Spectacular 2D Entry: Fernando García

[element5]

Hi there,

Lokking for to see what you will have for us...:)

[Art2]

Hey Fernando, good luck my friend! :thumbsup:
Nice to see you entering the challenge.

[elmasfeo]

Hi everybody! :wavey:

I'm reserving this post for writing a good story, I already have some ideas, so I will edit this post later.... I'm not very good at storytelling, and I'm terrible at storytelling in english, so I might need your help here also :D ...

I will post the first sketches later... in this challenge I'm not specially interested in finishing (I know I can finish a challenge because I finished the space opera), but now I'd prefer to get a really good idea going on, I mean, I prefer a very good sketch than a mediocre finished piece...
see you later...

--------- STORY WIP: ------------------------------------------------
(for the moment just the plain facts, if I can I would want it to look like part of a novel...)

A woman with her baby was travelling with and a big group of people... they discovered a cave and they went inside looking for shelter... they discovered a dragon was living there, everybody started running, she lost her baby and was pushed away from him by the running people, at the end she felt to the floor while the rest of people made their way out... lying in the darkness she heard the grumbling noises from the dragon, coming closer... she was sure she was going to die, but when the dragon entered the circle of light projected by a nearby torch, she saw the dragon holding carefully her baby in its mouth, bringing it to her...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

This challenge topic is so wide that I decided to just make something that I liked, and I do like dragons... It would probably be much more spectacular to watch a dragon destroying a town, but...I feel that was the easy way, what everybody would do, so I thought about trying to make something more evocative...something you wouldn't expect...

[elmasfeo]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/10/8483/8483_1126286444_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/10/8483/8483_1126286444_large.jpg)

This is the first concept, the story will be in the previous post... about this image:
good points: I like it.
bad points: it's completely sideview, and I'm not sure it's spectacular enough...

[NOOB!]

oh..yay...yet another dragon....:rolleyes:

:D concept is nice though,i agree with u on ur comment about the side view.

[GonzaloGolpe]

Hombre vecino!:) Bienvenido a este campeonato. Venga, que los que somos de aquí tenemos que arrasar:thumbsup:

Good luck and welcome!!

Zalo

[elmasfeo]

I've just written the few ideas of the story in the previous post...I do it to keep things a bit organized here...

NOOB - yep, yet another dragon, I know that's a negative point for the concept, but... what the hell, I like it :D Thanks for your comment

Gonzalo - jeje, aun no habia visto a ningun español por aqui! (reconozco que no he buscado mucho) Gracias por la bienvenida!!! ;)

[Squibbit]

your face has improved!

and u belong to Club Worm too!

yay!

:bounce:

.

[SoniaNotRed]

I think it's spectacular in a cute kind of way! :)

Suerte!

[Ducklator]

Hombre vecino!:) Bienvenido a este campeonato. Venga, que los que somos de aquí tenemos que arrasar:thumbsup:

Good luck and welcome!!

Zalohey, yo tambien pienso dar guerra en este challenge!:twisted:

buena suerte mas feo:thumbsup:

[elmasfeo]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/10/8483/8483_1126352647_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/10/8483/8483_1126352647_large.jpg)

Here is a different perspective and a sketch of the dragon's head (sorry for drawing on a used paper with things written on it)...
I think I over-exagerated the wings, I don't know, I'll keep trying...

Squib - hehehe, you know, they wanted a real photograph for the worm club's carnet...but your avatar...you've lost your wings and your halo...you've been naughty :D

Sonia - Thanks! (obrigado!)

Ducklator - Gracias... I'm waiting for your sketches.... ;)

Thanks for visiting!

[coCoKNIght]

hehe, i see your avatar had a style change from cartoon to photoreal :scream:
Entry looking good so far, i don't have much time right now, just subscribing so i don't miss anything.

[elmasfeo]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/10/8483/8483_1126383703_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/10/8483/8483_1126383703_large.jpg)

I've done a bad 3D model of the scene to play around with the camera position and look for a good POV, these are the 3 that I liked the most...
I think that maybe the image is too dark with this poor lighting, (colors are just random!)... in 'A' I think I should make the woman smaller, to keep the proportions of the first sketch, which I liked more...

What do you guys think?

[Art2]

I like 2 best I think. From this angle you can see the emotion of the woman most clear. What you could do is bring the camera a bit closer, maybe to the point where you only see the dragon's neck and head. The harmless nature of the dragon is expressed by the baby who is holding his arms towards his mother and laughing to her, feeling comfortable.

[Squibbit]

Squib - hehehe, you know, they wanted a real photograph for the worm club's carnet...but your avatar...you've lost your wings and your halo...you've been naughty :D


um... it's a disguise :)


and hey , 2D contest and u testing with 3D ? go buy a book on perspective and lighting
dude, haha . A friend of mine found a book like that with just 3 euros (40 dollar book)
from a flea market.

Strenght and Honour, man


.

[GonzaloGolpe]

B :) Yeah, I´d make smaller the woman and much bigger the dragon. An exagerated perspective. Ánimoo!!


