Master and Servant 2D Entry: Michael Dashow

[Falcorr]

I finally came up with something to fix on your picture :thumbsup:
Thanx for the visit man!

So ok the one thing you could still work on is the boss character's skin. Because there is a fine line between looking like wet surface and metallic surface. At the moment your hilighting is going slightly more to the metallic look. So if you could somehow make smaller hilite on the skin areas to make it look like its wet not metallic.

Thats it man. Hope i made any sense?

Boss character clothes look real good.

You really didnt too that many mistakes you kept on with the initial idea to the finishing line. so thumbs up for you! :thumbsup:

[TheFirstAngel]

Damn, too brilliant. took me really long to find a flaw, cuz its 999,99999% perfect! love the ligth love the huge amount of details everythign! how bout using a gaussian blur on the pic now with amount of 250 :p
just kidding. 1 small suggestion, left hand of the girl behind the dude, fingers look a little to long or not bended enough, but thats such a minor detail, not even worth to mention. keep it up michael, love your work! :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[werezoo]

Just finished browsing your site, great stuff!! This picture included of course. Have fun at E3!

[spacesnail]

Definetly your best post :buttrock:
And welcome to the RaVTT, you've qualified ! :deal:

Manu

[Hof]

Great characters! Especially the person with 3 eyes:)

[Jezzarts]

Brilliant! love the lighting... love everything :thumbsup:

[flyingP]

Some great details in this, it's fun trying to pick them all out, love the steam coming up from the coffee for example. Really nice piece :applause:

[walrus]

Yay! I get to be in Team 'RED & VIOLET TONGUES!' We may not Dominate the World, but we ... um... have Red and Violet Tongues in our pieces. Thanks, Manu, I won't let you down!

Just a little more to go on this piece and then I'm all done!

Sacha, thanks for the suggestions... Both of them! We'll see how the blur looks, but I think you're completely right about the woman's fingers. I'll definately make that change before Final.

Juha - Yeah, definately a fine line I've been walking. But that makes sense, I'll see if I can refine it some more.

Everyone Else - thank you all so much, it's really rewarding to get such a great response!

-mike

[walrus]

http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/8/5662/5662_1115669960_medium.jpg (http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/8/5662/5662_1115669960_large.jpg)

Hey, all! A few small changes: Just some tweaks to the rim lights, some refinement to the clouds (thanks, Crowley!), shorter and more correct fingers for the female coworker (thanks, Sacha!)

Just getting a bit more nitpicky with the details, but it's pretty much done barring any more small nitpicks. But please don't feel guilty for posting really miniscule stuff! At this point it's all I have left, so post away!

-mike

[AlyFell]

Damn near perfect now! I can't spot anything I demand to be changed! :) What's the pattern on Ctthulluthlulu's tie?

[walrus]

Thanks, Aly. It's a pattern of serpent-tailed bats with their wings outstretched, so they're kind of in a little T-pose, which you can just vaguely make out at this resolution. The man's tie has a pattern of sheep.

I think I'm going to try to repaint the black smoke clouds at the bottom tonight, I'm just not happy with how sharp they look now. Anyone got any suggestions or favorite reference or anything. If I'm happy with that, I think I'll call it done. I have to get it in this week anyhow before I leave for E3.

Hope everyone else's are coming along well!

-mike

[crowley]

Ha, I feel a little uncomfortable to say that, but I agree about the smoke: the original softness was nicer. I'm sorry I pointed this out in the first place.
In any case, good luck with the final work on your piece, I really enjoyed watching it evolve :thumbsup:

[ThierryS]

Hi Walrus, all the best for your entry man, and thanks for your comments during this challenge!


Great to see your final picture, you've done a stunning illustration!
See you soon, maybe on a next challenge,it was fun!:) :thumbsup:

[EMPEN]

there's alot of very funny details!! (like lovercraft 4000 or micronomicon!)
a very funny vision of work, i would like to have the same boss dude!

[walrus]

thierry - yeah, it's been a blast! I definately plan on being around for future ones, so I hope we'll see you here too!

crowley - no need to apologize: I think you had a perfectly valid point in noting that the clouds were not as defined as the rest of the piece. So I defined them more and, well, they look lousy now. But hey, I keep everything in layers so reverting back to the original clouds is simple. But before I do, I want to try another shot at them. It's not that your suggestion was bad, merely my implementation of a solution that didn't work. I'm not happy with it, so I'll give it another try!

-mike

[paperclip]

Must...worship....

Looking amazing, michael. I've been watching this one since its birth and it is just amazing.... only...one teensy weensy crit...the highlights should be blurred a little more into the surrounding darkness, right now the specularity is very high and it makes it look rather metallic (like juha said)... back to worshipping...
Mind criticising my m & s thread :love: please?!
I like learning from people I worship!

Keep it up, Mr. Incredible.. :D

[choptider]

You know, i am sure, your image will go around the world, because i have a boss who look just like that, even he never show up. and it will be funny to have it at work.

