CgTalk Daily Sketch 229 "Stronghold"

[HellBoy]

what does strong hold mean? is it something that holds strong? or...

[SpeccySteve]

According to dictionary.com

strong·hold
n.
A fortified place or a fortress.

A place of survival or refuge: one of the last strongholds of an age-old tradition.
An area dominated or occupied by a special group or distinguished by a special quality: a feminist stronghold; a stronghold of democracy.

[tuzz]

Sometimes Google.com is really helpful ;)

strong·hold Audio pronunciation of "stronghold" ( P ) Pronunciation Key (strônghld)
n.

1. A fortified place or a fortress.
2.
a) A place of survival or refuge: one of the last strongholds of an age-old tradition.
b) An area dominated or occupied by a special group or distinguished by a special quality:
a feminist stronghold; a stronghold of democracy.

found at: http://dictionary.com (http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=stronghold)

edit: lol, steve you beat me ;)

[HellBoy]

Sometimes Google.com is really helpful ;)

strong·hold Audio pronunciation of "stronghold" ( P ) Pronunciation Key (strônghld)
n.

1. A fortified place or a fortress.
2.
a) A place of survival or refuge: one of the last strongholds of an age-old tradition.
b) An area dominated or occupied by a special group or distinguished by a special quality:
a feminist stronghold; a stronghold of democracy.

found at: http://dictionary.com (http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=stronghold)

edit: lol, steve you beat me ;)

...

According to dictionary.com

strong·hold
n.

A fortified place or a fortress.
A place of survival or refuge: one of the last strongholds of an age-old tradition.
An area dominated or occupied by a special group or distinguished by a special quality: a feminist stronghold; a stronghold of democracy.



In Plain English please:scream: :)

[bealobo]

Hey!

stronghold: a building or position wich is strongly defended, or a place or area where particular belief or activity is common.

A rebel stronghold
They captured the airbase, last stronghold of the president
Rural areas have been traditionally thought of as a stronghold od old-fashioned attitudes.

Might be like a bastion somehow, at least in spanish.

Enjoy!

[Garma]

in other words: a really cool topic :applause:

[daadaa]

ok... in simple words.... castle :)

or big area with big walls :P

[Art2]

Think 'Lord of the Rings-Helmsdeep' (at least that's what I head in mind when I came up with the topic :) )

I hope my contribution will be more than just providing the topic this time... :)

[Schattenman]

Salut all, about 1hour. PS.
(perhabs more a castle than a stronghold ;-) )
http://www.heuschele.com/jan/zeug/burch.jpg

[bealobo]

this is mine!
I went for a more deep meaning of stronghold, hope you like it!
1 hour, photoshop, wacom...
Just one question, as I got this second-hand old wacom as a present and haven´t really used it a lot... sometimes I´m drawing fast, and the lines bend! and also appears like the lines where sided (like low poly models in 3d). Why is this? Can´t this wacom handle my drawing speed (ahahhahahahhahahahhahahha)? or is it just that i dont´t use it correctly?
http://www.imadome.com/bealobo/stronghold.jpg

[Her0d]

And here's mine (30min, Painter):

http://ci.com.pl/%7Estf/gfx/stronghold.jpg

[Sir Lumps]

Painter, 30 minutes

http://home.planet.nl/~schmi448/images/stronghold.jpg

[thebigxer]

hey everyone!

I havent been here in a while but I havent forgotten everyone.

Im trying to get better at matte painting and just digital painting in general so I took a more seriuos route from my usual stuff.

http://www.tbxr.com/images/thebigxer_stronghold.jpg
1.5 hours in photoshop


Good stuff everyone but I got to say that Schattenman's is really cool

[RaisedByWolves]

60 mins + Photoshop + tablet.

I'm trying to steer away from my normal illustrative style and get into 'painting' the image.

I don't know why. I'm way more comfortable drawing an image with outlines.
Well, maybe that IS why.

http://raggedy.linuxfrenzy.net/rand/WS_SH.jpg

~Raised

[daw]

nice work everyone!

here is mine PS 25min wacom. didn't have more time!

http://www.dplays.se/228.jpg

[DoInferno]

Are Matte Paintings allowed here, at the non-mattewars topic?

[FromanylanD]

Just one question, as I got this second-hand old wacom as a present and haven´t really used it a lot... sometimes I´m drawing fast, and the lines bend! and also appears like the lines where sided (like low poly models in 3d). Why is this? Can´t this wacom handle my drawing speed (ahahhahahahhahahahhahahha)? or is it just that i dont´t use it correctly?