Zalo

[Vahn]

B is the best imho ..and i agree with zalo ... a much bigger dragon :D

[elmasfeo]

cocoknight, art2, squibbit, Zalo & Vahn, thanks for your comments and support!!:scream:
ok, I'll go on from option B, it was the one I liked the most too, so I will continue exploring it, trying your sugerences, resizing objects, maybe changing canvas size...
in the while, the idea has continued evolving, so now I have 2 other concepts based on the same thing, I want to try more than one idea before going further... I will post some sketches later...

[daw]

this looks promising, and I have to agree with the B comp...

good luck Fernando!!!

[elmasfeo]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/10/8483/8483_1126595785_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/10/8483/8483_1126595785_large.jpg)

Here you can see two more ideas based on the same thing:

1- Timmy was playing knights in the forest when he found an incredibly big lizard....at the same time, mr. dragon finds a strange little creature that doesn't seem to be afraid of him... (so...change the woman and her baby by Timmy and his innocence)

2- The children of the town, tired of hearing the grown-ups complaining about the local dragon, decide to go and have a few words with him... in this case the scary dragon should be changed by an alarmed dragon...(a funnier approach)

[authentic]

Excellent posing on the little boy. The wood sword is a good idea.

[Arc80]

really like the design dude, especially with the dragon. Keep it up :thumbsup:

cheers and goodluck

[coCoKNIght]

Love those characters, very funny :scream:

[elmasfeo]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/10/8483/8483_1126872122_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/10/8483/8483_1126872122_large.jpg)

continuing with the original idea (I'm still not sure what to do), I picked the 'B' image in my previous post, and did a lot of cutting, pasting, resizing, painting over...and painting over again, so it looked more like I wanted it to look...
Then, with clearer ideas, I went back to the 3D model and resized some things and moved others... and here is what I consider (for the moment) the final perspective...

I think I'm going to use this 3D image as reference for lighting, and the 3D wireframe as reference for the line art...it's the first time I do something like this...

More to come soon...

Thanks for your comments, cocoknight, arc80, authentic, daw...it means a lot! :)
authentic - yes, I wanted the swords to be made out of wood, I don't know if that was clear without colors... thanks for stopping by...

[elmasfeo]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/10/8483/8483_1126884896_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/10/8483/8483_1126884896_large.jpg)

I've put an overlay layer on top of the grayscale 3D to test with different colors, for the moment just getting the feeling of what should I do with warm/cool colors....
I know that some of them are almost the same... I think I like the 5th one the most, but hearing some other opinions would be good...

as I don't have an idea of what makes images look good (or spectacular) I'm just trying to experiment with as many posibilities as I can for every step of it... maybe one day I'll buy some books (as squibbit said) and learn all those things the "usual" way... :D

[elmasfeo]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/10/8483/8483_1127055285_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/10/8483/8483_1127055285_large.jpg)

This is the first line art for the dragon, I printed a light grey version of the 3d image and drawed over it...I'm more comfortable drawing lines in the real world, without tablets...
there are some things I don't like, so I'll keep working on it...
The rear part of the dragon is going to be hardly visible, so I did it more loosely...

[elmasfeo]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/10/8483/8483_1127140658_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/10/8483/8483_1127140658_large.jpg)

so, I printed the previous image in light grey and draw over it again, cleaned it up a bit in PS and here it is...
the baby and woman are temporary, I cannot zoom in in paper...

Maybe the dragon has too many plates now, looks like some kind of robotic-samurai-dragon...I still can change some things.... (mmmm....a robotic-samurai-dragon destroying a modern city would be spectacular....)

[elmasfeo]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/10/8483/8483_1127316553_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/10/8483/8483_1127316553_large.jpg)

I thought that maybe my idea is not very spectacular, so I kept looking for more concepts...

one of them doesn't really need an explanation...it happend around 1970 years ago and that's a massive lightning in the background...I'm not sure I want to go religious though...

The other ones involve dragons (yes, more dragons), the top one is a group of helicopters escolting a giant dragon so nobody sees it or gets killed (you already know that governments are hiding us the existence of dragons, right?)

Then there is the sketch where mr dragon decides to imitate king kong climbing the empire state (I don't like this one), and the last one is just a dragon standing on the top of a building in a modern city...

[Zephyri]

hi elmasfeo, I don't care what Noob says, I like the dragon concept... and I haven't seen that many of them about yet! I really like the scene B on the 3d mock ups, you could even bring the dragon closer, make him bigger and crop in closer too, the sense of looking up at the dragon makes him look scarier, but then you'd see the baby dangling from the mouth, gurgling in the disgustingly cute way babies do (I'm actually thinking of scenes in Ice Age while I type this), which would be a total contrast. And of course the emotion of the woman is much more evident too.

But of course, it depends on whether you feel happy with the image. Don't forget spectacular doesn't necessarily have to be explosions and destruction, it can be something as simple as the way light catches over beautiful dragonscales.

[elmasfeo]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/10/8483/8483_1127321067_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/10/8483/8483_1127321067_large.jpg)

Same concepts as before, with some color...
I know that the hellicopter cockpit in the top one sucks, but it's just a sketch...

