Eon (Illustration) Entry: Linda Smith

[Ivy00]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12196/12196_1160999656_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12196/12196_1160999656_large.jpg)

Just trying to get a feel for the colors and the Fifth Chamber. I am still in the process of reading the book.

[Ivy00]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12196/12196_1161044243_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12196/12196_1161044243_large.jpg)

Still trying to get a feel for colors...

[thepineman]

i like your vision for this image.

[AK47]

looking great, i like it. good luck

[Ivy00]

Thanks I am struggling though, working on a few more ideas and just having fun :)

[Nekomouse]

Heya there!

This is looking good so far. I really liked the arch in the first picture, maybe you could transport it across to the background of the second?

Anyway, good luck and have fun!

[Ivy00]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12196/12196_1161529263_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12196/12196_1161529263_large.jpg)

Almost finished the book and decided to start some line drawings, see if I can get something going here....

[Ivy00]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12196/12196_1162294141_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12196/12196_1162294141_large.jpg)

This is the first human subject I have tried to render from a line drawing on the pc. It is a lot of fun, any suggestions anyone has I will be forever in your debt :)

[TheFirstAngel]

Hi Linda!
first of all thanks for your very very nice words over in my thread :)
choosing the fifth chamber was a cool choice, spooky landscapes are very cool to render.
since the book describes it to be a dark environment, the desaturated colorrange of brown and greyscales are really cool.
mow some thoughts on the light. the human eye has that hdr effect, the iris always trys to adjust on the best possible range wich in darker environment causes some striking highlights.
since your colorrange mainly focusses on warmgrays, cyan and blue offer well for some light effects. i researched on the colorranges plasma has and think a warm/cold colorplay could work well for your piece. also, cyanish cold light always adds nice accents to human skin, sort of spoils it. to deciede on a specific lightsource helps very much to render a clear crisp result. :)
now for the girl. the ambient light you chose is in the midranges wich actually causes very soft to none shadows trought the scattered light. on human skin, there's places like nosetip, the eyearea, the borders of lips, also cheeks being slightly reflective and having a high specularity. there's the place to play with light, but basically, since the tubelight is the main lightsource, tendences are toplight. adding some specular highlights will help her much.

i made you a little overpaint where i marked you some tips, hope you can get some helpful clues out of it(hope you are able to decrypt m hiroglyphes :blush:).

for a first human face rendering, its is a very good start. keep up the great work and cant wait to see what you make out of the tips i gave you on the file :)
best of luck and keep on rocking! :beer::buttrock::wip:
http://angel3d.ch/content/challenge/xtra/ivy_ovp.jpg

[Ivy00]

THANK YOU :) This will be a huge help , if you were close I would hug you, well what the heck *hugs. If I can get her to look anywhere near that nice by playing with the highlights, shadows, color tones etc...... This is the 4th or 5th attempt at a Patricia, the first 4 or 5 ended up looking like Michael Jackson , scary . * goes off to decipher the hyroglyphs Thank you again for the help :) :) :)

[Ivy00]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12196/12196_1162513079_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12196/12196_1162513079_large.jpg)

checking composition and colors.... still in rough stages

[Ivy00]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12196/12196_1162686923_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12196/12196_1162686923_large.jpg)

just another update, still working on the composition to see what fits, etc.

[nwiz25]

really love that glint in her eyes! :love: teamed up with an intriguing concept! :p

cool! :thumbsup

[Ivy00]

Thanks, still working on it and especially her, I had to focus on other things for a while to make sure everything will work together.

[Ivy00]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12196/12196_1162938570_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12196/12196_1162938570_large.jpg)

still roughing in some stuff and just having a lot of fun with this :)

[TheFirstAngel]

Hi Linda!
thanks for your very nice words, you are really just one of a kind :).
I thought i post you some thoughts on your progress, and weee, i come back and you pushed it forward 3 steps already!
The 3rd composition heads into a good direction, basically starts picking up the all over tubefeel of the story. :) the idea with the pyramids is quiet nice.
what i actually miss a bit and would be a nice add is the tube - tubelight, plasmabeam. its like the soul of the stone and almost like a mainactor too - also. in the hope you feel inspired,, i added you a few links, you also miht goole for plasma yourself - plasma offers really all kind of great colored light - some cool shots of plasmaresonance are here (http://www.resonanceresearch.com/aurora-borealis-tube-excited-gasses-neon-display.htm) or you might kow those nice toys (http://www.c-realevents.demon.co.uk/ppd02/Plasma%203.JPG) ^^ I'd love to see you go flight in the great possebileties plasmalight offers in colors :)
keep up the great work, the facerendering looks very nice already, set into the right light, the piece will be striking and great, no doubt!
keep on rocking, lookeing forward to your next update:beer::buttrock::wip:
cheers

[NH]

Hmmmm...interesting vision :thumbsup:
As Sacha am wainting for lighting and I think that U can add more contrast and color too.
Good luck Linda keep up the good work :scream: waiting for your next update :)

[daWinky]

Hey Linda,

nice to see how your concept sketches are coming together...and I really like the idea of a blend with Patricia and the scenery:thumbsup: !
I agree with Sacha about the missing feel of the cylindrical environment and also recomment to integrate this plasma tube in your picture - this will be a great way to have some interesting lighting for your scene.
Good start and im curious to watch your next steps! :)

Cheers,

-sabrina

[Ivy00]

Thank you thank you everyone for the nice crits

I have been debating on the plasma tube for the picture, the scene I am trying to depict from the book is pitch black, but I do need to get some light in there somehow. I will experiment with the plasma tube and also experiment with some backlight on the objects that are supposed to loom out of the dark. * goes back to playing

Thanks for the links Sacha :) I always wanted one of those lightening ball things

[Ivy00]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12196/12196_1163183173_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12196/12196_1163183173_large.jpg)

Working on lighting now and a little bit more on Patricia.

[Ivy00]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12196/12196_1163378954_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12196/12196_1163378954_large.jpg)

Back to some work on Patricia. With much thanks to Sacha and his paintover I got some great advice... now if I can only make her look as beautiful as he did.