Window>Brushes>Smoothing

[bealobo]

I like them all :) specially,
the bigxer, I love the look!
Sir lumps and daw, very funny ideas!

Thank you fromanylanD!!!

This forum is so much fun.
Bealobo
learning, always learning

[andrewley]

I've had a bad day...this is my therapy

Painter - 50min

http://img38.exs.cx/img38/2129/stronghold0ms.jpg

[Octothreat]

Nice colors thebigxer.:thumbsup:
daw: cool idea:)
Great one andrewley:scream: I have the honor of posting after you....
1hr10 min painter/ps
http://img49.exs.cx/img49/9104/stronghold1ke.jpg

[daadaa]

PS:Acer Tablet PC:1h20mins

http://www.yun58.plus.com/art/Stronghold.jpg

[doomdragon]

Oh well my castle doesn't look so strong at all, but atleast there is a mountain to climb in order to siege it.
http://www.doomdragon.de/dailysketch/stronghold.jpg
1 hour in photoshop

[DoInferno]

Ok, here are mine. I have a doubt, wich is better, the one with the outlines or the one without them?

http://www.carlosranna.com.br/cgtalk/228-Stronghold01.jpg

http://www.carlosranna.com.br/cgtalk/228-Stronghold02.jpg

[daadaa]

personaly i prefer without...

[TheTon]

Well DoInferno, I would say that it's always better to try and avoid having outlines in your picture. (Unless you are going for a cartoony style of course.) If you are trying to paint "realistically", then try and do it without outlines. My advice would be to look around you. How many things do you see around you which have a definite outline. None I hope. Take this thought with you when you paint and things will come out much better.
Just look at Goro and FridayEves work... Not an outline in sight! (Talented Swines! :) )

Anyway enough of this preaching and back to work...

If I have stated the bleeding obvious please do tell me to shut up but I hope this helps...

Cheers

TheTon

[Garma]

If you are trying to paint "realistically", then try and do it without outlines.

Outlines can be helpful to accentuate shadows. If not overdone, they can be very supporting. take a look at this, for example:

http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?t=202776

Realistic painting is subjective, I think. The line between cartoon and realistic can be very blurry. I'd say it just depends on your style. Experiment with it, and if it turns out to be nothing, get rid of it.

[theChap]

Hey all, great work from all of you. Well.. here is our piece. I created it together with TPG (also user at this forum). It was one of our first attempts with color painting... I kind of not like the painting, but who cares. We tried and it was fun :) It is suppose to be some kind of bunker in the middle of nowhere. Ah, I guess you already mentioned that right? :P Anyway, keep up the good work all!

OpenCanvas, 3 hours

- Chap & TPG

http://www.maartenslok.nl/sketches/stronghold-mapechi.jpg

p.s. Ayeah, forgot to tell: masterchi did the red lights :P

[elmasfeo]

nice sketches so far! :thumbsup:

edit: I moved to page 5 (http://www.cgtalk.com/showpost.php?p=1910471#postcount=69) with the finished version

[Art2]

http://www.marlonart.nl/web/sketch67.jpg

around 2-2.5h I had enough of it while I was watching tv...

Good job guys, esp. Bigxer and daadaa

[Ilikesoup]

Well DoInferno, I would say that it's always better to try and avoid having outlines in your picture. (Unless you are going for a cartoony style of course.) If you are trying to paint "realistically", then try and do it without outlines. My advice would be to look around you. How many things do you see around you which have a definite outline. None I hope. Take this thought with you when you paint and things will come out much better.
Just look at Goro and FridayEves work... Not an outline in sight! (Talented Swines! :) )


Yeah, but look at Telemaco's:

http://www.akenar.com/Sketches/Images/sk026.jpg

Both formats are valid. I moved away from using outlines after I saw Sir Patroclo's round figures, but Telemaco's work never ceases to amaze me. Try both styles and develop a style you like.

[LuisNCT]

Here is my stronghold! 1 hour and a half in photoshop.

[CodeNothing]

"Stronghold"

:) Took a different aproach to it...
took about 2 hours. All photoshop.

http://img74.exs.cx/img74/2913/stronghold7ia.jpg

[LuisNCT]

Oh, andrewley, i like very much your strange industrial stronghold.