Zepyhri, thanks for your post! I haven't seen neither that many of dragons, :D I find them to be the most wonderful creature... I had more or less settled down with the perspective but after your comment I think I'm going to make some more experiments... big thanks! :)

[mybutterflyiris]

I'd have to concur. I think you should definately play around with perspectives and try some low eye levels looking up. It just seems like alot of your sketches are straight on...and with dragons I think an alternate view point gives you that extra kick needed. My favorite concepts thus far are the dragon carying the baby, and the kids and the dragon. Keep working, I'm sure you'll come up with something great in the end... just think of it as a dsg...your stuff is always extremely creative on there. :D

[SoniaNotRed]

I too agree on closing in on the B dragon.
Or you could also go back to the side view - closing in a bit more, I think. It has the advantage of showing us a lot more of what's going on - the big contrast between the huge dragon's head, the woman and her tiny baby, and the look on the woman's face.
It's not necessarily less spectacular - just think about that pic on the cover of Exposé 1.
Er... Unless, of course, you don't wanna go that way because of that pic... :blush:

[ppook]

:applause: :thumbsup:

Your avartar very very very very very cute.....5555555555555 I love it!!

[coCoKNIght]

hehe, sorry to say that, but i like the concept with the baby better and i don't think it's not spectacular enough. anyway, it's not like your new concepts aren't good so please do go on! :)

[elmasfeo]

mybutterflyiris - yes, I think that I'm somehow used to draw things always straight on, I've been doodling different perspectives, I'll post them later... Thank you!

sonianotred - I had been thinking about going back to the side view (1st post here), it was something that I liked and it would be easier for me... I'm not sure yet but I think I want to 'challenge' myself and try something I have difficulties with: perspective! about the exposé cover...I'll try to make it look different, I don't know how... Thanks for posting here! ;)

ppook - hahaha... thanks mate!

cocoknight - thanks!! hehe, I needed to hear that... :) :)

[elmasfeo]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/10/8483/8483_1127677797_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/10/8483/8483_1127677797_large.jpg)

these are some of the sketches trying to get a better perspective, the one at the center has some possibilities (neck may be too long, I didn't wanted it to look like a dinosaur), and I don't know about the bottom portrait one...

[Korline]

hello,
me I like the lightning on the cementery the most, very nice ideas
good luck man :D

[elmasfeo]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/10/8483/8483_1127678879_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/10/8483/8483_1127678879_large.jpg)

I think I had never drawed and erased and drawed over so many lines... and when I was happy with it I realized it was too similar to the 3D "sketch" 'B'... anyway...

[Tyrus88]

I really liked the one in the middle of your previous sketch, the dragon really feels big on that one. That's the best perspective I think.:)

[SoniaNotRed]

Middle one! :thumbsup:

And don't worry about the neck - perspective and artistic freedom allow to do that kind of thing. Boris Vallejo once did that to a horse! It was meant to make its motion more dramatic.

I like the arching neck, lifted paw and moving tail. They make the dragon come alive.

[elmasfeo]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/10/8483/8483_1127821817_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/10/8483/8483_1127821817_large.jpg)

it was difficult to continue without a bit of shading... so...

number 1 comes from the line art I had submitted, it looks good to me, probably because it's got more detail than the others
number 2 comes from the middle sketch 2 posts ago, perspective looks good but the neck is longer that what I wanted...:shrug:
number 3 is a mix (copy-pasting) between 3D sketch 'B' and number 2, it looks worse because it was done quicker...
number 4 comes directly from my last post, it's difficult to notice but I pretended that the woman was much more closer to the camera than the dragon, which would be very big (look at the baby's size) The dragon would be so big I couldn't use a single torch to light it, so I put a bigger fire...

korline - Thank you!! ;)

tyrus - thanks for your post! I'm still not sure what perspective to choose, but I have to make a decision soon... aargh! :argh:

sonia - yes...maybe...but it looks too much like a diplodocus IMO, that's why I'm a bit hesitant about it for the moment... thank you again for your support!

cheers!

[GonzaloGolpe]

que pasa nen:) The third I think it could be the best. Did you think on making the dragon even more big or near to watch better the baby?Animooo!!!



Zalo

[Vahn]

2nd & 3rd are the best ... cant really decide .... i like the long neck and the dragon is bigger in nr. 2 .. but in nr. 3 the woman is bigger & theres more negative space on the right side... mhhm mhhm ... you have to choose one :P :D

[ChrisThatGuy]

I really liked the one in the middle of your previous sketch, the dragon really feels big on that one. That's the best perspective I think.:)


Yeah, that would be my choice too. I like the lighting in your newest post, although maybe the dragon should be holding the baby off to the side of the fire, not over it, so it doesn't look like he's about to barbeque him.

[conundrum]

nice work so far, i would go for the top right of your last post. The pov makes the wings of the dragon look the most magnificent and it just seems to fill the space better than the others. i'm looking forward more progress

[Xillion]

I would choose the third but I really think the the initial sketch (lateral) reads better. It tells much more of the story and better portrays the emotion of the girl. The other are too menacing...you can't really tell the dragon is giving back the baby.

[elmasfeo]

oooh.. lots of posts...:love:
...and it seems like number 2 and 3 get all of the votes...

Zalo - well, the dragon is big in #2, anyway, I've tried scaling different parts of #3 now and it looks a bit better, thanks for the advice compañero!