[TheFirstAngel]

:) great progress. the first harder contrasts take place wich is helping the composition much. Patricia is making nice progress too, dont be affraid of adding a few hard contrasts on her too. a way that you can laydown shadows is make a new layer, put it on blendmode multiply, then pick a light skincolor for start, paint shadows on the new layer, if you feel like its getting too dark you can easily erase locally or pull back opacity for general shadow amounts. also, some hard shadows help the plasicity a lot, skin looks much more brilliant if it has a nice wide range of values, such as shadows, highlights, and a wide palette of midtones :) i think a bit more shadow under her chin could help :)

make sure you controll your axis from time to time, centerline and eye nose mouth. her nose mouth section has a different angle than her eyes, shouldn't be a problem, new layer, paint centerline - then height - then go back to painting layer, lasso soft edge locally, copy paste turn and paint transitions, merge :)

an idea for a harmonic transition or integration was to pick up that nice purple light you strated and use it as a rimlight on patricia, so she looks like she gets light from the scene.

looking forward to your next update. keep on rocking! :beer::buttrock::wip:

[Ivy00]

Sacha - Thank you , ha ha I knew she was crooked eyed and getting kind of a neandrathal look because of it. I had been moving her eyes around before your post to try to correct it, but silly me, didn't think of going back to basics and redrawing guidelines for measurements. I will do that and hope I get the problem corrected. :D :D :D

[Ivy00]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12196/12196_1164317618_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12196/12196_1164317618_large.jpg)

I threw my old Patricia in the recycle bin because she was looking more like something from Planet of the Apes and only kept the tip of her nose. (I liked that part of the old one). Did a little more with the lighting, still struggling but I think it is improving little by little. Any comments and suggestions are most welcome.

[brrrhmmm]

Side by Side comparisons So that you know who is doing

what in the illustration category of the eon challenge only.

Classifier followed by artists.

: Strong/Beautiful Foreground Potraits with EON elements in the background.

Movie Posters theme.

Characters in dramatic poses.

Characters have detailed skin,muscle and skeletal structures.





Linda Smith

William Leafe

Raffy Encarnacion Dermawan

Marco Alejandro Castelan Morales

John Streider

Radu Bogdan Boeru

Tiberius Viris

Sacha angel diener

Niklas Frostgard

Michael van den bosch

sandra bott

michael dashow

nabil hamadi

alwyn talbot

timur kiryashov

damir g martin

Nathan L Bachelder

Daniel lu visi

Maurizio Manzieri

dale thomas

ego lataire

rune rask

guo jian

hugo araujo

: massive architectures,detailed cityscapes,plasma tubes,huge eon elements viewed in the distance in the style of grand space opera with miniscule,faceless,diminutive men ,women and all terrain machines reacting and responding to the environment.



Timur Kiryashov

Mark Goldsworthy

Roman Bernhard Eppstein

Raffy Encarnacion Dermawan

Tiberius Virius

remko troost

tolgahan gungor

torsten wolber

nathaniel west

ramy badie

bryce smith

martin nielsen

emrah elmasli

mauricio alvarado kladt

prabath wijayantha

maciej frolow

nilesh ambekar

constantinos krystallis

greg kaperski

adrian fekete

reinaldoromero

marcin j. nikiforuk

james nelms

maurizio manzieri

jarek sznytzer

Derek wilson

Nazirull Safry Paijo

Daniel justin bird

dale thomas

erik linden

rune rask

david freeman

ori arad

markus graf

ali jalali

raffy encarnacion

alex kelly

jennifer Kathleen Phillips

: air ,sea atmosperics featuring natural elements of islands,skies blend into a grand sense of scale.Includes Tree elements.Gaia oriented.Mountain views and Spectacular chamber vistas. Sky atmospherics

lei huang

adrian baluta

gonzalo golpe

gunilla elam

jonathan colvin

guo jian

oscar jostedt

brian Slayton

yann tisseron

yaroslav kravchenko



: party scene with the character interacting and gossiping

Parties gathered at gate opening

Radu Bogdan Boeru

nekomouse

: wonderful sense of humor even black humor and caricature

Torsten Wolber

per trystad

mark david

: action packed conflict with eon elements in the backdrop and lots of machines,ships,cities and soldiers

thierry schiel

paul hume

: entire cities,planetary bodies,asteroids,weather systems,gates,singularities,flawships and space vehicles in awe inspiring perspectives with large scale explosions.Ships have beautiful designs.Space Atmospherics.

Dmitri G Michniouk

Mark Alford

sacha angel

neville de souza

prabath wijayantha

greg kaperski

mona eriksson

attilla kurt

vladimir davidenko

paul b castillo

juha kamarainen

mauricio alvarado kladt

joel carlo

shawn andrews

matt benya

Derek Wilson

blaz porenta

oscar jostedt

pavel elagin

yann tisseron

blaz porenta

: detailed explanatory tutorials

sacha angel

matt benya

[Ivy00]

brrhmmmm : at first when I logged in I thought maybe you had spammed up the forums. This is a nice list and probably took some time to get together. I missed the tutorial posted by Matt Benya so will go off to find it. Thanks for the list :)

[Ivy00]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12196/12196_1164487046_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12196/12196_1164487046_large.jpg)

I have been working on the final part of the composition. Originally my idea was to have a large horizon of the earth with a city burning, but it really didn't fit. So I popped the earth all over the place and ended up with it in the right front with a big mushroom cloud. I am thinking I need to take the cloud all the way across the top , ( not as intense colors though the further it goes left). Comments and suggestions welcome and needed.

[mdavid]

Your illustration is looking excellent. I think the new Patricia is an improvement too. The soft colours and brush-work make a lovely evenly-toned montage but I agree with TheFirstAngel's suggestion of some shadows and highlights on Patricia. Keep up the cool work!

[Ivy00]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12196/12196_1164559780_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12196/12196_1164559780_large.jpg)

My second Patricia, adding a bit of shadow and light to her....shrunk the top lip made the bottom lip larger.. this might not be my final Patricia, I am learning people as I attempt this and doing a lot of little portrait studies to try to familiarize myself and become more comfortable with facial features ( trying to keep then lined up etc.) It is easier for me to do a straight on face as opposed to a tilted one, once I tilt the head the eyes go crooked, the lips end up out in left field and the nose points the wrong way, ha ha. I would still love some feed back on the earth element of the composition :)

[daWinky]

Hey Linda,

great to see your new Patricia, I think it was a good idea to restart her this way, she already looks much more pleasant than the former version:thumbsup: , I'm curious now to see how you bring the rendering of the face further!
I like the addition of the earth in your scene and for me it works well:) ...
Looking forward to discover your progress!

-sabrina

[Ivy00]

mdavid - Thanks :) I did start to add some light and shadow to her and hoping I can get everything correct with that aspect, but I bet I could think better if I had one of those spaceships with a nice comfy chair to sit in while I work ......

Sabrina - Thank you, ha ha if you thought the first one was odd looking you should have seen the first 7 or so I tried to do of Patricia, if this was a horror challenge they would have fit perfectly. I was just happy to get one that looked somewhat human. I have to quit looking at this for a few days, I can already see things that are off on the second Patricias face that need to be corrected, (right side of the lip too short and a few other things) so those will probably be my next steps on her.