[LuisNCT]

Codenothing, GREAT lightning

[CodeNothing]

THANX! :)

shouldent "stronghold" be #229?
"am i pretty?" is already #228

im kinda new here so im not sure how it all works. :)

[depleteD]

1 hour
need to werk on my painting hardcore :S
http://people.uleth.ca/~andrew.melnychukosee/dailySketch/stronghold.jpg

[CodeNothing]

Thats a realy good start DepleteD!
you focused on real light and shadows over trying to noodle "details". Thats the secret to painting! :)

[Goliath]

nice pic CodeNothing

and Ilikesoup, that was the cartoonish style that was mentioned in () ;-)

didnt have time to participate myself today :/

[jwilson02]

bout 30 PS...wouldnt save as a jpeg or bmp for somereason so i had to go with a gif..hope it turned out okay..great job everybody! Sir lumps , like yours especially..
http://img137.exs.cx/img137/7127/sronghold0uu.gif

[Jasel]

WOW! Nice work everyone! :bounce:

Photoshop/Wacom/3.5h

http://img64.exs.cx/img64/4873/Stronghold.jpg
http://img64.exs.cx/img64/4873/Stronghold.jpg

[Eyern]

Breaking out of the stronghold....

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v480/IronPriest/strongholdjpg.jpg

Super quick, just trying to get the concept down and practicing shading + lighting + clouds. 20mins

[stoo]

Andrewley, daadaa, CodeNothing, they are awesome pics! I really love the lighting in CodeNothing's pic. DoInferno, I prefer the image without the outlines, but i think if you made the clouds go over them, then it might look really cool.

Turned out a bit crappy - tried to keep things loose (to capture a fur look) but it all went downhill. I should have planted the box better in the scene, since its just floating in brown fog. But, I need to sleep!

35 mins, PS7

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/peter.connelly53/polytopia/images/cat_castle.jpg

cheers,
stoo

[Octothreat]

Wow, that is quite the awesome sketch Art2!:scream:

[Art2]

Hey thanks buddy! I'm still not happy and unsure about it, but glad you dig it!
Lots of new faces here, feels like a new place...

edit: woohoo, 500+ posts!

[J-Bird]

Here's my first sketch entry. First anything entry. Be kind.

45 min. PS 6

http://img90.exs.cx/img90/5042/stronghold5ns.jpg

[robinayles]

J-Bird - welcome! Nice first entry & good to have you aboard!

[J-Bird]

Thanks for the welcome. Hope to make it a daily ritual to get the creative juices flowing.

[Squarecloud]

Some very nice entries again today. I have been gone for quite a while but i'm glad to return, now let's try to participate a bit more often :D

For the people who have been there, my sketch is based on the Citadel of Aleppo, a city in the northern part of Syria. I have used some photographic reference but since sketching still takes a lot of time for me I didn't follow my pictures as much as i wanted to.

Painter 8, about 3 hours
http://www.skplace.net/ewout/selmar/Stronghold_final.jpg

[RaisedByWolves]

DoInferno, I don't think anyone answered your matte painting question.

I believe (I'm not a moderator) that matte paintings involving some sort of drawing/painting/illustrating method over the original image are ok for even the non-matte subjects, as long as it's stated you used a reference photo.

However Matte paintings that are basically photoshop compilations of pics are probably outside the realm of the sketch forum.

I don't think it's in the rules, but you can check, I believe they're stickied.

~Raised

[robinayles]

A totally different kind of strong hold! :)

http://www.k-squared.com/stronghold2.jpg

PS/Wacom 45 min.
Sorry folks, I just couldn't resist! :)

[Octothreat]

Haha, nice take robin!
Great entries everybody!:thumbsup:

[robinayles]

Another really great thread of sketches, everyone is entering such good entries it gets harder to pic favorites each week!

Schattenman - really nice B&W work
bealoo - that's an amazing idea and nice execution
Her0d - SWEEET!
SirLumps - LOVE IT! I really love your cartoon-ish style
BigXer - super nice monochromatic work
Andrewley - that ROCKS!
Octothreat - Really great! I think that's your best post yet!
Daadaa - WOW!...just WOW!
DoInferno - without the lines - really nice work!
Art2 - ZOWIE! That is fantastic. Cool perspective. Nice to have you posting instead of doodling! :)
CodeNothing - I like your kid's blanket fort!
Jasel - looks like Camelot
Stoo - LOVE IT!
SquareCould - really interesting textures..makes the entire composition more interesting.

Keep up the great work everyone!

[crazy3dman]

Wow, lot of great sketches today.

Got this idea as soon as I saw the topic. Another "Kid" idea.

Photoshop, Wacom, 2hours 40minutes. Tried to spend some more time on color this time.

http://www.crazy3dman.com/daily_sketch/C3DM_dsg229.jpg

[Mattronic]

stronghold

rough sketch

1hr:30mins PaintShopPro - tablet

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v601/Mattronic/stronghold.jpg

[DoInferno]

Thanks everybody for the comments! Love this sketch group man!!!