Vahn - hmmm... negative space... that would sound really cool if I had done it intentionally, hahaha... I have to choose... preferably soon...

Chris (that guy) - hehehe, thanks, I'll move the fire to one side, we don't want to barbeque anybody... ;)

conundrum - Thanks for your opinion and for posting! ...I promise more progress this week, I'm on holidays until monday :scream:

Xillion - I think you are quite right, I also like the initial sketch a lot, but maybe it would be too flat... and not as challenging for me like playing with perspectives... I've not discarded it yet though, I'm so undecided...:banghead:


btw, I've written properly the story, but for the moment it's just in spanish and it's too long (35 lines), I have to cut it or something... (and it was longer before)

[mybutterflyiris]

Ok, like everyone else, I like the second and third sketches...and i think you can possibly capitalize on them both. If you were to take the third one for instance, and crop the bottom off...just the excess foreground space, it might give you a more intimate feel (not sure if you'd want that or what)...and if you moved the dragon, baby and all to the right towards the figure, so that the head of the dragon would lie right above the figure's knee, then I think you would have a more dynamic composition and it would allow you extra space for more spectacularness :D ...ie. massive dragonness, and wings as in sketch number two... .... anyways, just some thoughts...
Oh, and i do really like the lighting

[elmasfeo]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/10/8483/8483_1127910201_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/10/8483/8483_1127910201_large.jpg)

so, this is what I've done:
I followed mybutterflyiris' advice (Thanks!! :) ) in sketch #3, plus making the dragon bigger as Gonzalo suggested, copy-pasting, scaling... and then traced the main outlines (blue lines)
Then, in #2 I moved the dragon's head up a bit and made the woman bigger, and traced the outlines again. (red lines)
Then I joined both outlines in the same canvas and drew a new one over them, passing through the middle of red and blue lines (yellow)... and that's it. a pure mix-up!
at last, I painted the rough B&W scheme, to see it better...
I think I'm happy with this one, I should start the lineart soon...
Thanks to everybody!! :)

[GonzaloGolpe]

Nice Fernando, we´ll se your progress. About your last composition did you think on putting the dragon wings closing the space and make them bigger?The dragon would look like an offensive attituded and at the same time, docile:)


Animoooo

Zalo

[Vectorius]

Yeaaahh Fernondo!! that a nice sketch..:thumbsup: maybe make the viewer more clother of the dragon...maybe show just his neck and his and...and also show more facial expression of your character...anyway..good luck man it's a realy nice idea..see yaaaaaaaa:)

[elmasfeo]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/10/8483/8483_1128171625_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/10/8483/8483_1128171625_large.jpg)

this is a new line art, I will add some more details, and change some things I'm not happy with...

Thanks for the comments, I hope I can post more updates and better comments soon :)

[elmasfeo]

I've just finished seeing something really spectacular: there was an eclipse here, in Madrid, it left just a ring of sun around the moon... it's amazing, I didn't imagine myself running to see it and taking photos...

I projected it with a pair of googles into a tshirt, and took some pics of it: (googles are the reason why there are two suns in the pics)
http://www.telefonica.net/web2/chapuceros/secuencia.jpg

sorry, I just had to share it with the world :D , and now, back to the topic...

mybutterflyiris - Thanks a lot for your suggestion :thumbsup: :scream: it really helped!

Zalo - thanks fopr your support, wings are probably going to change, but not too much, you can see in the lineart that I made the right wing (dragon's left) a bit bigger, trying to cover more space...

Fiolka - Thanks for your post ;) it's a good idea but I think that's the way it could end up looking too much like the exposé1 cover... not in quality of course, hehe... at the end the light is going to hit mainly the neck and head so...

Thanks a lot!

[GonzaloGolpe]

Hehe, I live in Ferrol and I took this photo directly to the sun, but with my eyes closed hahah and look at the result. Under the flare, the lens reflected the eclipse!!:D

http://www.gonzalogolpe.com/eclipse.jpg

[Ducklator]

hey mas feo... I like your new angle... but I think that the dragon is fat...:D but I like it...:thumbsup: keep it up.. I'll wait to see more...:bounce:

[elmasfeo]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/10/8483/8483_1128420742_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/10/8483/8483_1128420742_large.jpg)

Here is a first approach to shading and a bit of colouring... I will try to play with shadows to make everything look bigger, there's still a lot of work to do...

[Art2]

hey fernando, good job!
I think you should twist the woman's body a bit. The way she lifts her upperbody is a bit uncomfortable right now, like she's doing sit-ups :) . She should twist her body and rest on her left arm.
edit: maybe you should try it and see what's comfortable. Anyway, just tried it :D it's quite possible, but I felt my abs, haha... yeah, maybe it's me :D

[elmasfeo]

ducklator - fat? uh... too much fast food I guess (those running sheep and cows...) ...hehe, I see what you mean, I'll see if I can make the middle-body a bit smaller, it's the damn perspective...

art2 - thanks for trying it hehe, :) I think I need some references... it's time to lie on the floor myself...

[DoInferno]

Definetely a better concept than a dragon destroying a town! Good luck buddy!