[daWinky]

Hey Linda,

naaa, I've said nothing about looking odd!:scream: I've read that Patricia is the first human face you're painting, so I think your doing really good work here:) ...if you acquire a taste for it you should desperatly visit the Anatomy Forum of cgtalk, there are great learning resources for all skills about drawing and painting the human anatomy and you can start your own sketchbook thread to collect your work and get feedback from others...the forum leader Rebecca is a fabulous teacher and has created a great atmosphere to learn and work **advertising*:) - I think you can also find some helpful hints just for giving your Patricia more depth with highlights and shadows...

Let's see an update soon!

-sabrina

[Ivy00]

Sabrina: ha ha no you didn't say that she looked odd, sorry about that. I don't think I am allowed to type here what I thought of it though :) Thanks for the suggestion, I did discover the anatomy threads a few days ago and have been checking them little by little. I found one called the beginners thread and was going to start from the start in that one, but darned if I can find it again. I sent a pm to Rebecca and I am sure she can point me back to it. It is fun doing humans , I have pencil sketched a few , never tried any other traditional methods though (pastel, watercolor, etc.) I find working on the computer is a lot easier except for the fact that I like to stand back from a whole work and look to see what is wrong and what isn't, but I would need a huge monitor to really see the whole thing working in CG, I'll get used to it though, it is sometimes easier to see the larger flaws when it is not full sized.

[TheFirstAngel]

excellent progress linda, you're getting more and more comfortable with human face renderings do you? great work, getting better and better :) keep on rocking!

[Ivy00]

sacha: To be perfectly honest I would not have had the ambition to go on with it if not for you and your encouragement and help, thanks thanks thanks :) :) :).. Yes I am getting more comfortable and have started some gestural drawings for the beginners anatomy thread , maybe someday I will be able to attach a head to a body, heh heh

[mdavid]

Sabrina raises some cool suggestions there. I've heard nothing but good stuff about Rebecca's work in that forum. Part of the reason why I'm not contributing much to this thread is because I'm not expert at drawing faces. Apart from a bit of cheering I'm limited in what I can offer. I'm really glad to know you're looking into that forum. One day I might start my own beginners thread in there. But having said all that, the new Patricia is looking heaps better. Well done! :)

As for your comment about standing back and seeing the whole composition - well me too. I'm always zooming in and out on my work - using technology instead of walking backwards and forwards. Little wonder we need to do extra exercise these days to stay fit

[Ivy00]

mdavid - I need all the cheering section I can get, being a newbie it is really encouraging to have some cheering and keeps me going :) If you ever do start a beginners thread somewhere be sure to let me know, I would not miss that for the world. Not only would I learn, I would get some good laughs too .

[Ivy00]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12196/12196_1165088379_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12196/12196_1165088379_large.jpg)

still working on Patricia , she keeps morphing on me :)

[Thaldir]

She has a very intense expression, very Patricia :) .
Just a small thing if I may (and it's one I've a lot of trouble with myself in frontal portraits) her right eye (left-side for us) seems to be quite a bit smaller than the right. Part of it may be an effect of the shadow there but I'd suggest you to keep an eye (pun intended) on it, maybe flipping the image horizontally every now and then.
Just my two cents, of course :-)

[Ivy00]

Thaldir - I had noticed that also and I think she needs one of those really good European plastic surgeons for a nose job, ha ha it got kind of like holy nostril Batman you can fit a tuberider up that thing, large, that's what I get for working on her with a headache.

[Thaldir]

Truth be told I hadn't noticed the nostril :), it doesn't look like such a big difference in size to me (although each one has his/her own pet pevees, mine are eyes).

[Ivy00]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12196/12196_1165619489_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12196/12196_1165619489_large.jpg)

Made a few more changes to Patricia, gave her a nose job, evened out the eyes. Changed the shape of the mushroom cloud a bit to look more like a nuclear explosion (higher column) rather than just a bomb cloud. As always suggestions are welcome.

[mdavid]

Great to see the updates coming in! Patricia is looking better and better. One thing that might help is to make the stars at the lower part of the image to be spaced a bit more unevenly

[Thaldir]

Yes! :) Patricia's surgeon was a good one, way to go!

I second the suggestion about the starfield, the stars should be of slightly different sizes and hues to look more natural.
An aquaintance on another forum once suggested to 'play with shapes' when doing starfields, like in a 'connect the dots' game because that's what the human eye does with constellations, so we don't se stars as an even scattering of white dots but as points defining shapes...

Another thing; are you planning to add something to the space below Patricia? Right now it feels a bit empty to me, maybe moving the ship down a bit?

Just my 2 cents, of course :)

[Ivy00]

mdavid - Thanks , I will research star fields :) now you go make me a bobble head for one of your ships , ha ha

Thaldir - I have been looking at that space for quite some time, but have also been kind of keeping it blank. I am going with the movie poster approach and will probably have that be my text area. Not quite sure yet though , I will have to wait until I start playing with the text. Just in case the text does not work I have a little concept sketch of a russian on a sled . Thanks for the compliments on Patricia, it has been quite a challenge for me to attempt a human portrait.

[Ivy00]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12196/12196_1166285839_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12196/12196_1166285839_large.jpg)

Ok got my text in and hoping it fits with the rest of the composition. I of course still need to work on Patricia a bit , well actually a lot :) Any crits are appreciated.

[Thaldir]

Personally I like very much the font you've used, but I find that the strong diagonal of the text doesn't fit really well with the composition you've here.
It leads my eye to 'bump' against the side of Earth (so to speak), and from there I slide up to the starfield between the fungus and the asteroid.

I'd suggest you try a variant with the text horizontal and see how it feels.:)

[Ivy00]

Thaldir - lol fungus, it is supposed to be smoky foggy type stuff.... guess I better get some fungicide ha ha. I tried the font all kinds of ways, but can keep experimenting of course .

[Thaldir]

Ooops, sorry, linguistic barrier :) I meant the nuclear *mushroom* of course, in my native language the two are one and the same: 'fungo'.

[Ivy00]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12196/12196_1166303643_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12196/12196_1166303643_large.jpg)

Ok here is some text horizontal, and also one with the curvy angled one moved back a little and a bit smaller. Help :)

[Ivy00]

Thaldir, ha ha, darn language barriers

[Thaldir]

To me the right-side one (screen right) looks better.:)

[LightSovereign]

thats lovely work, for sure!. you can see the amount of hard work gone into this, personally the text on the left is the prefferable version for me, it seems to want to lead the eye somewhere. Having said that. what would do with this piece is a central focal point. because at the moment all elements seem to compete with each other.

a suggestion would be to include, perhaps at the core of the explosion on the planet. a bright red flash..or some ambient light behind patricia, think a gentle lens flare. just to stare the eye in a direction, i think that one would work well actually.

anyways, cheers very much for the lovely compliment on my work :D.

take care and good luck

Marley

[LightSovereign]

lol, i have the knack of contradicting advice given in threads :P. thaldir is right. but i still preffer the angled look of the text to the flat!..sorry, that can't be much help.

