GODS AT WAR TD -Votes 1st ROUND IN!!

[JL.Alfaro]

Here it is, this is where your entries go,

please,
1. Restrain from posting comments until all entries are in.
2. Include your god(s) name(s) and origin(s)
3. A brief description of your piece- the whats and why's
4. Make sure your nickname is in the entry name
(eg, JLAlfaro_sheeba pooping on zeus.jpg)

Entries are due by the 11th midnight

[arttorney]

http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m214/arttorney/arttorney_chaacvyogsothoth.jpg
Notice to people manipulating images: The top one is on photobucket. The second one is on attachment manager.

(Left) Yog Sothoth, AKA The Lurker at the Threshold- First appearance in The Case of Charles Dexter Ward (1927) by H.P. Lovecraft.

(Right) Chaac, AKA God B (as in bursting)- Mayan god of rain, light, thunder, etc.

Yog Sothoth is definitely a bad guy and can be most easily found adjacent to the threshold through which the Old Ones once entered this universe. Chaac is sort of a good guy, but I wouldn't mess with him if I were you. Chaac is shown here in his all in one configuration. Yog Sothoth is coextensive with all time and space, so I've just shown part of him (assigning it the term "him" because it fathered a couple of children by a human woman in The Dunwich Horror (1929 H.P. Lovecraft).)

[mull77]

Okaaaay

Mine are Thor (Norse God, Likes thunder, sunsets and Barry Manilow ) and Poseidon (Greek, ruler of the seas, handy with a tridet).

Personally i'm going for Thor on this one, because as it's on dry land, Poseidon is literally a fish out of water. Hahaha! *Ahem*

90721

Mull77

[j a k e]

Well... the time has come!

Here is Xenu, God figure of Scientology. His enemies in this picture are the brains/non believers on earth, the brains of logic and reason. He came to earth with a large fleet of DC-8 aircraft, dropping nukes in volcanoes, to bring spirits into the people of earth.

I went for a more subtle war theme. Not much else to say, other than i learnt what I wanted to learn (and that was ALOT!).

Hope you like it...

http://www.jakerolfe.com/temp/JAKE_XENU.jpg

[JL.Alfaro]

Goddess Chantico: Aztec goddess of home, pleasure, pain, and treasure.
I have chosen to portray goddess Chantico as the cleanser of the continent, making the land safe and habitable for her people, the Aztecs. Here she goes up against the inhabitants of the new continent, a violent, cannibalistic yet highly advanced primate; an army of Neanderthals. They fiercely battle the goddess, but its useless as she crushes them without breaking a sweat.

http://img179.imageshack.us/img179/4444/jlalfarochanticorevisedsf5.jpg

[fedezz]

Ermmm, yeah, IT'S ON, biatches!

Leto II, God Emperor of Dune (from the Dune saga, written by Frank Herbert). Evolved into the last sandworm of planet arrakis, ruler of the Empire, slays the few rebels who dare to infiltrate the only patch of desert remaining in the planet, his sanctuary.

Pretty straightforward approach to the subject :P

http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/8443/fedezzgodsfinal1000pxvb0.jpg

[light]

I had a change of heart like a 2 days before submission and couldn't get myself to work on it anymore.
Ares/Enya/random giant group photo.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v458/LightKirtar/fuck.jpg

[evildisco]

The Morrigan

Here she is murdering generic orc-like creatures, because she doesn't like them particularly.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morrigan

Too lazy to copy and paste text.

http://img250.imageshack.us/img250/9884/evildiscomorriganmurderkg7.jpg

[Soja]

RAIDEN VS. AKUMA

Here's my crappy td entrie!
On my entrie u see Raiden the Japanese God of Thunder fighting
against Akuma the Japanese God of Fire.
I Loved to play Mortal Kombat and Streetfighter...
but this has nothing to do with that!:bashful:
By the way...great entries to everyone!
Like the Morrigan a lot!

http://www.fh-augsburg.de/~duc1982/thu/raidenakuma.jpg

[xzacto]

http://digitalarts.bgsu.edu/portfolios/mkirk/files/ca_org_img/TD1final.jpg

-We can call him.... Trόλεpocus (πόλεμος means war in greek)

-(this is obviously fictional) He's fighting a south American tribe (what we would today call south America anyway) ancient to the knowledge of the Aztecs even. The tribe is known as the Fouxpec, and it's one of 2 other civilizations in the world at that time, one of which being the Atlantians (Atlantis). The Fouxpec are Hot-headed even to the god of war and needless to say it caused their prompt extinction depicted in this image. Sources say, the Fouxpec were filled with pride, thinking they could conquer anything with their newfound weapons when they mastered bronze and gold smithing. And we know as it is written (and this is true) in Proverbs 18:12 "Before his downfall a man's heart is proud, but humility comes before honor."

A side note.
He started out as a default God of War for a modern scene, but it wasn't working so now he's just a regular god of war for a civilization I screwed up then made my own.

The civilization is a cross between a south-American Aztek style thing, and medieval times civilization.

I hope you guys like it :)

[BlueMech]

My god was Set, egyptian god of evil. I'm shamefully posting this because it's the closest I've gotten out of thumbnails really. Been busy with school (ironically art classes leave little time to create decent art) and being sick , but there's no excuse. This is perhaps only slightly better than pussing out.

Definately want to do a rematch sometime xzacto.

[Justin.]

Well, I sort of had the Traditional Christian God versus Satan, (OR at least symbolically),

while I'm not sure if this is a violation or not, but Neither make a specific "person" like appearance, God is the large tower in the back, and Satan is the arms. I had the idea of the angels fighting off many hands of Satan.. Satan burning his way towards heaven, with Angels fighting him back.


Hope this counts as an entry!
(posting as an IMG tag for easy transfer and Attachment for longevity.)
http://img299.imageshack.us/img299/8968/justinoaksfordheavenvhexo9.jpg

[sve]

Goddess Flora. In Roman mythology, Flora was a goddess of flowers and the season of spring. Her Greek equivalent was Chloris. That's my version of Flora being at war. She is not destructive goddess in general, but when you need to fight you fight as best as you can...
Her power is in her weakness... Very powerful manipulative tool actually. Try to raise your hand on someone looking innocent and gentle...
To insure her victory I placed a hallucinogen plant in the picture, Datura stramonium. All parts of this plant are poisonous. Was used as a component in voodoo magic drink to turn humans into zombies.

http://home.comcast.net/~elazutkin/Images/Sve_FloraAtWar.jpg

[Snarfevs]

Goorialla the Rainbow Serpent (Australian Aborigine)

The Rainbow Serpent is known by many names to many aboriginal tribes, being the immense kangaroo-headed snake that carved out valleys, coastlines and rivers by slithering across the earth during the dreamtime in which the world was formed. Normally benign, the Rainbow Serpent is not a force to be trifled with, wielding uncanny dreamtime abilities and great ferocity in the face of aggression.

vs. Tiamat The Mother of All Life (Sumeria)

Enuma Elish tells of how Tiamat roiled and reveled in primordial chaos, ruling capriciously with her companion Apsu before being slain by their own unruly progeny, Tiamat's corpse being used to construct the earth. Armed with the ability to create gods and monsters in her service and furious in battle, Tiamat was nearly invincible.

Situation:

Tiamat and Goorialla meet in the Chaos before time, Tiamat probably loosing harsh but witty invective at Goorialla's colour scheme. Much biting, scratching and bludgeoning with planets ensues!

[Narmo]

Egyptians Gods are the one who must have fight themselves the more. Here are Sekhmet, goddess of war, thunder & winds, Lady of Slaughter fighting Apedemak, god of war.
Both are ancient Pharaohs' protector, but according to them, one is enough. But who ?


http://narmorhin.free.fr/illus/gods-war/Narmo_sekhmet-vs-apedemak.jpg

PS: I've to apologize to all the good people who give me some excellent pieces of advice, but I didn't find time through my blank-tests & illness & computer crash (:o) to apply them. Sorry.

[trevor]

my goddess was eris
much like troy i am too lazy to type

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eris_%28mythology%29

i like what she stood for
she wanted everyone to be miserable all the time
so she started the trojan war, i believe. so she would have a huge battle to run around and cause chaos, killing anyone near her
the cyclops you ask? im sure she has pull with em
check out my SB later if you want to see some detail shots!

oops
edit! last minute based on a few crits
well the ones i had time to address

[yAdam]

Mesopotamian god Nergal. Husband to Queen of the underworld, Ereškigal. Nergal is worshipped at Kutû in Babylonia, and here he's destroying the city while some people try and fight back....

http://img181.imageshack.us/img181/5263/yadamnergalet6.jpg

[Djohnston]

Fenrir and Vidar:
'According to Völuspá, Vidar slays Fenrir not by tearing his jaws apart but by thrusting his sword into the wolf's heart, although this does not prevent Snorri from quoting the passage after giving his own version in GylΦΦΦinning.'
Decided to paint a picture not simply depicting gods/characters fighting, trying to show their differences through juxtaposition, composition, rendering etc. Something that could hopefully, maybe, turn into a portfolio piece.

[entdroid]

My humble entry:
http://img185.imageshack.us/img185/1698/gawentdroidcw8.jpg
Fate vs the Lady
from the Discworld novels by Terry Pratchett

Discworld gods at Dunmanifestin face each other on board games. The pawns in their games are the unaware mortals. Fate always plays to win... but you just never know when you are playing against the Lady. It is said among the people of the Disc that when the strangest things happen, like that 12 feet troll that just popped in front of you, then you can hear a subtle sound... like of dices rolling.


More info on Discworld gods for those with lots of free time :P: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discworld_gods

[chaosrocks]

Anat Goddess Sister Consort of Baal, having searched out Baal's murder she beheaded him ground him up and spread him over her fields. Sumerian
http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e181/chaosrocks/Chaosrocks_GodTDfinal.jpg

[masque]

http://img300.imageshack.us/img300/2006/masqueragnarokv2pl1.jpg

Ragnarok, the Norse version of the final battle, the end of it all! Odin takes a bead on Fenrir, whose jaws slash the sky and scrape the earth, and winds up as dogfood. Thor bashes Jörmungandr ("Just call me Jormy!") into sushi but dies soon after, not realizing Jormy's other nickname is "Tommy Takifugu." Skoll eats the sun -- bad doggy! Surtur burns the world, including the oceans (what, you didn't know rampaging fire giants could catalyze seawater and fractionate the deuterium and ignite nuclear fusion with a sword? now you do.) the stars go bye-bye and universal darkness overwhelms everything.

[Resist]

Resist's entry~

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/reivan/godsDONE2.jpg

The Egyptian Gods Horus and Set, during their infamous battle in which Horus loses an eye! Fun stuff. I have to run now, but I might be able to edit in more info later on..

[kboss]

So, here's my entry.
It shows a scene from Norse mythology. The fight between Odin (the Norse head honcho and god of god of wisdom, war, battle, and death) and Ymir (titan, and king of the frost giants) In actuality it was Odin and his brothers that killed Ymir, but I ignored them and just made it mano a mano for the purposes of my picture.
Odin has a whole lot of associated stuff that I tried to include. From wikipedia:
"Odin has a number of magical artifacts associated with him: the dwarven javelin Gungnir, which never misses its target, a magical gold ring (Draupnir), from which every ninth night eight new rings appear, an eight-legged horse (Sleipnir) and two ravens Huginn and Muninn (Thought and Memory), who fly around the world daily, to which they report the happenings of the worlds to Odin at Valhalla nightly. He also commands a pair of wolves named Geri and Freki, to whom he gives his food in Valhalla since he consumes nothing but mead or wine."
There's more, but you'll have to check out wiki yourselves because its sunday and i cant be arsed to type any more than this.
Hope you like it!

http://img250.imageshack.us/img250/5079/kbossodinvymirps6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[GreenTopaz]

I did the hindu goddess Kali, who sort of doubles as a gentle mother goddess and crazy destroyer. I based my piccy off a story where she fights a big battle with demons, and then starts dancin' in a way that almost destroys the universe :)

I hope it's not too eyeburning:

http://suprfile.com/src/1/5vhkf5f/GreenTopaz_Kali.jpg

[v0rbiss]

Hehe, another Kali, cool. :(

She represents mortal death, time, etc. My version of her is tearing apart Quetzalcoatl (AKA the feathered serpent), mesoamerican god of wisdom, fertility and whatnot.
Just couldn't take better photo, damn pencil...

http://img260.imageshack.us/img260/8294/kalisua9.jpg

[Noen Azdak]

Hey guys!

I decided to do the God of War and Warriors From the Japanese culture.

In the image you see the mighty go of war Bishamonten. He is seen with out armor, showing that nothing of human or Hell can pierce a Gods flesh. Swinging his naginata he stabs at the moon, plucking it from the heavens and uses it to dispatch the hellions, sending them back from where they came from.

Sadly the price of war is ultimately paid by the villagers in the town below. For they are the true victims when Gods do battle.

Thanks
91039

[Wasker]

I went for Tor of the norse mythology (many Tors in this competion already) fighting a army. The event doesn't have any connection to any particular part of norse mythology.

http://www.wasker.com/wasker_godofwar_tor.jpg

edit1: centered it :P

[The Artist Fox]

This piece is based on greek mythological battle between Chimera and Pegasus (except for Sandman and the Frog Kingdom). Chimera, which is a lion with a serpents tail and a goats head. Pegasus, a beautiful magical horse with wings which I pared with (Neil Gaimans character) Sandman, the king of dreams. Sandman lays an arrow covered with sleeping powder into the goats forehead to save the life of a soldier frog, but the queen wasn't so lucky.

The battle drags on into the dark woods of the Frog Kingdom, where these brave frogs are ready to take on any advisory to protect their king and queen. The concept for the frogs was based on my favorite character named "Frog" from a popular japanese video game called "Chrono Trigger" for the super nintendo.

here's the link:

http://www.geocities.com/theartistfox/fox_pegasussandmanvschimera.jpg

=FOX=

[flimi]

took me forever to complete, and i think it came out rather nice.

the giant dude is pazuzu, a babylonian god. wikipedia:"Pazuzu is often depicted as a chimera of animal and human parts. He has the body of a man, the head of a lion or dog, eagle-like taloned feet, two pairs of wings, the tail of a scorpion, and a serpentine penis..."(<-what the hell?)

"...Pazuzu is the god of the South-west wind that was known for bringing droughts and famine during dry seasons, and locusts during rainy seasons."

i read somewhere that he's also the one who possessed the little girl in the "exorcist" movie. here he's overseeing a war between his possessed warriors (the ones with leashes) and some other people.

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b143/assafh/flimi_pazuzu-1.jpg

[Anid Maro]

The God Marduk versus the Dragon Tiamat

http://s134.photobucket.com/albums/q96/Anid_Maro/Anid_Maro_Epic_Of_Creation-1.jpg

According to the Babylonian "Enuma Elish" (Epic of Creation), Tiamat, the god of the salt water, would wage war upon the other gods to exact revenge for the murder of her husband Apsu, the god of the fresh water.

The other gods are unable to defeat Tiamat until Marduk, son of Ea the murderer of Apsu, would challenge Tiamat.

Marduk would emerge victorious, enslave all who had allied with Tiamat, and then forms the world from Tiamat's corpse.
___________

Following the pattern so far, I'm posting again in the attachment manager.

[Mr.Blonde]

nice job greentopaz! good work y'all

here's mine... it's Tezcatlipoca and titans, a mix of different cultures

[John]

Thor fights some random Giants because he doesn't like Giants. There is probably a backstory somewhere. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thor

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b268/JOsinski/john_thorgawtd.jpg

[Senira]

THIS TOOK ME FOUR DAYS. Seriously. I'm sure the pros are scoffing that I take pride in only managing this in such a short amount of time, but for me that's a huge accomplishment. Apparently ginormous amounts of deadline pressure are needed for me to do awesome things.

Anyway, here's my gods:

Gong-Gong (the dragon; he's the God of destructive floods) vs. Zhu-Rong (the man; he's the god of fire) for control of the heavenly throne. This is near the end of the battle, when the two of them fall from the heavens and plummet to Earth.

Gong-Gong will eventually suffer a humiliating defeat, and in shame he will bash his head against the pillar that supports heaven, killing himself and tilting the sky in the process. This explains the movement of the sun, moon and stars, and why rivers in China flow southeast into the pacific.

Origin: China

[Eriboss]

here we go then.

1. Mot, god of sterility, death, and the underworld

gets mashed up by

2. Baal, the god of fertility, 'rider of the clouds', and god of lightning and thunder

soooo...

3. Mot lures Baal to his underworld house and fucks him up then eats him.

eri

yee gods (http://ancienthistory.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://pubpages.unh.edu/%7Ecbsiren/canaanite%2Dfaq.html%23Mot)

[Lewis]

Very very VERY nice entries people,... im stunned o.O


Norse mythology

Loki's revenge on the dwarvenmaster, who nailed Loki's lips together after losing a bet

Loki was the Norse God of fire, lies, viciousness and smooth talking. Later in the ragnarok he was the leader of the evil forces wich threatened the Norse world

http://img297.imageshack.us/img297/9486/finalsb8.jpg

Cya Lewis

[sone_one]

ok another thor there... and i really felt smart picking him in the first place... well.

its thor (norse god) fighting the mighty and infamous army of ...whereever. (so yea... no whereever is no specific location or nation, so actually no occassion that been written about... yet :))

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q155/sone_one/sone_one-godwar.jpg

[bumskee]

nice entries all..

I did mine on korean mythology.. wish there was more info available on them.. :(

Yondung Halmoni, ancient goddess of wind & Cheonha Daejanggun -Village Guardian & General under Heaven.

http://www.minart.net/temp/godofwar_4.jpg

[koala.one]

bah, watching the clock tick closer to midnight all day. Serves me right for leaving it till last-minute.

Here's my unfinished piece, done almost completely today :( It depicts Odin preparing to charge (to his doom) towards Fenrir (giant wolf) currently wreaking havok on Odin's army of fallen heroes. Norse mythology apparently, wiki'd it. I was gonna go for a masque-esque epic rendition of Ragnarok, but time didn't allow :(

Odin Vs Fenrir
http://img403.imageshack.us/img403/4268/finishedbakbakxs0.jpg

Nice timing, straight after bumskee *dies*

[Ostrander]

Descending into the Maelstrom- Poseidon vs Cthulhu

91338


Awesome work here folks. Seriously awesome.

[GriNGo]

Mayan God - Hun Pik Tok of the 8000 Stone Knives.
(my mini story is in the image). There isn't much info on this god rather than he is a god of war.

http://www.franciscogalarraga.com/misc/GringoLoco_HunPikTokvsSpani.jpg

Nice work people!

[Azrael]

Almost gave up on this one, but the fine entries in here gave me the motivation I needed. Yet another Posiedon. This was a bit out of the box for me. It was a good learning process. Fine entries everyone.

[Rich Pellegrino]

Morrigan vs. The Formorians

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morrigan
She is a shapeshifter and usually takes on the form of a crow. She can appear in multiple forms simotaneously.

[City]

WATCH YOUR LIFE THREAD!

http://olga.4gott.com/temp/three_nitki_web.jpg

The Moerae (a.k.a. Moirai, Fates, Parcae, Norns)
From left to right: Lachesis, who measures the length of the life thread; Atropos, who cuts it; and Clotho, who spins it (or doesn't).
It was said that NO ONE, NOT EVEN THE GODS, COULD ESCAPE THEIR FATE!
Source: Greek religion and mythology
Tools: Adobe Illustrator, plus Photoshop post processing

The Situation:
Let’s imagine that each cultural or religious tradition is a separate “System” with its own rules and rulers.
Greek System is getting too small for Moeraes, and they decide to reach out and gain control over all other Systems. Now they want to spin, measure and cut threads of life of all living creatures – Gods or humans alike. Of course, Gods of other traditions will fight for their territory, but Moeraes are ready for the challenge.
Bring it on!!

[Joeslucher]

Thor (Norse Mythology) fighting Sekhmet (Egyptian). Thor rode in a chariot pulled by two goats so that's why that's in there. I always loved that Thor was a protagonist but he started many of the fights he got into. So that brought about the idea for the illustration.
http://host321.ipowerweb.com/~joesluch/Images/CA/joeslucher_thorvssekhmet.jpg

[Cavematty]

Hey guys.
First time up in TD. Here's the pic:

Its the Maori Myth of Maui taming the sun.
The tale goes that Te Ra (the sun god), moved too fast across the sky and the days were too short. Maui (a demigod) decided to teach the sun a lesson, so with his warriors they waited at the mouth of the cave the sun rose from each morning. With flax ropes his warriors held the sun down, while Maui leapt onto him and beat him with a magical jawbone axe. That is why the days are now so long.

Learnt heaps from doing it, though of course coulda used more time. Check out my sketchbook thread to see the mundane perspective I started out with.

Thanks heaps to everyone who helped me with critiques :)

[ikuru]

I did this peace, within 2 days more or less, thats allso why it isn't 100% finnished. Anyhow..

Krishna, the Hindu God is seen as the Supreme Person and the highest God, he is the origin of all other incarnations. Lived a life as a heroic warrior and teacher.

Here he is fighting some of he's demons and liberating their essense.
Sri Krishna is often described as the 'Lotus-Eyed One'. Its unfolding petals suggest the expansion of the soul.

http://www.ikuru.se/box/krishnafinal.jpg

[strych9ine]

God: Cody the Awesome (age 4 and a half) and the initial discovery of his trusty warriors...

[tou]

great pieces so far everyone. here's mine.

i chose to do Chronos the Greek God of Time. The three pieces each depict an aspect of time: past, present and future.

Now i can get some sleep. good luck everyone.

http://touher.com/chronos_triptych_final.jpg

tou

[MyOrangeHat]

Bishamonten vs. Ares Called forth by natives, in the form they are most often depicted in local arts. They thus layeth a smack-down on each other in a round of 'My God of War is Better than Your God of War.'

[Clocks]

Vulcan vs. Mars - Roman Mythology


Probably a result of Mars fooling around with Vulcan's wife. They never actually fought but it seems like tensions were high. Anyways, Mars is seen here preparing himself for the onslaught to come.

Was fun, even though my computer froze down on me halfway through my first shot at it :dead: that'll teach me to save my files. Maybe.

http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/8687/clocksvulcanvmarspi0.jpg

[Felicia]

This is Perun versus Veles.
Perun is the Slavic God of Lightning and War who lives in a great oak tree. Veles is the God of the Underworld and has a pet serpent.

[AmishCommy]

so yeah I suck.


here is my poopy unfinished entry. I was rooting for you anyways, Rich.


Sekhmet - Egyptian Goddess of War.
The goddess Sekhmet was associated with war and retribution and represented the destructive force of the sun. She was said to use arrows to pierce her enemies with fire, her breath being the hot desert wind as her body took on the glare of the midday sun.



http://www.arkadyroytman.com/drop/AmishCommy_SekhmetPOO.jpg

[Bloodstone]

Badb, goddess of war in Irish mythology who often takes the form of a hooded crow. She is destroying the earth beneath the humans who oppose her.

http://www.porktaco.com/Bloodstone_godthunderdome.jpg

[mrgrumble]

so its a few hours late and wont probably count, but i had decided to scrap my original tryptich yesterday and start fresh. why? because im an idiot. it wasnt until the friendly 'coaxing' of my opponent a few hours ago that i was convinced to start painting! so, im just throwing this in here so his efforts dont go wasted! mabye half way there:( poo.

god: Bragi, norse lord of the sky, and well known for his long white beard. Upon a chance meeting with Aegir, who fashionably wore a sidewinder mustache, the two got in a fit over which facecoat was better. The only fitting thing to do was declare war. So, like any good dieties, they got their minions to duke it out.

Sorry guys :( and sorry koala.one you done good!!! i shoulda stuck with my original

http://img254.imageshack.us/img254/644/godsatborebs8wj6.jpg
http://img179.imageshack.us/img179/6480/godsatborebs8.jpg

[misledtomisery]

my god.......what a sweet piece of thread....

my piece.

Odin vs. Quetzalcoatl

http://misledtomisery.com/conceptart/godatwar.jpg

[Briareos]

Sekhmet, Goddess of War+, Egyptian, Destroying stuff.

http://www.porktaco.com/Briareos_godsThunderdome.jpg

[rustikof]

Booyah! Submitted! (right on time woo!)
-------------------
(edited after the fact to add this little ditty)

ZEUS vs. THOR
BATTLE OF THE THUNDERGODS!
ROCK ONNNNNNNN!!!!

I thought it would be fitting...seeing as this is called THUNDERdome and everything.
I think you all know who Thor and Zeus are.

Nice submissions guys!
HIYO!

[t i m]

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a296/gr4phic4rt/akumavthor_timothy_Gods.jpg

Thor V Akuma.

Akuma was talking smack about Thor's "skirt"...mayhem ensued.

Whew, made it...I'm tired..Glad I was able to fill in. :)

~Tim~

[draw]

Chinese Mythology
Monkey God vs
Dragon God

In the worlds before Monkey, Primal Chaos reigned. Heaven sought order. But the Phoenix can fly only when its feathers are grown. The four worlds formed again and yet again, as endless aeons wheeled and passed. Time and the pure essences of heaven, the moisture of the Earth, the powers of the sun and the moon worked upon a certain rock, old as creation. And it became magically fertile. That first egg was named "Thought". Tathagata Buddha, the Father Buddha, said, "With our thoughts we make the world". Elemental forces caused the egg to hatch. From it then came a stone monkey. The nature of Monkey was irrepressible...."

[JL.Alfaro]

aaaannd....stop.

No More Entries, The Deadline Has Passed.

Rules Are Rules People.

[ikuru]

OK! So, the bar is open!
A big round of applause for everyone!
Such a high level on allmost everything in here!