[FrozZT]

Hey! Looks nice so far! I would like you to develope the scales... Right now the scales looks like armor that the dragon i wearing so either make it merge with the more plain skin or develope the scales so that the whole body is cover in scales! Maybe make kind of a "fade" from "The big and hard scales that follows his spine" <-------> down to "smaller and softer scales", making the scales merge with the plain skin..

Good luck

[elmasfeo]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/10/8483/8483_1128878137_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/10/8483/8483_1128878137_large.jpg)

I've drawn this one with the pencil using as photoreference 2 or 3 pics of my newest cousins, then I corrected some mistakes and proportions digitally and penciled it over again...

It's maybe too realistic, I'm not sure I can mantain this level of realism in everything...

[elmasfeo]

doInferno - Thank you!:)

FrozZT - thanks for the comment, I will redo the scales, I wasn't liking them either... I was thinking in doing some "fade", I've been looking for references and I think I want something similar to crocodile on the top (spine) and snake in the bottom (belly), I will try it this week (I hope)

[coCoKNIght]

cute baby! might need some more work on the eyes though... or maybe dark sunglasses :D

[elmasfeo]

dark sunglasses? mmm... no, but maybe just normal glasses... :D

http://www.telefonica.net/web2/chapuceros/kirtavatar.jpg

I should've used kirt avatar as reference... hehe, next time

seriously now, I was wondering if I should make him look sad ("I want to go back with mom") or happy ("yeeeh, that's my mom!")
Now I've asked my sister to thow herself to the floor, and I finally have a GOOD reference for the woman... I will work on it now and post it later...

[coCoKNIght]

that's a tough decision since it's gonna have major influence on the final. I'm all for the happy version though that's just personal.

[elmasfeo]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/10/8483/8483_1128890321_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/10/8483/8483_1128890321_large.jpg)

...and this is her, with better pose and details... should I change the pose or the face expression? ...mmm

[Art2]

Good job on the woman :thumbsup:
Maybe make her look a bit more frightened, but it's already looking good now.
I'd make the baby happy and smiling, like it's the most normal thing in the world to be picked up by a dragon. This in contrast to the mother who knows better.

[elmasfeo]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/10/8483/8483_1128985530_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/10/8483/8483_1128985530_large.jpg)

hey, thanks!
I didn't have much time today, so I just pasted the baby and woman on the whole lineart... and I discovered that the new pose looks static and that she's not looking where she should ...sigh...that's the problem of separating the image in pieces... I think I should rotate her to see more of her back, what do you think? maybe I'm just paranoid and it's ok as it is now?

[GonzaloGolpe]

Hey, a good composition,but, about the dragon, I continue to think that you could do bigger. With your permision, I made a quick image based on your last sketch so you can see my proposal:) :

http://www.gonzalogolpe.com/elmasfeo.jpg

[SoniaNotRed]

I also had a smiling baby in mind... :)
Btw, I know you used a reference but shouldn't his hands be a little chubbier? It just a matter of making curver lines.

[elmasfeo]

ok, I'm definetly going to make a happy baby, it'll look better...:) thanks everybody

soniaNR - mmm...the reference I used for the hands (and some other parts) comes from a 1-2 years old girl instead of a baby and maybe that's it, I always have a lot of problems doing hands, even with reference...

gonzalo - hey, thanks a lot for taking your time to do that! ...I'm posting an image in a minute with a bigger dragon, but... I'm still not convinced, I don't know

art2 and cocoKnight - Thanks for stopping by!

I still need to know... is the woman looking odd? like she was looking at something at the left of the dragon? (not just with the eyes or head but with the whole body?)

[elmasfeo]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/10/8483/8483_1129035764_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/10/8483/8483_1129035764_large.jpg)

instead of making a bigger dragon I made smaller the woman, and reduced the height of the dragon legs... the problem now is that the woman is quite small in the picture, I could solve it by cropping, but I haven't found a size that I liked...(yet)

[elmasfeo]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/10/8483/8483_1129243688_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/10/8483/8483_1129243688_large.jpg)

I've been struggling with the scales design, trying to meke them bigger, smaller... and at the end I had the idea of supressing them, that's the image at the bottom, it's not very clear in the lineart but the idea is that the few scales that remain would fade into a smooth and wet-shiny surface... I have to make more experiments, nothing is sure yet...

You can also see a new baby face, no refs this time, hehe, just a modification on the previous

[elmasfeo]

...and this is a present for you all.... just for fun.

http://www.telefonica.net/web2/chapuceros/bebemalo.gif

...having fun was the main point of entering this challenge, wasn't it? :D

[OrO]

a sith baby...cool:) you should work on the mother a little bit more...good luck

[elmasfeo]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/10/8483/8483_1129472831_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/10/8483/8483_1129472831_large.jpg)

I changed the woman so she was looking more at the dragon... I've pasted it in the whole image and I think it looks better now

OrO - Thanks!:) is this enough? I think that I will make the next changes directly when I start coloring...

[GonzaloGolpe]

Yeah, I think this figure works better:)

Joer que pinta el niño jajaj en plan malo,maloso


Come on, we want see colour!!:thumbsup:


Zalo

[SoniaNotRed]

Hehe!