Taking a second look i think you are all right. No outlines for this one!

About the matte painting Raised by wolfs, all you said made a lot of sense, but i´ll leave it for another time...

And BTW i love vacations! Here i am at 03:23 AM making another sketch just for the fun of it!! Haha! I tried to give it a very free expressionist look. Just started to paint really fast, and tried to give a little dept using only the atmosphere. Turn out that i enjoyed this one a lot more than the other!

http://www.carlosranna.com.br/cgtalk/228-Stronghold03.jpg

[Devised_Poly]

photoshop/wacom, hour

Stronghold of death


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v435/devisedp/strongholdofdeath.jpg

[BouncingSheep]

Daadaa - Beautiful. I just feel so much when I look at that. You really did a good job capturing motion.

[FridayEve]

http://www.fridayeve.com/gallery/cgtalk/cg229_fridayeve.jpg
1.5 hours/painter

[_Wildcard_]

first post ever! I've finally moved from lurking in the boards to posting something for once.

somewhere around an hour or an hour and a half in PS6
(lost track because of other stuff)
http://img92.exs.cx/img92/3977/stronghold2jx.jpg

lots of cool stuff on here, I had never really looked into this forum until today and it already looks fun! hopefully I'll be able to keep active on here.

[ButchMakora]

my assosiations with "stronghold", except battle-themes: Photoshop 6.0, mouse, 1.5 hour

http://www.ljplus.ru/img/butchmakora/vorota.jpg

[Art2]

Robin, that's my other topic 'things you could do with superglue' , haha!

crazy3Dman, I really like your style and characters.

[Zebula]

Some really nice pics so far:)
2 Hours - PS, Wacom and a bit of ref.
http://www.webhosting4free.org/zebula/stronghold.jpg

[theChap]

wow, awesome sketches..

andrewley: Great! man I love the unique style you have. Keep it up man!
Octothreat: This one really got my attention.. marvelous! This might be the best piece I have seen of you (not offending your older pieces ofcourse! :)) I love the brush texture in this image.
Art2: Very cool perspective you used in this one. And very well painted!
CodeNothing: Cool idea! and a cool image!
Zebula: Great atmosphere. Good one.

And everybody else, good job! :)

[Silverwyvern]

Kinda a joke.. didn't time it because I was mostly reading email.. I'll estimate half an hour.
Mostly photoshop here.
http://www.cindymccluskey.com/stronghold.jpg

[Garma]

oops o_0 I thought the topic was "the last stronghold".
right here goes

1.5 H | Painter

http://csr.oli.tudelft.nl/huizen/hg/tdg/229_stronghold.jpg

extremely cool contributions here

CodeNothing, that is so cool. thumbsup for both creativity and stunning lighting
daadaa love yours too.
FridayEve glad to see you can do more than just characters :thumbsup:

[bealobo]

Hi!
about this little discussion about lines, let´s move into another, what do you prefer: short or long strokes?
I usually like short ones most, but I´ve seen drawings that are fantastic with long ones, for example the new year resolution that is now in the sketch of the week thread (sorry, don´t remember who drawn it). I also think short ones might be easier for the beginner.

doinferno: I like the "passion" in the sketch! those strong colours and shapes, however I´ll try to make some orange contours on one side of the mountains, so that the light in the scene covers the shapes a little more.
zebula: brilliant! light and atmosphere with few elements.
fridayeve: the composition and atmosphere are great!
codenothing: love the idea!

[I-NetGraFX]

Photoshop CS
2 x 2 hours

My version of a stronghold integrated in a canyon landscape:

http://www.inetgrafx.at/DAILYSKETCH-0025-EROSION-V5.jpg

Here's the second version of the same scene, showing a bit more of the landscape

http://www.inetgrafx.at/DAILYSKETCH-0025-EROSION-V6.jpg

[elmasfeo]

I-NetGraFX, that's great!, both versions!
Garma, good idea, I like it as the last stronghold :thumbsup:

I finally ended mine, here it is, it took longer than usual (2:30 or 3h), but I wanted to try to move towards a more realistic style...
http://gaitasfritas.250free.com/sketches/strongholdend.jpg

The idea is that HE is the stronghold, nobody can know what are his thoughts, his feelings, his secrets...