[Vahn]

hey walrus :)

I praised you before but i have to do it again :D

From Idea over composition to execution this is really excellent, amazing and most important very pleasing Art .... it was fun to watch this shape and admire every little detail u got in there. Very, very, very cool picture :applause::applause::applause::bowdown:


good luck and thx for the cool advice ...especially the fishy one :D :D :D

[Gord-MacDonald]

WOW - your entry is great! what a totally mind-blowing image! I love it!

Gord

[walrus]

http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/8/5662/5662_1115784119_medium.jpg (http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/8/5662/5662_1115784119_large.jpg)

Empen - I think you're the only one who would actively claim to want a boss like this! Everyone else isn't into the idea, or has or is already experiencing at work now!

Theresa - I THINK i have it coverred in this new post. I'm not 100% certain until i see it on my monitor at work, which often gives me a completely different take on this piece. And it may not be the most perfectlywet looking boss ever, but i think I'm reaching the limits of what time will let me do with it. I hope it works well enough.

choptider - as far as I'm concerned, it already HAS gone 'round the world. I mean, it's here on CGTalk, isn't it? That's about as international an audience as one could ever ask for!

Vahn - So in other words, 'So long and thanks for all the fish?" :-) Anyhow, thanks so much! And I'm glad you liked the ideas!

Gord - Thanks!

Okay, I've uploaded what I really hope will be my FINAL 'Final Coloring.' am I done yet? Please? :-)
It may look nearly identical at first glance but there are a lot of subtle differences: You know how it goes, tweaking the parts of your own work that no one but you will notice!

Like I said above, I did some subtle changes to the skin hilights and i think that's as good as I'm going to get it. I repainted the black clouds a few times... and ended up going back to the original ones I had! Still, I did my best to make those better and am happy with the result. A minor tweak with the candle flames so it's easier to read the word 'Obedience' on the calender. Some subtle shading of the printer paper... Little stuff like that.

Anyhow, if noone calls me on anything by tomorrow, and if it all looks good on the other test monitor, i think i may upload the final tomorrow. so last call for C&C!

-mike

[taz23]

You're getting there walrus, very nice composition. You managed to get all the things together: colors, characters, lights & shadows and so on. Impressive stuff dude :bowdown:

[arLutiK]

Michael, you did an amazing job, I love Lovecraft myth, did you get any strange dreams doing this image, I could almost qualify your image as an actual ancatation spell (while writing this I see weird shadows moving all around me) ..:twisted:..:eek:..:twisted:..

an hour later,

Don't know what happen I think I fell asleep, what was I saying oh yes, awesome image you did, I'm very happy you almost finished it cause this subject as a cartoon is just to cool, great man.... :thumbsup:

[chinbig2000]

Hi,
i like your concept. It very nice image.

cheers :applause:

[MKStudios]

Stick a fork in it, it looks done to me! :thumbsup:

But it reminds me waaayy too much of the office I work in, here at 'Buster Corp. (http://www.blockbuster.com/) I'm expecting Cthulhu to jump up from the cube next to me at any minute!

Man this is an awesome painting and I've really enjoyed following along on the process. Excellent stuff.

[ebrowning]

It's perfect- a winner. Great job, Michael! I really like how you solved the "donut man", and the flourecents in contrast with the boss's head really works well.http://www.cgtalk.com/images/icons/icon13.gifhttp://www.cgtalk.com/images/icons/icon13.gifhttp://www.cgtalk.com/images/icons/icon13.gif

[paperclip]

Michael, it really does look done to me now. Like you said, you fixed up the highlights and I KNOW I was nitpicking, it's so tiny and everything, but it really does look better now! This is probably my first or second favorite picture in the entire contest. It's funny AND looks amazing, especially the suit. I love his suit! I love it all!

Congrats on finishing it. I'm so pleased! :thumbsup:

Sure hope this wins something, it (and you!) deserve to.

Better start clearing some room for your prize!

Thanks for critting my entry, really nice of you.
cheers,
theresa.

[paulwdavidson]

Very cool image......congratulations on completing a fine piece of work.


Good luck in the judging

Paul

[MattDixon]

Not sure if I've posted in your thread before, Mike - but I've enjoyed watching this progress very much, and your final image looks just great. Excellent job!

[MoonVisionStudio]

Michael you have one of the most original and funny concepts AND a kickass execution! Way to go!

[Arctis]

congrats : one of my big fav of the contest.
You got my vote, man ! ;)

[walrus]

http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/8/5662/5662_1115827409_medium.jpg (http://www.cgnetworks.com/challenge/entries/8/5662/5662_1115827409_large.jpg)

And.... DONE! whew! Now I just have to FTP the final TIF. For those who are curious, the resolution I'm submitting is 3207 x 3786, and that's the size I worked on the thing the whole time.