[Ivy00]

Thaldir - Thanks :) I personally still prefer the angled one though hoping for some more advice

LightSovereign - ha ha changing your mind and not even female, ( I think anyway) I have also noticed the lack of any certain focal point to really draw attn and will try to find some way to change it. Thanks for your nice words and advice :)

[walrus]

Of the two, I prefer the right one. The left one is just too obviously forced for my tastes, and the angles it's at doesn't match any of the perspective lines already in the scene. Though honestly, I think I'd prefer it without any text at all: It'd stand together better as an illustration by itself. I'm not sure what the text is adding - what is your goal for including it?
Anyhow, just wondering... Good luck either way! :)

-mike

[daWinky]

Hey Linda:wavey: ,

great to see the progress with your scene and concerning the text I'm with Tiziano here: I also prefer the right-side version, very nice font btw:) ...and I like the suggestion of Marley to have a clear focal point in your composition or at least to have more contrast between the scene elements...atm the earth, the mushroom and the fog/cloud at the left side have almost the same coloring and weight...
Looking forward to see the next update!:)

Cheers,

-sabrina

[Ivy00]

Michael - I think I might just leave out the text, I was thinking that the prefered one is the right one, but I really like the left one. Though you are correct it is forced. The reason I put it there was because I am taking the movie poster approach to the illustration, but heck in real life the designer would add the text and the artist just does the illustration, right? So I think I will just leave it out and enhance the starfield in that area a bit.

Sabrina - hi hi :) Thanks for stopping by again, yes I most certainly need to work on some more contrasts and color changes. The foggy stuff on the left and the cloud on the top right I kind of did intentionally so the eye is not drawn to one or the other because of the yellow, but in doing that the rest of the picture has so many of the same shades it takes away from drawing the eye around. That will be my next big step I think is to find a balance in color and contrasts .

[Ivy00]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12196/12196_1166804642_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12196/12196_1166804642_large.jpg)

Working on some color changes, I think all the major work is done except rounding out the earth a bit.

[Ivy00]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12196/12196_1166880278_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12196/12196_1166880278_large.jpg)

Rounded out the Earth a bit, toned down some of the green on the Earth and some of the orange on the mushroom cloud.

[nwiz25]

hey Linda! wishing u and ur family a very merry christmas! :bounce: :love:
http://nwiz25.cgsociety.org/gallery/444492/

cheers! :beer:



> very cool update! as for patricia ... y dont u add some more hair strands over her forehead ... looks kind bare .. wat say dear?? other than that .. the entire composition rocks! :) :buttrock:

[TheFirstAngel]

looking great Linda, specially your transluscent soft look of the image is very nice. what it takes now are a few minor value tweaks and the setting of a striking mainlightsource since everything seems to be illuminated by a soft ambient light by now. you're almost there, the piece is really beautiful :) keep on rockin!:beer::buttrock::wip:

[Ivy00]

Hey nwiz25 - thanks and Merry Christmas to you also :) Yeah she does need a bit more hair , hair and there ... ha ha I am funny today *laughs at self

Sacha -- yay yay you are back :) :) :) I am aiming for a surrealistic dream like feel for the piece and am kind of afraid to add a strong light source . I am also lost as to how to proceed with values, I would treasure any suggestions you have to give on that aspect. Thanks for the nice words, this has been such a struggle for me and you have helped so much and kept me going.

[Ivy00]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12196/12196_1167176624_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12196/12196_1167176624_large.jpg)

trying to get my coloring corrected on Patricia

[Ivy00]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12196/12196_1167301320_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12196/12196_1167301320_large.jpg)

added a little more light here and there, still debating on the text, the more I look at it the less I like it there...

[LightSovereign]

looking great, and nearly finished i'd say. u might not want to hear this. but although the warmer colours make patricia look good, i think the previous version works because she has a bit more light on her...they both work beautifully, but as i was reading prior crits and came across your earlier version, my eye seemed more comfy with the image. do you reckon a tad more lighting for her right side of the face?.

regardless, its all very coherent now...when ever i look at this i am reminded of a star trek DS9 cover art, in terms of colour and mood (of course very much your own, obviously)..great work!

Marley

[Ivy00]

Thanks LightSovereign - I do have the layer information still on the previous version , I am pretty new to this so everytime I make a change I duplicate a layer and save the original, just in case. As for the right side of her face, it is totally lost on the web, but in photoshop it is there and lit more. I don't know how to correct that for posting on the web, or if my final TIFF image will come out as in PS or if it will darken also...maybe someone can answer this for me or help a bit?

[LightSovereign]

well just to clarify, the colours are improved, i just noticed more light on her right side in the earlier version, and again, both versions work beautifully.. so don't fret too much on the technical thing..

im not too knowledgable about the proper settings, I use adobe gamma, provided with photoshop and set it to 2.2, windows default. (mac 1.8). very little discrepancy from my PSD to web display.

[Ivy00]

Thanks :) I played with the gamma a bit on my monitor, not sure if it helped much , but hope it did. I have old CRT monitor, (old slow pc, etc.) though it is sharp and clear I know it is different display than LCD. Anyway all I can do is hope for the best I guess

[Ivy00]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12196/12196_1167319821_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12196/12196_1167319821_large.jpg)

Tried to fix the lighting on Patricia's forehead, and right side of her face( I kind of whacked it in half and some of the face off, ooopsy) Did a few little fixes to the ships and the cylinder defense things.

[Ivy00]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12196/12196_1167756971_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12196/12196_1167756971_large.jpg)

made a few more adjustments to patricia and a few other little bits and pieces... hoping it is finished

[LightSovereign]

Only thing im not too clear on is the object under patricia, is this a vehicle?or ship of a sort?. about the only thing that needs sorting for me ,the piece is marvelous otherwise...

Congratulations on this, Ivy its a beautiful illustration ^^.

have a good one

Marley

[Ivy00]

It is ship wreckage, the bore hole had defense set up and some of the Russian ships were wrecked when they tried to invade the asteroid. Though there are supposed to be body parts floating around according to the book, I could not bring myself to do that :)

[walrus]

Ivy - Looks like you're just about finished. It's loking good overall, a nice combination fo both characters and setting.

I like how you had Patricia's forehead in the earlier posts, like #66. The lighter forehead on the screen-left side makes it look as though her face should be getting alittle mroe light too. I also find some of the details on tat screen left side fo her face a bit hard to read, too. They seem almost blurred out a bit. Perhaps some sharper details (but still dark) on her eye and mouth could help.