I'm starting to suspect that the dragon is the kid's father or something. :p

[elmasfeo]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/10/8483/8483_1130612345_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/10/8483/8483_1130612345_large.jpg)

thank you for the comments and sorry for the lack of updates...
I blocked the dragon and the woman, I tried to paint it red/warm where it's closer and blue/cold where it's further, but I don't know if it works well... it's a very early stage, trying some colors ...I also added a small blue light coming from the right, I don't know if I'll keep it either...

cheers

[elmasfeo]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/10/8483/8483_1130783534_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/10/8483/8483_1130783534_large.jpg)

these are some images I've been collecting to get ideas for the dragon skin... all of them are google searchs except the max7 one... I installed my brand new copy last week (jippy!) and to my surprise I discovered this precious scales... I hope I can do something similar, the amount of detail will depend on the time I can manage to put into this challenge...

[elmasfeo]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/10/8483/8483_1130785372_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/10/8483/8483_1130785372_large.jpg)

I've cleaned a lot of unnoticeable things, I've blocked out more areas, changed some colors and I've corrected some mistakes, but what you are going to find more "visible" is that I increased the contrast in the image... I think it looks better now... comments? crits?

[Art2]

Hey Fernando, nice going! I like the blue light.
The belly of the dragon looks a bit flat. Maybe give it a mor rounded form. More organic.
What are your plans for the background? An old ruined castle would be great. The dragon's home...

[elmasfeo]

Hi Marlon! :) well, I have to admit I was thinking in leaving the background black and undetailed, but after your post I think it shouldn't be very difficult to just make some silouettes of more columns and archs... I was thinking that it would be the inside of a cave, mixing natural rocks with columns and architecture...a bit like the first part of moria in LotR...

thanks!

[SoniaNotRed]

Yep, looks better! :thumbsup: (http://forums.cgsociety.org/misc.php?do=getsmilies&wysiwyg=1&forumid=0#)

[elmasfeo]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/10/8483/8483_1131212493_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/10/8483/8483_1131212493_large.jpg)

Obrigado Sonia!

well, this is a test to see how would it look with more columns and rocks in the background... I think I should add more rocks and less columns or it would look like a cathedral, and I wanted it to be more like a cave...
I don't have much time these days but I'll try to finish it in the 29 days we have left...

[MrFreeman]

:thumbsup: looking good so far Fernando....

I really love the composition and lighting...really coming along

My only thought was that the dragons legs look a bit too straight in the latest composition, unlike some of your sketches where the joints and weight looked a little more realistic. But hey, how many dragons have I seen, so only trying to help...mmmm

perhaps try bending the lower part of the front right (nearest to camera) a little, but keeping the feeling of weight that works really well....looking forward to seeing the next development.

Great work :thumbsup: :beer:

[elmasfeo]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/10/8483/8483_1131449940_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/10/8483/8483_1131449940_large.jpg)

Thanks fot your comments, Freeman! here you can see that I've changed the legs position as you suggested, is it any better now?

I've also been working on the nearby column, I wasted a lot of time on it because I didn't know what was I doing or where did I wanted to get... and I still don't like it very much...

Thanks for stopping by!

[GonzaloGolpe]

Muy buenas Fernando!:) Like the use of light, I´ll watch your progress on it. You can add some red,magenta,yellow and oranges touches to the foreground column too but, anyway, you´re constructing this job:thumbsup: Animooo!!!


Zalo

[DoInferno]

Hi man. How are things going for you on this contest? Hope everything is fine...

D Day is coming. Good luck again!

[cLos71]

That background really helps, it adds so much depth. I can understand Freeman's point. Maybe as a point of reference look at a bone structure of a reptile leg and how the flesh wraps around it. For example, in your reference page you have the image of what looks like a lizard, see how the front leg kind of bulges out in some parts and seems to get thinner on the joints... that kind of action. Doesn't need to look specifically like that but that's the idea. You got great reference, work them textures! Suerte!

[elmasfeo]

Thanks for your support guys :love: ....

Zalo - graciaaas... yes, I was thinking about adding oranges, I just forgot about it... sorry for not commenting on your thread now, I just can't think of anything wrong with it...suerte!

CLos - muchas gracias too for pointing that out, I was blind looking at the reference pictures just for the scales and I was forgetting about bones and muscles, I've been told that the leg looks like a tree trunk, I'll try to change it so it looks more "animal"...

DoInferno - Hi, thanks for asking mate :) ...about the D-Day and the deadline...I'm not sure wether I'm going to finish in time or not, but I'm going to try...

My computer is semi-dead right now, and I should be starting a small job soon where they would pay me for sitting on a chair and do nothing, if I can manage to bring a tablet and photoshop there I will probably finish, if not... I will finish it later and post it in the 2d section...

[GonzaloGolpe]

Gracias hombre por tus consejos también y suerte!:thumbsup:

[budji]

I think you should add another finger to the dragons feet, one in back, you know? with a big nail (I dont know the word in english).