Taz - thanks! I'm honored, as I like your stuff a lot too!

arlutik - "Don't know what happen I think I fell asleep..." No worries, my work tends to have that effect on people! :-)

chinbig2000 and patrick - thank you!

Eric - I owe you a REALLY BIG thanks, becuase you really helped inspire this piece in a BIG way. After seeing the winners in the GSO Challenge, I was already thinking ahead to the next one.... This one. I was wondering whether I should just try for a "cool" image, one that would have been the result of my second-guessing what i thought others would want to see and vote for. My day job is like that: Lots of "cool" art. But seeing you pull into the winners circle with your image - colorful and sweet and pensive and not violent and still every inch a winner - and seeing that people would appreciate a different image like that... Well, that helped me to decide just to do my own thing. And besides, who wants to spend two months on an image that doesn't really represent one's self and one's portfolio? So here you have it: A very "me" image. And folks like it! So, sappy as this whole missive sounds, thanks for just being you and doing your own thing!

Theresa - Tanks so much for your posts and encouragement.

Paul & Matt & Jose - Thanks! Now you get out there and finish yours!

Arctis - Thanks, Pierre!

okay, off to FTP!

-mike

[taz23]

Congratulations man! You can be proud of this artwork. I'll keep it in my hdd in the Favorites folder :thumbsup: You have my vote dude! Good luck!

[Tranchefeux]

Hi wairus, all my congratulations for this final under feature and a
line rather cartoon, you shows a great control. :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[camtheman]

Hey Walrus, looks like another winner. Congratulations on a great piece of art. Well done. :applause: :applause: :applause:

[monsitj]

congrat! walrus ! glad to see you finish on time! and your entry is my favourite! good luck!

[authentic]

Just a congratulations for your picture. So many details and a style that is exclusively yours in this challenge.:thumbsup:

[kornel]

Congrats Walrus! he image is amazing... funny and wery impressive! :thumbsup:

I wish u all best for the final!

cheers: Kornél

(sorry for my english)

[.:ZRDwD:.]

Don't know why I'm posting... hate to see your head get big from all the praise and encouragement from your fan-base. :D

Great work, Bubba. Let's just spoil the moment and say... you got my vote. :thumbsup: Realism and/or scratchy portrayals tend to overwhelm the boards nowadays, and yours takes me back to the ol' non pre-code horror EC comics such as Haunt of Fear and Vault of Horror with the splash of hilarity.

Good luck and take it easy!

[arkinet]

awesome as usual, & thnx for all the tips:thumbsup:

[walrus]

Woo-Hoo! It worked! I was worried about using my Mac to FTP a Windows-Zipped file, but it seems to have gone off without a hitch. I am officially in, yay!

Thanks, everyone, for the kind words and inspiration. Don't worry about me getting a big head, though: It was really small to begin with, so now I may start to look just plain normal. Relatively speaking. Kind of.

:D

Good luck with all of yers!

-mike

[fensterer]

I still love this image, and I just wanted to say good luck to you! You did an outstanding job!:applause:

[eddieellis]

truely awsome dude, bravo :buttrock: :applause: :thumbsup:

[mack72]

This has turned out awesome! I loved the concept from the start, and I love this final image now, brilliant job!

Cheers
Mack

[eliza]

hahaaa,spell check,thats hilarious and awesome:) and the actual drawing is very professionally done, good work!

[E.T]

good luck to ya, im still smiling each time i see an ad for HP (keep thinking lovecraft)

[Enayla]

I think this is one of my absolute favourites in the challenge (might even be THE favourite). I just love the stylisation, the colours, the emotion -- heck, the whole concept of cthulhu in the workplace: hahahahaah, it's brilliant! Kudos to you for such a brave, innovative concept.

Also, awesome pinstriped suit on that nasty fella, I'm extremely partial to pinstriped suits (getting one myself, in fact) and ti's a lovely detail, as are the little cufflink skulls and that three-eyed darling in the background. Also, the papers with the spells and diagrams. I guess I could just go on and on, but most of all - I just want to say thank you, GOOD LUCK! and wonderful progress you've show us here.

[Speaky]

Walrus, you done good. Those ceiling tiles are excellent, weird how I keep picking them out, but the rest of it is very accomplished. I like the way you chose a less obvious interpretation and style for this one, that alone makes it stand out from the crowd, and your squeaky clean rendering style is very appropriate. Well done you! :thumbsup:

[paperclip]

Here's my first woot::buttrock:

[spacesnail]

Good luck my friend :buttrock:

Manu

[moonspell]

Your idea for the illustration is very original. I like it a lot. Good luck!!! :thumbsup:

[userBrian]

Thanks for showing me how to add a photo ref, as a concept. Strong piece here.