[redehlert]

just in case you didn't read it in the trash talk thread:
here's a full list that i thoroughly enjoyed:

rustikof - great kinetic energy and expressions in this one. glad to know ya and yer skills, fellow PNWer.

briareos - she's peaceful and hawt with armageddon comin' down. way to bring it.

mr. grumble - only you would find gods of facial hair and pit them against one another. for that, you rawk. nice execution as well.

bloodstone - great pose, nice inclusion of symbology, i dig the colors and the cloud swirl rules. nicely played.

cody - my graphic designer frand of the city windy, i really dig this piece. nufff said.

voodoochile - nice painterly approach, muted colors and poses. sweet.

min - this is hauntingly awesome. great drama, colors, movement and gesture. one of my absolute favs.

eri - just for the mere fact that you bring such a refreshin' look to concept art....i'd see these in a local gallery and smile. nice job mate.

mr. blonde - great mood and colors...serious drama goin' on here. bravo!

flimi - your pazuzu is just one twisted sister. sheesh! nice handle on rendering it up in the upper half.

wasker - your piece cracks me up, in a good way...the guys in the foreground are like yeah! i'm gonna kick thor's arse and then kaboom(!) toast. nice environment and lightning.

noen - it's a bit in the hypercolor range, but i honestly like this. your line work is very reminiscent of japanese drawings (as far as i can tell) and i like the layout. great job!

green - also one of my favs...you really know how to sell a story and your petals keep coming into your work (i love that!). great colors, design, gesture and expression. a real treat.

entdroid - you and your vector skills keep me in smiles. nice job on this one. i dig it.

trev - you keep raisin' the bar on yourself and it shows. there's a lot of good action and pose/drama in this entry. she's one pissed off bird. i dig it!

snarfevs - there's something about your work that i really like....you add all these delish elements that suggest a sincere appreciation for color and line. nice job.

sveta - this is just a lovely piece of art that i could see gracing a children's book on 'gods'....you really did some nice framing, good skull studies and a tempered color palette that harmonizes it all together. bravo!

evild - i really like this entry. you have successfully rendered: fabric/folds, and subtle tonal changes in the flesh due to lighting. but what gets me is the fabric....no doubt about it, your fabric is one of the coolest things in this entire tdome.

fedezz - seriously nice paint handling and expression in the foreground character is sweet.

jake - hahahaa.....scientology - well done! well done indeed.

all in all, a great series from everyone. sorry i couldn't play along.

all the best,
dave

[Joeslucher]

My top three picks are Masque, Cavematty and Felicia. They best represented the "at war" part of the illustration brief (did some people miss that part?Clients must love you) and also rendered their pieces well.

I was a little surprised there weren't more images of large scale destruction.

[ikuru]

evildisco-strong composition, dynamic ennergy and good use of collor, love the white. alltogether one of the strongest and most dynamic entrys here.

trevor-sollid render, good collor, nice rough feel to the layot and verry compleate as a whole.

greentopaz-my favorite of them all! the collor on Kali is so beautyfull, and the striking hands with the henna tatoos are perfect and look like they been painted with blood. Allso compostion is verry synamic and the light is verry apealing a real masterpeace this one. alltogether verrrrry well done!

bumskee-love your style my man! the mood is awsome and the render and lightning superb, allso it is by far one of the most dramatic scary and stong compositions in this TD! verry sollid! It looks allot like paint, in a good way. (Are you at all using painter?) Well done!

Cavematty-cool composition/perspective, works really well, and the Sun god there is verry cool and bravely rendered, you can sense he's high ennergy and anger, allso the small stuff is verry well made.

strych9ine-strong loose feel in in the inkwork and good aftertouch in the render, allso a brave feel in the theme. Good inspering framing. I guess its real ink with pencils right?

bloodstone-nice collors, nice render, nice vibe, good touch with the halo thing..

mrgrumble-verry personal unique style and a good compostition with good use of collor, hope you get to finnish it for the final exam.

briareos-yet another fav, love the pose, the collor and the boddy shape on that bird there. ellegant and amazing. the perspective and the feel makes it one of the verry best here, dynamic indeed.

[JL.Alfaro]

THE MATCHES ARE:

1. JL Alfaro vs Vorbiss

JLAlfaro-Goddess Chantico: Aztec goddess of home, pleasure, pain, and treasure.
I have chosen to portray goddess Chantico as the cleanser of the continent, making the land safe and habitable for her people, the Aztecs. Here she goes up against the inhabitants of the new continent, a violent, cannibalistic yet
highly advanced primate; an army of Neanderthals. They fiercely battle the goddess, but its useless as she crushes them without breaking a sweat.
http://img179.imageshack.us/img179/4444/jlalfarochanticorevisedsf5.jpg

Vorbiss-Kali, She represents mortal death, time, etc. My version of her is tearing apart Quetzalcoatl (AKA the feathered serpent), mesoamerican god of wisdom, fertility and whatnot.
Just couldn't take better photo, damn pencil...
http://img260.imageshack.us/img260/8294/kalisua9.jpg




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Senira vs sone one

Senira-Gong-Gong (the dragon; he's the God of destructive floods) vs. Zhu-Rong (the man; he's the god of fire) for control of the heavenly throne. This is near the end of the battle, when the two of them fall from the heavens and plummet to Earth.
Gong-Gong will eventually suffer a humiliating defeat, and in shame he will bash his head against the pillar that supports heaven, killing himself and tilting the sky in the process. This explains the movement of the sun, moon and stars, and why rivers in China flow southeast into the pacific.
Origin: China
http://img470.imageshack.us/img470/5268/attachmentxi6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

sone one-Thor (norse god) fighting the mighty and infamous army of ...whereever. (so yea... no whereever is no specific location or nation, so actually no occassion that been written about... yet :))

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q155/sone_one/sone_one-godwar.jpg




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xacto vsBlueMech

xacto-We can call him.... Trόλεpocus (πόλεμος means war in greek)
-(this is obviously fictional) He's fighting a south American tribe (what we would today call south America anyway) ancient to the knowledge of the Aztecs even. The tribe is known as the Fouxpec, and it's one of 2 other civilizations in the world at that time, one of which being the Atlantians (Atlantis). The Fouxpec are Hot-headed even to the god of war and needless to say it caused their prompt extinction depicted in this image. Sources say, the Fouxpec were filled with pride, thinking they could conquer anything with their newfound weapons when they mastered bronze and gold smithing. And we know as it is written (and this is true) in Proverbs 18:12 "Before his downfall a man's heart is proud, but humility comes before honor."

A side note.
He started out as a default God of War for a modern scene, but it wasn't working so now he's just a regular god of war for a civilization I screwed up then made my own.

The civilization is a cross between a south-American Aztek style thing, and medieval times civilization.
http://digitalarts.bgsu.edu/portfolios/mkirk/files/ca_org_img/TD1final.jpg

BlueMech-My god was Set, egyptian god of evil. I'm shamefully posting this because it's the closest I've gotten out of thumbnails really. Been busy with school (ironically art classes leave little time to create decent art) and being sick , but there's no excuse. This is perhaps only slightly better than pussing out.
http://img116.imageshack.us/img116/8845/bluemechsetvarmyroughoe6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)




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chaosrocks vs Jake

Chaosrocks-Anat Goddess Sister Consort of Baal, having searched out Baal's murder she beheaded him ground him up and spread him over her fields. Sumerian
http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e181/chaosrocks/Chaosrocks_GodTDfinal.jpg

Jake- Here is Xenu, God figure of Scientology. His enemies in this picture are the brains/non believers on earth, the brains of logic and reason. He came to earth with a large fleet of DC-8 aircraft, dropping nukes in volcanoes, to bring spirits into the people of earth.
I went for a more subtle war theme. Not much else to say, other than i learnt what I wanted to learn (and that was ALOT!).
http://www.jakerolfe.com/temp/JAKE_XENU.jpg





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Masque vsResist

Masque-Ragnarok, the Norse version of the final battle, the end of it all! Odin takes a bead on Fenrir, whose jaws slash the sky and scrape the earth, and winds up as dogfood. Thor bashes Jörmungandr ("Just call me Jormy!") into sushi but dies soon after, not realizing Jormy's other nickname is "Tommy Takifugu." Skoll eats the sun -- bad doggy! Surtur burns the world, including the oceans (what, you didn't know rampaging fire giants could catalyze seawater and fractionate the deuterium and ignite nuclear fusion with a sword? now you do.) the stars go bye-bye and universal darkness overwhelms everything.
http://img300.imageshack.us/img300/2006/masqueragnarokv2pl1.jpg

Resist-The Egyptian Gods Horus and Set, during their infamous battle in which Horus loses an eye! Fun stuff.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/reivan/godsDONE2.jpg


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Mull77vs Light

Mull77-Mine are Thor (Norse God, Likes thunder, sunsets and Barry Manilow ) and Poseidon (Greek, ruler of the seas, handy with a tridet).
Personally i'm going for Thor on this one, because as it's on dry land, Poseidon is literally a fish out of water. Hahaha! *Ahem*
http://img362.imageshack.us/img362/8639/tdthorposeidonmull77fn9.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Light-Ares/Enya/random giant group photo.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v458/LightKirtar/fuck.jpg



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Felicia vs rustikof

Felicia-this is Perun versus Veles.
Perun is the Slavic God of Lightning and War who lives in a great oak tree. Veles is the God of the Underworld and has a pet serpent.
http://img73.imageshack.us/img73/9503/attachmentej2.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

rustikof-ZEUS vs. THORBATTLE OF THE THUNDERGODS!
I thought it would be fitting...seeing as this is called THUNDERdome and everything.
http://img381.imageshack.us/img381/8351/attachmentqq1.jpg (http://imageshack.us)



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JoelLucher vsCavematty

Joeslucher-Thor (Norse Mythology) fighting Sekhmet (Egyptian). Thor rode in a chariot pulled by two goats so that's why that's in there. I always loved that Thor was a protagonist but he started many of the fights he got into. So that brought about the idea for the illustration.
http://host321.ipowerweb.com/~joesluch/Images/CA/joeslucher_thorvssekhmet.jpg

Cavematty-Its the Maori Myth of Maui taming the sun.
The tale goes that Te Ra (the sun god), moved too fast across the sky and the days were too short. Maui (a demigod) decided to teach the sun a lesson, so with his warriors they waited at the mouth of the cave the sun rose from each morning. With flax ropes his warriors held the sun down, while Maui leapt onto him and beat him with a magical jawbone axe. That is why the days are now so long.
http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/6787/attachmentvq0.jpg (http://imageshack.us)




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Ostrander vs sve

Ostrander-Descending into the Maelstrom- Poseidon vs Cthulhu
http://img164.imageshack.us/img164/8598/attachmentff4.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

sve-Goddess Flora. In Roman mythology, Flora was a goddess of flowers and the season of spring. Her Greek equivalent was Chloris. That's my version of Flora being at war. She is not destructive goddess in general, but when you need to fight you fight as best as you can...
Her power is in her weakness... Very powerful manipulative tool actually. Try to raise your hand on someone looking innocent and gentle...
To insure her victory I placed a hallucinogen plant in the picture, Datura stramonium. All parts of this plant are poisonous. Was used as a component in voodoo magic drink to turn humans into zombies.

http://home.comcast.net/~elazutkin/Images/Sve_FloraAtWar.jpg



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Gringoloco vs entroid

Gringoloco- Mayan God - Hun Pik Tok of the 8000 Stone Knives.[/B]
(my mini story is in the image). There isn't much info on this god rather than he is a god of war.
http://www.franciscogalarraga.com/misc/GringoLoco_HunPikTokvsSpani.jpg

entroid-Fate vs the Ladyfrom the Discworld novels by Terry Pratchett
Discworld gods at Dunmanifestin face each other on board games. The pawns in their games are the unaware mortals. Fate always plays to win... but you just never know when you are playing against the Lady. It is said among the people of the Disc that when the strangest things happen, like that 12 feet troll that just popped in front of you, then you can hear a subtle sound... like of dices rolling.
http://img185.imageshack.us/img185/1698/gawentdroidcw8.jpg



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koala.one vs mrgrumble

koala.one- Here's my unfinished piece, done almost completely today :( It depicts Odin preparing to charge (to his doom) towards Fenrir (giant wolf) currently wreaking havok on Odin's army of fallen heroes. Norse mythology apparently, wiki'd it. I was gonna go for a masque-esque epic rendition of Ragnarok, but time didn't allow :(
Odin Vs Fenrir
http://img403.imageshack.us/img403/4268/finishedbakbakxs0.jpg

mrgrumble-god: Bragi, norse lord of the sky, and well known for his long white beard. Upon a chance meeting with Aegir, who fashionably wore a sidewinder mustache, the two got in a fit over which facecoat was better. The only fitting thing to do was declare war. So, like any good dieties, they got their minions to duke it out.

http://img254.imageshack.us/img254/644/godsatborebs8wj6.jpg



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Narmo vs flimi

Narmo- Egyptians Gods are the one who must have fight themselves the more. Here are Sekhmet, goddess of war, thunder & winds, Lady of Slaughter fighting Apedemak, god of war.
Both are ancient Pharaohs' protector, but according to them, one is enough. But who ?

http://narmorhin.free.fr/illus/gods-war/Narmo_sekhmet-vs-apedemak.jpg

flimi- the giant dude is pazuzu, a babylonian god. wikipedia:"Pazuzu is often depicted as a chimera of animal and human parts. He has the body of a man, the head of a lion or dog, eagle-like taloned feet, two pairs of wings, the tail of a scorpion, and a serpentine penis..."(<-what the hell?)
"...Pazuzu is the god of the South-west wind that was known for bringing droughts and famine during dry seasons, and locusts during rainy seasons."
i read somewhere that he's also the one who possessed the little girl in the "exorcist" movie. here he's overseeing a war between his possessed warriors (the ones with leashes) and some other people.
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b143/assafh/flimi_pazuzu-1.jpg


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[JL.Alfaro]

MyOrangeHat vsmisledtomisery

MyOrangeHat-Bishamonten vs. Ares Called forth by natives, in the form they are most often depicted in local arts. They thus layeth a smack-down on each other in a round of 'My God of War is Better than Your God of War.
http://img459.imageshack.us/img459/4809/attachmentpx7.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

misledtomisery- Odin vs. Quetzalcoatl
http://misledtomisery.com/conceptart/godatwar.jpg




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bumskee vs John

bumskee-
Yondung Halmoni, ancient goddess of wind & Cheonha Daejanggun -Village Guardian & General under Heaven.

http://www.minart.net/temp/godofwar_4.jpg

john-Thor fights some random Giants because he doesn't like Giants. There is probably a backstory somewhere. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thor

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b268/JOsinski/john_thorgawtd.jpg




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lewis vs Ikuru

lewis- Norse mythology-Loki's revenge on the dwarvenmaster, who nailed Loki's lips together after losing a bet. Loki was the Norse God of fire, lies, viciousness and smooth talking. Later in the ragnarok he was the leader of the evil forces wich threatened the Norse world
http://img297.imageshack.us/img297/9486/finalsb8.jpg

ikuru-Krishna, the Hindu God is seen as the Supreme Person and the highest God, he is the origin of all other incarnations. Lived a life as a heroic warrior and teacher.
Here he is fighting some of he's demons and liberating their essense.
Sri Krishna is often described as the 'Lotus-Eyed One'. Its unfolding petals suggest the expansion of the soul.
http://www.ikuru.se/box/krishnafinal.jpg





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B]attorney vs The Atist Fox[[/B]

arttorney-(Left) Yog Sothoth, AKA The Lurker at the Threshold- First appearance in The Case of Charles Dexter Ward (1927) by H.P. Lovecraft.
(Right) Chaac, AKA God B (as in bursting)- Mayan god of rain, light, thunder, etc.
Yog Sothoth is definitely a bad guy and can be most easily found adjacent to the threshold through which the Old Ones once entered this universe. Chaac is sort of a good guy, but I wouldn't mess with him if I were you. Chaac is shown here in his all in one configuration. Yog Sothoth is coextensive with all time and space, so I've just shown part of him (assigning it the term "him" because it fathered a couple of children by a human woman in The Dunwich Horror (1929 H.P. Lovecraft).)
http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m214/arttorney/arttorney_chaacvyogsothoth.jpg

The Artist Fox-This piece is based on greek mythological battle between Chimera and Pegasus (except for Sandman and the Frog Kingdom). Chimera, which is a lion with a serpents tail and a goats head. Pegasus, a beautiful magical horse with wings which I pared with (Neil Gaimans character) Sandman, the king of dreams. Sandman lays an arrow covered with sleeping powder into the goats forehead to save the life of a soldier frog, but the queen wasn't so lucky.

The battle drags on into the dark woods of the Frog Kingdom, where these brave frogs are ready to take on any advisory to protect their king and queen. The concept for the frogs was based on my favorite character named "Frog" from a popular japanese video game called "Chrono Trigger" for the super nintendo.
http://img453.imageshack.us/img453/4894/attachmentzr5.jpg (http://imageshack.us)




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voodoochile vs Amishcommy

voodochile-Morrigan vs. The Formorians
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morrigan
She is a shapeshifter and usually takes on the form of a crow. She can appear in multiple forms simotaneously.
http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/1149/attachmentxf5.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Amishcommy-Sekhmet - Egyptian Goddess of War.
The goddess Sekhmet was associated with war and retribution and represented the destructive force of the sun. She was said to use arrows to pierce her enemies with fire, her breath being the hot desert wind as her body took on the glare of the midday sun.
http://www.arkadyroytman.com/drop/AmishCommy_SekhmetPOO.jpg



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Timothy vs tou

Timothy-Thor V Akuma.
Akuma was talking smack about Thor's "skirt"...mayhem ensued.
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a296/gr4phic4rt/akumavthor_timothy_Gods.jpg

tou-i chose to do Chronos the Greek God of Time. The three pieces each depict an aspect of time: past, present and future.
http://touher.com/chronos_triptych_final.jpg




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bloodstone vs Briareos

bloodstone-Badb, goddess of war in Irish mythology who often takes the form of a hooded crow. She is destroying the earth beneath the humans who oppose her.
http://www.porktaco.com/Bloodstone_godthunderdome.jpg

Briareos-Sekhmet, Goddess of War+, Egyptian, Destroying stuff.
http://www.porktaco.com/Briareos_godsThunderdome.jpg




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Trevor vs evildisco

Trevor-my goddess was eris
much like troy i am too lazy to type,http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eris_%28mythology%29
i like what she stood for:
she wanted everyone to be miserable all the time
so she started the trojan war, i believe. so she would have a huge battle to run around and cause chaos, killing anyone near her
the cyclops you ask? im sure she has pull with em
http://img238.imageshack.us/img238/1954/attachmentcu1.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

evildisco-The Morrigan;Here she is murdering generic orc-like creatures, because she doesn't like them particularly.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morrigan
http://img250.imageshack.us/img250/9884/evildiscomorriganmurderkg7.jpg





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Djohnston vs yadam

Djohnston-Fenrir and Vidar:
'According to Völuspá, Vidar slays Fenrir not by tearing his jaws apart but by thrusting his sword into the wolf's heart, although this does not prevent Snorri from quoting the passage after giving his own version in GylΦΦΦinning.'
Decided to paint a picture not simply depicting gods/characters fighting, trying to show their differences through juxtaposition, composition, rendering etc. Something that could hopefully, maybe, turn into a portfolio piece.
http://img114.imageshack.us/img114/3264/attachmentam5.jpg (http://imageshack.us)


yadam-Mesopotamian god Nergal. Husband to Queen of the underworld, Ereškigal. Nergal is worshipped at Kutû in Babylonia, and here he's destroying the city while some people try and fight back....
http://img181.imageshack.us/img181/5263/yadamnergalet6.jpg




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Strych9ine vs eriboss

Strych9ine- God:Cody the Awesome (age 4 and a half) and the initial discovery of his trusty warriors...
http://img259.imageshack.us/img259/226/attachmentuf7.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

eriboss-
1. Mot, god of sterility, death, and the underworld
gets mashed up by
2. Baal, the god of fertility, 'rider of the clouds', and god of lightning and thunder
soooo...
3. Mot lures Baal to his underworld house and fucks him up then eats him.
http://www.eriboss.com/images/gods_td1.jpg




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fedezz vs Soja

fedezz-Leto II, God Emperor of Dune (from the Dune saga, written by Frank Herbert). Evolved into the last sandworm of planet arrakis, ruler of the Empire, slays the few rebels who dare to infiltrate the only patch of desert remaining in the planet, his sanctuary.
Pretty straightforward approach to the subject :P
http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/8443/fedezzgodsfinal1000pxvb0.jpg

Soja-RAIDEN VS. AKUMA
On my entrie u see Raiden the Japanese God of Thunder fighting
against Akuma the Japanese God of Fire.
http://www.fh-augsburg.de/~duc1982/thu/raidenakuma.jpg




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Wasker vs Clocks

Wasker-I went for Tor of the norse mythology (many Tors in this competion already) fighting a army. The event doesn't have any connection to any particular part of norse mythology.
http://www.wasker.com/wasker_godofwar_tor.jpg

Clocks-Vulcan vs. Mars - Roman Mythology
Probably a result of Mars fooling around with Vulcan's wife. They never actually fought but it seems like tensions were high. Anyways, Mars is seen here preparing himself for the onslaught to come.
http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/8687/clocksvulcanvmarspi0.jpg





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Justin oaksford vs Snarfevs

Justin Oaksford-Well, I sort of had the Traditional Christian God versus Satan, (OR at least symbolically),while I'm not sure if this is a violation or not, but Neither make a specific "person" like appearance, God is the large tower in the back, and Satan is the arms. I had the idea of the angels fighting off many hands of Satan.. Satan burning his way towards heaven, with Angels fighting him back.
http://img299.imageshack.us/img299/8968/justinoaksfordheavenvhexo9.jpg

Snarfevs-Goorialla the Rainbow Serpent (Australian Aborigine)
The Rainbow Serpent is known by many names to many aboriginal tribes, being the immense kangaroo-headed snake that carved out valleys, coastlines and rivers by slithering across the earth during the dreamtime in which the world was formed. Normally benign, the Rainbow Serpent is not a force to be trifled with, wielding uncanny dreamtime abilities and great ferocity in the face of aggression.
vs. Tiamat The Mother of All Life (Sumeria)
Enuma Elish tells of how Tiamat roiled and reveled in primordial chaos, ruling capriciously with her companion Apsu before being slain by their own unruly progeny, Tiamat's corpse being used to construct the earth. Armed with the ability to create gods and monsters in her service and furious in battle, Tiamat was nearly invincible.
Situation:
Tiamat and Goorialla meet in the Chaos before time, Tiamat probably loosing harsh but witty invective at Goorialla's colour scheme. Much biting, scratching and bludgeoning with planets ensues!
http://img354.imageshack.us/img354/7354/attachmentia3.jpg (http://imageshack.us)




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Green Topaz vs Noen Azdak

Green Topaz-I did the hindu goddess Kali, who sort of doubles as a gentle mother goddess and crazy destroyer. I based my piccy off a story where she fights a big battle with demons, and then starts dancin' in a way that almost destroys the universe :)
http://suprfile.com/src/1/5vhkf5f/GreenTopaz_Kali.jpg

Noen Azdak-I decided to do the God of War and Warriors From the Japanese culture.In the image you see the mighty go of war Bishamonten. He is seen with out armor, showing that nothing of human or Hell can pierce a Gods flesh. Swinging his naginata he stabs at the moon, plucking it from the heavens and uses it to dispatch the hellions, sending them back from where they came from.
Sadly the price of war is ultimately paid by the villagers in the town below. For they are the true victims when Gods do battle.
http://img114.imageshack.us/img114/2197/attachmentxp5.jpg (http://imageshack.us)



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[JL.Alfaro]

Anid Maro vs Mr Blonde

Anid Maro-The God Marduk versus the Dragon Tiamat
According to the Babylonian "Enuma Elish" (Epic of Creation), Tiamat, the god of the salt water, would wage war upon the other gods to exact revenge for the murder of her husband Apsu, the god of the fresh water.
The other gods are unable to defeat Tiamat until Marduk, son of Ea the murderer of Apsu, would challenge Tiamat.
Marduk would emerge victorious, enslave all who had allied with Tiamat, and then forms the world from Tiamat's corpse.
http://s134.photobucket.com/albums/q96/Anid_Maro/Anid_Maro_Epic_Of_Creation-1.jpg

Mr Blonde-here's mine... it's Tezcatlipoca and titans, a mix of different cultures
http://img509.imageshack.us/img509/3671/attachmentaf2.jpg (http://imageshack.us)




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Azrael vs City

Azrael-Almost gave up on this one, but the fine entries in here gave me the motivation I needed. Yet another Posiedon. This was a bit out of the box for me. It was a good learning process.
http://img258.imageshack.us/img258/1792/attachmentpe7.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

City-The Moerae (a.k.a. Moirai, Fates, Parcae, Norns)
From left to right: Lachesis, who measures the length of the life thread; Atropos, who cuts it; and Clotho, who spins it (or doesn't).
It was said that NO ONE, NOT EVEN THE GODS, COULD ESCAPE THEIR FATE!
Source: Greek religion and mythology
Tools: Adobe Illustrator, plus Photoshop post processing

The Situation:
Let’s imagine that each cultural or religious tradition is a separate “System” with its own rules and rulers.
Greek System is getting too small for Moeraes, and they decide to reach out and gain control over all other Systems. Now they want to spin, measure and cut threads of life of all living creatures – Gods or humans alike. Of course, Gods of other traditions will fight for their territory, but Moeraes are ready for the challenge.
http://olga.4gott.com/temp/three_nitki_web.jpg




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Draw vs Kboss

Draw-Chinese Mythology,Monkey God vsDragon God
In the worlds before Monkey, Primal Chaos reigned. Heaven sought order. But the Phoenix can fly only when its feathers are grown. The four worlds formed again and yet again, as endless aeons wheeled and passed. Time and the pure essences of heaven, the moisture of the Earth, the powers of the sun and the moon worked upon a certain rock, old as creation. And it became magically fertile. That first egg was named "Thought". Tathagata Buddha, the Father Buddha, said, "With our thoughts we make the world". Elemental forces caused the egg to hatch. From it then came a stone monkey. The nature of Monkey was irrepressible...."
http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/7063/attachmentng2.jpg (http://imageshack.us)


Kboss-So, here's my entry.
It shows a scene from Norse mythology. The fight between Odin (the Norse head honcho and god of god of wisdom, war, battle, and death) and Ymir (titan, and king of the frost giants) In actuality it was Odin and his brothers that killed Ymir, but I ignored them and just made it mano a mano for the purposes of my picture.
Odin has a whole lot of associated stuff that I tried to include. From wikipedia:
"Odin has a number of magical artifacts associated with him: the dwarven javelin Gungnir, which never misses its target, a magical gold ring (Draupnir), from which every ninth night eight new rings appear, an eight-legged horse (Sleipnir) and two ravens Huginn and Muninn (Thought and Memory), who fly around the world daily, to which they report the happenings of the worlds to Odin at Valhalla nightly. He also commands a pair of wolves named Geri and Freki, to whom he gives his food in Valhalla since he consumes nothing but mead or wine."
There's more, but you'll have to check out wiki yourselves because its sunday and i cant be arsed to type any more than this.
Hope you like it!

http://img250.imageshack.us/img250/5079/kbossodinvymirps6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[JL.Alfaro]

As you might have noticed some of the entries have been re-paired up- this done due to the large amount of pussers.