Another thing to think abotu in the finishing-up stage are your values. (A quick cheat I often use is to add a Adjustment Level for hue/saturation and drag saturation down to 0: You can turn this layer on an off and quickly see just how the lavues of your image are working.) Right now a lot of the image is all a very similar midtone value - Patricia's face, the lower left corner, the ships in the borehole and the area around the borehole. It could be worth thinking about which areas you want to draw the most attention to and then pumping up the value contrasts in that area. Or changing the values of soemthing behind it to make it stand out more.

For example, Patricia doesn't really stand out strongly against the area to the right of her, but value contrasts could make her pop more (and you can ignore this if your goal is not to mkae her pop, I'm just using it as an example.) If she had more of a light hilight on the right of her hair (from the mushroom cloud?) then that light color would stand out against the space to the right. Or if her hair didn't change at all but that space to the right faded into a darker color, her hair would look lighter than it and pop more too.

Anyhow, just some ideas that I wanted to bring up as you have some more time to have fun with them with little pressure. Hope any of it helps!

-mike

[Ivy00]

Thank you Mike, I myself do not like so many of the same colors everywhere, for the exact reasons you posted, but was not sure how to correct it. The details on the one side of the face are there, just harder than heck to see because of the shadow. As you can tell I am not happy with the way the lighting looks as I keep changing her. Your suggestions are wonderful and I am so happy you posted them, I felt pretty lost as to what to do with it, but have some hope now. Thank you , thank you :)

[Ivy00]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12196/12196_1167861624_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12196/12196_1167861624_large.jpg)

trying some stuff with some colors and stuff and more stuff .....

[mdavid]

It's coming together beautifully. These final adjustments are really enhancing it. The slightly stronger colours have really worked well too. I notice that under the left side of the mushroom cloud there looks like a bit of erased layer showing. That's only a temporary thing isn't it? Also, with the wrecked spaceship in front of Patricia I'm thinking it needs a little bit more detail to clarify what it is. Perhaps some more window detail or something like that.

The overall balance of the image is looking great. Keep up the wonderful work. You're so close now!

[daWinky]

Hey Linda!

So great to see what you've done for the contrast and the color variations here, really good progress:thumbsup: ! I can only agree with Mark here: you're close to the final now!

Ah, and happy new year for you:) !

-sabrina

[Ivy00]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12196/12196_1167912416_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12196/12196_1167912416_large.jpg)

Made a few changes to the wrecked ship, the eye that is in shadow and a few other minor tweaks.

[Ivy00]

Hi Sabrina, glad to see you back from the holidays, hope you had a good one. Thanks for the comments and Happy New Year to you too :)

Mark - Great suggestions, and yes the mushroom cloud was only a temp thing, can't have a hard edge to a cloud ha ha. I did add a few little details to the ship, though I think I have to make them a bit more subtle, because it is not really a part of the image I want to pop out at people. Thanks for the comments and suggestions and congrats on your finish :)

[mdavid]

I like those windows in the ship - they have given that object some real meaning (no doubting what it is now). I don't think the ship stands out too much now but that's really your decision of course. You've got to go with your own feelings. By the way I really like those small areas of bright colour throughout the image since you increased the colour saturation. It's all looking wonderful

[Ivy00]

Thank you Mark :) :) Your cheers and encouragement and suggestions mean a lot to me. Hopefully I will have another update in a few hours or so with a few more little tweaks.

[TheFirstAngel]

He linda :)
You are almost there! yay!

i tried to find a good solution on "eyecatching" in your piece, setting focal points, boost contrast without destroying the softness it has, wich I like very much.

now, here's the value thing, haven't slept for like 37 hours now so hope the overpaint isnt a total desaster, but to support my sugestion, it might do its purpose :)

first, try to figure out what really is imposrtant to in your piece, try to get the biggest contrasts there. this also can be supported by knocking down other parts of the image, might be saturationwise or brightness/contrastwise.

to add to Walrus trick an Angel trick (ahahaha fancy tricky crew :p), make a new layer on top of your piece, fill it grey, set blend mode to saturation. by blending that help layer in and out you can easily make out your values.

hotspots get more power when lesser contrasted or lesser saturated parts are in place.

hope that little overpaint gives you the courage or a few ideas how to move on your final brush up, so .... happy new year and let it rock :)
cheers

Angel

http://www.angel3d.ch/content/challenge/xtra/ivy_ovp2.jpg

[Ivy00]

wow, this is weird, I had just greyed out the earth and Mushroom cloud layer because they popped waaaaaaaaay to much for me, and nuclear mushroom clouds are really more grey not so red like bomb clouds. I also have a really saturated layer with Patricia and have been playing with that too. I am still debating on if I should even keep the text, but like the colored stars so I think I will throw a few of those in too :)

Thanks for the paintover it really gives me some more vision and ideas. I can't even say how much I appreciate the time you have taken to help me with this.

Now you go get some sleep , angels can't be tricky with no sleep :)

[Ivy00]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12196/12196_1168131438_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12196/12196_1168131438_large.jpg)

Made a few more color changes here and there... I still have some rough edges to smooth out, but hoping there are enough color differences now.

[Ivy00]

Sacha... I just can't bring myself to desaturate my mushroom cloud that much, but I am going to keep playing with it and see what happens.. I have kind of a mucky spot or two on the earth now that I need to take care of and I like the debris haze you put over the middle area of the image, it really drops it back a bit, so I will play around with some debris too and see what happens :) *hugs to Sacha, hope you got some sleep finally and thank you again and again and again for all of your help.

[Ivy00]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12196/12196_1168193311_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12196/12196_1168193311_large.jpg)

mmmmk.... I dedided that the yellow stuff on the right side of the asteroid had to go bye bye, so have played a bit and also decided after Sacha did the paintover for me and had some rocks looming in the foreground some that I needed something looming, so tried to expand the bore hole defenses and a few other things. Changed some more lighting. I am drastically making changes here and there until I am happy with it.

[TheFirstAngel]

getting there, but still coud use some finetunes
here's a value trick, put a 50% grey layer on top of your piece, set it to luminance, now erase out the foregroundobjects of it, lower oppacity, then clone the layer and erase out midground amd so on, thats a fast n cheap way to master the contrasts :)

[coCoKNIght]

Hi Linda, I recognized you from the DSF so I thought I'd take look, and it's looking good. Just listen to Sacha, he knows what's best :)
I think I those things in the foreground (I wonder what they are) should pop out more. And I'd suggest to add more detail to the earth and the explosion while taking good care it stays in the background :)
Cheers!

[Ivy00]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12196/12196_1168203311_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12196/12196_1168203311_large.jpg)

still playing around with it and making some changes, just a little update on some stuff, Patricia was pretty pink in the last update :)

[Thaldir]

On my monitor the pink is still pretty strong, Linda, even accounting for reflection from the nebula.