[cLos71]

te quedan dos semanas hombre! Animate. Update, update, update :bounce:

[elmasfeo]

Gracias Carlos and obrigado budji!! :) sorry about the lack of updates, I'm quite sure I'm not going to finish, but I'll keep updating until the end, I'm not going to abandone it, but I don't want to rush at the end and ruin it, I'll better take my time and finish it after the deadline, whenever I find the time necessary...

so... thinking about all the dragon anatomy an all those scales made me feel lazy, so I decided to paint the woman, I'll post my progress in a minute... budji, thanks for your advice, I'll try it to see how it looks, but probably not yet, I'm thinking I should redraw a lot of parts of the dragon to make it look better...:thumbsup:

zalo, el dia que me toque hacer las escamas del dragon necesitaré alguno de los sacos de paciencia que usaste para hacer tus casitas enanas...guardalos por ahi!
carlos, gracias por el apoyo! ya veremos hasta donde llego en esas dos semanas...ojalá trabajara tan rápido y bien como tu, jeje...

[elmasfeo]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/10/8483/8483_1132618346_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/10/8483/8483_1132618346_large.jpg)

I was enjoying painting her, so it took a while... and it's not finished yet, but I'm quite happy about how she's looking
she's painted all in just one layer, I don't know why, it was some kind of experiment...maybe not the fastest way, but it's a funny way that I had not tried a lot...

ummm...maybe the dress color is a bit strange?

[cLos71]

... is fine. The only thing I'm concerned about is her forearm, is way long. If you draw a line straight down from where the breast line curves in — at the bottom— that's more or less were the hand should be. Otherwise, it looks good! I like how the blue fill light from the right is hitting the back of her head, arms and dress. It adds volume and definition and works really well.

[SoniaNotRed]

The dress looks OK.

[elmasfeo]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/10/8483/8483_1132879339_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/10/8483/8483_1132879339_large.jpg)

thanks!
was it something like this what you meant, Carlos? it's not a big change, I think I'll start working in some other areas of the picture...
thanks for your comments!

[walrus]

Hey, it's coming along well! The colors are really beautiful, I really like your paletter for the shole piece, as well as this one detail.

The length of her arm is much better now. One thing you may want to think about (if you have time!) is comparing her two arms/wrists/hands. The far one is more tapered and delicate, while the close one is more blocky. And not just because it's a fist: The tapering of the arm to the wrist is very different on the two arms no matter what her hands mnay be doing. Personally, I really like the taper of her far arm, but either way, maybe they should match.

Anyhow, good luck with that and all the rest of it!

-mike

[elmasfeo]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/10/8483/8483_1133007636_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/10/8483/8483_1133007636_large.jpg)

ok, I started painting the baby... all those smalls details...

walrus! thanks a lot for your comments, it means a lot...

I'm not sure I understood it, but I've touched the wrists up a little, I'm not sure about what should be done exactly... is it any better? worse? the same?
Right now I prefer to learn new things (like wrist tapering) than to reach the deadline, so ...thank you :)

[cLos71]

What walrus is talking about is the size of the wrist. How the forearm goes from larger on the elbow and then it gets smaller towards the wrist. Large to small or viceversa, that's tapering.
Get to work on the dragon! :bounce:

[DoInferno]

I think Walrus is right... The left arm has a thicker fist than the right one, and the right one is more like a female fist... Drawing hands is tough... Take a detail pic of a hand on this position and try it...

Anyway, in my opinion this issue won´t be a big trouble to the image as a whole. And i must tell you, i´m curious to see the entire pic now that you made those details.

Keep it up and good luck wit that job!

[OrO]

go..go.goo..there's not much time left..good luck:bounce:

[elmasfeo]

Thanks for your comments guys!

you're right doinferno, drawing hands is hard, I hope I can fix it... I've edited it again, but it's not a big change... I'm starting with the dragon now, the problem is that I don't have clear how do I want the scales to look and time is running fast... today I'm at the university from 9 to 21h, aaargh, I wish I had more time!!! I need 32h in each day instead of just 24!

Thanks for your support! :love:

[elmasfeo]

well, before the challenge ends I wanted to share with you the story I had written for it, it's full of expressions that are probably wrong and words that I had to look up on the english-spanish dictionary because my english is not that good ...and my storytelling abilities are horrible in any language, so I would thank any literary help, even if it's off-topic (not image related)... here it goes:

Spanish version: espectacular.txt (http://www.telefonica.net/web2/chapuceros/espectacular.txt)
English version:

It had been two years since she had left her home, and now, at last, the day when she would see it again was getting closer. She and her husband had left to the East to trade with products that were not easily found in their land. A lot of things had changed since then: her husband had been murdered when some bandits assaulted the group they were
travelling with, but, before dying, he had given her a son that he would never see growing. Now she was on her way home with a big travellers group, since bandits rarely attacked big groups of people. The caravan chief was talking to a pair of explorers that had just come back from examining the area, apparently they had found a good natural shelter,so that night they wouldn't be forced to sleep at the outside. The caravan started moving lazily and, after some time, they were installed at the mouth of a spacious cave which end wall they couldn't see.