Before I get a PM box full or " why did you pair me up with_____, you hate me?"
It was done randomly, if you were to list the entries as they were turned in, Orphaned entries were paired up with the following orphaned entries- thus sealing your own fate.

Iknow its a little crude, but I will try to make it prettier for you all later today-


-JL


Edit; made a booboo -fixed it now
please let me know if I missed anyone- or anything

[ikuru]

think you forgot mrgrumble's pic.

[Wasker]

Edit1: Nevermind. Pic is fixed now

[Eriboss]

edit: thanks JL

[Azrael]

Thanks for the trouble JLA.

Everyone's looks great. There are some really wicked entries here. I'm quite humbled. Looks like I have to sharpen my sword to even be a contender in the next battle.

[Snarfevs]

Freaking awesome tdome!
Congratulations to all contenders for an absolute treat. A few too many pussouts for my liking but that's life I guess.
Just picking out some of my favs and why (Reading backwards):

Anid Maro: Love the angle and action. The facial expressions are top notch. The colours are a bit weird - very saturated shadows but there's a lot to like here. Oh and Tiamat ftw of course!

Mr. Blonde: This looks fantastic. The infernal palette and the muted details really evoke a sense of divine chaos.

Kboss: Just wild. Great detailing. I'd like to know how the stars in the background were done.

misledtomisery: Composition and details are great. You pulled off serpentine constriction like I wish I had :D Your values are however a bit severe, making it difficult to see what is going on, especially around Odin.

bumskee: Difficult to see exactly what is going on here but what I can make out is awesome!

voodoochile: Great composition, tangible action.

bloodstone: Mad sense of scale, great rendering.

Briareos: As above, as well as a great facial expression. This is going to be a close match.

Trevor: Luckily this piece justifies the amount of trash-talk you doled out in the sign up thread.

Evildisco: And yours is a pretty even match.

stych9ine and eriboss: Two really weird but satisfying entries. You do however worry me greatly, strych9ine.

fedezz: Great interpretation, great scratchy rendering.

Justin Oaksford: I feared that I would get paired with you... Great interpretation and another great rendering. The framing is a bit distracting but hardly detracts.

Greentopaz: Hell yeah.

Noen: Whilst I'm not really a fan of the style the serious skill behind it is immediately evident!

xzacto: This flat out rocks.

Jake: And so does this. I lol'd.

Masque: I was not disappointed. Great details, sublime palette.

Felicia: You already know how good this is. Yet another 'well done'!

Cavematty: Mad angle and action. Love the lighting. Is that a faint perspective grid I spy?

mrgrumble: I mistook this for a manu-is-malin pic. It's great. Very stylish!


Anyhow I am le tired. Thanks for your kind words redehlert :D

[masque]

thank you, snarfevs, i'm pleased to've rated your comments!

i hope to post some comments also, but am totally zonked, and have lots more work ahead. in a few days, perhaps. but all in all, this TD really set a lot of personal bars much higher, i'm sure. good work all around.

[Noen Azdak]

Thanks for the comment. Had alot of fun doing this one. I just love bright color and thick lines..woot!

Every one did a great job, and I am very happy to be apart of this whole crazy thing.
Love and Peace baby!

[Cavematty]

Hey guys. This is my first online comp kinda thing, so I gotta say its been a lot of fun. Was a frequenter of CGTalk for ages and only recently came across to CA. But I must say the vibe here is very positive and encouraging. And you guys also talk WAY better trash :)

So a belated post but comments :

Joeslucher - thanks mate! Make me wanna enter every challenge eva! Nice piece yourself, dynamic figures are what gets me outta bed in the morning :P and youve got that down :bashful: Ironic that after talking me up so much we got paired up in round one.

Snarfevs - Thanks bro. Yeah there is a faint hint of a perspective grid. I used m@'s brushes for this so that grid is just the big radial pattern brush near the end.

Thanks heaps to m@ for the brushes and the inspiration from the last challenge. Good luck mate!

My favourites would have to be:

Fedezz - cool colours and texture. And your subject was a bit diff too. Makes it stand out.

Evildisco - I saw yours as a progress piece and I was loving it then. Very clean style. I love the worried looking orc on the far left - awesome expression. And the runes on her cloak, and yeah her breasts are great :yayca:

Justin Oaksford - Really like your style, especially the hands. Great piece, tho I think a little aerial perspective to get some depth in it and it woulda been even better. Good job though.

Trevor - No brainer that yours is great! Ha! Awesome work. Your rendering is almost unequalled in the challenge, but I almost feel like you used it as a crutch. Some of your posing etc seems unconsidered, and thats a shame cos the level of rendering with a slightly more planned narrative and you'd have taken it "Over the top" like stallone man! Maybe more work at the thumbnailing stage but Your pic is still soooooo inspiring. I cant wait till I get good enough to render like that :ninja++:

Kboss - Love the face, and expression of Ymir. He's the bomb. His mouth especially is so good :)

GreenTopaz - Love it! Mabe my absolute favourite of the whole lot. Id vote your way if I was asked today :bow: Love that decapitated head that is just staring, love the composition, her expression, the rendering (like the stylized clouds). Only thing that bugs me is her foot. Looks a bit deformed and weak, but that alons couldnt ruin such a great pic.

Wasker - cool idea. I think you needed a foreground element that was a focal point. Thor is too small. Maybe that soldier - we coulda seen his panic stricken face silhoutted by the lightning. Cool scene tho. I pussed out on tackling the whole army approach. Respect.

flimi - love the anatomy on ur main guy. Very nice.

bumskee - Gorgeous rendering. Shit yeah. Would love to get a high res of that one for a desktop. If I didnt vote for Greentopaz, it'd be for you. Rendering is beautiful. Glows like oils. Is there a secret to that look? Dont really know what the flying guy is/or is up to but I love it anyway :)

voodoochile - great pic. not much to crit on that really. Maybe some of the highlights on the cliff down the bottom coulda been nocked back so the contrast round your lead was more focal. But its a great pic. Nice work.

Bloodstone - GOD YES! Thats the kinda aerial feeling I failed to get in my pic. Colours and tones are perfect. It would be nice to have a reference object in there for scale, say if there was a castle/city on the edge of the crater getting torn apart, just to emphasise the scale and the conflict. But that said this puppy is currently on my desktop, so kudos. A highres of this would be nice too.... ill hunt in your thread soon :)

Briareos - really nice. Love the untouchable feel this god has. And the hands are awesomely drawn. Wicked. Think the expression is good too, but a tilt to the head, maybe upwards, woulda added a layer of subtlety and character to it. But cool as. And great breasts. I always appreciate that :nerd: :nerd: :nerd:

Rustikoff - styly as man! coolness.

I know i missed a lot of people but that took too long already - I gotta do some work. Congrats to everyone who submitted. So many pussed out this time that submitting is a badge of honour. And non-pussy-ness.

How does the judging work? How long do rounds take? Where do I watch? How do I spot the next challenge going up? (I spotted this one by pure luck).

Thanks JLAlfaro for all ur effort organising it. I learnt a lot and had a good time.

Aight. Novel finished. Now to find a publisher....

Peace

[Joeslucher]

Joeslucher - thanks mate! Make me wanna enter every challenge eva! Nice piece yourself, dynamic figures are what gets me outta bed in the morning :P and youve got that down :bashful: Ironic that after talking me up so much we got paired up in round one.


Yeah, after we got paired up I was throwing some profanity around here.:)

[The Artist Fox]

JL Alfaro vs Vorbiss
I thought the concept was well thought out and I like the colors.Vorbiss, can you say cannibal corpse...kool piece. I like both.

Senira vs sone one
wicked! I like it Senira,this simplicity of it and the sense of drama is good. For Sone one, I like the way you applied the lighting on the torso. I think Senira should win.

xacto vsBlueMech
xacto, very cool,I like the arrows being shot in the air and the lighting for the god, but I my eyes make me go in between in thumbs.BlueMech,:D it almost looks like it could have been animated. I think xacto wins on this one.

chaosrocks vs Jake
I love the use of color on the skulls.The eerie background makes me want to live their.Jake, the idea is fine, I like your technigue but overall its kinda boring. Theirs not much going on. Chaosrocks wins...Fatality.

Masque vsResist
Sick!Ragnarok,damb thats a tough one, you pulled it off though. I like the idea of Horus and Set fighting Resist and it gets straight to the point. What I felt was missing in this was the left arm of Horus. The cirling of his fingers from that left arm would have given more emotion to the piece.Masque wins

Mull77vs Light
I like the way Thor looks, his hammers awesome looking. I want one to. Poseidons gonna get it real bad.Light, the design elements pretty niffty.Mull77 wins

Felicia wow! I love the creepness it has. I love the skeletons.The transition of light is well executed.rustikof, simple and right to the point and I enjoy the animation like feeling to it. Tie
JoelLucher vsCavematty
LOL, I like the middle finger idea. It seems sorta flat. Cavematty, I'm drawn right into the action. The use of light and shadows is really kool. Cavematty wins my vote.

Ostrander vs sve
The light over the ship is kool but that seems to draw my attention more then the fight. Sve, I love the use of color.The borders really stand out to me. Sve gets my vote.

Gringoloco vs entroid
The story in itself is well written, but what about the art? Its a good piece but it seems like the text is compensating for it.
entroid, the tarot card look is cool. Great design for the style and right to the point. Entroids got my vote.

koala.one vs mrgrumble
I like it but it seems to leave me cold in intrest.mrgrumble, nice colors and line work. mrgrumbles got my vote.

Narmo vs flimi
Both awseome concepts,the eyes have no focal point in my opinion. Both good pieces in itself.Narmo wins

MyOrangeHat vsmisledtomisery
....
bumskee vs John
very dark element and design i like the technique. John, very kool.Bumskee got my vote

lewis vs Ikuru
Kool design but a think Ikuru's got me on this one. The effect for the magic and beauty.

=FOX=

[trevor]

you missed alot of people!!!1 now im hurt! lol

[chaosrocks]

Honest knee jerk impressions.....

1 JL Alfaro vs Vorbiss
this will not be popular I suspect but I prefer the hand ddrawn kali of Vorbiss

2, Senira vs SoneOne
neither looks quite finished, but Seniras has a more destinctive style

3.Xacto vs Blue Mech
Xacto..of course…blue ,you can do better

4. Skip this one

5. Masque vs Resist
this was tough ish
I love Masques humor and clarity
There a violence to Resisits that suits the subject perfectly
Id vote masque

6 Mull77 vs Light
huh?
I have no image for Light?

7. Feliecia vs Rustikof
Rusti you brought your best to the table . I appreciate that it’s a grand piece
Felicias is the prize of the whole show it’s a show stopper amazing piece.


8 JoelLucher vs Cave amtty
joel.. this piece still has some awkward bits but is well finished and nicely resolved
I have to go with cave Matty’s though. I love the way you broke the frame work and the sense of action and scale is great. This is one of the best

9. Ostrander vs Sve
I love you both. And I really like boththese pieces. Its contest like these that make me glad Im not a judge. Id have to go with sveta though. Theres still some thing about your composition that feels wrong to me Glen. And hers is so nastily sweet.

10. Gringoloco vs Entroid- both excellent… have to go with Ent though. For thinking outside the box on the battle front. Plus Im am way impressed with really good vectorz

11.Koala 1 vs Mrgrumble although both are fine battles scenes , Mr grumbles tackling this isn elegant line and pastel is great plus he mad me laugh.. a;lways good for a few points

12 Narmo vs Flimi
I see problems with both of these
Narmo your action is so separated as to seem almost sterile flimi yours is so central and static as to seem almost motionless. Flimi needs more focus. I realike the handlein go f the cats so Ill have to go with Narmo

13 MOrange Hart vs Misled to misery> misled

orange, the Japanese painting graphics style works wvery well here, I wish the gods were actually interacting. It is so still and there is so much space beteen they seem to be perfectly safe,
Misled nice one ….a trifle supersaturated but good..

14, bumskee vs John
both seem a little rushed, Bumkees is better resolved and a more interesting composition. Johns is a compositionally a little awkward and the painting is still rough and blurry. It almost look like two different styles

15 lewis vs ikiru
Lewis’s is more interesting as a compositionand an image, but its not precisely a God at war against (Other god, army, or Titan).
Ikiru, this is a very static image centered and symmetrical.its a little dull and I wish you had looked more at the attributes of Krishna and less at Kris Angel. Tie

Ok I gotta take a break and come back to this yeash its endless!

chaos

[sve]

Oh god, what an awesome surprise, better say a wonderful gift. Crits and my piece is liked. I'm gonna cry under my blankets from happiness.
And my conscience is starting to torture me, I need to give back what was given me... :$
Thank you, Nellie, thank you, The Artist Fox. Kiss, hug, kiss, hug.
How many entries? about 50 with a tail? a lot. need to restore myself for this.
Awesome comments. thanks, you!

[Ilaekae]

JLAlfaro has the URL for the judges...

Ask him nice and maybe he'll post it here...:confident

[chaosrocks]

hugz for Ilaekae
kisses if his heart can take it
<3
Chaos

[masque]

thanks for doin' the dirty work on this, cat-man :teeth: 'tis appreciated.

[Ilaekae]

Whoops...forgot to answer your question, Masque. I'm going back to the drawing in about an hour. If I can stay up tonight to catch up, I should make thursday morning okay.

[masque]

actually, take all the time you need, just give me a day's head's up so i can prep my NEW work for posting.

yeah, baby... different duel, different weapons. as the kids say --- muwahahahaha!:devil:

[MyOrangeHat]

13 MOrange Hart vs Misled to misery> misled

orange, the Japanese painting graphics style works wvery well here, I wish the gods were actually interacting. It is so still and there is so much space beteen they seem to be perfectly safe,
Misled nice one ….a trifle supersaturated but good..


Wow thanks so much for the crit, Chaos! That's really what I was hoping to get out of this. I knew I was outmatched no matter who I was matched with but I wanted to push myself. I've never composed or drawn something that I couldn't physically see either from a picture or from a still life. So this was very new to me.
I noticed when I was too far along and too close to the deadline that my image looked very static. Mostly I was having trouble finding reference picture with dynamic enough motion. I am very poor at drawing the human form from memory. Okay I'm going to redo this piece and move the gods closer, make them interact and add more peril.
Ares was supposed to look like he was off of one of those red and black carved Greek pots. Did that come across? I wanted to make it look like the art had come to life.

Off to down some NyQuil(SO sick w/the flu) and redraw this bugger. Thanks again! :)

[Cavematty]

Yo Orange hat, are you really gonna go redraw the thing?
Thats an awesome attitude, and one that will over time result in a master.
Anthony Robbins has a funny speil about learning. Often we try and if it doesnt work straight away we give up. But when kids are learning to walk, they keep trying, fall down, keep trying, stumble, keep trying and trying and trying until they damn well walk. Theres no other option. And thats why most kids can walk.
Keep at it.
As for drawing out of your memory. Only the greatest illustrators can draw convincing people out of their heads after years of study of anatomy. Even then they'd probably draw better with reference. Dont feel guilty about taking out a digi camera and getting ur mates to pose, or take photos of you posing. Then use that as a reference (dont trace though - thatll hold you back in the long run). I have so many folders of myself shirtless in stupid poses, and folders of me acting out scenes for animations that would turn any girl off me. It all helps you study and understand people better tho.

I admire your attitude and your enthusiasm.
Kep it up! woop! :star: :star: :star:

ps. yup, definately got the pot thing. comes across sweet. nice one

[GriNGo]

thanks for commenting ChaosRocks & TheArtistFox! Good points given and learnt.

[draw]

I was against Gaius WTF so this is a rigged contest is it, next time let me know, my time was limited, if I knew someone was going to see my picture and then pit me against another seen picture I would not have made the trouble of entering. Maybe sour grapes I've had a bad week, but this wreaks of an American election

[masque]

I was against Gaius WTF so this is a rigged contest is it, next time let me know, my time was limited, if I knew someone was going to see my picture and then pit me against another seen picture I would not have made the trouble of entering. Maybe sour grapes I've had a bad week, but this wreaks of an American electionrematches were random, based on entry sequence afaik. pretty sure it was clear puss-outs might lead to re-match-making, so suck it up, enjoy the show. winning isn't everything but a healthy attitude is.

edit: shit, man, your entry was posted nearly four hours past deadline, you're lucky you're in the running at all. jeez, why is it the rule stretchers are often the bitchers, too?

[JL.Alfaro]

draw- blah blah..

yes they were random, and the process was explained extensively throughout the thread. You shoulda' stop by and join the lively conversation we had.



heres the link to the judging page if anyone is interested.

http://imageevent.com/aljmary/cagodsatwar

-JL

[JL.Alfaro]

Honest knee jerk impressions.....

1 JL Alfaro vs Vorbiss
this will not be popular I suspect but I prefer the hand ddrawn kali of Vorbiss...


Whaaat...??

[xzacto]

Hey, JLAlfaro

just wanted to let you know that whoever put my image on this page

http://imageevent.com/aljmary/cagodsatwar

cropped it for some reason. not that it matters all that much.

[sve]

Guys,

I'm gonna lose, I'm pretty sure. My piece had a lot of flaws,but after resizing of the image it looks different and feels different.
Together with everything it is a great presentation and I'm grateful to Ilaekae for this generous selfless beautiful work but I think my image lost almost everything now, it looks blind. I'm sorry. It is not important, but my entry had a lot of small details and now I feel they are lost. I feel like what I wanted to be noticed was lost too.

[masque]

Sve, i'd be pretty surprised if the judges looked ONLY at the side-by-sides. as in the last TD where this was done, this should be taken as a useful reference instead of the "gallery" images.

mine is also less effective due to the lack of scale & detail (as previously), but if we hereby request all judges to be sure to visit the full-size posts, we should get proper attention in that regard.

hear me JLA? maybe tweak the judges on this point?

Ilaekae: please don't feel like your work is not valued, i think you understand where we're comin' from.

[Ilaekae]

Sve, I didn't resize your image, or anyone elses for that matter. You're looking at a mechanical resize made by the IE site. Go to the bottom of the page and click on "ORIGINAL" and you'll see the original.

I had the additional copies in different sizes made only to allow the judges to see the two pieces side by side if they needed because the entries are so large.

In fact, to prevent anyone else from getting pissed, I'm going to change the IE settings right now to open on the originals. It might slow some people's access down a bit, but...

[masque]

sorry, cat-man, i totally missed that feature. it's one of those "+2.5 diopters required" features for me ;)

not pissed, btw.

[Azrael]

Well, I thought i would give back a little and provide my picks and why I chose them. Everybody did a great job on this. some of these were hard to judge. It has been a pleasure getting my ass kicked on this. It was my first step outside of my norm and I learned quite a bit in the process. Well... here goes....


1. JLAlfaro
I dig the orb of power and the multiple hands. pretty good composition and a decent color job as well. Lots of action makes it a plus.

2. sone one
Although this one is a bit unfinished and needs a bit more action, it is well rendered and shows good values.

3. xacto
Great action and composition. The values are a bit harsh and the lighting seems to be random, but it definitely matches the concept of the challenge. Awesome job.

4. Jake
Outsanding job. Awesome render. It could probably use more action, but the concept makes sense. Look out for those tologists, they might want this as a shrine.

5. Masque
I expected no less from the likes. Beautiful render on this and the composition is fantastic. Evertime I look I see something new to appreciate.

6. Felicia
This was a tough decision, for they are both fantastic. Felicia's represented war the most out of the two, so I think it is more fitting. Kudos to rustikof for a pretty cool piece, however it needs more to the image.

7. Joeslucher
Another tough one. My only deciding factor is that I like the attitude of Joe's.

8. Tie
Can't decide. Both are good in their own right.

9. Gringoloco.
More action in this one. entroid, nice idea though, just didn't fit the "war" part in my eyes.

10.mrgrumble
pretty good composition and it has a great unique quality. interesting colors on this one.

11.flimi
nice render. kinda drawn to the genetalia, which is a bit disturbing, but perhaps this is intentional.

12. misledtomisery
pulled this one off nicely, my former foe. awesome action and intesitic. dynamic composition and great values.

13. bumskee
just simply amazing. i'm humbled a bit. It is simple yet elegant and impactual. awesome work.

14.ikuru
pretty nice. good composition and color value. it does look like Chris Angel though. hehe.

15. The Artist Fox
it could use more contrast and definition of form, but it has a chaotic nature that I dig. the animals look good.

16. voodochile
nice composition, colors, render and emotion. Maybe a bit too much of the cliff in the shot. It seems to take focus away from the main character.

17. tou
good show of concept and lots of blood. both bonuses. got ot love a battle scene.

18. tie (bloodstone vs Briareos)
both are superb. both have boobies and destruction. call me an amature and a perv, but seriously, what more can you as for?

19. another tie (Trevor vs evildisco)
both are awesome. I lean a little more toward Trevor for the great execution and incoporation of styles, but evildisco's is freakin sweet as well. What can I say? I am a sucker for boobies and destruction.

20. yadam
action and concept are good.

21. Strych9ine
mainly because I have no idea what the other image is. (sorry)

22. fedezz.
simply spectacular. I love it. colors are awesome and the composition is nice. nice textures.

23. wasker
one of my favs. kinda puts you in the pic. it feels like I am one of the soldiers about to march up the hill and meet my doom.

24. Justin oaksford.
great idea and execution. the archway is a bit distracting, but I dig it anyhow. Snarfevs did an oustanding job with the image as well.

25. Green Topaz
Bloobies again. Battle scene's are always a big hit and this one is trult frightening. awesome job amigo.

26. mrblonde
great colors and concept.

27. ------

28.Kboss
Freakin sweet. Love the action, emotion, colors. all top notch.

done....finally! :zzz:

[v0rbiss]

Yay! 10x for the comments Artist Fox and Chaosrox! :bow:
My pic above JL's, I appreciate seeing that one chaos! :hatsoff: ;)

[Ilaekae]

Exacto, I'm the somebody who accidentally cropped your piece. It's been corrected. I missed the fact that your's was at res 75 instead of res 72, which is what caused the cropping.

My apologies. It won't happen again because I'm pretty sure I won't be doing this anymore.

Anyone else who thinks I fucked their piece up, got it wrong size or did something else stupid, just let me know right here and I'll fix it.

When the judging's over, maybe somebody can tell me the rational explanation for submissions ranging from 7 to 72, 75, 96, 100, 144, 150, 300, and 400 in resolution that will be judged on monitors that are either 72 or 90 in res. I really am curious and would appreciate the enlightenment.

[evildisco]

Azrael, Cavematty, Snarfevs: thanks for the feedback.

Mine was at 150 because I work with printed material and I need that resolution for when I go print my stuff.

I just forgot about the fact that it was still at that setting.

[trevor]

hey kitty
mine are lways rez-ed for best viewing size
(tho its not f-ed up any how) and that tmeans
best viewing size for me
i do have a pretty sweet set up so i could have made it much bigger lol
on another hand azrael
i pretty much agree with the tie
those are some damn nicely rendered boobs
and she looks fuckin sweet

[MyOrangeHat]

When the judging's over, maybe somebody can tell me the rational explanation for submissions ranging from 7 to 72, 75, 96, 100, 144, 150, 300, and 400 in resolution that will be judged on monitors that are either 72 or 90 in res. I really am curious and would appreciate the enlightenment.

Well personally I'm just clueless about resolution and most graphic computer stuff. I don't use my computer at all to draw and I honestly didn't know that monitors were only 72 or 90 in res. Yeah sad I know but really I swear I hadn't the foggiest idea. Basically I know how to make the internet work and upload digital pictures all else about my computer remains a mystery.

[ikuru]

ikuru
pretty nice. good composition and color value. it does look like Chris Angel though. hehe.



That Chris Angel dude looks like a looser, I based my Krishna on a photo ref of me actually (allthough I dont have the wigg on in real life), anyhow looks like Im gonne have to change he's look for the finals then, wouldn't want the allmighty Krishna looking like some white trash trailerpark wizard (or whatever that chris "angel" does). ;)

thanx for the feedback though.

Ilaekae I think I left my resulution on 300 dpi, but I shrunk the pic to 670*920 pix, I think thats what matters in the end, what it looks like on screen. It's not like the file is any bigger etc. the X and Y is all that matters (I think).

[masque]

Illy, i'm curious as to why the DPI spec, which is usually relevant only for real-world print applications, is an issue in prepping for monitor display, where pixel dimensions are usually the only important criteria. something the prep at the site you use requires?

personally i ignore the DPI spec in photoshop unless i absolutely know (or at least strongly suspect) the image will be printed, then i choose or set a resolution accordingly.