[walrus]

Hey, all! How's it going? Hope you all are getting your pieces finished and uploaded with no troubles. It's the last weekend...! Hey, at least one way or another, you'll all get your lives back! :-)

fensterer, eddie, and mack - thank you so much!

eliza - glad you like the joke. I wish i'd been able to work that one into the actual picture itself, but oh well! :shrug:

E.T - thanks! Now you'd better get back to work and finish yours!

linda - um, wow, I'm just speechless. Thank you!!! Both for the really kind words, I'm just so tickled, and for raising the bar here, too!

jesse - I showed the finished piece to some coworkers the other day, and they were amused to see that the ceiling is pretty much the ceiling of our office, down to the details. So I guess I had a good "model" to work from. But I find it amusing that a take on the regular, everyday power dynamics that many of us experience in our real lives would be considerred a "less obvious" interptretation, especially when compared to the multitude of images of women with giant beasts, children with their genies and robots, and evil overlords with harems of slaves. :-)

Theresa - 'Woot' to you too! :buttrock:

manu - Thanks, and to you my friend!

moonspell - thanks!

userBrian - cool, glad that was helpful. If you haven't already, check out AndreasRocha's thread, he used some great and very funny photoref too, and inspired me to post mine.

Oh, and if anyone's just dying to see a less compressed version of my entry, I just updated my web page so that you can see one that isn't limited to just 150k. I'd post it here, but I'm not sure my small-time ISP needs that many hits from around the world! :)

later,

-mike

[RichTee]

ahh Mr. Walrus

A mighty fine image indeed...it might just adorn my desktop for a few days if thats okay with you?

A quality effort matey....well done n the best of british (erm...thats good luck :) )

[Tariq12]

hey dude, your final piece looks REALLY, REALLY AWESOME. Congrats on a fantastic job well done. The very best of luck for the final stage.
Tariq. :applause:

[Tariq12]

hey Michael, a quick request dude. I have a Mac too. could you tell me how you FTP'd your final ? Much appreciated .
Cheers,
T.

[djinx]

great concept
nice picture
have fun!

[Farfadet]

A very good work.

[ErwinM]

Hey mike, congratulations on your final image. Superbly executed in technique and with humor. Great job

Cheers

[Miyagu]

:applause: great work!!!
i loved it from the beginning and i wish you the very best luck for the contest!:bounce::bounce::bounce:


btw:

Hey, at least one way or another, you'll all get your lives back! :-)
:D

[NinjaA55N]

Just wanna stop by ur thread and say congratulation for finishing ur pic. It is outstanding and one of my favorites for sure. I have really nothing to crit, however I was looking at ur piece for couple of minutes now and just thought ... wow.. this is something! I wish u wil be properly awarded for ur effort in this one :) Much luck to u buddy!

[arLutiK]

This is one of the best 2d challenge out there great work.

[jeromoo]

I'm back! congratulations on your work! Really nothing more to crit and the lighting (candle) on the boss has been fixed perfectly. All the best for the prizes! (The judges are going to have a tough time with so many good entries here)

[arkinet]

final, final... i have nothing to say dude, except wow... love the caricature style, awesome:bounce: :bounce: ... btw, all your suggestions are really helpful, thank you very much.

[cha0t1c1]

sincere congrats Walrus...
u deserve the finish...very beautiful piece...

[xric7]

congrats again,buddy.:applause: :thumbsup: :buttrock:
excellent story and illust!!
best luck in this challenge.
cheers.

[Arc80]

Thanks for dropping by bud. CONGRATULATIONs on you too. I know you've been finish a while ago and i think i gave you my thumbs up already, but here you go again, hehehe.

:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :applause:

Cheers and see you around the community again

[nebezial]

lol. there is something very award winning about ur work, congrats mate!:thumbsup:

[MDN67]

a great funny pic, very good work. Good luck for the end

[walrus]

Hey, all, how's it going? Hope everyone's well and not too stressed out! :)

bumphluff - By all means, you are more than welcome to use it as a desktop. I'm flattered!

tariq - glad to be of service: As I see you got your final image in, you obviously figured out all the stuff about FTPing. Nice job - both on the picture and the FTPing! :)

djinx - thanks... but "have fun?" Sorry, the fun part is pretty much over, aside from trying to be helpful in other peoples' threads. Not it's all just sitting around and waiting... and that's no fun at all!

farfadet, erwin, & benita - thank you!

Blaz - didn't see you around in my thread as much this time 'round. Maybe it's because we had less time and you were full on working on your own. Or maybe I just didn't need as much help this time around...? Anyhow, thanks, and good job with yours, too!

arlutik - Thank you very much!

jeromoo - You're back from vacation! Have a good time? See, you could have still finished yours when you returned! :) Thanks for your notes and priase.

arkinet - thanks! and hey, no worries, happy to be some help. You really did a good job with it!

cha0t1c1, xric7, arc80, nebezial, & mdn67 - thank you all, too!

Well, I'm out of here tomorrow for E3, the Electronic Entertainment Expo. I will have only sporadic access to the web so that may be it for comments from me after I take off. Anyone know whn the actual voting will take place? I seem to recall it lasting a week or so last time, so I'm sure I won't miss it. But anyhow, thanks again to everyone for all of your support and kind words. See you all...

