The legendary King

[ghettomasterchen]

haven't posted for awhile, these are some drawings I did in the past months of the Legendary "Sun Wu-K'ung" :P

http://www.9rider.com/temp/conart/mk_1.jpg


http://www.9rider.com/temp/conart/mk_2.jpg


http://www.9rider.com/temp/conart/spyd_2.jpg

[Michael_H]

That last one rocks. The black tone reminds me of an old fashioned caligraphy brush. It's the texturing on the background that really brings it all together though.

When I look at the others though, I get the nagging feeling that you were using a color dodge and burn method to shade. Not that that's a bad thing. All of them are great, as far as I'm concerned.

Love those shadows, by the way.

[linK]

Great take on the characters :D
Though the Sun Wu Kung doesn't quite look like a monkey.

[Kambei]

Great stuff man.. I especially like the third one. It has a Yoji Shinkawa flavor to it ( of Metal Gear Solid fame). There is something about the liveliness of the third that also shines out above the other 2.

Its only a personal preference but perhaps a few hot spots could be spiced up.. Such as a highlight point here and there on the metallic surface of the armor. Also the skin texture could use roughening on the animal characters. Maybe a little more grit and grime, wear and tear to the armor as well.

Overall however, strong work... I like the silhouettes as well.
I'd like to see more =)

[incognito]

Thank you for making the last one...thank you!
:chug:

[James Kei]

Love that last one....great design sense.

[Redmond]

Love the backgrounds!

[MANTICROSS]

Journey to the West has become an important series to me, You have a verry nice take on the characters. I like the pig alot as well, I really couldnt really tell the Shark monk though which is one of my favorite characters in the Series.

I enjoy these pics, I would love to see more of your work in the future.

[LC3]

Holy damn that last one is amazing!

I like the approach to these. On the first one his feet look awkward and I'd blend the shadow into the BG better. I like the line work.

[baquitania]

Love the ink brush backgrounds, and I agree with the consensus, the last one rocks, and deserves a full coloring...

B.

[BluePencilArtist]

Very impressive..
:chug:

[ghettomasterchen]

Thanks for the feedback and crits everyone. here's the color version of the 3rd one, I actually painted these colors on first but as I was playing around with the layers I sorta liked the B/W lines so I went for the minimal approch.

and Kambei funny that you mentioned Yoji Shinkawa cause he's one of my favorite concept artist along the capcom artists, their styles are so loose and dynamic.

http://www.9rider.com/temp/conart/spyd_1.jpg

[Mysen]

very great designs. i really dig the line work.

[Glenn K]

Very interesting ink style. I particularily like the last one. Great character. The red design behind her makes her look like a preditor.

COOL!!

[Dryfire]

amazing, great works. i especially like the colored girl

[Kambei]

Yea I think I wore out my Shinkawa and art of capcom books.
They should make those pages out of metal or something..
I'm a big fan of loose styles as well, theres something to be said about its lifelike quality.

Nice render of the insect like girl..

Once again, hope you keep on posting.

[jaymz]

I grew up with Sun-Wu Kung...I used to LOVE the Monkey stories when I was in China. I don't know if you remember that they made a PS1 game based on it called 'Saiyuki'. If you haven't seen the art yet, definetly check it out. Some really original takes on these characters. The company that made the game 'KOEI' has some outstanding talent...

-JZ

[gekitsu]

wow, really great art. the idea of the sumi brush backgrounds is superb!

definitely, a very shinkawa-esque feeling to the brush marks.

now, all of the ignorant (me) would be happy about a short intro into what sun-wu kung is :)

[ghettomasterchen]

yeah james, I've seen the art for Saiyuki by koei. those darwings were totally cool with that traditional chinese looking inking.

the artist katsuya terada also illustrated a version of "Saiyukiden" don't know if u seen that yet. his take on the monkey king is badass.
http://store.yahoo.com/animebooks-com/saiydaienvol.html

BTW james, since you're at LucasArts, did u know morgan grey or steve hwang?

hey gekitsu here's a link to the story of Sun Wu-K'ung also know as "the monkey king"
http://www.china-on-site.com/monkey.php

[gekitsu]

holy moley, THAT is the story!
man... i remember seeing an animation film in traditional asian style when i was.. like 3 years old.
i didn't remember anything besides that it was about a monkey, a staff that grew or shrank as he commanded and a sword. and he was in some garden with peaches of everlasting youth or something like that.

man, i went nuts over finding out what this story was :) thank you!

edit: does anyone know a good translation i can buy from amazon?

[krayz]

Nice pieces. Maybe it's me but I think that black stroke in the background is kinda distracting. Especially on the first one. Like I said maybe it's just me.

Gekitsu: there was a TV series called Monkey. He used to beckon a cloud and fly on it to travel. Cool stuff. I loved it when I was a kid =]

It's on DVD now.

http://www.playserver7.com/play247.asp?page=search&adudisc=y

8th one down.