[TheTon]

Here's my tuppence worth folks...
Some really really nice stuff on here today folks! Be Proud!!!

http://img158.exs.cx/img158/4985/stronghold.jpg

The Ton

[drawMonger]

http://digitalcraft.com.au/misc/sg229-fortress.gif

illustrator / 1hr20min

[robinayles]

DrawMonger - I really love that piece! You do such great drawings out of simple line art! :buttrock:

Ton - really nice!

elmas - he looks like Boris Karloff

i-netgraFX - both of those are really excellent! Great job!

Silverwyvern - hilarious! I love it!!

Zebula - beatiful work!

Art2 & Octothreat - glad you liked my humor! :)

[cLos71]

...I like all the different approaches. Welcome to the new guys. I have been ridiculosly busy which is a good thing, on the other hand, no time to sketch :cry:
Hope to join you guys soon again.

[HerrKatt]

Hello all daily sketch members. I thought it was time to contribute a little. I haven’t really painted anything in Photoshop before except some tyre bump map textures. I’m foremost a 3D kind of person. :)

Anyway, the image is painted in Photoshop. I spent about 2,5 hours on it.

http://web.telia.com/~u85118652/HerrKatt/hk_stronghold.jpg

[Sir Saukund]

http://www.schischule-tirol.at/extern/cgtalk/dailysketch_strongthhold.jpg

Photoshop 3h

[Ego]

Y'all never cease to amaze and please me. No matter how much of a crappy day am having.

Bravo! all

[slowgolde]

My second entry into daily sketch, hopefully I will try and do a quick one most days- be a great way of improving.


Some brilliant entries. J-bird- really like the style. Daadaa- great perspective. Fridayeve- nice atmosphere.



http://www.radville.co.uk/davehfort.jpg

2 20, Photoshop/ Wacom.

Ive just got painter 9, if anyone could give me some tips as to a good brush set to start working with it would be much appreciated. Im struggling to get any good results at the moment- and I need some brushes I can work quicker with! Thanks.

[Cyanid]

http://bushido.boonzaayer.nl/stronghold.jpg
1:30H :: Photoshop

[Ego]

Oh boy, I can't believe how far behind I am. Gotta catch up, catch up.

Anyway, try and take this stronghold from this baby. I never drawn a baby before, ever. And I was having problems with the nose. Kept looking so adult like :( Painter 1.45 mins. Was trying out some new brushes.
http://www.queensoul.com/images/cgtalk/stronghold.jpg

[acseven]

Hi, I'm a complete rookie on this, this is my first speed paint, and my 2nd submission.. It took me 2hrs to paint in Photoshop CS. The original colors got all messed up because of color profiles (rookieness), and so I had to put it like this. The original draft was also a lot different .
To sum up, it's a kinda soft stronghold ;)

http://webspace.zmail.pt/acseven/cg_stronghold_ac7.jpg

[CodeNothing]

WOW, theres some realy awsome work on this topic! its gona be realy hard to vote!



Schattenman - Awsome mood!
Sir Lumps - That was totaly me as a kid! LOL
Daw - AWSOME concept! I LOVE stick figure artwork! its truely a fine art when done properly.
Octothreat - nice color!
Daadaa - Crazy!
Art2 - You are an odd creature. What on earth possessed you to choose that perspective!? its awsome :)
Jbird - Cool composition!
Robin - Awsome concept!
Crazy 3D man - Another awsome concept! Isnt it wierd how kids relate to "stronghold" better than adults? when we are kids we believe we can make the inpenitrable fortress where no one can get through. Then we get older and realize everything is breakable. :shrug:
Friday eve - Saweet!
I-netgrafix - gorgeous work!
herrkatt - Beautifull color!

ahhh, im going on too long! LOL well anyone else i missed you stuff is awsome! :thumbsup:

[Art2]

Art2 - You are an odd creature. What on earth possessed you to choose that perspective!? its awsome :)


Sometimes I like lying on the ground, looking up...to skirts...nevermind, thanks! ...
Official statement: I wanted to do a cinematic approach. :)

[Supervlieg]

Great piece drawmonger!

[captain chapo]

same idea as acseven...couldn't post till today because the internet was hating me.

http://www.thisdonkerslife.com/art/dailysketches/stronghold.jpg

[drawMonger]

Thanks RobynAyles and Supervlieg...it's very nice to know that something works :)

[annisahmad]

Did this a couple of days ago after seeing the topic of this thread....
30 minutes in photoshop cs.

http://img181.exs.cx/img181/1526/bwknightssmaller7iw.jpg

[crazy3dman]

annisahmad -

nice! Love the simple but very powerful composition.

[Robo1]

I love the plain composition. Nice work.

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