-mike

[ArtisticVisions]

Damn Michael, you've created one "hell" of a illustration here. :applause:

Congratulations on finishing and best of luck with the judging. :)

[TeemuR]

Your piece turned out really nice! Congrats! :) One of my favourites... :love:

[Ant4d]

haha. thats very good one. very beautiful rendering. very clean on the suit. i'm impressed:)

congrats.

[dougbot]

Man this turned out great. I love Cthulhu in the office setting. the little gags, like the spell in the printer, everything turned out great. Excellent work.

[AlyFell]

I can't remember if I commented on your final image yet Michael... but what the heck! You deserve praise twice anyway! :) Superb! Fun, detailed, beautifully finished and not over complicated. All the best sir!

[coCoKNIght]

wow, much has happened since I last stopped by... This artwork is fantastic! Congratulations! Keep doing pics the way YOU like 'cause it's for sure that others will like it too then! :D :thumbsup:

[digital-bobert]

Hey turned out great Walrus! I love the expression of the man

[NinjaA55N]

Hi buddy! Its sad but true :/ I wish I could more participate in this challenge, especially communicating with u and other friends here, but I was soooo much into my work (I have at least 2 or 3 big projects opened at the same time all the time) that I really doubted that I'll manage to finish my own entry. But with no sleep no eat its possible I guess :D and u were right with ur second statement as well.. u really did a marvelous job here so u didnt need so much help... haha... till next challenge! good luck once again :)

[lutzw]

Hi Walrus,

Thx for your nice comment 'bout my work during this challenge. I love your own entry very much--I'm always impressed by such a stunning amount of details... Great work!

Cheers and good luck for the voting,
:) <- Lutz

[andreasrocha]

Mike, man! Great finish! I wish you best of luck...

[CoreyArtE]

Ha ha! Whats going on man! Listen I've loved this one since start to finish! I know for sure that your going to probabaly win something! This is too good to past up and it fits the theme perfectly! Congrats! and best of luck!

[TheFirstAngel]

congrats again on your final piece! loved it from the first glance! best of luck michael, your work rocks!!!:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[beelow]

Good stuff Michael, I love this one, oit is one of my favourites to win...Best of luck to you holla...see next contest!:applause: :applause: :D

[Rudeone]

Ah didn't get to see this finished yet, it's a stunning piece, congrats on a very succesfull finish. I think you would make a good change to be one of the winners:thumbsup:

[walrus]

Hi, all! I'm taking a few minutes out from E3 to check on things and post to say hi, so this won't be too long. Looking briefly over some of the comments in the FAQ thread, I confess to being kind of confused: So there's NOT going to be a public voting this time? Why the change?Is this a recent development, or something that was planned all along but I missed? Yeah, I know, the FAQ is more the place for these kind of questions, but I don't have time to reread every page to see if I missed this. And not like it matters all that much in the end, guess I'll eventually see if we're having public voting or not...

Anyhow, wish I had time to thank everyone individually for thier kind words, but time is short, especially when there's a line behind you to use the convention-provided computer I'm on! So I'll just send out a big THANKS to everyone who's posted here to offer congrats for finishing, and conratgs to you all for the same! Take care and talk to you all more soon....

-mike

[jadecilcleton]

I know that is a little late to incentives, but I was accompanying your Wip and whish you very good luck!:thumbsup: my sister found your piece very funny and good line... she doesn`t cout to much, but I foud it too! sorry my english!

[ArtisticVisions]

Hi, all! I'm taking a few minutes out from E3 to check on things and post to say hi, so this won't be too long. Looking briefly over some of the comments in the FAQ thread, I confess to being kind of confused: So there's NOT going to be a public voting this time? Why the change?Is this a recent development, or something that was planned all along but I missed? Yeah, I know, the FAQ is more the place for these kind of questions, but I don't have time to reread every page to see if I missed this. And not like it matters all that much in the end, guess I'll eventually see if we're having public voting or not...
From what I understand, this was planned from the beginning of the Challenge. I don't quite understand why they're not having public voting, but maybe it had something to do with the theme of the Challenge and how it was expressed in the final image. (maybe they felt Judges would be better for judging the content of the entry and the Theme instead of the public?):shrug:

[BlueHarp411]

Michael,
haha i see you have deserted us. Dang had to go through 40 pages of replies in one sitting. Fantastic job. i loved seeing your layering technique. i always enjoy how you show that. Seems like you are in your element now. Glad i know now where to keep up with your art.

Jill

[ebrowning]

Wow man, you really nailed this. Kinda sad though to see Cthulu reduced to wearing a suit and tie though!

[walrus]

jadecilcleton - my thanks, to both you and your sister! :)

ArtisticVisions - thanks! Personally, I have no problem with then - it's a professional contest, it should be judgedby professionals - I was just expecting it to work same way as the GSO challenge did. But I'm glad it's been updated. Thanks for the info post!

