it still very dark. Also, as for the pic being kinda heavy on the left side, perhaps you could balance it with a torch or a lantern on the right side. Just a suggestion.:rendered: If you don't want to do the scatter brush, you could always put a few small points of light in individually.
cesaraguilar- I have four suggestions. One, clarify the picture, as it's rather vague and messy at the moment. Two, move your focal point, the big reg light, over a bit so it's not completely centered in the composition. Three, change the light's color. I'm sure you have a reason for having a brilliantly colored light in your jungle, but there are more interesting colors than plain, simple red. Perhaps add some orange or magenta hues. And finally, the text in the lower left in fading into the background in places, particularly the "8," the "C," and the "S." You've got a nice start and great lighting!

[Johnnyhorse]

Johnnyhorse: yeah, I agree with you in all points. And of course, I'd appreciate a paintover a lot! :)

Holy crap, almost forgot I offered one ;) Good thing I check out the EOW pretty regularly, hehe. Okay, so i'll compare the two so it's easier to see the differences:
http://img327.imageshack.us/img327/6747/rumblejunglezo2.jpg
http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k151/JohnnyhorseCA/GizmodusPaintover.jpg

Okay, I hope the paintover more or less speaks for itself. Most importantly, however, I really want to mention just how much fun it was painting over this piece, seriously ;). As a result I probably went overboard.
I took some suggestions from other people and tried to incorporate torches (terribly!), and I got to try out my new custom brush for the foliage. Overall, there are a lot of lighting issues with consistancy (although the lighting is beautiful, regardless), and I am still not even sure what time of day it is.
Finally, I made a few changes to the building's perspective. Most notably, I lowered the left side, and aligned the right building with the building closest to us (by shifting the roof more down). Okay. Done.

**Looking at it again, I feel maybe the entire composition should be lowered a little, cropping out the plain bottom, and opening up the canopy more, since the focus is a little awkwardly high

[EDIT] I looked through a lot of your work, and I've noticed you use a lot of nice sharp lines, especially diagonal ones (for foliage and stuff), which would work great here. The style I used on the paintover definitely doesn't match up to your style, but I hope you can just get the impression of the volume I'm trying to convey--you can make this look more organic!

[gizmodus]

Wow, great overpaint, Johnny!! I think the composition is much better now with the part atteched on the left side. I like the 16:9 format more anyway ;)
The trees are well done too, with small effort a big improvement. Do you make your brushes exclusively for such things or take them from a library? Oh, and yeah, it's supposed to be a party in the jungle so it should be night.
Thanks again!! It opened my eyes.

Moai, thanks also for the feedback! Can't wait to see your finished pic... :teeth:

[Johnnyhorse]

Gizmodus - to be completely honest with you, I think I just used one custom brush that I made (just a brush I made for general gungy-ness and foliage, it's pretty formless), and the only other one I used was a small round one for lines ;) Too many people just download the same brushes--it's much more beneficial to just make your own (and easy).
Anyway, glad you liked the overpaint. I guess since it's night you could just make that middle section in the canopy dark and starry instead of twighlight.

Moai - I also prefer the first thumbnail. It's got a lot of potential for interesting perspective, dynamics, lighting and neato plants -- now you just have to make them!

[Moai]

Thanks, Gizmodus and Johnyhorse! Here's my more detailed line drawing. I'm really optimistic about this one and I'm going to try my hardest.

Update6: Thanks for all the help, everyone! I took your advice and left it in the original orientation, with the Terrasuchus facing left.