[Ivy00]

Hey coCoKNight :) Thanks for stopping by, of course I listen to Sacha , ha ha I just wish I had his touch and talent... The Earth in this part of the book is pretty much covered with fire and smoke, the things looming in the foreground are part of a defensive system that was used in the bore hole of the asteroid to try to stop or disable the Russian invasion. ( I have nicknamed them cylinders of death) and might be taking a few out, not sure though.

Sacha - I keep trying that grey layer trick, but dont' think I am doing it right . That is only because I am such a newbie though. I will keep trying and hope I get the hang of it :)

[Ivy00]

Thaldir - ha ha, yeah it is pretty strong here also.. I think I will just get rid of it, if I put just a little she looks funky if I put too much , she looks like a pink alien... and besides it made her cheek puff out... so she looks like Patricia the Pink Puffy woman.

[Ivy00]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12196/12196_1168210640_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12196/12196_1168210640_large.jpg)

weee this is fun , lol, ok put the gold stuff back and moved some cylinders of death and played a little more with the little trick Sacha and Mike suggested.... I'll get there eventually, I know I will :)

[mdavid]

I like it! Excellent stuff!

[mdavid]

My last post took forever to go up and when it finally appeared your new update had popped in ahead of it. I like the general look of the new version but in my opinion it has now become too grey - it almost looks like a slightly pink version of a black-and-white image. Perhaps the answer is to go back to the previous version and desaturate the colours only slightly, with a bit more emphasis on desaturating the pinks. This is just my opinion though. As you know I tend to like strong colours but that's not everyone's taste

[Ivy00]

Mark - I like strong colors also, my problem was the colors were strong but pretty much the same all over. Today is my drastic experimentation day, lol. I figure I will try a bunch of stuff, see what happens and hope something really hits me... I do like the colors in the post before this last update, but think I like the composition in the last update better, so my next update will probably be a combination of the two , with my mushroom cloud not so dissapated looking. Thanks for the suggestions, I love your little bubble blowing alien avatar, it makes me want to go chase bubbles :)

[coCoKNIght]

try using a curves layer to strengthen both the very dark and the very bright spots (if you're using photoshop that is...)

[Ivy00]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12196/12196_1168262908_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12196/12196_1168262908_large.jpg)

Combined the last two I did yesterday and hoping it works, still have some stuff to do to it of course, any comments or suggestions are welcome and appreciated

[mdavid]

That's definitely my favourite so far. Excellent! :)

[Ivy00]

coCoKNIght - I did that ealier in the work, but think I will give it a shot again, thanks :)

[Ivy00]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12196/12196_1168268318_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12196/12196_1168268318_large.jpg)

I need some opinions

1. Leave the pyramid things behind the earth? or dump em?
2. Go with the lighting in A or B?
3. Leave the Cylinder of death things above the earth or more to the left front?

Thanks for any help you can give or suggestions :)

[Ivy00]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12196/12196_1168268676_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12196/12196_1168268676_large.jpg)

ok I messed up, cut off part of the second one in the last post, here we go again...


I need some opinions

1. Leave the pyramid things behind the earth? or dump em?
2. Go with the lighting in A or B?
3. Leave the Cylinder of death things above the earth or more to the left front?


gaaaaaaaaaah, I can't believe I put the same two images on there....... let me try this again...

[Ivy00]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12196/12196_1168269242_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12196/12196_1168269242_large.jpg)

ok sheesh, I think I need to get away from the pc for a while, lol, here it is again these are the two I need compared, and I hope I am sure this time *hides

I need some opinions

1. Leave the pyramid things behind the earth? or dump em?
2. Go with the lighting in A or B?
3. Leave the Cylinder of death things above the earth or more to the left front?

Thanks for any help you can give or suggestions :)

[musi]

Hey Ivy,

1. Leave the pyramid things behind the earth.
2. Go with the lighting in B.
3. Leave the Cylinder of death things to the left front.

I personaly like the B image better, i has a nice space in the middle that attracts the eye and gives more depth. The A image is more flat...

Very nice work!
Sasha
EON (http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=423648)

[Ivy00]

Thanks Musi , I appreciate the help :)

[LightSovereign]

Hey Ivy,

1. Leave the pyramid things behind the earth.
2. Go with the lighting in B.
3. Leave the Cylinder of death things to the left front.

I personaly like the B image better, i has a nice space in the middle that attracts the eye and gives more depth. The A image is more flat...

Very nice work!
Sasha
EON (http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=423648)

Yup same here!!. B is has more POP a term so many people use now. The cylander turned out great and the pyramids provide yet another visual link to "EON".

A lot of hard work went into this, you should be very proud. certainly much better than if you had called it quits a week ago ^^.

Congratulations, linda :applause:

Marley

[Terro]

I agree with Musi, leave the cylinders of death to the left. When they are in the center, they take away from the explosion on the earth.

Over all I must say this piece shaped up quite nicely Linda. Best of luck with the entry.

[Ivy00]

LightSovereign - Thank you for the kind words, a week ago I just felt like it needed something, but wasn't sure what , then Sacha did that paintover for me and the ideas started coming :)

Terro - Thank you for the help and the kind words :) I took this on as a learning experience and never realised so many were willing to share, now my head is full of new things and I love it :)

[daWinky]

Hey Linda,

I just agree with Sasha and Marley here, things are coming together nicely this way:thumbsup: and I'm curious now to see your final steps!:)

-sabrina

[walrus]

Hi, Ivy, just dropping in to agree with other people that I like the lighting in 'B' more, and I like the pyramids too. One thing that could tie them to the book even better is to make them twisted, stepped pyramids, the way Greg Bear describes all of the Way structures in his book. If you can draw that out of yuor head, cool. If not, a simple 3D program could help you visualize it better. (and if neither of those work, I can do a quick render of one of the stepped pyramids I build for Axis City - they're on the city, on the surface of the Way, I'm tellin' ya, he used them everywhere!

Value-wise, that beam to the right of Patricia's head keeps grabbing my eye (and taking the focus away from Patricia.) What is it? Is it a plasma-tube?

lastly, now that you've changed your composition a bit, you could consider rethinking where you put the Eon logo in your piece. The area it's over now has become more busy, but there's still a lot of "dead space" to its left...?

anyhow, good luck!

-mike

[Ivy00]

Thanks Sabrina :), I am having fun with this again


Hey Mike , thanks for stopping in :) Yes the beam is plasma tube and I tried to get some orange and yellow tones toward Patricia, because the eye is more naturally drawn to yellow, hoping I balanced it enough, though I do want the eye to travel into the bore hole also (though not linger) there is some decent depth there at full resolution. I can play with that area a bit more, see what happens.