Photoshop DPI is also mutable -- you can change it without resampling and nothing in the image changes, just the physical dimensions, which are real-world specific.

[arttorney]

Thank you very much Ilaekae, JL, and the judges for all that you are doing.

[ikuru]

Photoshop DPI is also mutable -- you can change it without resampling and nothing in the image changes, just the physical dimensions, which are real-world specific.

Hey, WTF! (J/K), I just Said that in the post above!

No seriously You are right, I know this to be right, I used to think it was 72 dpi for the web etc but it's the actuall ON screen size that matters, the dpi matters ony for print (than it's 300dpi for collor pics, (when printing comicbook lineart/inkart the dpi must be even higher, something like 600 dpi, allso lineart should be scanned like on the highest dpi (1500dpi) and then resized to smaller size for best resoults).

Hey Illy, lovely work setting this up. I missed that link, just seen it now, looks friking great if u ask me! Good work there! And thanx to neard and JLA and thoes other judges and stuff.

[sve]

I'm not pissed, I'm sad. My piece was 70 dpi. I did choose the size because it was optimum to me, it was not random. I do appreciate your work Ilaekae, I thank you very much, it IS beautifully done, do doubts about.. But in the end the images themselves and how artists wanted them to be seen is the most important thing. Put yourself in my place and see if you were indifferent to changes done to your image.
And I really don't know what judges will do, maybe they will see it in a bigger size, maybe not. It depends on how much time they have. The same about other people who will be looking. I don't know if they will be pressing any additional buttons to see them better.
So no anger, just a natural desire for image being seen as I wanted it to be seen.

[Ilaekae]

I don't need stroked. What I needed for linking the pics together was compatible dpis to determine an actual size for the pieces to be accurate in color and size both. Xacto's piece was an example of what happens when the dpi's aren't the same. I had to check every single one of the dpi settings for every piece of art to insure that I pasted in the proper "direction." Otherwise, the possibility was there for one of the pieces to be cropped accidentally in one of the directions when automatic resizing occurred. I misread his 75 as a 72--close enough for me not to notice the missing right edge. This isn't a problem obviously when you're setting up SINGLE pieces for monitor display, but it can be a real disaster when you have roughly half the entries at 72dpi and suddenly have to merge in a 400dpi. It don't work, Homey. Try it yourself and you'll see what I mean.

At one point, when I made the combination transfer, one of the pieces suddenly converted to greyscale--BECAUSE...the TARGET PIECE being pasted into was in greyscale, which I hadn't noticed...I simply changed the trget to RGB and everything was fine.

Does anyone NOT understand this? It is not a big deal when you are posting a single piece. It IS a big deal when you are attempting to merge them, because the "target" piece determins the specifications for the "incoming" pasted piece. THAT'S WHY some competitions are particularly touchy about dpi and submission specs...they are trying to prevent problems in their future use of the entries, especially where they may have to gang up 4 or 5 pieces for presentation in one document.

And Sve, before jumping off a bridge because your art is "totally destroyed," please check all the alternatives. It saves getting your gutchies wet and guppy-filled. I left a message for JLA to specifically tell the judges what was going on, but never thought it was needed here because the IE set-up WAS for the judge's convenience, not our's here on the thread. On some people's access to the net, having art as large as some of the pieces were being the first thing accessed could slow down their system to a crawl. That's why thumbnails are used on some sites rather than having the 55 copies of the 7,000 x 28,000 pixel masterpieces all trying to load at once. I simply used very large thumbnails.

[sve]

What is gutchies ? :) didn't find it on Internet. I'll take it as an compliment then :). OK, I will not jump off the bridge, didn't plan for this anyway, but after your words I promise I'll stay dry. :). Thank you for explanation, but I still think the artist's vision is the most important thing and should stay intact. More important than an effective presentation or convenience of judges. I saw art work of all the judges, they themselves posted it in even bigger sizes, they will be able to see our art.
I don't think you destroyed my entry. And I said I liked your presentation, liked it even earlier, at first TD. You are taking it wrong.

[Ilaekae]

At my age, I'll take it anyway I can get it, Sugar Plum. :bashful:

...and gutchies is old Pittsburgh word for bottom underwear...:confident

I think it's old Polish/Slovak or Pensylvania Dutch in origin.

[sve]

you have no shame! I wanted to start hugging contest with you, but now.. no...

[Ilaekae]

...eh...did I mention I can't run very fast at my age either? My wife's girlfriends find that an asset...:nohope:

[sve]

well, you have the biggest list full of sexy women. I find this an asset :).

[chaosrocks]

16. Arttourney vz Artist fox.
Hard choice theres really nice features in both of these Arts has a style evocative of baalanese shadow puppets, Fox’s seems to ref the peacable kingdom when it went wrong…but Art’s doesn’t quite hang together as a composition, and fox’s is alittle blurry and pastel. I think id have to go with Art.

17. Amishcommie vs voodoochile
both very nice pieces. Amishs looks a trifle unfinished but has great action and conflict,. Voodoo’s is really nice althoughtheres an awkward ness in the figure anatomy and it has that blurry quality. Voodoos wins.

18 Timmy vs Tou triptych rocks tou wins, Timmy it’s a nice drawing but very central and Akuma looks like antman…..

19. Bloodstone vs briarroes
2 very accomplished paintings can’t choose, similar style both have beautiful features…. And are beautifully rendered

20. Evil disco vs Trevor
hmmm Evil it’s a nice painitng but the holes in the research bug me. Morrigan is not beautiful , shes scary, crows are her avatars . besides what idiot goes into battle with bare boobs? No matter how well painted and it is beautifully painted you keep getting better and better. . Trevor I really like you care and presentation. the art nouveau flourishes are unexpected but give it a wonderful flavour. The figure on the right looks a bit disconnected from her surroundings like a cut out, Id like to see her integrated like the other. ChooseTrevor.

21Djohnton vs yadam. Yadam
D- you have a wonderful misty foggy atmosphere but your piece is inherently still, the cropping is disturbing and the two characters are not interacting be brave draw the dog’s head. Yadam this is the winner of this match but the pastel desaturation in the middle ground is disconcerting I know this is part of the atmospheric perspective system but it is also where all the action is happening the details in the foreground are nice but my eye keeps being drawn to the chunky naked figure in the center, both his central position and his expansive motion lead me to wish he were rendered better.

22.Eriboss vs Strychnine
Wow eri I love this its so expressive and creepy. And Cody this is also wonderfull in its own way.your line and style are so appropriate I love the whole thinking outside the box and the huge amount of character in your characters. Gotta go with eri though…wish these two weren’t match dup together

23. fedezz – Soja. Choose fedez
Fed ezz nicely rendered version of the subject although I find the spidly little arms a bit disconcerting is has almost a steampunk type antique feel whichis very nice. Soja this is a brave use of markmaking and saturrated color very nice could use some more refinement though.

24. Clocks vs Wasker choose Wasker
Clocks is clearly uin finished Waskers is very shiny…. I would have like to have seen some characterization of something..theres no expression…

25. Justin vs Snarfevs
Justin this is very competent but the blurry ness and the lopsided ness of the composition is making it hard to really analyse. Snarfevs this is beautifully rendered and very fun in its own peculiar way.

26. Greentopaz vs Noen Azdak chose Greentopaz
wow Green…beautiful. Noen this is a really nice piece It has a weird Beardsley quality at the top the style changes as you go down thoughI would have like to have seen that style carried out through the piece

27. Anid maro vs Mr Blond chose Mr Blonde
Anid the distortions in the style and the monochromatic coloring technique are not doing it for me. Mr Blond I would have liked to see more detail in the foreground figures in compositional balance with the winged one.

28 Azrael vs City vote city, with reservations
Azrael you composition is heavy on the right side and is blurry. This could be really nice crisped up with some hard edges and balanced a little better.
City I love you r woodcut tye style and the image sis great. Im not sure how these gods are at war and with whom.

29 Draw vs Kboss..chose kboss
draw I like the idea..it looks like a poster for a bullfight with Japanese flavour. K boss nice illustration,, I wish the horse wasn’t looking away from the attacker. And tha attacke wasn’t looking away from the god, You could have achieved lots more tension withthose little directional changes

Submitted with utmost respect and honor for all of the entries!

chaosrocks

ps hmmmm ilae.... hugs... for no particular reason except that you amuse me... you grumpy old fart

[evildisco]

Chaos, did you know that Morrigan is also a Fertility goddess?That's what was written in the wikipedia entry, it said that she was a 'triple deity'.

[chaosrocks]

oddly yes I knew that . but why would she be in her fertility aspect....in the middle of a battlefield? makes no sense and I know it is a silly and personal critique.... but there you have it
chaos

[Ilaekae]

...um? Is it possible to screw an army to death?:x :tihi: ...if so, maybe I should have enlisted when I had the chance...

[ikuru]

Xacto's piece was an example of what happens when the dpi's aren't the same.

OK, I get the dilema. Let's hope the 72 dpi rule and a sollid maximum size etc is in the rules so this won't be an issue.

[evildisco]

I could offer something as lame as life and death are intrisecally tied together.

[masque]

maximum diimensions would need flexibility to allow for changes in canvas size for digital work. resampling an image to nearly the same size to fit a max dimension can mash clarity into little gooey bits.

standard dpi is a good idea if it'll help smooth the process.

[chaosrocks]

hey evil.....I prefer Illaes explaination.... It would certainly be distracting to you average army......and she is beautiful

chaos

[evildisco]

Hah ok.

[ikuru]

evildisco
Dude, who cares why her breast is like that?
What matters is that it looks Great!
The fact that her skin is white is a beautyfull contrast in the composition and it simply makes the image stronger.
Next to green topaz it's one of the most sollid entrys, depicitng the theme I think.
Its a tought call between your two entrys.
Trevor has this perfect style and render, but your composition is right on the money.

[JL.Alfaro]

...
My pic above JL's,....

uh...its not over yet bud, hehe.:wink:
But you know I did rush the entry towards the end, and its fairly visible-blame that on a workload dumped on me during the last weeks.(at least I turned something in unlike some that didnt even bother excusing themselves) Im still going to finish it, now that I got my new tablet I shall be unstopable..muahuarhuarmuar!!>:D


I think I'll be wearing a new avatar for a month...jeez:nohope:

[Idiot Apathy]

Oh man, just submitted my votes. THIS WAS SO DAMN HARD! Great match ups guys, round 2 is going to be insane. You all should be super proud, really stunning work.


Special mention goes to Bloodstone and Greentopaz, probably my 2 favorite entries.
Happy Valentines Day ladies - will you marry me? <3

[v0rbiss]

Hey JL, I meant that mine's above yours at least in someone's eyes! ;) :cheerleader:
(that sentence is stupid, is it not? >:D )

That shit with the 'tar wouldn't be appropriate, considering we both gave our best considering the circumstances, imo. Of course, we can stick to it if you insist. :)

[Cavematty]

Damn! Mine looks a bit bung in the judges area. I hung his foot out of the frame, and then made the side panels "forum color" so that once posted they would be invisible. But in the judges thread on a white background they are obvious and look kinda clunky :P
But thats all good. I learnt my bit from the piece. And i understand the judges needs :P

Bring back the positive attitudes. No sour grapes. This contest doesnt really have any huge prizes right? Its not really about winning. We all did it to level up and I learnt lots.

So chill yo! :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

[ikuru]

the main thing is to push oneself really hard, in order to bring something wicked next time...

[v0rbiss]

EDIT: Just realised it may've been an offense for some ppl. :)

[chaosrocks]

silly pope
c

[JL.Alfaro]

...This contest doesnt really have any huge prizes right? Its not really about winning. We all did it to level up and I learnt lots....



Actually, there is a prize- Marcos' DVD (http://www.customflix.com/Store/ShowEStore.jsp?rtnPt=0&id=221650&isPreview=true)- which Im giving away to a contender(not necessarily a winner). So it pretty much goes to someone who shows that he/she is serious about conceptual art (like me :) ) I also understand that not everyone is interested in getting the DVD (because they already got it or because they can only use half their brain...?) So I'll replace it with a CA T-shirt.
Why am I doing that? Mainly, to support CA and spread the love around. I was going to donate it, but why not put the cash to work, right.

This TD was started as an opportunity to push our skills to the next level, by competing against someone who could teach you something. You may be the one learning or you may be the teacher in this round, but in the next round it flips around.

[:blahblah: ] I for one have learned a lesson- not in art, but rather in time and schedule management- Im a professional procrastinator and this kicked me in the nuts fulls force. Never again. [/ :blahblah: ]

-JL


ps: feel free to drop me a PM if you're interested in the "prize".

[masque]

i wish a lovely CA femme
(and that includes them all),
to win a T, for all to see,
by thrashing one and all.
and if she does,
i know... i'm sure
though now i stoop,
like some old poop,
and shuffle, almost toddle, it
would do me good,
i'd stand upright
if she
would only
model it.

[mull77]

That beautiful.

*sniff*

[Cavematty]

I didnt realise!
Thats a wicked prize! :muscle:
Respect.

Well I entered more for the learning and motivational factor. I tend to do quick studies on my own time - like 1 hour or so. This forced me to spend longer on something, which pushes you to more refinement and different decisions. I learnt a lot from this, largely due to the help I got from friends and forum users.

Im waving the ca flag!! :yayca:

Its been a dream of mine to be a concept artist for ages. Id never really believed I could make it until last year when I took an illustration class with one of Weta Workshops cocept artists, Paul Tobin, and he inspired me so much that I'm working at it in my spare time.
But I still think the end cant be the only reason. You have to be able to enjoy the journey or you are lliving in the future, and you cant be too happy if you never live in the now. So prizes are cool and of course you enter to win and be the best. But the only real measure of success is progress so you should be competing with yourself. (I guess Im new-ish here and didnt really know any of my opponents so that affected my opinion some...)
God I sound like an informercial. If anyone wants a motivation seminar from Cavematty call 1-900-GETBACKTOWORKMATTY.
But I do believe it.
Thats why MyOrangeHat excited me so much with his post earlier in the thread that he was off to redraw his whole piece after feedback. That is the attitude that in my experience leads to success and more importantly personal fulfillment.

Wasnt trying to bag the contest JLAlfaro, jus pointing out different places people can find meaning. That said I'd still cream my pants if Marko's dvd turned up on my doorstep way over here in NZ. That stuff is expensive for us... (HINT HINT) :painting: :vodkamachine: :bounce: :bow: :overhere: :muscle: :eyeloss: :dead: :skull:

:bashful:

ps. masque, nice

[MyOrangeHat]

Yo Orange hat, are you really gonna go redraw the thing?

Hey Cavematty. Yup I'm gonna redraw this thing. I think I have a better concept now of how to make it more dramatic and dynmic after the critique and after seeing how everyone else tackled the same topic. It will probably take me awhile to redraw though. I"m really slow and my flu is getting worse making me even slower. But I'm not on a deadline anymore so time doesn't matter that much I suppose.

Thanks so much for the encouragement. I really appreciate it! :D I've been trying very hard to improve my skills.

I'll try getting friends and family to strike a pose or two for me and snap some shots with the digital so I have exactly the ref pictures I want. And I won't/don't trace don't worry. That wouldn't lead me to any more skill....well unless you consider really good tracing skill. :p I did draw this on tracing paper though(you probably noticed) because I can basically simulate Photoshop layers by hand. Rough sketch on the first layer, then new tracing paper on top and refine rough sketch. Then new tracing paper on top and fix anatomy and spacing problems etc. Sometimes I'll repeat it ten or more times.

Edited to correct horribly bad grammar caused by NyQuil.

[MyOrangeHat]

I didnt realise!
Thats why MyOrangeHat excited me so much with his post earlier in the thread that he was off to redraw his whole piece after feedback. That is the attitude that in my experience leads to success and more importantly personal fulfillment.


Aw thanks, man, I'm a blushing now. :bashful: A critique is 10x better if you put it to good use, right? Then you're applying the advice right away while it's fresh in your mind. And after the rockin' good advice Chaos gave me I think I can redo this piece better than the first time I did it.

And I'm a girl for the record. The name's Kristin. Nice to meet you. You're all the way in NZ? Wow! I've heard it's so beautiful there.

[masque]

MyOrangeHat, using tracing paper as you describe is not imitating PS layers. other way 'round! standard pre-digital procedure for pros around the planet. i congratulate you on your willingness to push yourself, too.

[City]

28 Azrael vs City vote city, with reservations
...
City I love you r woodcut tye style and the image sis great. Im not sure how these gods are at war and with whom.

Thank you for the comment!
Now I know that somebody at least noticed my illustration ;)

Answering your question,
there is a little story, or a situation, that explains why would these nice ladies go to a war...
and with whom? With my opponent's God, I suppose :) In this case - Poseidon (doesn't really make sense, since they are from the same realm of mythology though)
Originally I was under impression that each of us had to draw a God (or a team of gods), which would fight with somebody else's character. But now I see that most people depicted actual battles...

[sve]

JLAlfaro I think your picture needs something to connect all objects together. At first I thought maybe cropping it on the bottom and on my right will help to make the Goddess to domineer even more, because despite changes you still have very many active centers in your picture, composition still looks not united. Then I thought maybe you need to decide which colors will be the most active in your picture, glowing blue of the Goddess most probably and maybe it will be better to reduce brightness of the bright red and orange around her, make is weaker and darker. Then I thought that it will be good to built your composition around the magic aura of the Chantico, with distorted silhouettes and attacking men and clouds sort of repeating outline, circle of the Bubble.
I thought it would be better to add some more silhouettes of heads in the foreground too to get rid of the empty space in front on the Goddess. You see... nothing solid, but I do think you need to choose the main component in your picture and built the rest of composition around it.
think you need to incorporate some of the blue, or just some cool tones in the rest of the picture too. maybe very subtly.


Vorbiss Your goddess is scary. It is very hard to make a drawing scary but you managed to do that. She is so strange in this crouching pose, with strange, gruesome flickering eye. And I imagine her tearing her victim in total silence, skillfully, efficiently, without any witness and interference. Not a squeak, just maybe her nose making strange sounds of impatience and excitement and sensual pleasure.
That look like a nightmare, she is so terrible. These long legs and arms, just skin and bones and crazy eye create the whole character to me.
Crits. I'm not very fond of these skulls methodically placed at even distance from each other. This image doesn't look like an abstract, on the contrary it looks too real, like worst expectations, and it is very expressive with realism of her figure, because it is so close to our real fears. In my opinion no abstract elements needed. Strong feature of the image that I can relate to this fear of some pathology, sick mind, criminal mind acting without any barriers, not being caught.
--------------------------
Senira Emotion is present in my opinion, mostly thanks to aggressive combination of colors, and prickly lines, but you made it hard for eye to extract an information from your picture. You don't control your viewer, don't lead him. I think you need to help your viewer a bit, you're suggesting too much instead of telling a story. I wish you define forms more. I got impression you didn't see your characters clearly yourself. You don't know his face, or how exactly he fell after battle. what happened exactly.

sone one For me it looks more like a value study, very good one. I don't see much of a story here. I don't know how you see your Thor, except the hammer in his hand. I don't know anything abut him from your picture. He looks more like an agitated speaker in front of quietened crowd. But I have no idea what he might be saying them. Could be anything. Sky is interesting in your picture, has the most personality. IMO.
------------------------------------
xacto I like your picture for this prickly hostile sensation from the risen spears, flying arrows and many legs and arms and heads. I think colors are not telling me much, they are calming me actually. I would prefer your picture without textured BG, because your have your own texture created form the bodies and arrows. I would prefer monotone graphic stylized approach to your picture. Just to make these dark silhouettes and fighting God in the center a main focus, not distributing your viewer attention evenly all over the picture. Emotionally it is very strong piece for me.

BlueMech It is funny, there is something comical in the god walking with wide steps and in the small army running toward him. There is somehting Egyptian too, those correct rows of the soldiers especially made me think about Egypt.
-----------------------------------

chaosrocks Did you enjoy, Nellie, painting insanity and pain in your picture? I didn't when I tried mine.
I wonder what you felt painting this. Sometimes sensitive writers and artists are getting sick depicting torture in their art.

I can hear a high pitched terrible victorious howl of your heroine.
I would say you succeeded in the pressing certain buttons in your viewer nerves.
It feels like senseless murder. You are good in understanding what objects will induce certain reaction in your viewer: like metal tip of the knife, or even more the curved surface of the knife, prolonging torture, like open rib cage and cut off female breasts, and round insane eyes without a thought in them and locks form a dead head streaming down with blood, emphasizing the end of battle, not resistance.
I think about what could make your picture better... I think you will not get away from getting more expressive in art language.
The pose is talking, but misguidedness or lack of knowledge of where your source of light is or how human body is built will stop brains to get involved in an imaginary game. When brains can't recognize the object as they know it, they will get stuck on this barrier and effects are lost after that. You need to be smooth and subtle to lead your viewer to certain thought, without him getting hypnotized with some of your mistakes.
As I said you are open in your art, but you know... to communicate farther than conversation about good weather you need to learn language more. I am ready to get involved with your story, and half of my body there but your manner to talk stops me.
There is good feeling of flesh and weights in her arms and less in her legs though.

Jake Good generalization of how you imagine Scientology. Ugly, distorted, soulless, disgusting little dwarf with toad like face. Hanging silently is empty space with nothing alive or delightful around it. Very young religion too. no past or connection with time in your picture.
It feels very personal too and sarcastic, of course only lazy doesn't laugh at Scientology.
Very emotional piece despite that it's quiet and calm at first sight. Nevertheless there are your own thoughts in this image, your own attitude to the depicted. looks a lot like propaganda too, against it of course :). Starting from the disturbing face and ending with swamp like colors. No crits from me. I think it's quite integrate, controlling piece of art, very strong. I would remove black design on the bottom probably, it doesn't add much I think. Feel free to ignore my words.
To be continued.

[JL.Alfaro]

Thanks Sve, Y o u - A r e - A w e s o m e.

working on it..:painting:

love,
-JL

[sve]

Masque. Chip, you have to be tired hearing from me. you just have to...
I will just say that I think your unusual composition will alert your viewer, in my opinion and probably will be a barrier to accept it. I think it would be good in future somehow connect, tie together all objects in your picture by overlapping shapes, making them interweave into each other. For example I would move Jormy closer to figure of Odin making their outlines to interlace, compose a new shape with each other, even if the Odin will be still closer to us and Jormy farther. You can make three and more stories going on simultaneously in one image, but they will united because shapes are united.


Resist Good poses and anatomy, good imitation of motion, but I think th picture is too calm, i wish you enrich it with more circumstances around this story. You left too much empty space around the characters, lit feels like you were interrupt in the middle of conversation and we left with our own guesses what happened.
-----------------------------

Mull77 I can tell you started this story because of Thor, he got so much more signs of love and attention from you. Poor Poseidon, not center of the picture, no dynamic pose, no attractive face and body. That's not fair. Thor got everything, like twin which was born 5 minutes earlier than his unlucky brother..
Overall Thor's pose is very beautiful and impressive. Good skills too.

Light I like your picture, I think it would help to make the overlapping of all shapes bigger, to unite the composition more.
------------------------------------------
Felicia Well. I already wrote how much I like your image. I think participation of me as a viewer is great in your piece. As I scroll your image from the top to the bottom I feel like one of the poor souls being trapped, beaten and tortured and pushed to the inevitable hell below. And I feel this horror and dumb force and my own weakness against it. Very powerful effect of my own fall and pressure of force from above. Gorgeous piece and great communication through all possible means. Strong constant motion, dynamics in every part of the image too.

rustikof I think it would be wonderful if you made the rest of the image in the same style as you painted your two characters, like an imitation of imprint. I like their intense faces very much and poses are great, I just wish you gave more thoughts to their surroundings.

[Joeslucher]

Azrael- Glad you liked the image. I've definetely learned a lot of things not to do working on that pic. I was definetely fighting a poor composition with a non-existent color palette. I was definetely thinking too much about trying the drawing opposed to the painting.

Everybody else is offering widescale critiques so I guess I'll contribute. Plus a lot of people have helped me with crits so I'll return the favor.

I'm going to skip around so don't feel bad if your neglected.
JLAlfaro-I like everything withinin the goddess' sphere except for the hands on her red arms. They don't look like the gesture of hands holding swords. I'm not saying you used Poser but those particular hands look very generic. There's also a strange stray blue line coming off of one of the blue arms. The foreground guy on the left has some serious issues and needs reference. Also you've drawn some yellow rim light on him but it stop dead at his hair. Now these guys look like cavemen and I'm assuming he's got some super greasy hair. I would almost expect that to be more reflective.

Vorbiss- I like that the anatomy is very strange because of the enlarged hands and strange feet and the fact that we can't see her face. The action of the far femur is a little tooo exaggerated though. I also wish I could see more of whatever she's throwing over her shoulder. The last thing I have to say is the first that came to mind, couldn't you Transform>Distort then crop this so that we're not seeing the clips on the paper?

Senira-I actually really dig this image. There's a good sense of action. The main advice I can give, is that there appears to only be hard edges.

Sone one- Thor's big here but doesn't seem very imposing. The main icon of Thor is his hammer and it's not featured very prominently here and it looks like you've made it as small as possible. It looks like he's come to camp to help hammer railroad ties. :) I like that we can't see his face. I like the composition and I like the rendering but I'm just not interested in the story it's telling.

Bluemech-I actually think you could finish this in two hours of work. If the god was drawn with more of a sensitivity to line and in a more iconic style like hieroglyphs, you could just create a sandstone background and make it like a carving.

xacto-I think you could benefit from being a little more vague. It's comical seeing the horses thrown in the air and some of your roughed in army figures look like gingerbread men. Drawing mass numbers of figures is intimidating but you would be surprised how much you can get away with if you just make rough shapes then pull out a perfectly referenced limb or foot protruding. It really sells the rest of the mass and saves on rendering.

Rustikof-I really like this piece. Great concept, composition and rendering. My only problem is that I wish we got more of a sense of the twist in Thor's torso. I think since his belt is directly facing us, it makes him look a bit like a figurine.