Description: Golden sunlight filtered through the canopy of a southern Pangaean jungle. An Eospinus, a small pelycosaur, scampered over mossy tree routes in pursuit of tasy gliding lizards. Just as it was about to leap and snatch its prey out of the air, the Eopspinus paused. It lacked true ears and could not hear the deep rumbling sound, but it could feel the vibration of the ground beneath its feet. Uneasily, the Eospinus tasted the air with its forked tongue, and registered the unmistakable scent of the most powerful predator of its age, the Terrasuchus. The Eospinus scurried away. The Terrasuchus slept on, its slumber uninterrupted, the deep rumbles of its snores striking fear into the heart of any creature to hear them. The Terrasuchus had eaten well. It had slept, digesting, for six weeks, until moss and lichen took root in its hide and it became part of the landscape. But now, in the mysterious depths of its primitive mind, there was a familiar stirring. The Terrasuchus was hungry again, and would soon feed.
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b320/metalukesurfer/moai-final.jpg

[snowboarderx82]

Moai that looks sick. I can't wait to see how that turns out.
This is my first posting to this sight. I'm hoping that getting into the weekly projects here will help me become a better artist. i've been working on this EOW for a few days now. I will try to post it tonight or tomorrow in hopes of getting some suggestions.

[Moai]

Welcome to CA, snowboarderx82!:yayca: Thanks for the compliment. These weekly activities are great for building your skills. They motivate you to do at least one finished piece a week, and you get great critiques and advice. Don't be afraid to post your works in progress, either. I look forward to seeing your work.

[Johnnyhorse]

Moai - Excellent sketch! I would be optimistic about it as well. I love the lizard and the insect/birds near the top. The moss on the left is great too. I can already see the Wadey influence in the line quality ;)

Snoboarderx82 - By far, the Weekly activities have pushed me to improve my talents and abilities more than anything else (even though I've only done about 3 or 4, each piece improves dramatically)

[snowboarderx82]

http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q280/jasonschoonover/Schoonover_EOW_rumbleinthejungle_v3.jpg

I hope this is linked properly :)

It's still a work in progress, but it's coming along. I'm really new at this and am kinda learning as I go. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks guys :)

[Moai]

Johnnyhorse- Thanks!
snowboarderx82- It's looking good so far. I did an uber-quick paintover (more like a write-over) for my critique to more easily explain my points. I hope you can read my chicken-scratch.:P
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b320/metalukesurfer/paiintover.jpg
Also, it would be nice if your final was bigger. Good luck, and have fun!

Edit: Updated mine. There's still a loooong way to go.

[snowboarderx82]

Awesome,
Thanks Moai

I’ll try to work on some of those changes later tonight. Thanks for taking the time to help me out.

[arttorney]

http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m214/arttorney/JUNGLERUMBLE_edited-4.jpg
I heard a low rumbling noise and looked to my left. What I saw made me freeze stock still and my heart began pounding like a jackhammer!

[Johnnyhorse]

Arttorney - getting the hang of the tablet now, I see.
I certainly hope you aren't already done! I can see through the dirt.. and dirt isn't just one color of brown. Also.. though you did a good job of filling in the foliage volume in the background, the foreground lacks any large volume, and is instead replaced by thin and oversaturated green leaves: Try to integrate those brushes behind the foremost trees into the foreground. Get some grass in there too!

Also, are you making your own brushes (i know the leaf brushes are PS)? Since you are an avid painter, you should try converting some paint dabbs into brushes, it's great fun! just greyscale the paint and then increase contrast like crazy---- edit - define brush and voila!

[EDIT]Moai - Updates looking good! try to get some warms in there as well

With all the commenting I'm doing, you'd think I'd have a piece as well... unfortunately i'm just procrastinating doing some art projects that are due much too soon... sorry guys! Maybe I can just do several more paintovers and call it a session, heh

[Moai]

snowboarderx82- No problem.:rendered: It only took about five minutes to write my chicken scratch around the borders. Glad I could help!
arttorney- Cool piece! I love the strange trees and the leaves. Some crits: tone down the tiger's orange a bit and add some shadows. The tiger also seems to be sinking into the ground. As for the ground itself, I'd fill in those white spaces and change the hue to a cooler, less saturated brown. Composition-wise, the four main trees are all the same distance from the bottom of the picture. Maybe change that up, and add something to bring our eyes over to the right side of the picture so the attention isn't completely commanded by the tiger. There's a lovely, poetic feel to the picture.