Yeah pyramids were used everywhere in the book of every shape form and size, mine ( I hope anyway) are more representative of the ones in the very end, if you look really really close there is a teeny tiny kleopatra by the pyramids in my pic.. As for the text , I 100% agree something different needs to be done with it . Love your suggestions, it makes me feel more confident I was thinking the correct things in my mind on how to proceed to the finish. Thanks again :) :)

[Ivy00]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12196/12196_1168378896_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12196/12196_1168378896_large.jpg)

I was going to move the text, but decided not to. I did some little tweaks here and there, went over it bit by bit and think it is done. I am happy with the coloring and the composition. Sometimes you look at something and it says to you, "I am done". I will try to avoid looking at it for a day or so and if I feel the same then I will upload this as my final image.

[LightSovereign]

very nice work, linda.

Some food for thought!, its a technique i've told 3 times now XD

using a layer set to colour dodge, i did some work on patricias face..about 15 seconds worth to be exact..it does take away the latino aspect somewhat...but it might be something to play around with.

hang on sorting link out

http://img444.imageshack.us/img444/3029/121961168378896mediumim9.th.jpg (http://img444.imageshack.us/my.php?image=121961168378896mediumim9.jpg)

In order to get colour to work you have to select the Darkest colours available this was Darker magenta and darker yellow used here.

must use big soft brush.

Just something to think about ^^.

Marley

[Ivy00]

oooooooohhh nice, very subtle , but wow what a difference..... and I said I was going to leave it alone for a day or so ha ha * goes off to play with her big soft brush thank you thank you Marley :)

[Ivy00]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12196/12196_1168531344_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12196/12196_1168531344_large.jpg)

Decided to move the text after all and did a few other little nit picky things

[nwiz25]

hey Linda! very good composition! :bounce: just one thing needs to be done ... try adding more details to the explosion . make it more dramatic ..

here are some samples :P

http://www.backgroundsarchive.com/images/pub/5/5283txvl2jr8oi.jpg

http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Usa/Tests/TruckeeA882c20.jpg


hope they help ya out :bounce:

good luck dear! take care! :thumbsup:

[LightSovereign]

aaaah, very good linda :D..the text is moved in the right position. those spike like cylinders are cleanly dealt too. has turned out to be a very good composition!!!. Congratulations..

Marley

[Ivy00]

hey nwiz , thank you , I have went back and forth in my head on the explosion, wondering if I want it more detailed or kind of soft and in the background. I guess it all depends on where I want the focus. I certainly have time to play around with it some more though and try some things with it. The reference photos are great, I have some very similar of both regular bomb clouds and nuclear clouds and did try to make a combination of both kinds of clouds. Nuclear clouds are so grey and bomb clouds are burning hot, but don't have the sharp edges in the column. I wanted the color and not so grey, but looking at it I think I can add some of those sharp edges to the column..... I am rambling now, ha ha it is early morning here. I think the nuclear photo you found is much better than the few I found. Thanks a lot for that :)

Marley - Thanks :) I have been over the cylinders a lot of times, and actually had to repaint them when I moved the text ( stupid me flattened a layer for some reason and saved before I realized what I had done).

[OKMER]

Indeed very nice work Linda!!!

My note would be that maybe you can use a bit more some hardedge strokes to pull out some more details here and then.
Maybe you can push just a tiny little bit further your values also.
Some tiny little almost pure white highlightspots could be cool maybe.
Maybe a highlight on the left of the globe might also pull him more out of there and push the first mechanic elements in front of us more to the foreground.Sorry if my english makes it hard too understand.
:beer:
may zze forzz be wizz U !!!

[Ivy00]

Thank you OKMER your suggestions are excellent, I understand your english perfect :)

Now I have more work to do , ha ha

[mdavid]

It's all looking excellent. The only comment I can offer is that the text is now contributing to the high amount of detail in the lower left corner, while the lower right corner appears, by contrast, very empty. I'm not suggesting you move the text over to the Earth, because the line 'coming soon to a world near you' over the Earth being blown up might not be a good message! But if those spiky cylinders were shuffled a little bit over to the right, then that would not only help the type 'breathe' a bit, but also distribute the detail a bit more evenly into the composition. I'm not suggesting a perfectly-even distribution of detail because I like contrast. Just a slight change

[Ivy00]

Thanks Mark.... wonder what it would look like if I just leave the text out? or if I add a few more details to the Earth... I had them at one time, but they seemed to pop too much for my taste. I don't think I can move the cylinders now with out going back and doing a lot of work, they are merged into my last file and my pc tries to blow up everytime I open the larger files with the layer information ( it is old and slow)

[TheFirstAngel]

oh dear i feel tempted to play around with your piece one more time. its actually on a good stage, no doubts. what i'd maily try is vary the spikey cilinders size and movement diretion mainly make the distant ones smaller, add a fe minor hotspots. the text looks a bit lost to me down there now, but i'd like to try a few things before i post more pointless sugestions, after a tiny bit of sleep. 11am. i must be nuts :p

back here a bit later, your piece looks great, as ai said, just minor tweaks away from your final and soooo much time left, no panic :)
back here after my nap, ^^ cheers

[Ivy00]

Sacha -- bleh , get some sleep you crazy guy. There are some small cylinders way way in the background but not sure if they show on the smaller resolution and they are pretty hazed out also. I think I know what you are talking about though, the three that appear to be the same size on the left above the tube light thing? Those have been bothering me , so while you are sleeping I will try to vary those and see if it helps. The text ... giving me quite a headache

[Ivy00]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12196/12196_1168731948_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12196/12196_1168731948_large.jpg)

played around a little more, the text right now is kind of gaudy ha ha, just wondering if the positioning is ok.

[mdavid]

I like the larger text/logo. One thing I often try to do in type design is line up the lower or upper edges of adjacent blocks of text. I also think the background behind the '...coming soon...' text is dark enough to get by without the black drop shadow. Probably easier to show you what I mean rather than describe it ...

http://www.mdavid.com.au/cg/ivy002.jpg

Just my 2 cents worth. Cheers

[Ivy00]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12196/12196_1168786906_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12196/12196_1168786906_large.jpg)

ok added some oceans to the earth and a bit of green , put some more colors on the cylinder of death things, spanked the text called it bad and sent it back to it's font folder.

[Ivy00]

Mark - I decided to just leave out the text. I figure if it gives me a headache for as long as it did, then it goes ha ha.

[mdavid]

That sounds good. I like the new colours - the suggestion of details on the Earth really enhance it. No crits from me

[Ivy00]

Thanks Mark, I figured I may as well go for the gusto with the colors, though I do have a few changes to make with them on Patricia, she looks a bit like she has jaundice and 5 oclock shadow now and need to add some white spot highlights here and there

[musi]

Hey Linda,

I like how you repainted the Earth adding oceans - it adds good contrast to the explosion on the top of it.
Text looks O.K. to me, but I don't think you will loose enything if you will decide to drop it.
Adding some higlights to Patricia will most definitely help too.