Ostrander-Great piece. One of my favorites. I do think Cthulu would benefit from having his legs and pelvis turn more towards his opponent. The twist in the torso would add interest, make his crotch less awkward and give more of a sense that this spear through his shoulder has affected him.

koala.one-They don't look to be opposing each other.

Misledtomisery- Great piece with lots of potential but your Odin is holding back your Quetzalcoatl. Reference that anatomy.

The Artist Fox-This image looks too soft and blurry overall. It looks like some hard edges could really help. I'm also wondering if toning down the whites on everything but the horse could help bring it forward.

Tou-I really wish the middle panel was just a rectangle and didn't have the "Chronos God of Time" in there. That typography and it's integration could be done better and it's a shame that it takes away from the piece.

Briareos-You might want to add some details to what Sekhmet is standing on. I've probably looked at it five time before I realized that shape was something she was supposed to be standing on. The cropping of her toes doesn't help in that area. Also confused as to why you cropped her fingertips off.

Kboss-The composition and then the rendering of Ymir's face and Odin and his horse are selling this image. Then when we get to look at the rest of the image we eventually notice the anatomy on Ymir and the crouching wolf. Again, I think this is holding back the piece from being amazing.

[Rich Pellegrino]

I just wanted to give a big thanks to everyone who is so generously crittign for people. Not only does it help them but I am sure it helps others. I know it helps me! Thanks to everyone who left a nice comment or crit about my piece as well. I appreciated it. :)

[Dan!]

I wish i could offer something more than this but

these are some of the most beautiful works i have ever seen...

[Cavematty]

Hey city,

Sorry if you've been getting the big ignore :nohope:
So in an attempt at making amends ima crit yours, but be warned, you asked for it :dead: hehe.

Ok. Cool style for a start, and I think you did well with it. However when you simplyfy something into basic forms, every line carries so much more meaning, as it represents a greater part of the whole. In this respect I think there are areas of your piece that work great, and other areas that arent so great.
To explain, take the central figure "Atropos". The raised hand is done especially well, and the curves contrast with the rigid mechanical lines of the scissor to help describe their respective materials Also the sleeve of that hand, although simplified, has a distinct feel of light affecting it and of hanging fabric. All achieved with so little information on the page which is great. However the other sleeve to me kinda lacks that feeling. It seems rigid (despite being the same garment), and un-clothlike.
Why is the weight of the layers of fabric not hanging against his arm like the other sleeve is? Does gravity not affect it? :bounce:
Why have you used such rigid parallel lines to represent a relatively fluid material? :^^;:
Also the subtelty of shape and overlap you have used on the othersleeve to show the folds interacting is lost on this sleeve especially on the lighting. The style is cool and Its interesting to see how far you can simplify something. But I think you should still strive to communicate as much as possible with your simplified shapes, and keep the essence or feeling of what you are trying to capture. In this way your intended content should help dictate your style, rather than solely the other way around.
A good example would be to look at Mike Mignola's art. His work is very stylized and simplified, with heaps of straight lines, but he still keeps an "impression" of information by making the few lines he does use really count. You can always see the research he has done, like the story set in budapest (think its the first one where he has the rocket pack?) - he has obviously looked deeply into the actual architecture and style of budapest. And although his style doesnt change he somehow manages to squeeze all that information into his chunky funky shadowy outlines.

That said I think you did well with the image and I like the way you used cooler colours to make the secondary figures sit back.
Hope this helps some mon ami. :teeth:
And I think your three caballeros might do well against Jake's sarcastically unimposing god if the Moerae happened to hold sway in the world long enough for scientology to be made up like the easter bunny :shrug:

[ikuru]

Actually, there is a prize-....


ps: feel free to drop me a PM if you're interested in the "prize".

OK, so what do I have to do to have a chance dude? (I want the movie) Im ready to do A N Y T H I N G. <3

[kboss]

Joeslucher, thanks for the crits mate. Yeah I guess I rushed out that crouching wolf. If i'm honest there are a lot of things in the image i'm not happy with. The anatomy of Ymir is supposed to be strange. I wanted him to be gangly with a short torso and long limbs, but now you've said it he does look just a bit odd...
Thanks to everyone who mentioned my paint, its very nice getting recognition whether positive or negative! Warms the cockles of your heart so it does.
So, having said i'm not happy with my piece, JL I know the plan was originally to take our 1st round pieces through to the second round but what do you reckon to doing another one? Bit like LMS? Everyone else's really make me want to up my game! Nothing likie a bit of hearty competition to spur you on.

[Cavematty]

Oh so you have to do a new pic for each round? Wow. Cool!
I didnt realise that. How long between rounds?
That such a good idea so you know your opponents and work even harder to beat them as the competition stiffens :)
Hehe. Id probably find way more time if I make it through to round2 and have to do a new pic.

By the way anyone else that feels their pic has been neglected of critique speak up. I havnt read everyones massive crit posts yet so if you want help toot your horn :)

[ikuru]

Oh so you have to do a new pic for each round?

Actually JLA's main idea was that you refine the one you got for the (final?) round, than he allso wrote later that if you wanted to make a brand new one he wouldn't mind, allthough I think it's better to clearefy this properly. Since if most start doing new art for the finals it might feel old if one or two is sticking to their original entrys. I for one liked the original idea about refining/making changes etc to the entrys at hand.

[masque]

i agree with ikuru (no, the world is not ending, it can happen sometimes), for the simple reason that the TD is where "the best of the best of the best, sir!" go head to head. what better way to insure this than to hone the already fine edges of the surviving work, letting them cut even deeper into the competition.

*snarl!*

[chaosrocks]

Sveta dear... I was pMSing while I painted it. The mayhem and bloodslaughter actually felt kinda good. Working on anatomy will get there eventuially

If I were to go on..unlikely given my competition. Im flippin bored of the one I have.. and its oil spaint and haard to change anyway. I would hope for the opportunity to paint another more different one...

Maybe we should all just trade. I'll repaint someone elses.....

thanks
c

[v0rbiss]

Thanks for the detailed comments Joeslucher and sve, toroughly appreciated! :bow:

couldn't you Transform>Distort then crop this so that we're not seeing the clips on the paper?
I'm not too much of a photoshop guru, I needed help even for the cropping of the pic. :(

[JL.Alfaro]

Well as far as clarifying the second round entries...again... It was a chance to turn in your completed piece which you already started and submitted. BUT, if you feel like making a new one and shaming yourself, then by all means go right ahead.

I for one, will finish up my piece, after I apply all the good crits I've gotten from yall:heart: .I am getting ready to do that as we speak:vodkamachine: (thats in case I make it to 2nd round)


-JL

[ikuru]

i agree with ikuru (no, the world is not ending, it can happen sometimes), for the simple reason that the TD is where "the best of the best of the best, sir!" go head to head. what better way to insure this than to hone the already fine edges of the surviving work, letting them cut even deeper into the competition.

*snarl!*

Ha, Ha! :D What a fine post Indeed! I could not have said better words myself!
No seriously I know I for one would take my entry to a whole nother level (knowing as it is right now it looks more like a shitty speedpainting where there should be evil demons lurking instead.) But IF I went to the finals and Knew that everyone else was probably working on some new shit I would HAVE to go for another one or I would not have a chance I think. The element of suprise is a verry strong force when it comes to slamming somone in the head.

Im pretty sure if people can make new stuff they will do it. Anyhow, it's your TD Jay (and what a fine TD too). ;)

[strych9ine]

I think it'd be a good idea to take the same character (god) and continue the story we set out to create with the first piece. Take the god to the next battle since some of us will be doing the same...

[JL.Alfaro]

Here are some crits, mostly comments since some of you are beyond my helping.

1.Vorbiss- I really liked your drawing, its on its first steps of being finalized (as a drawing) Your anatomy is well thought out, a little weird, which is not a bad thing when depicting a multi-armed goddess. You could bring your midtones and darks down a notch to create more contrast. I dont like the way you hid her face with the hair, I was looking forward to seeing how you developed her face after the last sketch you made.

2. Senira - I saw that you posted this in the critique area, which is a good idea since I feel that you could push this painting even further. I see a lot of potential in your style. Take into consideration everything that has been said to you already.

3. sone one - I like your depiction of Thor, seems as though everyone has their own idea of what he should look like. This is a partially finished piece, I feel that your composition is good and your overall image sits well with the viewer. His face needs to have some features in it to give the god more personality, not just blackened space. The soldiers in the foreground are looking good, but you need to render them to their full potential-Im sure that is your goal.

4. xacto- I love the movement and action in your piece. The colors are really well thought out too. Im not too thrilled about the way you blurred the soldiers flying in mid air. I believe that if you were to render the full silouhette out and then diffused the edges outward, it would have made a better movement blur. The shadows on the ground need to be darker and sharper due to the immense light coming from the gods attack. This has the potential to become a great painting.

5. Blue Mech- brotha, I would have loved to have seen this rendered out, man the idea is great and the concept is awesome! I hope that you get to working on this anyways.

6. Chaosrocks- Theres a lot of emotion on your painting. lots of colors depicting chaos and catastrophe. The whole concept is good and the idea is even better, but girl get your anatomy straight:wink:

7. Jake- love your stuff man, its always fun to look at. The painting is beautifully rendered with a lot of care and attention to detail. I would have loved to have seen more action, but oh well.

8. Masque- what can I say you ol fart- you kicked most of our asses with that piece. gorgeous!

9. Resist- beautiful colors man! your concepts of the two gods are sweet and well thought out. Theres good action going on, but I would have liked to see the rest of their bodies. At least faded back by the sand storm. Right now they are both cut out of the frame.

10. Mull77- Yours is one of my favorites, the lighting and color scheme make this stand out. Personally I would have liked to see a more dynamic pose on Poseidon, since Thors' is very dynamic.

11. Light- I hope you get some time to finish this up, your composition is really good imo. Id love to see this in color.

12. Felicia- its all wrong, start again. jk, I cant say anything to you, I was stunned when I first saw it.

13. Rustikof- Man I really liked your interpretation of the two gods. I like your style, A little on the fusion side, gorgeous pic with lots of action. (too bad you ended up against Felicia:S )

14. joeslucher- Liking all the adjustments you made man!

15. Cavematty- beautiful work man! not much else I can say.keep updating that sketchbook.

16. Ostrander- Didnt expect anything less from you man, Your piece portrays exactly what this TD was all about,well done!

17.



More later, gotta get back to work...

-JL

[kboss]

Hey yeah, JL, its been an absolute stormer of a TD. Very cool mate. I just asked if anyone else would be up for doing a second piece because its always fun doing more work, plus it means I get to look at a whole new slew of entries from all you talented folks. ;)
I like the idea of swapping gods with your next opponent, or taking your original god onto their next battle. Both of those are fun ideas. Whatever, or just refine your first. Any old way it'll be an honour just to be in it with the big guns if I make it through.
Plus Cavematty (or anyone else for that matter) if you want to have a crack at a critique of mine go right on ahead.

[sve]

Wow, Nellie, you have much stronger nerves than I. Make me draw violence and I will sure run to you cry on your shoulder. It was hard to criticize you piece, because it is actually very good, because it is very sincere and engaging, maybe number one requirement from art in my opinion.
But most of the artists who worked purposely in naive manner (primitivism) or abstract (Piet Mondrian, Picasso) or fauvisms ( Henri Matisse), they were very skillful draftsmen before they started to experiment with color and form. First impressionists made their choice to paint in different, more relaxed manner, breaking many rules of classical painting, but they all went through traditional training before that to have a solid base and understanding. But I'm sure you know all this. Telling you this like I'm telling this to myself, to see the light in front of heavy road.

Vorbiss, I have to say, I would prefer you to keep her face untouched. I like that she is not totally uncovered, it is scary and gives her certain personality: Dangerous, unreliable, snake attaching from the back.

[masque]

I think it'd be a good idea to take the same character (god) and continue the story we set out to create with the first piece. Take the god to the next battle since some of us will be doing the same...
uh, there is no next battle for my gods, man. my god, man, do i have to create an entirely new universe? :P ;)

[strych9ine]

Heh, I don't even know what's going on here. I heard round 2 and then said NO MORE INFORMATION PLEASE, it will pollute the imaginary competition I have going on in my head. Is there a round 2? Does God have feet?

[chaosrocks]

oddly theres a pre-quel to my story... but Eriboss already did it...and damn beautifully too.

c

[trevor]

i for one
would in fact do a second pic
maybe same goddess but new pic

[ikuru]

...so maybe we can go back to my original Idea,
where in the finals every god (much like in real life)
will have to face their ultimate biggest fear,
yeah you guessed it...


....


http://www.horror-wood.com/cc_god22.jpg

sure gods are powerfull and that, but hey! It's Godzilla!
King of the monsters!
I seriously doubt anything could seriously take him on...

[masque]

Does God have feet?yes. all three are left.

[Cavematty]

Ok, first things first, Batman is cooler and tougher than godzilla. Everyone knows it. Even if the old school godzilla could breathe fire, Batman would bust his stealthy ninja gadget mojo and waste that sucker. Fact. Sorry to burst your bubble but Batman is the shit. He eats godzilla ribs for breakfast. And dont even get me started with Chuck Norris.
Maybe that should be round two.... Everyone draw their god getting a roundhouse kick to the head by Chuck Norris?

aaaaanyway.
Kboss. Ill gladly crit your work. I gotta say (and I think i already did earlier) that at first glance I love the face of the frost giant. His mouth is wicked. He already seems kinda slow and cumbersome. I dig that. And the 8 legged horse is a nice touch I missed the first time. Is that part of the myth?

So comments. First thing I think is a bit whack is lightsource. Its nighttime but you have a very well lit scene. Moonlight would have more rimlighting and creepy shadows. You have a fairly consistent lightsource, but if it was so bright Id expect some more directly cast shadows, even with all the reflection off the ice. Also the stars are waaay too bright. They are as bright as any white on the pic almost, and next to black that makes them so high contrast that they draw the eye too much. Knock them back. Theyll still read.

I like the way you've cast the light from the magical spearhead, but this coulda been way cooler, and a good way to control focal point if it was a far brighter lightsource than anything else in the scene. At the moment, with all those ice mountains curving towards him the focal point and "hero" character of your pic seems to be more the frost giant. If that lightsource was the mainone you coulda made Odin the focal point and all that is happeneing to the frost giant would be seconadary. And you coulda pinged up little bits of red in all the ice, to help hint at translucency. Also you woulda been given the classic, warm fill light, cool reflected light.
Next the giants pose. It is cool no doubt. But I think the punch about to be landed would seem more impressive if he heavily held the hand over his head, like he was gonna do a fist smash instead of a punch. Its more crude and fits the giant better, Plus u wanna be illustrating the most dramatic moment, Higher would give you a nice diagonal, and in physics it means the big fist has more potiential kinetic energy. The arm the wolf is chowing down on is awkwardly bent almost like he is inspecting a wound casually, rather than Pulling back in pain or lashing out. I think if you want him recoiling suddenly you have to take the motion further through the body, like into the shoulders, or putting a twist so the arm is across his body. This will read as far more protective. For subtleties like that you NEED reference.
The wolves are cool, but with one leaping across his arm and Odin heading across the frame, the third wolf sitting still seems to kind of kill the momentum of the attack a little, I think he might be nicer if he was more dynamic too. Maybe thats jus a personal pref.
Id just try and make an action scene as dynamic as possible, and the wolf, and the giants limbs are masses that you can easily throw around the composition so use them to get some movement in there.
As far as composition goes I like what you have done with the ice spires to lead the eye. Its great. But there is something static about the way the horse overlaps the frost giant. In tone they are so similar that they dont cut seperate silhouttes, and Silhoutte is so important. I think You could nudge him left until he is clear of the frost giant, and go to a wider format as opposed to square. (square is way harder to make dynamic). Otherwise you could make the horse a darker colour so he stands forward from the giant. Overlapping shapes are a great way to get depth but they have to REALLY read. If you think of each chunk of tone as a graphic shape and try and compose those first, almost like a full size thumbnailling to find your composition, then ur piece will get stronger i think.
Id move the wound on the forst giants upper arm to his forehead or chest or other arm. It will make him seem more battle weary than a wound right next to the current attack.

Rendering is great. Foreshortening on odins leg is awesome, his arm is pretty good too. I dont like that the horses forelegs are almost mirrored. If you stagger one forward it will look better i think. And lastly the fur you've rendered looks kinda flat. The brush you've used is cool, but I think it is too crisp a detail to use across all the fur. That kind of fine detail should be used selectively to suggest the texture of the whole lot. Youd be surprised wot you can get away with in that respect. And once you start doing that you can use the detail to control the focal point too.

Ok thats a lot of stuff. Being real picky, and it might be that some of these if applied, would render the other comments useless. But I hope that helps man. Cool piece :)
Peace

[kboss]

God DAMN, Cavematty those are some excellent crits. Nice one for taking the time out to go through all that. You have a much more analytical mind than me it would seem.
To be honest, everything you've said in the first paragraph or so I was kinda thinking myself anyway; it being too bright and the stars being too white as well etc. Its all the compositional stuff that knocks my socks off. Suffice to say if I thought i'd learnt enough already then this bumps it up a few more notches.
I'd go over yours but honestly, with what you've just said, there's nothing I could say you dont know already :P
Well, i'm off to paint paint paint!

[ikuru]

Ok, first things first, Batman is cooler and tougher than godzilla. Everyone knows it. Even if the old school godzilla could breathe fire, Batman would bust his stealthy ninja gadget mojo and waste that sucker. Fact. Sorry to burst your bubble but Batman is the shit. He eats godzilla ribs for breakfast. And dont even get me started with Chuck Norris.
Maybe that should be round two.... Everyone draw their god getting a roundhouse kick to the head by Chuck Norris?
What are you talking about?
Everyone Knows Batman is a homosensual, not that there is anything wrong with that!
And Chuck Norris!?:x Godzilla would ram him up where the sun never shines just to make it tickle...

Bruce Lee on the other hand, He could probably take godzilla on together with Stalone.

[Senira]

Thanks for all the awesome crits, guys. I've still got the weekend and some odd days to work on this before I pop it into my reel for an internship, so I'll definitely be taking your advice to heart.

Hopefully I'll be seeing you guys in Round 2.

[JL.Alfaro]

Ikuru get that comic-book-soft-porn shit off the thread man, theres kids watchin'



...my kids

[ikuru]

theres kids watchin'


done.

sorry about that. ;)

[The Artist Fox]

Thnx for the comments and crits, I need all the help I can get. If anyone else wants to crit me (cavematty) I would really appreciate it. =FOX=

[sone_one]

voting/crit/explination is going to follow.

for the people who've crtited my piece yet... yeah youre totally spot on and i seriously think i shouldnt advance due to the lack of effort i brought to this piece.

anyway... stop trying to hide behind smart sentences and what not... all this nifty wow im so superior because i dont trash my opponent charade... if i proceede to lvl2 i gonna crush you... word.

[sve]

Hello, end of the day in TX.
JoelLucher. If you are planning to work more at your entry, I would suggest to make the head of the Thor in 3/4 to us. Really the major disaster coming his way, explosion of bright colors and he turns his way from it in very tense, painful uncomfortable unnatural position and looking somewhere in our direction. It's strange. When you drive, eyes should be on a road, when you fight look in direction from where the danger is coming... Ignore me of course, I expect that.
I would make the outline and forms of the goats and debris in front of them more clearer and texture of the sky around them duller or darker. It will kill intensity if your piece a little but it will help with readability.
Overall I like your piece a lot. I don't think you need to remove the goddess farther, I like slightly claustrophobic feeling in your picture.


Cavematty Great poses in your picture and great story telling.
It is really exciting too because you rose your viewer at bird eye height and it is a nice sensation.
Crits: I think you can work more at perspective of the Sun's body, angle at which we see him. It should be much more extreme foreshortening in my opinion, shoulder should block more of the rest of his body. I think you should make the expression of his face more dramatic. Not every day someone stops your regular route and beats you like a crazy maniac. I think some resentment and even madness will be appropriate. Notice how you painting trees and men around the God. Dissolved in the air. in much bigger way than the semi God up in the air. I think you should make the Sun outlines less sharper too, or you can make them glowing. You might make him clearer and sharper than landscape behind him, but still I think he should be less definite than his attacker.
Or you can change priorities and reverse the whole thing. Make the Sun the main focus.
Leg of the Maui , closest to us should be slightly bigger than another, I would prefer if you make it bigger, it is closer to us than the rest of the body.
I don't like those sharp highlights on his body. I wish you painted them in more sophisticated way, it is out of style with everything else. IMO. A bigger part of his body will be sunlit in situation like this. Highlight will be all the way to the back of this body, this is very strong source of light from beneath, IMO.
-----------------
Ostrander, Glen I left my crits to you already in one of your thread.
-----------------------
Gringoloco, You know, picture should talk for itself, 8000 knives, I think you could make them so much more expressive. Right now they are just flying at modest speed to pyramid and it is not a fact they will produce any major damage. Picture is too calm. Pose of the evil man is relaxed. he is not scary. You talk only with colors, black and red. but i don't feel the fear, sunsets can be like that. I don't have associations with something terrible about to happen. I wish you turned him into direction of target and painted him in some obsessed, hysterical pose. Black magic, you know, high concentration of energy, emotional ecstasy.

entroid I have problem to feel anything connected to war or danger or something remotely negative in your picture. Life is light and beautiful in your image. It is every day's event in life of Lady, she does it without any efforts. I like the witty story, but really your goddess doesn't need to be at war doing this. She does it being in a very relaxed mood. It doesn't feel like anything extreme even from position of the the person who doesn't suspect against whom he is playing. I would say Goddess in her playful mood ( she is always in this mood :)) would be much more appropriate title. Your picture is too calm and like every day's happening.
------------------------------------
koala.one I think composition is not exciting enough to keep your viewer attention for long. Long sided view, one way motion, needs so much more to become a good story.

mrgrumble I watched your picture together with my friend and our opinions were divided.
She liked those little delicate explosions of colors here and there directing our eyes around the picture and didn't want any changes.
I wanted more. I wanted to see those little characters on the bottom of the page in a full glory, fully developed, giving each of them more personality and attention, rather them being part of the landscape or design. I found them very tastefully and clever drawn. I like them all: the huge fish, confused wolf, striped bear and all little people. They look like Japanese miniature sculptures Netsuke. Each has its own little story going on.
I would prefer this to become an elaborated colored drawing with colors being gentle, and beautiful and delightful in the same time. I would prefer you to hide the sketch outlines or make it more incorporated in the image..
At least if your want to make the multicolored spots random (sort of flickering here and there) and divided by space I would like the outlines of the silhouettes to be done more skillfully. I would prefer to move smoothly from one character to another without stopping to watch their sketchiness (instead of enjoying humorous story).

Too bad you didn't put more time and love to this original and wonderful idea. Very sweet image overall. It is not finished in my eyes. Other people might be satisfied with the way it is. There is nice feeling of old ancient story told to me. Great story telling overall and very tasteful characters.

[Joeslucher]

Ignore me of course, I expect that.

I'm sorry I didn't follow your crit on turning that head before. I appreciate crits and usually make the changes unless I have another critique offering solutions that conflict. In that case I had several other criticisms to address and about 4 hours to do it in. I did follow your crit to color adjust the image so introduce more of the yellows and oranges into the female and lightning. I'm sorry I chose to follow some of your crit and not all of it. At the moment, I hate this piece so I'm going to leave it be for a week or two and maybe then I won't resent it as if it was a son that grows up to hate me.

On a side note, here's an animated gif of the making of this disaster ThorvsSekhmet (http://host321.ipowerweb.com/%7Ejoesluch/Images/New%20Folder/processanimation.gif).
Here you'll be able to see sun afro Sekhmet and tiny legs Thor.

[mrgrumble]

thanks everyone for the crits, and sve many thanks escpecially to you! yeah, my piece is most certainly not even close to done, to be honest, i had another set of images in the works up until the day before, then decided to start anew...as often happens to me i just got tired of the previous piece. i had posted the third panel w.i.p. of the tryptich as a little teaser, with the animated mustache. but i completely agree with your comments, i really want to finish the piece regardless of making it to the second round or not!
many thanks!
timmy

[sve]

Oh god, Joeslucher. That's the reaction I dread whenever I write any comments. Please don't take any crits as a last word. You are the one who makes decision what stays in the picture and what is not needed.
My words are just suggestions. I like your picture for the legs of Thor alone and for the chariot and for many other things, I love how you united the picture by making colors blent. Please don't hate your art, be original , love it, at least a little. I'm scared to write farther about other people art after reaction like this. All crits are secondary to your own vision.

[Joeslucher]

sve-I think you misunderstood me and perhaps I misunderstood you. You didn't make me hate my piece. Your critique doesn't make me dislike it more and if anything, it makes me feel better about it that somebody else thinks it should be revised in an effort to save it. I just thought that your comment about expecting me to ignore you was taking a jab at me for only taking half of your suggestions from the C&C thread. I really try to listen to the input of others and actually e-mailed several artists for advice on this piece while I was working on it so I don't want you thinking because I passed on one suggestion that I'm a stubborn guy who you shouldn't bother offering critiques to anymore. The internet is a wierd thing where you can't tell the tone of peoples posts. There's no hostility here except towards my piece and that has everything to do with me and nothing to do with you. Please don't stop offering critiques to people.

[sve]

My dear, I don't care about my crits and if they were read at all. I write this phrase to people in the end of my comments very often, it is like a safety feature for them not to go ballistic because I wrote something stupid. And I can do that, I'm just a human being, subject of errors.
I wrote it wrong, I agree, I needed to write something like"please don't take my suggestions too seriously". You painted very complex picture. Kudos to you. Complex picture - more divided opinions about it, the more people will have thoughts about it.

[sone_one]

I'm scared to write farther about other people art after reaction like this. All crits are secondary to your own vision.

dont be! seriously i love you for what you do and the way you do it. when ever i see a reply from you on my art its a highlight for me. no joking.