[arttorney]

Johnnyhorse- Except for the hard rounds on the tiger and that photoshop leaf brush, the whole piece is by custom brushes. I used fern tops, Ponderosa Pine bristles, and a section of travertine from the wall of Tonto Natural Bridge. To the right of the center tree, high and in dark green, you can see about four repeating chunks of the fern top brush. Just below that you can see two repeats of the travertine brush in a blue green gray.

Moai- I'll see what I can do. That one tree toward the center was not my favorite anyway. I'll try to take it over to the right third line, make it bigger (as in closer) and put some detail on the trunk. I'll muddle my way through on the tiger somehow. People and animals are my bane. I can't see what I would change about yours Moai. More of the same. I would just deepen up the shadows on some roots for example to make three dimensional, but I think you are in the process of building up all that stuff and know what you are doing. Maybe if you need an accent somewhere, you can toss in some shelf fungus on the fallen tree and it would make people smell jungle as well as just see it. I'm always trying to give people a bad case of synaesthesia.

[tumbra]

Awesome work Moai! I like your style. Its shaping up quite nicely.

[Moai]

Johnnyhorse- Yeah, it definitely needs some warms. I'm workin on it.
arttorney- I thought of putting in some fungus, but I didn't like the way it looked. With your suggestion I think I'll try it out again.:rendered:
tumbra- Thanks! I'm glad you're liking the style I'm experimenting with.

Well, back to woik!

[sarillion]

i was mostly doing DSG but we ran out of daily topics so i decided to play with this one... im still learning to paint digitally, so crits are definitely welcome.

mousepainting in PS, prolly about 4 hours.

http://filebox.vt.edu/users/nlistrom/personal_or_previous/rumble_jungle_forweb.jpg

[Moai]

Updated mine once again. I think my next action will be to go through and add some deeper shadows.
Sarillion- Nice! There's a good sense of light in this piece. Maybe even push the light a little bit more and make it brighter and warmer. I totally feel for you with the mouse painting. I did it for a few months before buying my Wacom. You can still get decent results with a mouse, but it takes a looong time. Good luck, and if you're serious about this digital art stuff, get a tablet!

[Moai]

I just might be done with mine. I flipped the image, but I'm not sure if I want to keep it like that, so any feedback would be appreciated.:rendered:

[Johnnyhorse]

Moai - I have to keep this short, so I'll just mention what I think is the most important for the picture at this moment: Everything in the picture has a sort of watercolor feel to it, which isn't bad, but in turn it gives everything the exact same texture. Light doesn't react with everything the same way (obviously, you know that)... there are glossy things (like ferns and some reptile skin) and very soft things, like the moss.
One more thing -- the background looks like you just left the canvas blank.
It's wonderful, one of your best (though I haven't seen a lot of your work) I think.

[sarillion]

Moai, thanks for the crit. i may work on this a bit more before deadline. idk right now tho b/c i'm pulling a 10hr tomorrow and the deadline is saturday.

i think your comp is the strongest piece in the thread right now. the time you poured into it definitely shows, and i absolutely love the undersketches you made. very inspiring. i really enjoy your use of color as well. my composition took a page from some of Bill Watterson's comic panoramas early on in the process and ended up with a very narrow range of colors... i guess im a bit timid about that kind of thing too tho.

i agree with JH about the background a bit. the background stuff on one side of the fallen log doesn't match the background stuff on the other side and this bothers me a bit because the side which your composition tells my eye should be closer is actually less defined and therefore farther back as far as atmospheric perspective is concerned. not a huge deal, just something that caught my eye. more than perspective tho, id like to see continuity.

also, i'd love to see you push your darks a little bit more. i had an amazing drawing professor freshman year. he was extremely hard on us (he made students cry in critiques) but he was never wrong, and we all improved drastically because of it. one of the things he always stressed was pushing contrast, especially darks.

yeah, i'd love to get a wacom, but working my way through school leaves little extra cash for stuff like that so right now its just on the wish list ^^

[Simon Boxer]

Very nice composition, Maoi

[Migsta]

http://www.miguellleras.com/images/Migsta_EoW38_Jungle.jpg

For miles around, the rumbling of the prelaunch cylce of the IBM could be heard. The area is scarce of wildlife since testing of the facility is constant.