Jill - I haven't deserted you, just been channeling my energies elsewhere - ie. here - for a limited amount of time. I must remind you that you were one of the people who first convinced me to try my hand at these CGTalk challenges in the first place!

Eric - Aw, but doesn't he look so dapper in it? He cleans up well. Anyhow, thanks! :)

-mike

[BlackDidThis]

Oh ok.. now boy do I feel stupid.. Yeah I had thought that you had meant that your post was the final form of it.

My only relief on the run of it is that the tweaks aren't THAT extreme :sad:

Well now that I get to see the final image Michael, all I can say is how fantastic a job you have done and all that I said in my foolish post still apply.
You have worked hard for it all and inspite us pulling you around you have managed to finish it with a bang...
It's just wonderful!

I wish you all the extra luck shall you ever need some!


Black

[camtheman]

Man, I'm glad someone cleared this up for me, guess I haven't being paying much attention, but I wondered why there was no notification to go vote... oh well, Michael your's still gets my vote! Cheers!

:applause: :applause: :applause:

[Aniii]

I like your drawing very much :)
So much work !! Very great and funny drawing :)

[jugeras]

congrats on your piece n gud luck :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[LORDvesalius]

jajaj, great concept. And great image too.

good luck!
(you deserve it)

[blakbird]

Amazing work. Congratulations.

[K. Scott Gant]

This is really great. I've always been a big admirer of H.P. Lovecraft and the entire Cthulhu mythos....and you've really bought out the humor and absurdity in a situation like this.

Now you need to throw in Nyarlthotep, Hastur and the Dark Young of Shub-Niggurath in a board meeting. hehe.

Really enjoyed it...brought a smile to my face!

[walrus]

Thanks, everyone! I appreciate the kind words, and that my picture has made at least some of you laugh! :)

-mike
(who's just sitting around waiting for the challenge results and trying to figure out what I'll do for my next digital painting. I kind of like having a theme to work from, but now it's too wide open... Aurgh, option paralysis! :) )

[paperclip]

A tutorial, Mike, a tutorial!!


:love:

[walrus]

A tutorial on what?! I thought I did a pretty thorough job at detailing my steps all the way through the Challenge, so that this entire thread was a tutorial on how I did this image. But if there's someothing specific you'd like to see...?

-m

[paperclip]

You certainly did Mike and this thread is a wonderfully educational experience! I would even say it's the most thorough and informative thread in the contest. I learned from reading this...really...however- I would love one little tip on how to achieve these wonderfully smooth lines...forgive me, I typed hastily when I asked for a tutorial!

[Squibbit]

I would love one little tip on how to achieve these wonderfully smooth lines...

yea me too! :bounce:

[paperclip]

Panu...look...SALMAIKKI!

*runs off with tips while Panu looks around* hehe...

[Squibbit]

lol ... crazy ..

and Mike, i hope u don't mind lending your pic a bit in my "making of"
slideshow on my thread ... :D

[walrus]

Hey, no problem, Panu, that was really funny!

theresa - pardon my density, but do you mean the line art part of the pic that I colored in? Or the pinstripes on the suit? Or something else altogether?
Thanks!

-mike

[paperclip]

Hey, no problem, Panu, that was really funny!

theresa - pardon my density, but do you mean the line art part of the pic that I colored in? Or the pinstripes on the suit? Or something else altogether?
Thanks!

-mike

Yes, the line art part! I know you're really busy, but as a god, you have to look after your unworthy subjects.:D

[Adriano-Zanetti]

Freaky picture, great job! COngratulations with your final entry!

pe@ce

[walrus]

A 'god?' Geez, let's not get hyperbolic, Theresa!

But anyhow, the "smooth" line art? Oh, well that's easy enough. The real secret is that the lines aren't smooth at all! I work in pencil and never bother to ink any of my lines. I just happen to have very tight pencils, and I scan them in at high enough resolution that you can't really tell. Here's how it works:

http://www.michaeldashow.com/forum_art/LineArtTutorial.jpg

step 0, not shown: I do my roughs in paper, scan them into Photoshop, and rotate and resize and scribble on them more 'til i'm happy with them. You can see these comps earlier in my thread. When I'm all satisfied, I print them out onto a tabloid sized piece of paper.

step 1: I redraw the image on 11x14 Tracing Vellum, placed on top of the tabloid print out. I tend to favor a Staedtler Mars Lumograph 4B pencil, especially for the thicker lines, but I also use a PaperMate American Naturals HB for the thinnner detail lines - We've got tons of them in the office, and they feel a softer than the average HB but sharpen well. As you can see, I go for a pretty tight line.