[sve]

OMG, I promise to write to all your updates then. Thanks, returning love to you, of course. Sorry for drama i created, that's not good.

[Azrael]

chaosrocks - Thanks for the crit, even though you voting against my masterpiece.:nohope: Okay, maybe not so much "master", more "piece of...". The blur is a result of a filter that I threw on it last minute, for no good reason whatsoever. I must have been outa my damn mind. I see the heavy-right comp now that you pointed it out. I felt something was off, but couldn't place it.

Thanks for taking the time to provide some feedback.:confident

[sone_one]

OMG, I promise to write to all your updates then. Thanks, returning love to you, of course. Sorry for drama i created, that's not good.

get out of your bad mood :). there seriously is no need for it... you really created an awesome piece and posted nothing wrong.

*hugs*

[ikuru]

..all this nifty wow im so superior because i dont trash my opponent charade... if i proceede to lvl2 i gonna crush you... word.
Right on, agreed, and you better bring it next time around cuz I know somone who will...

[evildisco]

Right on, agreed, and you better bring it next time around cuz I know somone who will...

Your MOM???!???!???

OMG!

TOASTY!
http://img65.imageshack.us/img65/8793/180pxmkiiarctoastyzj7.png

[j a k e]

Shwing!

[ikuru]

wtf where is my mom?

[v0rbiss]

vorbiss-I really liked your drawing, its on its first steps of being finalized (as a drawing)
.......
Umm, would you elaborate pls. I can't really understand this. :dead:

@sve : don't worry, the head stays the same, because it was designed to be half-concealed, besides I alread gave the piece as a gift to a good friend of mine.>:D
IF (<--notice the volume of it!:} ) I continue on, I'll just paint a new one! :lens: \m/

[sve]

Vorbiss, do you want me to try to transform your piece a little in Photoshop? to straighten it up a bit? Or you want me or someone else to explain how you yourself can do it?

[ikuru]

Vorbiss, your illustration is gorgeous man. I like it allot.

[JL.Alfaro]

sve- do it sve, I dont think I've ever seen one of your paint overs.

Vorbiss- All I meant by that was that you still need to refine some of the details of the drawing.You still have some of the roughness of the sketch integrated onto it, but I believe you can push the drawing a lot further by voluminously adding depth, tones and detail. Still got some issues with the boobies, (get some reference, hehe hehe hehe hehe:perv: ...sorry)
The "as a drawing" comment was referring to the potential of this becoming a painting. You can refine the drawing, but painting in itself is another animal.

[sve]

Narmo I really like the goddess Sekhmet, her passionate pose, her apparently screaming on the top of her lungs. Very aggressive, very engaging body language, wonderful communication with your viewer. The figure of the Apedemak, I like it less, the body language is weaker, I think, less expressive. My money on the goddess, in case if anyone wants to bet :). I like the army of her loyal soldiers, I wish it was more of them and I wish you made them more aggressive using certain colors and certain tricks. For example I think it would be much more expressive if this goddess dressed in white sent them and they run toward the enemy, like a huge dark could of bodies. It would be great to catch the speed of their movement (by outlines drawn or painting with a big speed as well), and how intimidating by number and force they are.
Shortly put, you need to feel the space between two main characters, in my opinion and fill it with aggressiveness and passion, coming in certain direction, maybe from both sides. Right now the emotion is fading on the half way from goddess to god. I think you need to lead it all the way to the end, you will get much bigger impact from your piece, I think.
The soft BG calms down the picture, I wish you found some other decision.

flimi, I think your picture has great potentials, the figure of god is very interesting and injects certain emotions in to me, from disgust to respect to him :). I would prefer it colored though and I think you can do so much more with it, having fun painting believable textures of metal armor on the warriors, feather, skin, ropes... Right now, I think, the picture lacks sharp edges to make eye to stay with your image longer and travel from one detail to another. I personally think you are overusing blur tool or soft edges brushes.
---------------------------

MyOrangeHat I think your piece quite emotional and fits the title of completions pretty well. There is charm in this naive depiction of ancient war. But despite that, I, as a viewer will not stay long with your piece, you need to out more information for brain and eyes to prolong viewers attention.

misledtomisery I think your picutre caught the emotion of madness and aggressiveness, mostly by sharp edges, a lot of them and rough texture. But like in modern architecture building (skyscrapers, for example with many alike windows and walls) you have the same information repeating itself again and again. Eyes learn to recognize it pretty fast and get bored. I think, you need to introduce variety of lines and textures and values in your picture and be careful with pattern and repetitions. You need to control viewer attention better.
-----------------------------------
bumskee, my dear, I have to say, I expected more from you, I just know how much more we can pull from you if you feel like treating us with richness of your personality. I think this picture has 1/10 of your potentials, or maybe even 1/50, I'm talking rubbish, putting rates on art, but the meaning is still the same. I know how you can charm your viewer with only from you possible faces, subtle body language, textures, imitation of fabrics, mood in the air, fine distanced charm.
This image is still elegant and moody, but you are not in your full power here, it is a bit of slacking, in my opinion. You can give so much more, you are a passionate artist in your subtle way, but very passionate, but your passion needs to get out from being suppressed by your will, self-discipline and procrastination.
That's what I think, my loved one. You are a slacker in this picture.
Still I have to admit some good thins happened in this picture.
I love thin arms and wrists of all your heroes and heroines. It is extremely elegant. and fresh and I aways think it is your arms and hands, and that makes me connect more to your picture somehow. It is spiritual too, makes you characters less concern with physical side of life, more passionate about ideas and emotions. Mood presents in your picture thanks to certain symbols and hints you used: a wind, gathering clouds, height, distance, crows, prickly texture they create with their bodes.
It is a noisy picture too. I can hear unpleasant acute piercing sound of the birds and sound of wind and maybe steps. Sharp tips of the armed helmet of the soldier is worrisome too, alerting, you know. So I like this, windy day, disturbing shrills of noisy birds and steps, sky half covered with wings and bodies and somehting on the very top of the spiral, something unknown.

john I like almost abstract figures of your giants, their hairless bodies and heads. their uniform look and robot like motion. It makes them cold and distanced and this consequently makes them intimidating, like soulless killer machines. I like your composition too, Colors are not that exciting though, in my opinion. And I have to say it think the Thor look comical with his crazy hair and protruded white eyes, sort of like revolutionists-anarchists of the 19th century, reminds me Leo Trotsky a lot too, a red terrorist, obsessed leader.
-----------------------------

lewis I didn't have an impression your illustration is finished. Actually for me it looks like it is in the middle of building. The colors don't tell me much, and in general the image feels cold and distanced. There is not contact with your viewer, characters hide their eyes and look the other way, body language is indefinite. The best part is nailed lips, but that information is being taken by my brains in the first minutes of looking at the image and after that i have only his horns to observe and that will not take much time either. I wish you told more about Loki and his personality, the same about gnomes.

Ikuru. Very fond of your image and really against you changing his face and figure. It's one of the strongest features of the picture, IMO.
I like very much the open, inviting body language of Krishna, I like his original way to fight this war, by embracing of sort, by charming and breaking borders. I really like how he goes toward their enemies, with open chest, no armor, not guarded with anything but his spirit and will in his face.
I think it is enough and very strong hint on its own to show the personality. I love the fire marks behind his back following contour of this body. Expressive symbol of spirit and force too. I like lotuses blooming toward his figure and light coming from him and how consistent the lighting is throughout the whole picture. I love the tasteful colors ( bright but fine in the same time) and meaningful expression of his face.
I like truthful imitation of him moving forward slowly, hypnotically.

The crits. Well I kind of wish you didn't make his enemies so comical looking, they look sort of like Winni the Pooh,and I don't think it is appropriate. My friend, City noticed that negative space they create is not smooth and attractive looking for design of the picture ( well, at least that's how I got her idea, I might be not precise in getting her thought to you). but I think the same, the negative space should be interesting looking too. She added that it hard to understand how these creatures are functioning too, what kind of bodies they have.

Sone_one, Hugs back and thank you very, very much, very kind of you.
JLAlfaro paint over of a drawing? no, I just wanted to help him straighten up the image, it is skewed by camera right now...

[v0rbiss]

Yeah, sve, I permit thee!:evilmustache: :P
Thank you!
I'll battle that monster of a program only when(if) I get a tablet, till then theres no point in bothering with it.

@JL: I hear ye man, true that it could be better. ....if I was better at drawing.:pirate:
but painting in itself is another animal.
Tell me bout it... Still, i have some aces in my sleeve when it comes to that!

@ ikuru: Thanks man, your isn't too bad either! :P

Pfff, enough with my crap! Time for some blunt and inadequate comments! :perv: (excuse my english in advance!) Sorry if I'm repeating someone else's crits, that's because, truth to tell, I haven't read the crits on the other pics, only on mine.
So, take all of these comments with a shitload of salt!

JLAlfaro: Great job overall, I really like the concept of still-action, I imagine the sphere slooowly moving forward, evaporising anything crossing it's path, while the cavemen are throwing themselves in mindless suicidal rage at it.
Crits: the blue glow on the ground isn't logical imo, and I'd like the godess more if the white was more colorfull, you know what I mean, I hope. That guy in the lower left corner is distracting, not helping the compo.

senira: There is much thought invested in the composition. However, the whole image seems a bit flat, because of the low variation in color. It's getting a bit too busy at the lower end, it's hard to see what's exactly happening.
This can be much better if you put some more time in it!

sone one: Frankly, it looks like it is still wip, but what a mighty wip it is! Strong compo, even better execution. My only crits would be, that I can't really tell exactly what he's doing with the hammer in that particular moment you "captured", and the extremely strong rimlight on the left, on such a gigantic figure I can't imagine what possibly could be the source, since the sun is litting the right part of the figure, or I'm terribly wrong.

xacto: The picture that relates to the topic most, imo. Very strong action, I like it a lot!
I'm not too fond of the yellow glowing fires in the army. When I squint my eyes, they seem fine tho...

BlueMech: I'm sure it could've been one of the best pics, but it's a doodle atm, can't comment on a doodle. Doodle doodle doodle. I like that.

chaosrocks: I'm really sorry to say that, but the first thing on my mind was "holy shit, that white around the painings is killing the whole image" Maybe it was your intention, considering the feelings the image conveys, dunno. The colors you've picked are perfectly matching the expressive intent, and the skulls are pure Munch, power-wise! I'm your fan! The distortions etc. are skillfully executed too!

j a k e: Great image! But that dude seems too mature and wise for a "person" so closely remoted to anything connected to scientology. Bold and smart interpretation of the subject. The lower half of the image(starting below the boy's waste) could use a bit more love tho.

Masque: Woah, oldschool illu! I really dig all the details in this, e.g. the wolf eating the sun/moon is great. The composition is very good too!
Great image overall.
Now, because I'm a bit stupid and I don't care if I'll make some enemies, I'll admit that the gut flying towards the snake-thing is having something comical in him. I can't really tell you exactly what it is, but he's craking me up.

Resist: The bg is looking like it was rushed. The pic has great potential in it, it just needs more details, a bit more value on the gods etc and it can be truly great.

Mull77: Nice pic, I especially like the whole Thor figure, the lighting, the pose etc, very good! The compo is too stiff atm and isn't letting Thor swing that mutha, so to speak. And his poor enemy didn't got as much attn. as Thor, am I right?

Light: promising start, but still a doodle.

Felicia: Holy crap!:$
Splinter looks really angry!

rustikof: I really like Zeus' expression. But this needs more color imho, and more work overall, it looks unfinished atm.

joeslucher: Thor wears biker pants omg! Great image overall, I like pretty much everything in it! The only thing that comes to my mind for critique, would be the bow of the goddes, it looks a bit awkward as it is now imo.
You can push the contrast on Thor's legs even more, thy'd pop out more from the bg that way.

Cavematty: wow, great idea and POV. A very thin/subtle contour under the chin of the flame-guy would help the head to be separated from the thorax and would look good imo.

Ostrander: Very cool pic, I really like all the subtle values and details in it, but I find myself using all my willpower not to look permanently at the extreme bright and contrasty left part of it.

sve: Beatifull! Every little detail of it!

Well, I'm tired already, I'll continue on later.

[Narmo]

I'd like to thank each one of you sweet guys & gals who took time to give crits, it's really helpful for begginers as me.
Really, really, thank you ten times!

[sve]

V0rbiss, here you go. thanks for kind words, but I think you could have said more crits.

http://home.comcast.net/~elazutkin/Images/VorbissEntry.jpg
Beautiful pencils strokes and outlines, they are varied in thickness and length, add so much interest. Very confident too.
If you liked the transformation of your image, well, then it is an advertising to learn Photoshop for you from me.

[masque]

Now, because I'm a bit stupid and I don't care if I'll make some enemies, I'll admit that the gut flying towards the snake-thing is having something comical in him. I can't really tell you exactly what it is, but he's craking me up.hey, that's just Thor, y'now! real smart ass. but at parties, he's a great ice-breaker. literally.

truthingly, though, i agree. he was pain to even get this serious. i think it stems from my tendency toward action-comic-art-poses. not enuff clazzical trayning, y'know... one of those selftaught artists who whipped the schoolies butts! ;) :D

[ikuru]

hey, that's just Thor, y'now! real smart ass. but at parties, he's a great ice-breaker. literally.

truthingly, though, i agree. he was pain to even get this serious. i think it stems from my tendency toward action-comic-art-poses. not enuff clazzical trayning, y'know... one of those selftaught artists who whipped the schoolies butts! ;) :D

Man, I got to tell you that part of your painting to me, is BY FAR the strongest aspect, I love the Insane dynamics that guy has! You feel the energy, and to me that is what it's all about, making it come to life.

SVE Thank you Verry much!
I love to read your crit and praise, You have a beatyfull way to paint with words. Verry kind and gennerous. ;)

[v0rbiss]

Holy digital cow, that's amazing sve!
I'll surely try to learn at least such simple(I guess, in comparison at least) operations. :)
More crits you say? Well, there are some anatomycal issues, but you already know about them, besides they are actually helping the image's feel. Woops, that ended as a praise...can't help myself.

@masque: don't bring that hurtfull memory back, I still can't sleep properly! :\
And screw the clazzy training... In the end everything depends on oneself, such a depressing thought! :nohope:

[sve]

Oh come on, in details please. Anatomy is my huge weakness. please be more specific. Thank you in advance.

[ikuru]

I got to say sve, to me, this painting you got, is So much better that the one you had in the last TD.

[Anid Maro]

Alright, here are some long overdue comments. I'm gonna have to do this in pieces though, there's just so much here!

I'm going in reverse order too, so that some of the people who haven't gotten critiques yet (because most start from the top to bottom) can have some.

I stopped at Wasker's piece. I wanted to fit that one in, but I was getting tired and a substandard critique wouldn't be fair. You're first on the list when I start again though! :)
_______________________________________________

Kboss:

There's a lot to like about this one. I can't think of anything you did wrong. I almost pointed out the horse had extra legs, but after looking more closely, it's clearly on purpose. :)

I really like how you handled Odin. He looks like an old geezer, but he still looks like he can kick a lot of ass. I think it's the combination of being thin yet ripped and the moderate amount of wrinkles/boniness in his chest.

Actually, now I do have a critique, the horse looks very smooth and sculpted compared to Odin. But that's really just a nitpick.

Draw:

I like the "ancient wall painting" approach you took to this. However some of the textures have very recognizable patterns (particularly at the upper right and left corners), which I found distracting.

Also the text bothered me a bit, the whole hatched/imitation-caligraphy lettering made me feel less like I was looking at an ancient wall painting and more like I was watching a 70's era martial arts flick.

I did enjoy the color scheme. I'm not sure if the colors are spot on with what I'm associating them with (I'd have to research that, but don't worry I'm not planning to :)), but they're close enough that it I immediately thought of Chinese royalty. Like something you might find in the Emperor's palace.

City:

I'm really liking this one. It reads really well and it's just plain cool looking in an abstract sort of way.

One thing I would have done is push the angular aspect of it more and try to turn it into sort of a stained-glass window. But that's more personal preference than anything else.

A major problem though, which I'm sure you've heard elsewhere already, is that it seems to have little to do with actual war.

Outside of the context of the "Gods at War" theme, however, this is a great piece.

Azrael:

Looking good overall, but I think it could use some more refinement. Like Poseidon's beard, for example, I think could have used some more contrasts.

Also the orange and green in the sky doesn't seem to match up with the rest of the scene. To me, the sky suggests that it's either dusk or dawn while the lighting elsewhere looks as though it's an overcast day. In addition Poseidon has a glowing outline all around him, suggesting that the light is coming from directly behind him. Ultimately I found the lighting rather confusing.

I really like how you handled the water, though. Very nicely done, I definately get the sense that the waves are rolling and crashing about.

The ships look nice as well, they aren't overly detailed (so they don't detract from the rest of the image), but they have enough gritty texture to make them fit.

Oh, and I can't leave out the kid in the foreground. My girlfriend loves your piece for that alone. It really adds a lot of depth all on its own.

Mr.Blonde:

Just awesome. Tezcatlipoca is nicely rendered and contrasts beautifully with the rest of the image due to the haziness of it all.

The middle area truly facinates me, I get the sense of a deep hazy pit, though such a pit is at best only hinted at.

Nicely done!

Anid Maro:

God, this sucks. What the hell is a loser like you doing competing here anyways? Why don't you go back to kindergarten and learn how to color? :P

Noen Azdak:

Very nice colors. I also really like the linework, that on it's own defines a lot of form and motion, the colors are gravy. :)

Conceptually, I really love how he's beating the eff' out of everybody with the moon. That's indescribably cool.

One complaint though, is the size of the image. The height is so large that it forces me to view the image in two halfs, making it hard to observe it as one whole.

Green Topaz:

The feel of this piece is just fantastic! There's just so much motion in Kali, not only does it feel like she's tearing through those demons but it also seems like she's about to fly off the screen and chop my head off!

Something interesting I just noticed, is how you rendered the clouds. While the rest of the image is more or less in a realistic style, the clouds are an unusual combination of realistic lighting and totally cartoony. I'm not saying this is bad, rather it fits the piece very well, but I found it really interesting.

Snarfevs:

Wow, this is kinda creepy looking. Very imaginative.

I especially enjoy your take on the "chaos before time". I myself wasn't sure how to portray that, so I painted in some ambigious colored mists.

The color scheme is interesting too. It borders on chaotic but it is still readable. Really gives the feeling of a strange and alien environment.

One critique I have though is that Tiamat's hands are reading kinda flat to me. Especially the one behind her back.

Justin Oaksford:

Heh, turns out you did the only "God vs. Satan", huh?

I was wondering how this battle would be depicted, I mean, how do you draw the Judeo-Christian god? I'm sure Satan could be the ol' cloven demon guy, but God?

I think you did a great job of handling that. Neither God nor Satan are directly visible, but instead represented symbolically (which is the best way to do it, in my honest opinion).

The colors work together nicely and the action flows very well.

A couple of critiques though:

One, I think this could use some more refinement. Like the flames from Satan are little more than Orange/Red/Yellow scribbles. They get the point across, but they'd look better with some more work.

Two, those upper left and right corners need something to fill in that black space. Like some sort of gothic architecture design. I also just noticed that the lower right corner is tan (like the ConceptArt Forum background), instead of black like the lower left corner.

Over all, good job. This is one of my favorites.

Clocks:

Though you didn't get to finish this, I do think there are a few things I could critique at this early stage that might help in the future.

One, the spear-guy's (Vulcan?) right arm is foreshortened far too extremely. I think some anatomy studies might help out here.

Two, compositionally this doesn't read much at all. There's a guy on the left, standing straight up, and a guy to the left, standing straight up. Then there's a mudpit thingy moving horizontally. Check out some of the really good works around here and notice how your eye flows from one piece to the next. Also there are some in-depth posts around here on composition.

Third, there doesn't seem to be much regard for perspective. As a result, the figures seem to just be floating rather than be grounded. Again, there are many resources out there to study.

Don't despair though! Just takes time and practice, y'know? Nobody starts out awesome.

[ikuru]

SVE; Since You take the time and post great coments, I will try and do my best to say something about your peace too.

Fist the praise:
the colors are well balanced, the frame color goes verry well with the grey/bluish sky.
The whole thing with the patern flowers and the skulls look verry nice, and its a fun contrast. The kid has a thoughtfull look about it, and it makes you of think that the painting has a bit of a story to it.
The light and clouds in the sky is allmost the best part I think allso you can feel a bit of a wind, you see it in the clothes and the positioin of the hand shows that the kid can feel it.
Allso I love the frame flowers, and the birds look nice too, this elements make the drama stronger.
What else, the dress is verry well rendered, you can allmost sense the sun coming to play and in a verry nice way.
And the dress is verry well rendered, and I like the blood on the dress.
Its a good combination, innocence and blood.
the spear looks verry good too.
Over all I think its a really good peace that does tell a story.
Enough with the butter, moving on to the salt...

the crit:
Lets start with the face in the bottom border..
The pupils are not looking fully in the same direction. It might be on purpous, (the kid has the same thing), right eye pupil is further to the right than the left.
Moving on to The skulls in the border,
Would like to see more dramatic light here, darker tones would make them more interesting to look at.
The grass could allso be better rendered, more contrasts and detail maybe.
I find the faces in the corners a bit dull, the focus of the pic might be stronger if you took them out alltogether.
the robes the kid got there on the chest is a bit strange, the black stuff on the right side looks a bit faded/cut off where the white fabric comes in.
Her right shoulder is too small and makes the right arm end up too close to the chest.
About the skulls in the grass, I thought they where small skull flowers, if they are way back and suposed to be on sticks you should probably have made them allot darker with some sun highlights allmost like silhouetes I think.
I would allso like to have seen the wind be even more dramatic. Its a nice effect. the whole boddy looks a bit ready for liftoff, and thats really cool, but it leaves the head looking a bit stiff maybe, the hair and the flowers in the hair could have had more wind in them to make the whole even more dynamic.
The capeholder would look better maybe if it was hanging down more.
Might be the flowers in the hair would look better if they all where blue, and maybe you could have thoes flowers in the grass, allso a bit more sun in the bottom and darker grass contrast would be nice.
Blood could be more of a theme in the clothes etc, maybe spatered in a lord of the fly's sort of way.
thank you. ;)

[v0rbiss]

So here we go again:

sve: The bottom skulls arent looking human, the jaws are protruding too much, too flattened foreheads, like neanderthal skulls. Maybe that was your intent tho.
I don't know squat about infant's anatomy, but the legs+pelvis are a bit too long imo. The hand that isn't holding the trident has some minor issues in the palm/knuckles area. Is there a hint of a selfportrait in her face btw? :) The eyes seem strangely familiar.:confident

Gringoloco: The god's body is too black and without variation, like he isn't important to the pic or something. The things that fly towards the building are so neatly clustered etc. wich is a bad thing. The text isn't suiting the idea of the challenge imo. On teh other hand, the building is very moody and freshly colored. The two halves of the image look like two separate pics.

entroid: I almost typer entdroid, crazy stuff. :} Anyway, this is one of my favourites, very good stilysation(sp?) and colors, and superb choice of gods to depict! My only crit would be the position of her head, like it's too much on right(her left). Well I might be terribly wrong on that one.

koala.one: wipity doodah doo.

mrgrumble: Very cool pic, me likes! It shows that you had a lot of fun working on it, and what's better than that. The colors are cool, the Bosch-esque stuff happening down there, the bored and irritated gods spectating the whole not-so-important mortal battle, I love it all!

narmo: I've told you what I needed to tell you back in our super secret mega private group. *sigh*

flimi: The wings are very cool. But mabe you could've represent the whole "pupeteer" concept a bit better than symmetrical leashes. And there is something exceptionaly homoerotic about those guys in the fg. That's not necesserily a bad thing. :perv:

MyOrangeHat: could become interesting pic if you finish it. The black-figure guy is cool, never seen one of those outside of the art history books.

misledtomisery: that's helluva nice image, I especially dig your quetzy. The black under the wings is too strong imo. Nothing else to crit, very good pic.

bumskee: professional work, far beyond my crit abilties. That birds guy is just insane.

john: Your Thor looks like Rasputin to me. Unfortunately, he isn't looking too strong in that current compo, he's like bystander, not a protagonist. If he was bigger than everybody else it'd be ok. And he should've been in a bride's dress, if the story is to be believed.

lewis: oh, man. You can do much better, I was very curious to see your pic, but that looks too rushed honestly. The left side of his face is very rich in color, only if the whole pic was like that...

ikuru: The compo , Krishna, the whole concept is good overall. Well, I dunno if Krishna wore nu-metal headbanger's clothes, but thats a personal preferrence I guess. ;) His expression is spot on.
Crits: some of those colors aren't working well. That craplac(bordeau) w/e color isn't suiting the awesome petals you've made. The whole color scheme is a bit black and muddy, except for the flowers, the floor and the "fire".

attorney: as a coleague painter, I congratulate you for the effort you've put on the surface and evertthing else. The step by step process of assembling it in your SB was great read, I wish I had the nerves and skill required for that kind of thing.
On the pic, I can't really tell what's happening and where, but the "thing" on the left is certainly grabbing my attention. The sky-like blue thing behind the lizard-man isn't done in the same collage-like style of the rest of the pic that I find appealing. Omg the hammer of that guy has the AMericas on it, what's that all about? Anyway, if there were more variation in the values, the picture would've been better. I'm sure the whole thing looks comletely different in person, so...

My brain is screaming for sleep, I'll continue tomorrow. :)

[The Artist Fox]

sorry...

voodochile-Morrigan vs. The Formorians
I really like the sky. Its got weight to it but doesnt feel three dimensional to me as if I'm looking at it from below, but I love the colors even the red reflected light coming from below her. Formorians your is awesome but its to confusing for the eye. I'm sqinting my eyes now and I think its because its so big. I see where you using the sky to create direction towards the focal point which is nice. I love the sun, nice touch. Formorians wins my vote.