[Kian]

Last minute thing. Thought I'd have a go before the deadline.

http://www.jonmccoy.info/A.jpg

[Moai]

Johnnyhorse- I softened up the highlights on the moss and the tree, and introduced some more color into the background. Not too much, though. I don't want the picture to look too yellowy. Thanks so much for the feedback.
sarillion- I'm glad to meet someone else who appreciates Bill Watterson as an artist! His landscapes are wonderful, very simple and natural. Following your advice, I toned down the details on the far side of the log and deepened the shadows a bit. Thanks for the crit.
cognition.sb- Thanks!
Migsta- For some reason, this feels out of perspective to me. The far base, especially, seems too flat. Also, maybe add some cast shadows from those towers and ramps and whatnot. The missile (or something...) coming out of the nearest structure is very well done, and the texture of the forest is very nice.
Kian- Awesome piece. Great lighting and energy. I like the angular style.
Arttorney- Nice update. I still feel that there should be something attracting our attention to the right to balance the composition. Perhaps a bird or something.

Thanks for the crits, everybody. I hope you all get a chance to finish your unfinished pieces!

PS- I'd really appreciate some feedback about whether my pic should be flipped or not.

[sarillion]

Moai: i like the comp in its original orientation (with the sleeping dinosaur facing left) best. i think its looking really sharp.

[arttorney]

Thanks for your help Moai. I think the version of yours with the log starting at the upper left will be intuitively better for many people because the shapes of the small lizard, then the log, then the large lizard tend to make an S curve. The other way the S is backwards and so it is not the way the western subconscious would be used to seeing it.

[[DAN]]

Hello everyone , here is my rumble in the jungle.
The subject is pretty simple and clichee, an american helicopter base in the middle of jungle being destroyed by russian airfroce.
(sorry for the extremely short description but have to be really fast with that one , dedlines are killing me ... )


http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a153/danghiordanescu/c5psd-1.jpg

[Moai]

Sarillion and Arrtorney- Thanks for the feedback, guys!
[DAN]- Cool piece. Great sense of lighting and space.

[dragon4lunch]

attorney I think the sign is kind of flat. It doesn't look like it is really there. Maybe have it wrap around a little and give it a hint of green bounce from the environment. Nice pic though.

Kian Sweetness going on there. But not a whole lot of jungle.

Migsta that is a nice areal view of a jungle! It is looking very matte though - I'd add some specular highlights to the river.

Dan that is some serious craziness! Powerful image!

[snowboarderx82]

http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q280/jasonschoonover/Schoonover_EOW_rumbleinthejungle.jpg

Thanks again for the help Moai. I stayed home from work yesterday and made some of those changes ;)

So I guess this was my first piece on conceptart.org and I had a blast working on it. You can expect to see more stuff from me in the future.

[arttorney]

Thanks Dragon. Welcome newcomers.

We're about at the end of a much improved round. Best of luck to all in the poll.

[dragon4lunch]

attorney - much better. But it still seems very static, in part because it is completetly parallel ("it" being the paper) to the image borders. Slanting the paper slightly would do the trick.

[arttorney]

Yeah, I could see that. Basically this is my second photoshop effort ever, and so I barely figured out how to get text in there that was not my own suck-ass handwriting. I did figure it out, partly because I didn't want to screw up the drawing trying to make a bird with my rather questionable animal rendering skills. Unfortunately, now I don't know what I can do to fiddle about with that "rectangular marquee" thingy I used, and make it into some kind of parallelogram or trapezoid. The help topics don't seem to cover that thing at all. My guess is that I would need to make another layer and just draw jungle orthoganally over select edges of the thing. I'm too drunk right now for that, frankly (for global folks, it's after 7 P.M. on Saturday night where I am).