That same night there was a big storm and, to protect themselves from the cold winter wind, the woman and the majority of the group picked up their things and, lighting up some torches, went into the cave. To their surprise, they discovered that the cave was much deeper that what they had originally thought. The curiosity moved them forward, and the
woman saw some objects in the floor that she could not identify when, suddenly, she heard horror cries and those who had went deeper into the cave came back running towards the cave mouth. At the very next moment, everybody was running mad, shouting and pushing each other in an uncontrolable turmoil. In the middle of all the shoving, she stumbled and fell to the floor with her baby. One hand picked her and pulled her up while people continued pushing her forward, but she had left her baby behind, he had slipped from her hands when she fell and now she couldn't spot him. She tried to move back looking for him, but the shoving brought her down and she fell to the floor again, hitting her head against a stone.

She woke up confused in the cave's floor, lit just by a few torches abandoned when people fleed away. She wondered what had caused that stampede, but all of her thoughts were put onto her son. Suddenly a deep and retumbing sound made the confusion in her head to vanish at once, there was something moving behind the area lit by the torches, at the deep of the cave. The sound was heard again, like a deaf and prolongued grunt, and she felt that
some kind of enormous creature was moving towards her. With a feeling of dreamy irreality she saw with increasing terror how a menacing dragon of gigantic size entered into the circle of light, and her terror turned into surprise when she saw what the dragon was carrying with great care: right there, hanging from the dragon's jaws, it was her son, with a big smile on his face and stretching out his arms towards her...

[cLos71]

What did you have in mind if any for the scales? If you don't have much time to draw scales, give a hint of scales w/o draving every single one of them. Play with the lighting so the back/top side of the dragon is in shadow. This way you can emphasize the head with the baby that is really important and hint a scale texture on the darked side w/o killing yourself. This is an example (http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=224744&page=2&pp=15) of what I mean. The scales are there, but w/o drawing all of them, just hints. You get the idea... Best of luck man I hope this helped. I'll keep an eye on your thread :thumbsup:

[DoInferno]

The writing is great!

[SoniaNotRed]

Cool story! :thumbsup:

Hope you make it with the pic. Good luck!

[elmasfeo]

hey cLos, thanks a lot for that tip, I think it's going to be really useful... I liked that image of yours, it was a pity that you didn't finished it...

DoInferno, thanks mate!!

Sónia, thanks a lot too!... but...

The bad news is that, I'm really sorry, but I'm not going to finish it in the few hours that are left, I've been terribly busy... good news is that I want to finish it after the challenge is over, I'll create a new thread in the wip section when I find the time... and then, without time pressure, I'll add a lot of details in the dragon, the background... I want this one to be the best image I've done... to push myself forward, that's the idea...

Thanks everybody!!! :bounce:

PS I managed to work on it a bit more, I'll post it in 5 mins...

[elmasfeo]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/10/8483/8483_1133783033_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/10/8483/8483_1133783033_large.jpg)


I printed the lineart in soft grey and drew over it some kind of guidelines to paint the scales later... I redesigned the "plates" at its back too

Most of the scales wont we very visible, but I needed to know where would they be...

[FrozZT]

Thats what i was talking about when i mentioned the scales earlier! Looks great! There is one thing about the dragon that i would change.. I would make his rear legs/thighs a little bit bigger. It looks a little bit unnatural that the rear and front legs are the same..

[elmasfeo]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/10/8483/8483_1133797699_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/10/8483/8483_1133797699_large.jpg)

...so here's what I got

[elmasfeo]

Thanks frozzt :) ...I will look what you say about the rear legs...


Thanks everybody who has posted on this thread, specially Gonzalo for being there with useful comments since the beggining, and Sónia thanks a lot too, cLos71 for your support at the end, art2 and cocoKnight (where are you?), DoInferno ;) , OrO, FrozZT, mybutterflyiris, Vahn, to crazy Squib, to walrus, MrFreeman, Zepyhri, Authentic, Daw, budji, Fiolka Alexandre, Xillion, conundrum, Christhatguy, tyrus, korline, ppook, arc80, element5 and noob! Thanks for your comments, crits and suggestions! and thanks to all the people who visited the thread!

...maybe I'm thanking too much for something I haven't even finished :D hehehe...

Good luck everybody with your own entries, and sorry about not visiting them all the often I should've done... time is tricky, it runs out of one's hands...

I hope to see you all in future challenges! I'm happy with the result of this one, I've got an image going on that I like, hopefully better than anything I had done previously but worse than anything I will do in the future!:D ...I've learned some useful things and I've had a lot of fun!

take care you all :beer: :beer: :beer:

[Ducklator]

hey feo, nice coloring.... but you're slowly (like me:D ) go, go, go!!! the deadline is dangerously closer!!:bounce:

[ilusiondigital]

Wassuo elmasfeo, great image, but the deadline is today..... corre Fernando que te puede quedar impresionante (aun que esta mortal tal y como esta), suerte tio

[Ducklator]

hey uglyest, mas suerte para la proxima, sin embargo, me gustara ver tu trabajo terminado en finished 2D forum.... :thumbsup:

[elmasfeo]

DuckL & ilusiondigital: Graciassss.... siento no haber contestado antes....

Since the christmas holidays are finishing and I still haven't find a moment to continue this piece I'll leave it until mid-february.... I have a hell of things to do, and January is going to be much worse :sad: ... I'm sorry guys

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