Timothy vs touTimothy vs tou
Nice composition straight to the point,but lacking more dark shadows and concentrating more bolder lights.Tou, I think this piece you worked really good on. The concept is very creative. I really can feel chronos emotions. His sadness and dominance over death in my opinion is what I felt most. The battle looks ok. Tou wins :skull:

bloodstone vs Briareos
Awesome piece,far superior then most. Composition is well done, using the clouds to suggest motion and rythum.Love the light,it places the eye right to her.Seems like nothings happening though...where's the destruction?Briareos,right to her face using the moon light i like that.I wouldn't want to be down their though. I like the comic book feel and the concept,but looks your not using all the right tools that could have made this piece great.bloodstone wins :cheerleader:

Trevor vs evildisco
I love this piece alot,the drama is intense but putting so much graphic in their in my opinion does'nt hold up the art. I love graphics though but I just wanted to see more you. Is she coming toward me or are her eyes(in which I guess disappears when she gets upset???) looking in a different direction?evildisco, you worked the light on her drapery really well. I didn't like the flat arm and hand in the lower right side of the screen. If you cant make the three dimensionality of their arms work find a way. Quick question, did that demon on the lower left hand side just smack that dude in the face?:rolleyes: Trevors got my vote

Djohnston vs yadam
I realy like your concept, its emotional and beautiful.Even though its sorta out of the topic, the mood to is instant and thats difficult to pull.Yadam,like the action going on down their but those people seem like they aren't that serious in defending their home. I love the technique though,well done but Djohnstons got my vote.

Strych9ine vs eriboss
I like how eerie it feels to me. The bloodshot eyes and graphics is cool. In my opinion it good professional work.
I love it I just wish I had some NIN or Skinny Puppy playing in the background while looking at this piece.Tie
fedezz vs Soja
I like your technical approach and the use of your values.But that man on the right looks like he's spittin out little brown things from out of his mouth to me. Its apart of the backgound though right? Little things like that people can spot. Soja, it lacks three dimensionality. Put the effects away and pick up a Bridgmans book or study form from life. fedezz wins my vote.

Wasker vs Clocks
Wesker from Resident Evil?Anyways I like the mood but I want to be their and feel whats going on...you know.Clocks,its very different. hmm.. pick up a sketch book and a pencil and draw people from life. Wasker wins...Barry...where's Barry.(resident evil 1 for PS)

Justin oaksford vs Snarfevs
I like the technical abilities Snarfevs has my vote because of his observational skills on both color,value,and creating that form. Justin your seems so fast to get done that its hard for my eyes to rest and enjoy the piece. Slow down and put more time into it. Toss the border focus on the piece. Ask yourself are those hands coming out of the fire seem intense and dramatic enough also.

Green Topaz vs Noen Azdak
Their is beauty even in death. I like the pedals. The feeling of rage is played down a bit but I love her sense of control over the piece. She's really holding it all together.I like it Noen, reminds me of Zelda wind waker sorta but japan. I love your colors and you have a very kool style but your composition and three dimensionality is hurting.

Anid Maro vs Mr Blonde
Anid study from life put the video games down and pick up your pencil and sketch pad. Fingers in the nostril was a nice touch for humor, but your use of light,haltones and darks are whats killing it. Study those fundamentals also. :grandpa: Mr Blonde I really like your style but it the three dimensionality of this piece thats killing it. Love you colors overall,but damb if you were more three dimensional with your figure. But thats just a matter of taste.Mr Blonde wins.

Azrael vs City
To dusty looking, your using way to much white. Dim it down some. Observe life more, I know what you wanting but you not their yet. I like your sky,looks like thats where you heart is.Keep it simple, dont over complicate yourself with to much things going on in your art. That comes later on down the road with years of practice. I overcomplicate myself to with my piece and learned the hard way.City nice composition,very stylish. Azrael wins.

Draw vs Kboss
Draw I dig it. Very creative. Kboss, I love the effects, the compositions a little to much going on, like the technical skill, your use of light could have been played up a bit more and certain parts instead of just the dogs butt. Odin looks like he's about to throw his spear at the wall instead. Two characters interacting properly is tough I know. If Ymir was that far away from odin in the peice then that orange pink reflective light would never come in contact with Ymirs' body at all. The horse looks to much like the reference you pulled from. His eyes looked bored. Odin seems to be the only one more into the battle then the horse is. It got its bridle yanked by Odin so its mouth should have felt the effect also. Overall preety cool piece.:blahblah:

=FOX=

[sve]

Danny, ikuru, I'm very, very grateful for the wonderful and very much needed crits you gave me. A lot of interesting ideas and I'll try them and play with them, they look very attractive to try, a wind, the cape holder, the grasses, and especially the dramatic lighting on the skulls (didn't come to my mind at all, but could be interesting effect, I agree, will help with the mood, hopefully) I'm afraid to add more flowers though, it will be too lighthearted mood and I don't want this at all.
Thank you so much, hugs, you are great!
v0rbiss, I felt something wrong with those big skulls, they look so stiff, but I wasn't sure if it's not natural feature of skulls and skeletons :). I will try to do so something about them. Thank you so much and for every bit information you generously gave me. it is precious to me. Self portrait? heh, you are crazy! Go take a look at my Mediterranean face in the Lounge. I look like a crow. thanks, you are sweet!

[Azrael]

Anid Maro: Thanks for the outstanding crit! I always thought the greatest gift one can give is their time, and I, as well as others I'm sure, appreciate you putting in the time to give solid critiques. I will definitely take your perspective into consideration during the next bout. Thanks bud.

The Artist Fox: Same to you! I appreciate the feedback. All good stuff that really helps. Cheers.

[ikuru]

v0rbiss, thanks for the constructive crit.
I will take everything you guys say in to my final, if I decided it deserves the time to finnish...

To me, my biggest problem is what Sve mentioned, the negative space. That is to say the space inbetween the ennemy silhoetes, right now its not atractive. Im thinking of ways to change it without having to come up with new poses/perspective for the demons, was thinking to throw something in there, like a huge snake or something... that would go in the same line of shappes like the demons, more demons would not be an option since it would probably look weird on the floor area, allthough might work well for the sides, maybe pillows? anyhow...
Any advice on this matter would be a great help. thanx.

[Lewis]

thanks guys (sveta, vorbiss and crocks) for the comments, very much appreciated.
Crits are on the spot:
The backgroundcolours could have been better, loki deserves definately more description (one of the funnest and interesting gods in the world of mythologies).
Feeling kinda sad now tho hehe

I would have loved to give some crits and invest more time on it, but im going on snowboardvacation so please forgive me! I dont think i could have added more then what other generous artists already have said.

Oh, and i want to say that i DO prefer speedpaint kind of pieces. If i oversmooth things and go into details i always lose my grip on the piece in its whole. Also i find it very boring haha

Thanks again and GL, Lewis

[chaosrocks]

when do we get judging results
I wanna know if I need to get abck to work or not
(doubt it)

chaos

[JL.Alfaro]

Im still waiting on two judges (Elwell and Jason), other judges picks are almost identical.

[trevor]

thanks for the crits and comments guy
i would go through and crit everybody's pics in a long exhaustive manner but you all beat me too it!
and there isnt much more needing to be said
if anyone DOES want my opinion you can always PM me (ps: im a lot more harsh in private, but honest, just a warning)
the artist fox: she does in fact have eyes, if you go to my SB i posted detail shots they are just very light in color
and im not sure what you meant by wanting to se more "me"
but i am a graphic designer as well
so that sort of stuff is just as much me as the painting

[GriNGo]

thanks for the feedback SVE & vorbiss! really appreciate it. & be harsh! have no shame, be very honest about things. Just like you were with my pieces. I have learned quite a bit from your comments guys. Improving as I go...

later!
GRiNGoLoCo

[sve]

arttorney. My money on the configuration, because your Chaac God looks human like and I can assume he has all the same vulnerable spots as we humans, but your Yog Sothoth God-configuration is an abstract and has an advantage being better armed by unknown qualities than just a simple hammer and fit muscles. At least for me his psychedelic appearance suggests much more sophisticated way to kill than all I can imagine. I wonder how he was able to father two children from human female too.
Interesting idea of battle of human like with multicolored cloud.
Crits: hard to say anything, because your painting is close to abstract and you put some symbols there to put us in certain mood, subconscious meditating. There is no composition strictly speaking and no priorities in objects. There is no FG and MG or BG, everything is flows into each other like before anything solid on Universe were created.
Starry sky becomes a ground, earth on the contrary becomes a air their breath. I'd say it is image done against most of the rules. with purpose to look at things with fresh mind. And it is hard thing to do. OK, I think figure of God Chaac looks funny to me, but all picture has this naive feeling, and doesn't pretend to be realistic. I'll say it has a wild, ancient feeling to it. But I'm not sure I can get involved with it. I don't relate, I look from a distance at it.


The Artist Fox Your image has a charm of old past events, of heroic story happened some time ago. Partly to faded, blurred colors and and partly to almost Biblical kind of story and presence so many animals in the picture, it makes your image look distance from our times, with different from our life, with talking animals and people behaving in dramatic, exalted manner.

I like very many objects on their own in your picture, I like the lion and Pegasus, and frogs ( they look like non-conformists frogs with their front extremities risen like in protest), and Sandman. I wish i could shake the picture and create some new rearrangement of the characters, new composition. Because despite the raw feeling from your image, it is very hard to read, you put to much pressure on the viewer to separate images and rethink the story. Your overuse of blur and soft edges kind of adds to this. I wish you used hard edges and lead your viewer a little where the priorities and focal points in you picture are.
----------------------------------------
voodochile I wonder If I were able to guess right who the author of this painting is if your name wasn't available. I think I would have guessed wrong. Although it seems there is some certain female type of faces your prefer or find expressive at least. With prominent well define nose, deep sitting under eyebrows eyes and big mouth. I think it is wonderful that you don't go with stereotype of beauty and searching for new fresh impressions.
Your Morrigan looks very human, almost our contemporary (your Theodora had the same quality).
Desperate, not perfect goddess with a regular face, not the most powerful between the other gods, but depicted quite in the extremely agitated state of mind. When she doesn't think clearly, desperate and on the verge of her spirit. She helps herself with the scream, not to scare her enemies, but to let it anger and fear leave her, to add force to her sword. She looks like a wild animal defending herself in the most possible way. I'm not sure all her sword swings hit the target, But I think her spirit is high, pumped by her fear as well.

Her enemies are in good control of themselves.

Crits: I have two doubts about your picture. First is colors, they are very mild and subdued. it is strong and energetic browns and mauves, but they are not the most talking colors in given situation, I think. Not very engaging in my opinion. The second, I think the composition or cropping is not the beat. The mountain where all this is happening is not that interesting to look and it takes half of the picture, not offering much for eyes and brains.
Good feeling of air and motion and wind in the picture and I think it allows me to present near the characters and it has illusion of sounds and noises, well birds present in picture almost always do this effect for me, birds are hard to silence.

Amishcommy well Arkady, I think you deserve a lot of spanking for being so disorganized. Wonderful idea, with great potentials , so much elegance and grace and sensuality already in the picture and all this in the middle between sketch, idea in its first stage of being born and beautiful story telling. One might say it has already everything in the picture, but I can't agree. Although the figure of the lion goddess with beautiful arms and shoulders and smooth pose and gesture is a lot, but the rest of the picture didn't get any attention from you. You are not in love with the rest of the picture, how do you expect your viewer to fall in love with it? People are not blind, they will notice that you don't care about the rest.
I hope you are planning to finish this image, It has great potentials, The main character, the focal point is beautiful and great find. There is so much taste in her figure and in the colors already. I would suggest to refine the FG, the crowd.
Please consider to cover this huge monotone area like the head of the man with his back to us with some more shapes and details. It is big and ugly and pulls all attention to itself because it is dark and monotone. Reduce its importance by making it divided or partly overlapped by other shapes.
Create a crowd confronting the obsessed goddess, make it noisy, bloodthirsty or scared or agitated or intoxicated with feeling of goodness cornered by her enemies. Tell the story about these people too.

Colors, I like them, maybe they are not aggressive, but they are energetic and swift nevertheless and they paint certain personality, very elegant one.
Please don't bloke the goddess and her arrow with anything. But build the rest of the picture around her.
Don't loose the spontaneity and liveliness of your image, don't polished it until it becomes dead and not breathing. keep emotion alive.
That's just a suggestion,I love very many thing in you image, hope you will finish it.
-------------------------------------------------
Timothy I like poses and faces and I think it is a good story telling, I would suggest some different cropping of the picture, because right now it is too much empty space on the top, left, right and bottom of the picture.
I would suggest to cut this off and paint your characters with more details and values on their skins, cloth, textures. Just to make them more interesting and rich in details, it will enrich the story very much, in my opinion.

tou Despite three panels in your image I still didn't understand what happened and who are the leading character in your picture. Personally I like the face in the FG of the second image, it takes the most atention and makes me look longer at it, because of interesting expression and apparently some story behind it. The rest of the image looks not very involving to me., a bit cold.
-----------------------------------------
Bloodstone I saw your picture in bigger size in your sketch book and I'm glad I did, because this small image didn't carry to me the magic from white wheel of hypnotic letters on the top of the goddess head. It is the most charm of the picture together with the spiral she created with her motion.
Despite that figure of the goddess is beautiful on its own I don't think the pose is the most expressive and suitable for this image. I would prefer something not that calm, somehting with weird and spooky taste.
If divided ocean and running letters on the top of the picture prepare me for something extraordinary and never seen before experience in my life, the goddess figure kind of kills it for me. I would say she doesn't move fast enough, she sort of hanging in the air. And I think it is very important to find the very expressive pose for this picture and make it to create the unique sensation. Anything ordinary and recognizable kills a wonderful effect from the rest of the picture. I wish you hint on the speed of her motion too, kind of smear the outline, shape from the traction.
Colors are lovely, mature and overwhelming. Maybe if you chose her pose sort of bended, with knees being pressed against her body it would be better. It is your choice though. Maybe she is not that goddess I imagine.

Briareos lovely style and rendering, but i am not sure what it the story of this goddess. Her face is a bit too distanced and I kind of distracted by these blurred imitation of smokes on the bottom of the page, they go against the style of the rest of the picture. I wish you painted them in some stylized manner. the same I would say about fire sparks, I wish they were less realistic,more cartoons. I like this feeling of height in your picture and little town in fire behind her feet. I wish it was some different angle, perspective on the body of the goddess, more overlapped. I wish you put some more values and highlight on the stomach, hips and legs of the goddess.
--------------------------------


Trevor I think you challenged yourself to a bigger task, but like with some parents, not all children got the same love from you.
The first image with the portrait of scandalous goddess is perfect. She is right to her description: the one who wasn't invited to wedding. Because lets face it, she would turn the wedding into farce. Just look at her face. The only way to make her smile is to make a major disaster to yourself. She is not a compassionate type.
Very good reading into character. Pouty lips, disrupting community's comfort hairdo, non-conformist pose and manner to dress, arrogant glance and brow risen with contempt..
Really like the first image and I like this mix of contemporary and old times feeling from it. Apple looks very harmonic with the rest of portrait. I like a little black design as well.
I like the image with little half abstract painting of human like figure and flock of black birds. I think it is a good hint on personality of the main character, disagreeable, sly, unfriendly, very intelligent, hostile bird.
I like simplicity in the design and effortlessness.
The third image is falling out of general style in my opinion. You started to use this painterly, rough style all of the sudden, lose textures and went with smooth manner to paint. I don't think these rough, simple looking rim highlights on the goddess body and warriors are appropriate considering that the whole triptych done with gentle, elegant textures and lovely uncertainly. Yes, it is a battle scene, well still, looks out of style in my eyes. I think it would be better to make highlight gentle and smooth like in this marble reminding body in the first picture. You put the lightest values on the shoulder of the goddess, it pops up from the picture, but it makes the picture a bit disharmonic looking all together, IMO.
I wish you made it more stylized looking like the rest of the picture, less painterly realistic. Because you did a triptych, I think you need to be very consistent with the style. Style is everything in the series of the pictures (comics and so on) the same way as consistency of the characters.
Overall it is a very elegant entry, I would add it feels like influence of maybe other artists, and if you want to know I think your mermaid done for Chow was nothing like I saw before, totally fresh and original looking character and style. It was beautiful too.
Yep, I want your crits if you have time and wiling to help.

evildisco Beautiful, very integrate image. You are very versatile. I remember your ice cream seller in catlike automobile, it was very different, I would have problem to guess it is the same artist work. That's very nice to not know ahead what artist will prepare for you.
My favorite part of your image is the imitation of silk clothes of your goddess. It is stylization, but very truthful one and I like how you did folds and silky highlights and arabesques on the sleeves. That's very elegant. I like how you added aquamarine reflection to dark clothes as well.
Everything done with the same degree of stylization, faces of goddess, her enemies, clothes, clouds, that's subtle and shows a good taste and sense of balance in my opinion.
As a critique I would suggest to diminish bright light BG behind goddess back, to make is less domineering. It competes with goddess's figure and carries less importance or information. I personally think its warmness makes the cool hue of the goddess body looks strange, in such a warm air her body will look warmer even if she has a blue skin, I think.
Good composition and motion overall. Hard to criticize, it is very will thought out image.
Edit: I just noticed you reused two merged human figures on the BG near feet of the goddess, I think it would be better to change them to make them less alike.

[sve]

Djohnston Such a strange piece, it really stands out with its mood. I have to admit I didn't take it in in the first and even second times. But I'm starting to like it more with every look at it. I hope you take it as a compliment, because it means your piece requires certain mood and brains work. It is not counted on immediate effects, more on careful and attentive observation. I think technically it is flawless in my eyes, although it does look a little strange that you depicted your two characters in different manner, one is like airy, gentle colored drawing, another as a painting with heavier technique.
The image persistently leads me in pondering mood, very strongly, despite it looks so unpretentious on the first glance. I think there are many hints and tricks to make me feel slightly fogged in my brains. Especially those clouds, In my mind it is a major way to make your viewer feel sedated and introverted.
Then the fact that two characters are no interacting with each other, They go and look into opposite direction and actually they bodies create T-like shape. It is like they are escaping from each other.
The picture feels like it is happening in slow motion, like reminiscence, like weak memory which surfaces with hard efforts form the past.
Your hero is so strange, there is nothing heroic or aggressive in his figure, on the contrary he looks relaxed and passive and slow thinking in a way, like his brain is intoxicated or not functioning normally. So strange to look at this battle.
The big animal is very strange too. It is passing by, like huge dark shadow, soundless, elusive and I don't even have a chance to see his snout and I really want to. I repeat, very strange piece, gentle and controlling in the same time. Feels like a seduction on my brains.


yadam Have to say, your picture looks very strange too. Are you two guys who chose each other as opponents willingly? There is something unusual in both of your views at world as I can feel in your art. Both battles you depicted are very unusual.
Your God looks like a huge curious aged child. He isn't even felt as material or intimidating by me despite his huge body and cane. He just looks very engaging in his new game. It is like an eternal destruction of the constructed by a parent tower game for him, always fresh and promising with new visuals and sound effects. He isn't even totally present in this picture, he looks like someone who came from these ghostly hardly seen mountains. And the town he destroys already doesn't look very material too, he is taking it with him into non-being.
People remain material and fleshy in this picture. And despite that they can't do anything to this quite peaceful big child. Big disaster for the citizens of this town, he doesn't even fight back, just enjoys making holes in construction. That makes the battle humorous looking. And this God is married? really? looks like he didn't hit puberty yet. Crits. Well I wish you connected two parts of the picture more, the people look way too real and heavy in contrast to weightless rest.
---------------------------------
Strych9ine Despite the deprived of sleep face of the child in the second picture this adventure of the Cody the Awesome looks very lighthearted and effortless. I don't think he is accustomed with a word "resistance" just yet. It is mostly jumping and hopping and winning hearts on his way from one candy store to another. Imaginary friends and soldiers look rough, but that because their leaders gets easily bored with commonly accepted norm and appropriate. He needs something picturesque. They do look like his future bar buddies though.

Good reading into character. Your little boy looks energetic and easily to get excited and engaged in the game, charming, charismatic, naive ;) heheh, not calculating at all (well, OK, 4 and half is too early to put labels on, but still this baby is easy to manipulate with cheap tricks, toys and attractions to soak into game, but hardly stays longer if his interest dries up. he is open heart child, just look at his wide gestures. Boyish boy, no imaginary woman friend between his imaginary army. I like him, I would give him a lollipop.
He will not stand against my girl though.
Crtis, well it is lovely done image, this gray and blue looks sweet on the brown paper, very tasteful.
This presentation makes my brow to rise.
But...it adds to the careless personality of Cody the Little and Cody the Big. :D

eriboss Mood presents in your picture, very disturbing and easy to enter into my mind. Because it'sstraightforward and commonly accepted symbols of fear, aggressiveness and death: skulls, open rib cages, darkness, teeth, indefinite contours and silhouettes, torn flesh. It seems to work wit people and I understand your right to stay in your comfort zone, because gore looks like your comfort zone to me. but your pictures and manner is getting predictable for me. I wish you tried to surprise your viewer more. I liked your piece in Scandinavian/English battle very much, it was done with a bigger attention to viewer entertainment and desire to adventure , in my opinion.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
fedezz I like that you try so many different approaches in your art.
You are truly fearless and art is a real pleasure to you as it seems. It is always a joy to look at your images. There is always a charm of your own personality in the picture. And i doubt you are violent in any way. And probably, partly because of that, it is hardly a battle in your picture, I would interpret it as emergence situation actually and these people sincerely trying to help poor Emperor stuck in the desert with his awkward body.
Except the character with a gun of course. Still I think you didn't guess body language right, in my opinion. The picture looks like an extraordinary situation, but Emperor looks helpless and not powerful to make any big damage.
Beautiful landscape and face of the man in the front.

Soja I like grinning face of the bigger God but in my eyes this picture needs much more work to be done to make it enjoyable and characters better defined and enriched with personality hints.
------------------------------------------

Wasker I like the far out view with hardly seen figure of Thor fighting a huge crowd of people, he looks self- forgetful swing his hammer. I think picture will benefit if you crop it from a left or right more to move the figure of warrior away from the center, I think it will adds dynamics.

Clocks Me dear, I even can't tell who is who in your picture, I do like the fresh stylization in the farthest from me character, those disassembled arms and legs.
I think foreshortening of the arm of closest to me character is way too big, the arm and hands diminishes way too fast, but in a way it is not bad, it seems like very grotesque like style, intendedly distorted anatomy in your picture.The image looks not finished, on the fist stages of developing for me.

[chaosrocks]

Sveta darling. you are a trouper. Its a daunting task isn't it? Thanks for taking the time to do this...

*shares all lobstahs and champagne with Sve"

chaos

poke..poke...POKE? judges????? results?????
grrr...

[sve]

Yeah, Nellie, it is a working on my own character, training will, controlling weaknesses :). but it's OK. Maybe I will straighten up my karma or something, or maybe I'll get new crits from new people ;).
Writing crits is fine, correcting many grammar mistakes is a hard job.
Edit: may I ask why Chip calls you Roxie and you told me your name is Nellie? :)

[masque]

Nellie said... "Masquie"

Chip thought... "chaosrocksy"??? Naaaahhhh.

"ROXIE" !!!

simple.

;)

[sve]

No, for me it isn't... ? Some story behind it?

[FlipMcgee]

Inspiring stuff! Good job participants and organizer :yayca:



.

[Anid Maro]

Okay, here I go again...

I'm starting with Wasker and ending with Strych9ine. Only five this time, but I figure if I work in small pieces, it won't seem quite as much like the daunting task that it actually is. :)

Oh, and by the way, I'd like to thank everyone who has been able to critique my piece. I know I made several crappy choices in it, but my participation here was more of a learning process than anything else. And every critique I've gotten has helped me see what mistakes I made and how I can avoid them in the future. Far as I figure, you can't avoid failure unless you've failed before, right?

So thanks people.
_______________________________________________

Wasker:

I like the sort of "reversed focus". That is, the area around the lightning off in the distance is very tightly rendered while everything else is a little looser. This really helps make it clear who is Thor (the guy kicking ass with the lighting), without it he'd be hard to pick out.

One minor nitpick is the guy's cloak in the foreground. Would it really be catching that much light from the torches? I'd have restricted the torch glow to the very edges of his cloak, but like I said, it's just a minor nitpick.

Soja:

Hmm... I think this one could have used a bit more work. Right now it just reads really flat to me. Perhaps some harder edges with the lightning to make Raiden pop out more or some more defined fire effects around Akuma.

I'm not sure about the blackish blob in the lower left. It looks like a mountain or hill of somesort. Personally, I'd have positioned it directly under Akuma and opened up the top so that it was like a volcano. That way you could have Akuma popping out of the volcano with lava and fire spewing about.

However, it looks like you weren't quite able to finish this, so I'll assume you had something totally awesome brewing and just ran out of time. :)

Fedezz:

This piece is truly one of my favorites here (I'm probably gonna be saying that a lot).

Firstly the environment is beautiful. Feels like it's on the fringes of some village/city, beyond the town spans a great desert, the haze really brings in depth, et cetera.

The lighting too, is great, particularly the gunshot. And then the characters, the guy running in fear, the woman pulling the guy with the gun, and then Leto II reaching out.

In fact, I haven't read Dune at all, so I haven't the slightest what this Leto II is capable of, but the look of anger and determination on his face coupled with the intense fear of the other three characters lets me know that whatever Leto II is about to do, it's gonna be really jacked up.

All in all, nicely done!

Eriboss:

I have mixed feelings on this one.

On one hand, I really love the style, textures, and in general how everything looks. It's kinda twisted and dark, which fits perfectly with your description of Mot.

On the other hand, I don't feel this illustrates anything. The first two images are pretty simple, they are just showing profiles of the gods. The third, however, without the description I'd be scratching my head.