My original conception was to put a big old water buffalo kind of up close and personal with its head and horns somewhere in the neighborhood of the lower right intersection of the thirds. I didn't do that because I didn't want to press my luck once I managed to make a reasonably passable tiger. I had wanted to move on and make an IDW hovercraft by today. In retrospect I guess I might as well have made the water buffalo.

This concludes this week's episode of "Self-critical Catharsis." We now return you to your regularly scheduled Environment of the Week episode: "Rumble in the Jungle."

For [Dan]: Son of a bitch! Er, I mean, it's sort of a beach!! We leveled the place!

[bumskee]

nice work kian and dan!!! woah.. sweet
:) here's my scribble..
it's dedicated to my friend, (you know who you are!...oooppp) who chickened out...*cough*

http://www.minart.net/temp/jungle.jpg

"You sissy! I know you are hiding in here!"
"........"
"You can't hide from me!! you emo bastid!"
"........"

[silliKONe]

kian, bumskee - great atmosphere!

[Johnnyhorse]

Wow, a lot of last day great entries... still waiting on Gizmodus' update.
Arttorney - Great improvement over the piece. Looks like you are getting quite comfortable with Photoshop already. As for the marquee... once you have a rectangle selected, right click on the image with the tool and then select "Tranform Selection," from there you should be good to go ;)
Moai - excellent work! I'm still very bothered by the sky/light in the canopy and background, but I understand that at this point it's dangerous (i can imagine that the method that you used is maybe too linear for experimentation!)
Snowboarder - Looks much better. The volcano still needs some work, since it is the focus IMO--maybe some smoke and warmer (less brown) colors. Also, the trees are very strange that frame the volcano... they really shouldn't be straight lines, it's quite confusing actually!
Dan - Excellent--now that's some energy! Those people blasted back by the helicopter explosion stand out way too much though.
Bumskee - What a lush, surreal jungle; it truly is eye candy. I'm a little concerned with the relation to the topic though--it's not quite a rumble if one person is just hiding! I'm also not sure what his right hand's doing(?)

[Blue Severin]

uhm migsta's says ChOW 38?

[Johnnyhorse]

uhm migsta's says ChOW 38?

Hah, must be a ChOW template he used, since they encourage such borders.

[gizmodus]

Some cool new pics! And I missed the deadline!! >:|

Johnnyhorse: I'm sorry that I didn't update my entry. I'm just too busy these days. Hope to post more again when I got used to university...

[Moai]

Gizmodus- The round isn't over until the voting thread is up. But, since that could happen at any time, I can understand if you're a bit leery about putting more work into you piece and then finding out it's too late.

Johnnyhorse- I added some more colors into the background. It's prolly to subtle to be noticed, though. I'll remember to put mork color into the background in my next piece.

Hyver- Not to be rude or impatient or anything, but are we going to vote soon?

[Shard]

Hi all!
another new one here! :)

I'm trying to increase my painting skills so after a long time lurking I've decided to try and be more active in the EoW and Daily sketch,
this is my environment, I hope you guys write me some critique and feedback!!

http://img165.imageshack.us/img165/9044/runmblejunglegx9.jpg

bumskee I really like the lighting and atmosphere on yours!

edit: a bit late apparently.. oh well!

[arttorney]

About a week late. Polish this up a bit with Pitfall Harry, Rhonda, and/or Quickclaw the cowardly pet mountain lion; then post it in this weeks Pitfall challenge. Hopefully Hyver will have a good sense of humor about the "work created for this activity" rule (but that's why I suggested updating with Pitfall Harry).

[Hyver]

Humor? HUMOR?
sure dude, go ahead ;)