I scan that in at something like 300dpi, so I'm working on a pretty large image. I adjust the levels to remove the greys but I'm not shooting at making the line itself solid black: That removes too much of the character of it. Image #1 is the actual scan at 100% actual pixels. This appears larger than I actually drew it, but once I've scanned it into Photoshop, this is it at 100%. This line art layer is set to Multiply and placed on the top layer. Almost everything else will go underneath it.

step 2: Basic color. I color in the skin and everything else in basically solid colors, in a lot of seperate layers beneath the Line Art layer.

step 3: Adding layers for shadows and hilights and depth which go on top of the solid color layers, I get a basic idea of what color things will actually be in the final painting.

step 4: I flatten all those layers together and start detailing... but note that I DON'T flatten the line art layer in there. It always remains seperate. Anyhow, several weeks later, this is what the image looks like with all of the detailing and shading and stuff. Here' I've just gone in and painted everything, with a combination of the brush and airbrush tool. The rim light, as it started out as an experiment, was on a seperate layer.

step 5: This is actually not a seperate step, but I wanted to show what the line art looks like by the end of the process. Two things have happened here: First, I found that there were places that I needed to soften or eliminate the line art. Like on the right side, where his cheek is: It looked too dark to have a solid line there against the ceiling light and the rim light, so I airbrushed some of it out. Secondly, the grey/black line isn't always the best "color" for the line, so there are places where I use the Hue/Saturation controls (click the checkbox labeled 'Colorize') to colorize the lines. A warm color in this case complements the skin much better, and as most of the picture is cool, it helps the warm areas (like the man's skin and tie and the boss's skin, which you can see a hint of in the upper right) stand out a bit more. Now the warm lines are working with the skin tones instead of against them.

And that's pretty much it for how I incorporate the line art! :-)

Hope this is helpful!

-mike

[paperclip]

Perfect!! That is a wonderful tutorial Mike, you should be proud of yourself!
Great and in depth. You sure are good at explaining things. I learned a lot from this, esp. the line coloring thing...you got me thinking for sure.
I really thought you'd painted the line art in- but this way seems so much more facile and clearly works to great effect!

In other words: :love:
Thanks for posting...mr. demi god..hehe..hyperbole worked for me didn't it? Look what I got!

[Art2]

Michael, this is great, thanks for sharing!

[ArtisticVisions]

Nice technique, Michael; thanks for sharing. :)

[ms@zx]

its very nice of u to have share this mike.drop by and congrate u for completing this challenge.very awesome work and wish u best of luck on the finals.see ya again in the next challenge!:thumbsup:

[paperclip]

Let me get this right- you remove the white from the pencil drawing by using a 'select white' mask & anti-aliasing?

[walrus]

No, I actually don't remove the white at all. When you set a layer to "Multiply," it only makes things darker. So something 100% black will affect lower layers 100%, and something 0% black - in other words, white - will affect lower layers 0% - meaning, not at all. Parts that are, say, 50% grey come off as 50% opaque over the layers beneath them.

Think of using the "Multiply" ink like drawing your image from that layer on a piece of acetate or Saran Wrap and then placing it over your image. The areas where you drew in black will be obscured and the areas with no drawing are completely see-through.

So if you set a layer to "Multiply," the white in it does nothing at all. I don't need to make any effort to remove the white or cut it out or anything, becuse it's not affecting anything anyhow.

"Screen," btw, is the exact opposite: Black is transparent and only the white affects things.

Does that help?

-mike

[E.T]

So you flatten all the colors to a single layer?
im too scared of changing my mind to do that. :D

Very good tut, easy to follow and outlining your workprocess nicely.
(and for me personally its very close to mine, which is sort of a relief, i hate finding ive been doing things the "wrong" way)
:applause:

[camtheman]

Thanks for sharing. That's what this fourum is all about.

[paperclip]

Aahh, I see what you mean there. I thought 'multiply' just made it darker- I didn't know it effectively removed the white. Silly me. :blush:

Thanks for your help- this has really inspired me, believe it or not.:arteest:

I really, really hope you win something- because you have a great piece that I've been rooting for from the beginning and also because you aren't afraid to share your knowledge, that's a hard thing to find in artists, usually people are rather secretive about how they do things.
Once more...thanks! :D

*Judges, give this man an award!! Can't you see he deserves it!?* :surprised
:beer:

[walrus]

Yeah, what she said, judges! :D

Anyhow, hey, it's no problem at all, it's one of the things I love about these CGTalk Challenges: Sure, it's a contest, but almost everyone is being open and sharing with processes and techniques. (I've found the same thing with pro artists I've met at conventions like WorldCon, where we're all doing the same thing, but in our own stlye, and people have been more than willing to share techniques, leads, contacts, the works!)

Anyhow, it makes sense, even if we all knew all the same techniques and tricks, we'd all be doing our own personal images anyhow. No one else was going to come up with an image this weird but me even if they knew every Photoshop trick that I did. In the end, nothing can guarantee you a prize, but at least I've grown as an artist and maybe helped others grow too, and that's important.

Just came back from a walk, during which the correct metaphor for the Multiply ink occurred to me: It's like drawing your outlines on an animation cel, and then putting the color underneath. But the lines are on the top face of the cel so they always show up on top of the colors.