I'm not sure if I'm being anal about this, but I've always taken the phrase "A picture tells a thousand words" to heart. The text is just gravy, the picture itself should be able to give you the general story all on it's own.

This is not to say that the image tells me nothing. In fact what I like is how the color scheme, textures, and stylized anatomy just radiates evil. I know that this is a bad place, no question. But I just don't know what's happening in this bad place without the help of your description.

In short, it looks badass, but it isn't terribly descriptive. Nice work, nontheless.

Strych9ine:

Heh, the concept alone throws this into the upper tiers for me.

If I'm reading this right, it's Cody the Awesome that is drawing his four trusty warriors and is thereby the "God", since it is Cody who is creating these people and their world.

There are really nice touches all around. Like how one of the four warriors is a redrawing of Cody himself.

Or the tape! The tape is awesome! It reminds me of when I was a kid and how I'd draw huge sprawling stick figure battles. Of course, I'd run out of space, so I'd just grab another piece of line paper and tape it on.

The textures help to give this loads of life as well.

Fantastic work.

[masque]

No, for me it isn't... ? Some story behind it?not really, beyond what's already explained. and the name's kinda cute like chaos, and it's from one of my favorite musicals, Chicago, and...

this kinda leaches all the fun out, Sve. :( ;)

[trevor]

Sveta thanks
crits noted
and one coming your way
later today i will get to the crits some of you have PM'ed
me for so get ready

[chaosrocks]

soon the name on everybodys lips..is gonna be Roxie....

heheh
chaosrox

[evildisco]

Thank you Sve for your time. Quite insightful.

[bumskee]

thanks for the kinda words and crits on mine! :D yeeeeeeee

when's the result coming out anyways?

[strych9ine]

Anid, sve, thanks for all the insight and comments. Thanks to everyone else who commented too, it's much appreciated for sure. We're just one big, happy family aren't we? :D

[ikuru]

when's the result coming out anyways?

what where we doing here again?
Hey, Remmember when we had that god's at war TD? Thoes where the days huh?
Whatever happened to thoes results? Did they ever come in eventually?

[Joeslucher]

There was one thunderdome where I don't believe winners were EVER chosen so I wouldn't be surprised if this takes AT LEAST a month. I'm shocked some of those judges could even make time to judge this thing. So get to work on some art and don't worry about when the results come back.

[Noen Azdak]

Hey Guys!

Thanks again for the crits. I really appreciate all the thought that was put into them. Great work people and thanks!

[arttorney]

Alright. Well thanks for crits. To clear some things up about my piece, I was attempting to show how two gods can do combat to the level of attempting to overwhelm or consume each other's respective realities. The protoplasmic nuclear chaos described in Yog Sothoth's Wiki invades from below while Chaac's universe of storm clouds overbears from above. The Americas are not on Chaac's axe, the Americas ARE Chaac's axe. He's a god so he can do that. (I figured it was best to think big when dealing with gods.) I realize it could be abstract to some eyes, but gods are abstract to me. I had thought it was the most realistic painting I ever posted on here. I am kind of bemused by how different everybody is. (Something to contemplate, well at least for me. I contemplate too much.)

[sve]

Justin Oaksford It's hard for me to feel an antipathy to these young flexible arms in your picture. You gave them such a beautiful shape, thin with fragile wrists. And overall, it's kind of beaten into me with all years of propaganda, that it is a symbol of protest and cry for help. Wrong symbol, maybe only for me.
I wish you emphasized the greediness and cruel gesture of these hands, like the one where it grabs the white bird. Somehow it gets lost and not noticed from the first sight.
Just symbolically I didn't feel these sharp opposites in you picture: The Good and the Evil, two diametrically opposite entities.
God as mysterious building up there looks distanced and uninviting. I wish you went for two very defined extremities.
You said Satan's fighting back, but for me the war takes place on the Satan's territory, it would be better if you add drama showing how Satan moves toward its goal and I wish the fighting had more passion in it.
Technically I think it would be better to remove those fire splashes to make the hands and arms more predominant in the picture or at least make them lower (the fire, I mean). I think you need to add some vicious gesture to these hands. I think you need to add some symbols of light and Love to the upper part of the image, to the God depiction. I wish you showed beauty and strength in the same time in the silhouettes of angels.
It would be better to define priorities in your pictures, right now it is a bit chaotic in my opinion, and eyes don't have any lead from you where to look. Too many points of focus. As I said define two opposite poles and the rest should be less in value, sharpness or meaning.

Snarfevs How strange, I don't feel much biting, scratching and bludgeoning, I personally prefer to think those two strange creatures are dancing or swirling in some weird hypnotic motion, interweaving their bodies into each other. Your picture is silent, their mouthes are closed and you hint on the action happening in space, soundproof. I think it does feel like something being created in this strange action rather somethings being destroyed. Well for me it looks like scene of creation of the world. The colors are very delightful too, light carrying.
I think your composition is not very smooth, not very balanced. Maybe you did this on purpose, but it doesn't fill the page in comfortable for eyes way, too asymmetrical and rough. Maybe it helps to add emotion, but as design I don't think it is the best composition.
My daughter liked your picture the best. Said it looks real, that's the highest compliment to art from this 8 years old. I think she liked how you define volume and form. The bodies pop up from the BG.
----------------------------------
Green Topaz You got beautiful image here and you are really very gifted person. Such a striking combination of gifts in you. You have an unusual taste, love for fresh and rare combination of colors. You have a bold independent imagination, able to see scenes and stories in all their vividness, strikingly spooky and passionate. And you have a steady hand to catch all this on the paper.
Very independent, original mind, I hope you will keep your own way to think and paint.

Your Kali is so insane. She is like a sick animal foaming at her mouth, rolling her eyes on the back of her head and moving deeper and deeper in mad self-forgetfulness. And it is not the first time I see you catching those hard to nail human emotions. I remember your picture of the girl being soaked into mouth of some other creature standing behind her, and he in his turn being soaked into another one and this fine expression of satisfaction and pleasure on the faces. So strange and so precise.
I like very many details in your new one and I like it all together. I like her little feet and hands painted with blood, feet look like dressed in little red socks with ornaments and I like this cozy detail on the crazy goddess. I admire this mad motion caught by you, that's something I don't see very often and you were so fearless and did this beautifully.
I do think that there are some things to make better in your picture. First of all it still looks a bit like speed paint, I think it will benefit from a little more polishing with condition that you will not lose speed and emotion of the picture. When I first look at your picture I didn't see main points of interest in it. The objects are not very different in values, if you convert your picture in gray scale I think you will see a need of more contrast to main objects and less to not important ones.

The light BG partly creates this effect too. It steals attention from the action. I think it would be better to make the swirls and arabesque of stylized sky very pale and hardly recognized by eye, very subtle. it would make it much more refined too in my opinion. You don't have do this of course.

I think the bended leg of the Goddess is too short. I might be wrong though.
Overall it is a great image. A lot of respect for creating such an amazing piece and for unusual way of thinking. Hope to see more of your interesting thoughts in art.

Noen Azdak I think emotion is very strong in your picture and personality of passionate God , not knowing anyone even to him, being in ecstasy of battle is very vivid. Strong composition and wonderful story telling. I do think you got too involved with emotion and overused saturation in your picture. Colors are too loud and you don't give any break to your viewers, everything is equally important in your picture: God with his expressive body language and the rock he stands on, And I think it should be other way, God figure is the first object to be in my eyes and the rock is where my eyes will get some break from intensity.
Besides, Japanese like gentle mineral paints and delicate manner to talk. Kudos for choosing an original story and for fresh way to look at the theme.
----------------------------

Anid Maro That's for sure an emotional picture, very intense in body language and colors and gestures. Everything is extreme in you picture from the fore shortening to use of textures. That's of course a message for me, your viewer. But I think you have to balance this more. Human eyes have limits what they can take in and what brains can analyze. You are overusing effects in my opinion. So many rough textures and sharp outlines when you trying to separate one object from another, but they all scream " look at me" and trying to block another form with its own importance.
Foreshortening of the murderer's body is way too extreme, IMO, and if you draw closest to us knee and feet that big, his body needs to be abnormally too far from us like a parallel to leg surface, you know. In reality I think in a pose like this his torso will be slanted at different angle to be this small comparing to his leg.
The foreshortening of this arm far from us is way too extreme.This arm is too small and elbow is not being readable.
His hands gesture is not very truthful. I wish you took a photo reference for yourself for this gesture.
Composition is very good though and it is emotional image. I wish you made some other pose for the Tiamat, it's a bit stiff and passive.

Mr Blonde Dear Mr. I think you put too much value to textures and colors in your story telling and not enough to everything else, details, body language, good composition and face expressions. Especially composition is suffering in you picture in my opinion.
I look trying to connect all objects together and create a story from it, but it is hard. I start looking at the strange creature in the middle of the page, but I don't get a lot from her character except interesting effect of disgusting moving tentacles and antennas and whitish eye and pale skin and tail of shrimp.
Then I look at aiming warriors on my let ft and after that my eyes go to the back of the picture, to those moving worrisome lights and agitated crowd and I end up staring at them without any thought in my mind. Like I would stare at moving water or fire. Your picture does create mood. I see and feel it like strange chaotic evening, with silhouettes and their shadows moving around me in a disorganized motion and creating fear and longing and heavy feeling in my heart.
But I have no idea what's going on around me.

I would prefer you not to divide your picture in strange hard to explain by lighting and composition sections. My brains don't accept sudden light evenly spread area in the center of the picture. It's like a silence in the middle of the story, I need to start it in a new place again, far from the center deprived of an information, This area is like a "static noise" for me.
That's all.

[Justin.]

Sve I can't thank you enough.. I feel like such a bastard, I am going to critique as many of the peices as my ability will allow tonight

[Justin.]

1: My pick is... JLAlfaro- mostly because it is more complete.

JLAlfaro- I think the Red in yours is a bit too saturated, and doesn't effect the scene as much as it should. Persoanlly, what I think could have been done better with yours, is starting off with a was of red and orange and yellow, using the yellow on parts like the skin- then from there, build up the colors. This helps to unify a picture alot, and work out the color composition early. It seems like, with all your creatures the large ball of energy is the main lightsource, but at the same time, it isn't as intense as it should be- everyone looks as if they were just lit by a hallway light, when it looks more like they should have a very powerful flash casting shadows all over their face. For the mood of the sky and the darness of the bg, there is a bit too many visible elements. Don't be afraid to either show a bit more in the BBG or a bit more in the MiddleGround.
-I do like her pose alot
-The lightning orb comes across really well, just gotta get that lightning down
-either minimalize or capitalize on the details in a scene.

Vorbiss- For what you got done, it looks really nice. I think one of the larger probolems you have is with anatomy and the edges, the concept is for the most part, really nice. It seems like where you added the highlights, there was a definitive lightsource, but for the regular graphite, it seems like you had no particualr lightsource in mind. Perhaps try to begin with drawing out flat shadows ar first, and really mold the figure. The anatomy problems extend pretty much only to the fact that the figure seems very flimsy, and the fact that the biceps are smaller than the fore-arm makes her seem ill-proportioned. The hand is really nice though! The only other thing I want to comment on is the serpent, I can tell it's a large bird, but there doesn't appear to be anything really god-like about it. Perhaps if you had it's extravagent head rearing in the background, or at least more festive decor on it's body such as tatoos (or scales), it would be more obvious.


Round 2: Sone_one

Senira; I'd suggest you start with a sort of wash over the whole thing to tone it a certain color.. It appears you started doing that, but it eventually got taken over by solid colors.
I think you have a problem with lighting that I like to call "You know but you don't know", you know that light SHOULD be someplace in a general area, but you aren't quite sure how to apply it. All I can really suggest is to look at alot of movie stills and posters, do value studies/color studies of them, figure out how the lighting artists set things up... it will help immense amounts!

Sone; Really my only crit regards how un-extravagant he is, while he is very tall, he seems off balance and primitive, and his hammer is almost like a toy more than a weapon- granted it doesn't have to be too big, but I'd imagine something a bit larger than a fist. I also wish you would have at least gave him a face, but you rendered the abs really tightly. What made the difference for my vote was really the composition and execution. If it was on Idea alone, I probably would have gone with Senira.


Round 3; Xacto

Xacto; I can't really place what itis that is a turn-off about your piece, I think you could use some more contrast, and it bit more focus on the guy, the soldiers seem to sort of throw it off... I think this piece has potential to be much better, I think there are just really small changes that would really help the whole thing. The horses are nice, though the loose shading on the one on the right is too simple compared with the one on the left (which is really nice.)
Hypocritcally, all I can say is invest a bit more time in some of the little things, and it will help the piece seem a bit more "pro" I suppose..

BlueMech; I think he could have looked slightly more egyptian if you had designs riddling his body, or even just a desert-ish bg with some pyramids in it. I thought it was an armadillo god when I first saw it... the soldiers poses though are very egyptian. The composition is boring too... And no offense, bu with crits I am keeping it short because it seems you put very little effort into this anyways.



Round 4; J a k e

Chaosrocks; There are a hefty amount of anatomy problems, I think the best part is the disembodied head. The rest seems to have a sort of ambiguous light source. The sky is red, but all the shadows are blue, which doesn't really make sens to me either. Again, what I would recommend (like I did with Senira and JLAlfaro) is begining with washes, defining some interest using temprature, then plotting shadows and highlights. My largest suggestion is using more reference for your figures.

Jake; Concept is one of the most brilliant. Your face rendering skills are the tops, but I think the BG blends a bit too much with his costume. Also his pose seems ill-proportioned, he seems taller and skinnier and less "pudgy" then a baby should be.. and not out of "stupidity" but just out of bodily structure. I like the brains, but the BG seems like it could have been handled better as well...


Round 5; Masque.

Masque; Very few crits; The dragon has underbite, the fire guy probably could have fit into the composition better, and i think the spear distracts a bit more than it leads. I hadn't even seen Fenrir until I read his name.

Resist; Failry simple, but it definitley feels egyptian. I don't exactrly understand what just happened the way you posed the 2 figures, if Horus was facing away from us, as if the 2 were in a joust, I think it would make more sense, but it seems like Set took his ass from behind or something. Also, Horus' legs are MISSINS!!!


Round 6; Mull77

Mull; Great colors, great intensity and effects with the hammer... I think poseidon's face is a bit undynamic shaped, very box-ish, inorganic (unlike water). Other than that... one of my favorites. Great scale, great detail, great action, great color great lighting.

Light; I don't really see the war happening here... Who is attacking who, it seems almost like the lower 2 are asking him a question. It could definitley use more contrast, and the perspective seems a bit off.


Round 7; This is a really tough match... I have to say Felicia, for the reasons listed below;

Felicia; I love most of this, but what won me over more than anything else was Thor's stance. It is simple a beautiful rendition, very commanding but very regal, balancing himself on the tree, on his throne where he strikes down Veles. Despite all the complexity, the horses and skeletons don't do much for me. I feel like the lighting could have added more to the scene than it did, and I wish the red hadn't been so completley concentrated like it is in the clouds, it is such a solid "black to red". One piece of advice Jason Manley gave regarding color theory was to introduce subtle but random hues into your piece, it will help the mood alot and create alot more visual interest.

rustikof- Great colors, great conception... great stile, I love almost everything about this. I have no crits, the only reason I picked Felicia was because hers had a bit more grandeur... But yours, I have zero crits on yours. Wonderful job.


Round 8: Joeslucher

[yAdam]

Those crits are much appreciated sve, and everyone else too, thanks!!!!!

[John]

I appreciate the crits i got, thx guys & girls!

[Noen Azdak]

Sve

Thanks very much for the crit. Your points are dead on and I will take them into consideration in my next piece. Really a great crit!
Thanks again people!

[Rich Pellegrino]

Thank you Sve. I always look forward to your crits. I am planning on going back into my piece even if I do not make it to the next round.

[Felicia]

Thank you for the crits. I am definitely not finished with this one and I am going to get back to it eventually.

By the way the god on the tree is Perun not Thor.

How come there were no flying spaghetti monsters? I was going to pick him against all other modern gods but I didn't feel like rendering noodle flesh.
Maybe later...

[JL.Alfaro]

Hey guys I should have the results up by tonight- the remaining judge can meet us on the second round. Im not gonna let this go on for ever, as in some other TDs. We got a second round to tend to. (well some of us)

JL

[sone_one]

oh kay...

battle 01: JLAlfaro

JLAlfaro: i like the idea and drama youre going for here. its an ambitious piece and you did very well i think.
imo it has too much saturation going, allover, instead of working with contrasts . the rightest guy really has some glaring anatomy issues, but thats nothing that couldnt be fixed.
good piece overall and thanks for hosting this event :).

Vorbiss: good idea there. what bugs me most after looking at it for some time, are not the anatomy issues (that are a problem), but the flying heads, which all have the same orientation. and they tell me nothing. i started to think that it maybe some magical effect or something but then we see too little of it, for it to be clear.


battle 02: Senira

Senira: great drama, great action... good idea. if i were you id go back and do a rather tight linework, to figure excactly where everything goes without having to worry about color or values yet. it seems to me you were rushing in, trying to do it all at the same time, which is way too much to handle for almost everybody.
think the dragon would work better with out the antlers aswell.

sone_one: oh noes.... to be honest, youre a lazy slacker, too afraid of stepping out of comfort zones. trying to cheat yourself and everyone else with cheap tricks and the little you know about anatomy. get off your lazy ass and start working. insecure pussy.


battle 03: xacto

xacto: really dramatic, actionpacked picture. nice! no crit actually crosses my mind there.

BlueMech: not much to crit here. the idea could work well with an iconised (is that a word?) approach like in egyptian wall paintings.


battle 04: Jake

chaosrocks: i like the idea of doing a triptych, but it wouldnt be working that way. i think it aint such a good idea to spread one closeup-picture of the action across all 3 panels. maybe if the sword would only be in the first panel, so it would be sword, figure, head, but im not sure.
you probably know of the anatomy and color problems yet so i wont go into that.
big respect for doing this traditionally!
one last thing... as someone allready mentioned.. that white kills it all together. id go back, get rid of the white and save it as a gif with transperency or tint the white the ca bg color.

Jake: great excecution and nice idea... but you know, if you have to explain alot what it actually means, it should probably have been approached differently. right now it doesnt give me the impression of what you wrote as explination. it rather looks like a retro sci-fi brain shepperd or something. there is no indication for fighting in any way. still nice effort and good picture, just not sure it fits the topic.


battle 04: Masque

Masque: nice! lots going on here and if you know norse mythology immediatly reads as what it is meant to be. very ambitious!
odins upperbody could really use some reference i think.
BUT what bugs me most, is the direction of the spear. not that it would totally fail its purpose if thrown like that and odin would dislocate his shoulder... its an almost horizontal which is totally killing alot of the drama :/. given your experience, makes it even worse to butcher your piece like that, with an otherwise unimportant detail.

Resist: nice stylized antomy and good action. too bad you gave it so little love :/. right now i see this working well as one of a few comic panels telling a story. but for a standalone picture it doesnt work well i think.


battle 05: Mull77

Mull77: lovely ... no crits

light: you can do better :/. little effort, therefore not justifiying the effort to write a crit :P.


battle 06: felicia

felicia: nice nice nice... really like a lot about it, like the riders and the eagle and the two gods. sadly some i dont like aswell... dont think the duochromatic thing works out so well... especially since its just red highted by white and lowered by black and same goes for green and then blended. also dislike the snake/dragon (too overdefined with lack of details) and the skeletons. my biggest concern is the colors though as mentioned. respect for such a big piece.

rustikof: i really like the stylisation of the characters. dont feel like it goes well with the bg though. maybe some more bright areas would have worked better. dont know.


battle 07: tough call... cavematty

Joeslucher: i just cant put my finger on whats bugging me... everything seems to be fine looked at on its own. maybe its too crowded for my likings, or a lack of focus. i dont know, sorry. great effort and actually a great piece... just personal preference i guess.

Cavematty great pic. some ref could help to get rid of the insecurities concerning the mauis anatomy, which aint that convincing i think, and imo is the weakest spot of your painting.
the shadow casted by the suns hand is strange though, since for everything else his body seems to be the only lightsource...


to be continued...

------------------

thank you all for your great crits and input. i hope i can put all of them to use in the near future.

heres the idea i started before growing tired of it, and switching to the new pic... i probably should have stayed, trying to figure things out and kept going when going got tough, but well...

prior idea (http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q155/sone_one/Godwar-01-05-1.jpg)

[trevor]

i love the flying spaghetti monster
and he loves you all with his infinite noodly-ness

[sve]

Azrael I liked many things in your picture, but in general I think you didn't chose attractive composition, and partly I think it because you yourself not clearly imagine what happening in this situation.
Shapes of main objects are in their own in you pciture, not bound by interactions between them . Only little viewer in the FG seems to bind all part of picture together.
But in general I think story not being told consistently. For example you showed Poseidon after he threw his trident into one on the ship. He stands in strange not involved pose to the huge disaster. Although his body language is dramatic and one of the main thing I like about your picture, still I think it would be better to place them in some positions to each other, showing better interaction.. I think the ship should be in front of the Poseidon and exactly at a precise spot to where Poseidon's body was turned over to make this throw.
I'm not sure, is it really how the trident would have landed on the ship with its teeth up? Looks a bit strange.
I don't see clearly what the object is on my right near the God.
I think you picture has a perspective distortions, especially this farthest ship looks to big in relation to closest to us boat and to Poseidon. I cant' calculate his place in relationship to other objects.
You put two of the main objects in one plane lined up to each other. That's not an interesting composition and I would recommend to use rule of third in your picture: two objects, big and mid size sort of clustered together and third the smallest object far away from them, to create deepness and interest for viewer eye to travel far from FG, or MG , depending on where the the main action takes place.
I kind of like your manner to paint water, ocean waves and clouds. Very individual manner, distinguish, but you use so many straight lines and sharp angles depicting those nature event. they simply don't have straight lines and sharp angles. There is always inner currents and distortion. So I would recommend you to take some hard edge brush and created those smooth curves and swirls and rounds and fading of the motion. I would prefer more randomness in them.
Overall i think you are neglecting power of sharp outlines and how you can control your viewer with them. There is no focal point in your picture.
I really like your Poseidon, he is has interesting pose and face.

City
The Moerae, three touch sisters in Greek mythology, weavers of human fate, impossible to bribe, indifferent and emotionless to outcome of their decision.
One of them Lachesis takes human's fate into her hands without any prejudice, not looking at what she took, Clotho, another sister weaves line of his life leading the thread through barriers, good and evil on his way. She does it before person even born. and the last one the most powerful, the eldest, Atropus cuts it.
The most respected goddesses, daughters of Zeus and Themis.
I think your interpretation of theme is witty. Those silent, no nonsense women do their job without interruption and can produce disastrous damage if only they choose to do so. To start a war and end it it only takes one cut with scissors for them and they can do it with many threads at once. They are ultimate destroyers iin my mind.

I like your picture a lot. Minimalistic, reserved style and colors are a good match to the goddesses personalities. I like the straight lines in your picture as well, shows stern, independent characters. Despite strict control of means in your picture you give a lot about who your heroines are.
I would probably prefer faces of two other sisters besides Atropus to have more individual features, less general.

Draw I liked the raw primary sensation from your picture. It is a good imitation of worn out papyrus with centuries between us and the author of this painting or the events depicted in it. Poses are especially charming with theirs nativity and sincerity.
Colors are a bit too bright and vivid I think I would prefer you to keep this effect of ancient spirit in you image, not allowing any immediate effects or tricks in it. Everything should be very raw. I think the image would benefit from using textures and imitation of worn out paper.
So I guess I'm asking for more global stylization.

Kboss Very cool image, that's a War between Gods in its supreme. So much energy and dynamic and emotion. The figure of the Odin alone makes me want to go to GYM and start pumping muscles and then go straight to him or Green Berets.
Very energetic image, I wonder how you managed to catch this feeling. and How you managed not to kill it with thorough rendering? That's an amazing fact for me.

Crits. I think the weakness in your picture is the symmetrical composition and the fact that you placed action right in the center of the picture. I'm not very fond of the chosen square ( wel,l almost square) as a shape of the image in general I wish you gave more space for breathing on the top of the picture, prolong this starry sky.
The action is very strong and it would be better to allow it some space to spread more.
I would remove or change the ice picks on the both sides of the picture, they kill something in the picture, spontaneity of the moment I think.
Or at least I would certainly made them duller and less important in the picture, They compete too much with main characters.
Horse hind legs all four of them are not very defined and that' snot good I think, it would add so much to unusual happening.
Not very good interaction between two gods, they don't look at each other , at least one of them should and he should aim on his enemy instead of friendly to him allies, wolves.
I wish you gave the contrast and importance of the ice maintains to these two wolves.
Overall it is a very powerful image, suits the theme perfectly.

[Justin.]

Oop... my bad, for some reason I just assumed =P Still a great pose regardless!!

[ikuru]

JLAlfaro, thats the spirit. C U All at the finnish line.
http://www.ikuru.se/box/round2.jpg

[mrgrumble]

(not to be a poo but 'comming' has one 'm' mate)

[ikuru]

uppdated.
(Thanks MasterGrumble)

[City]

Anid Maro, The Artist Fox, SVE
Thank you for your comments!

Unfortunately, I cannot keep up with the 'talking stream' here,
but I do appreciate your words of crit.
:}

[mull77]

Hi!

Thanks to everyone who's taken the time to hand down some crit, your thoughts are appreciated *girly high fives all round*

Sorry i've not been able to join in more!

[sve]

Man, sone_one. That's a record of self-pain inflicting. What are you doing? No, guys I don't believe that's hating your own art is a great stimulus to progress. You see yourself all wrong, delusional about yourself. 'Cheap tricks with little knowledge of anatomy"... And I was talking like crazy about beautiful torsos in your sketch book. Your lines which made me and Icon feel happy. Did you even read it? I was telling truth.