Over all I think it's getting better and better, good work!

Sasha
EON (http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=423648)

[Ivy00]

Thanks musi, yeah the text, ha ha I should have listened to walrus post a few pages ago and went with my initial feeling about it

[Ivy00]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12196/12196_1168902665_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12196/12196_1168902665_large.jpg)

I am pretty sure this is the last update I will do before the final image.

This is my first digital painting and I entered the challenge to learn. I have done that, thanks to everyone. You all filled my head so full of stuff I am hoping it remains stored in there somewhere, ha ha. Special thanks to Sacha and Walrus for their wise advice and willingness to take time from their busy lives and share their knowledge.

I have accomplished my main goal, to paint a human that does not look like Micheal Jackson, at least I hope my Patricia doesn't look like him, ha ha.

Thanks again everyone for your help.

[Ivy00]

http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12196/12196_1168957517_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/14/12196/12196_1168957517_large.jpg)

I depicted Eon as surrealistic based on my artistic interpretation of Patricia’s deep thought processing and the descriptions of landscapes in the book. The combination of vibrant and muted colors I used, convey both hope and despair.

My illustration represents the major pivotal moment in the book -The Death- which coincides with the Russian invasion of the asteroid. This was an emotional turning point for Patricia. It drove her to solve the mystery of time and space in her attempt to find an Earth without The Death. She did find one, but not the Earth she was hoping for. Patricia never gave up trying to find her Earth even when she was an elderly woman.

Pyramids are an important piece of underlying symbolism which occur through-out the book; to me it was important to have them in my illustration. The pyramids and small figure of Kleopatra I included represent Patricia’s last hope.

Thank you to everyone that helped me along the way, this has been a great experience.

[Thaldir]

Hooray, Linda!!!:thumbsup: :thumbsup:

Heart-felt congratulations.:)
It has been a long journey, but definitely worth it judging from your final image. Also, you have my outmost respect for the study and the sheer determination you put into your entry.

Really a great job, lady!:)

[Ivy00]

Thank you Thaldir , and thank you for your helpful crits and suggestions along the way. As for study, ha ha , my head is so full of stuff I was starting to see this image in my dreams. I learned tons and tons of stuff :)

[mdavid]

Congratulations from me too. Superb result. I'm very impressed with how you persevered and kept taking your image from strength to strength, while still finding time to contribute to other people's threads. Best of luck to you

[Lman]

Thats a great picture ! great work the face is eye catching, :)

[daWinky]

Hey Linda,

congratulations for the finished picture:applause: ! Well done and it was amazing to watch your progress during this challenge!
I hope to see you still around on the forum after the challenge with other projects... Good luck to you!:)

-sabrina

[Ivy00]

mdavid - Thanks, your cheering on really helped me to keep going :)

Lman - thank you for stopping in :) and thank you for the kind words

Sabrina - Thank you, I have a lot of things running through my mind for some other projects and hoping to get at least one started soon so I can keep on learning :)

[Ranath]

Not bad - though I would not have put the woman so close to the edge, maybe rethinking the composition might do some good for this one. Maybe expand the canvas a bit so you don't have to start over?

[Ivy00]

thanks for the crit ranath, If I expand my canvas my pc will probably blow up :) I have old old pc. I wanted Patricia on the edge of the canvas, in the book I got the feeling she was brought into the whole situation as an outsider, so kind of wanted to convey that in my image.

[TheFirstAngel]

make sure you upload in time! all the best and best of luck on your finishing run! crossfingers and best wishes!!!

[nwiz25]

heyyyyyyyyyyyyyy Linda! congratulations on ur final piece! :scream::eek::bounce::applause: very happy for u! :love: ur work speaks! .. emotional .. hope .. despair .. just wat the doctor ordered :P looking forward to the next challenge .. will meet u for sure! ;)

good luck dear! :thumbsup: god bless u always!

[Ivy00]

Thanks Sacha, and a special thank you for all the help you gave me. If you had not been so generous with your knowledge I would not have finished this , but given up long ago. I uploaded days and days ago , ha ha me and my slow dial up connection needed to give it lots and lots of time.

Nwiz - thanks :) ha ha yeah I will for sure be in the next challenge I could never pass up a great learning oportunity

[OKMER]

Hi Ivy, congratz on your finish!!!Nice pic and may zze forzz be wizz you mate!!

[TheFirstAngel]

I am so happy you succeeded :) lol i should read better, didnt see you already were on the safe side of the finishing line and was worried you would do a last minute run too ^^ glad you made it :) it's been so great to do this along with you, side by side and you brought a beautiful and dreamy vision to life! i look forward to see much more of your great work soon and definately great to have a met you and having won a great friend. :)
keep on rocking and congrats on your great final!

[musi]

Hey Linda :wavey:

I am very impressed by the end result - it is beautiful and well thought through image!
Good job, Linda! Lovely! :love:
I hope to see more of your work, and meet again on the next challenge!

And thank you so much for your help and support!

[Ivy00]

OKMER- Thanks :) and may zze forzz be wizz you too !!

Sacha - Thanks I see you got some sleep and your eyeballs back ha ha. I finally visited your website ( I was saving it for a treat) beautiful , amazing work you do. I feel so honored you took a special interest in helping me, it meant more to me than I think you will ever know. You can always visit my little WIP sketch thread and see that I have not given up on the digital painting thing ha ha. (not that the sketches are that great), but I am working on it and actually got the level up award thing in the DSG this week, :bounce:so must mean I am improving little by little.

Musi - Thanks, it has been a great pleasure meeting you here in the Eon challenge and your encouragement toward the end of this really helped me along. Now you get busy when you have some time away from your new job and get some 2D stuff going girl :)

[TheFirstAngel]

hehe nice to hear you liked my page ^^ congrats on your levelup award! :beer: hehe just subscribed your wip thread so i'll see ya round :) and yesssss sleep does sooo good :)

[LightSovereign]

Linda, fabtastic effort, glad to see you made it ^^..i don't know where i've been, but i should have kept an eye on this earlier hehehe. Beautifully realised vision. of course very unique in this bunch of entries which is always a positive..Been a pleasure contradicting myself in your thread :bounce: haha!

congratulations

Best of luck

take care,

Marley

[Ivy00]

Sacha - thanks for subscribing, now I have to be on my best sketch behavior , ha ha

LightSoveriegn - lol, yeah where have you been I was waiting for more contradictions . Seriously now, thank you so much for the help you gave me and the kind words about my finished work.

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