E.T. - I flatten pretty late in the process when I've had several weeks to work with things and be sure that I'm not going to need to back up a few steps. And I never completely flatten things. For example, even my final working copy has seperate layers for the skin, the shirts & suits, the miscellaneous objects, the cubicle walls, and the background. (And a few more for effects, like the rim light and the ceiling lights.) Later in the game it's less of an issue of changing my mind on things and more just the convenience of having things on seperate locked layers so that I can easily paint without going outside of the lines. If I do need to do something like redesign a minor character, as I did in this piece, I don't want to also have to repaint the background behind him. So it helps a lot when he's on a seperate layer. But at a certain point, yeah, you have to just commit to flattening some fo the stuff. At least in a contest like this, you have several thousand pairs of eyes telling you, yeah, it's okay, you can move forwards, it looks fine! :)


anyhow, thanks Theresa (and everyone else) as always, for your kind words and encouragement and vote of confidence! Cheers!

-mike

[zoren]

excellent detail and concept..

[THECLYKE]

i'd hate to get attacked by him.
awsome creature modeling

[JTD]

This is not a boo-fest but I really would have placed you higher than ‘honorable’. At least the judges saw what a fantastic artist you are and had to recognize your submission in some way. Congratulations Michael!

[Fahrija]

Hi Michael,

my congratulation to honorable mention.:thumbsup: I hope you are pleased with the result.


best regards
fahrija

[NinjaA55N]

Its so nice to see ur piece being awarded man! I hoped u'll be noticed, while I was counting on u even in previous challenge. U deserve it :bounce: Congratulations and I hope we'll see in next challenge as well! :D

[paperclip]

Congrats, michael!!
I would have placed you higher as well, but....there's always next time! :twisted:
Have fun with your prizes....:buttrock:

[walrus]

Prizes? Um, Theresa, we don't actually get any prizes for honorable mention. But I do appreciate the mention nonetheless. Thanks to all of you for your kind words, too. Hope you'll all be around for the next challenge, too. I plan on being there... See you then!

-mike

[TheFirstAngel]

Well you'll get a choice award for it i think and, *grin* congratulations Mike! :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

[arkinet]

congratulations dude!!:beer:

[xric7]

hi Michael,
congratulation!!:D :buttrock: :thumbsup: for me u deserve higher.:bounce:
see u next time.

[Arctis]

hi Michael,
for me u deserve higher.:bounce:
see u next time.

For me too... Anyway congrats, man : excellent piece !

[Miyagu]

congrats, mike! :beer:

i still think it´s a really awesome piece.. and i had so much fun seeing it develop.. :)
see you next time! :bounce:

[cgkrusty]

Congrats MIKE!!!

An honourable mention... too low on the podium I think but progress non the less!!!

:bounce:

[BlackDidThis]

He he hey.. I knew I would be seeing your name in the lists... some how!

No I actually had hoped for having you higher than were they had preffered. But at least you have this image under your arm to carry around and show off with! :thumbsup:


It was fun to pick at you the whole competition long... and also amazing to see how you patiently actually listened. Though The judges seem to agree that you should have gone with number 5.. or was it 7.. damn has been too long.

Great pleasure to get aquainted with you and your work! All the best to you and your ever observant wife!


Black

[walrus]

angel - Thanks! No Choice award yet, but I did make it onto the front page, so that's pretty cool!

arkinet - Thanks! Hope you'll be around for the next one, too. They should be announcing it in the next 4 weeks or so!

xric - Thanks, so did you.

pierre, benita, & ken - Thank you! Hope you all will be around for the next one too, we'll get 'em next time.

black - Thanks for all your help during the entire challenge. Maybe I wouldn't have gotten as much help from you if I weren't doing something so Lovecraftian, as that certainly grabbed your attention, but I do appreciate all of the help you had to offer. Can't guarantee a Lovecraft piece next time but I still hope you'll be 'round for it!

Catch you all soon - we have another one coming up!

-mike

[BlackDidThis]

Oh no it was the enthusiasm that got me to it... LoveCraft only enabled me to be able to comment more than I would maybe be able to.

This is not my only playground, I dedicate almost 8 or so hours of my days helping people through the internet in many area's I have a grasp on (Often getting abused ofcourse). But in any case, regardless to your image being H.P. Lovecraft or not; I don't think I shall be as helpfull here again after a very tasteless situation that I am still very annoyed by.

I am just started spending my spare evenings recently on redoing my entry in the 2D WIP forums and leaving it at that.. with an occassional visit to members dear to me or works that catch my attention. And I preffer leaving it to that for now.
I have some matters that may come my way this month on... and I may not be able to compete either. It all depends on the subject... I get seduced easily if they get as good as this one.

Well in any case all that matters is that you have done a wonderful peace of work that you should be very proud of... I am :thumbsup:


Black

[medunecer]

I have no words...Simply astounding! Great work!

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