Strange Behavior (Illustration) Entry: edward chow

[edatron]

i wanted to create an image of a zombie exgirlfriend trying to feed her former lover a batch of heart shaped cookies she baked while he is trying to escape. The idea of un-returned love is an idea that everybody can relate to, while the idea of the walking dead returning to love is very strange.

heres my doodle that inspired the concept....
http://files.photorgy.com/m/42d1fdc0560b4287e77e.jpg

[edatron]

update 9.20.07

theres a special on hello kitty addicts on the tyra show tonight

[edatron]

http://assets.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/19/13994/13994_1190320983_medium.jpg (http://assets.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/19/13994/13994_1190320983_large.jpg)

heres my sketch... i refined the doodle a bit.

[edatron]

http://assets.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/19/13994/13994_1190321293_medium.jpg (http://assets.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/19/13994/13994_1190321293_large.jpg)

i did some flats for this sketch.. nothing is final still... everything will change once i add in the exboyfriend and do the background. Im not sure what i want to do for the background i think i want to do a very normal street scene like ripped from the ground kinda floating framed by some organic elements. art nouveau-ish. i am also still debating whether it should be a daytime scene or nighttime scene.

[SteevieWoo]

Wow! if you make it night it will make me scream! She's so creepy!! !! not just by being zombie, there's something about her that makes me think she was creepy when she was alive too:D

C'mon! let us se the poor boyfriend, that will be just great!:thumbsup::thumbsup:

[edatron]

http://assets.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/19/13994/13994_1190739774_medium.jpg (http://assets.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/19/13994/13994_1190739774_large.jpg)

im just working with the exboyfriend now... and having minor difficulties witht he interaction between the two

[Nemesix]

*Claps* Wonderful! :D I'm curious about the color guidelines you are going to follow and the background, I'll have an eye on it. Good luck!

[edatron]

http://assets.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/19/13994/13994_1190753904_medium.jpg (http://assets.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/19/13994/13994_1190753904_large.jpg)

i just pulled the dumbest shit in the universe....

i was jsut doing some test coloring (mainly doing the perspective on the tiles.... )
and then reduced filesize to save a jpg... then i thought that bag needs to be brown so i painted it brown... then flooded the history with brush strokes
this whole time i forgot to save... now im just stuck with this low res color thingy....

not a HUGE ste back.. but jsut... REALLY irritating and made me feel really stupid for about 30 min for pulling the most novice mistake in the book. .. . .

[SteevieWoo]

OW! Well Ed, if this makes you feel better I'd say that your goof was not the worst, at least you still have a file of your color work, The worst that could happen to you is to Hit close on a program like Painter BEFORE it finishes saving, the damn thing will just close as it is and ruin your file forever, And that just happened to me last week, so, don't feel so bad, you can boost that one's res and start to smudge the pixelation while you sharp the edges again.

Oh, and sorry to bother you at this point but, Is the girl sitting on something? if she's only crouching then you could fix her leg position so she won't look out of balance.

I hope your piece gets well soon from this trauma, Don't let it get you down!

[edatron]

http://assets.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/19/13994/13994_1190908759_medium.jpg (http://assets.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/19/13994/13994_1190908759_large.jpg)

dude paper bags are surprisingly hard to paint.....its like wtf this is really hard....

[edatron]

http://assets.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/19/13994/13994_1191184137_medium.jpg (http://assets.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/19/13994/13994_1191184137_large.jpg)

ive decided not to have a real background or scene ... i want to frame the drawing with some decorative elements and have a very textural bg with hints of like scenrey like... light posts and moon and stuff... maybe a tree.....
probably going to take the james jean approach and do an acrylic wash or something....

[Hiun]

I have to say... I like where your head is. Great idea! The first thing that attracted me actually was the graphic black wash behind her. I don't know if that will be in the piece or it may just be the starting of your background. It is very attractive as is, but the show must go on I guess. Quite frankly I like that girl, I would eat her candy:)... which in itself is strange. Whether it's an accident or not, the female character is very well done and brought across to complete the theme or strange behavior all on her own. But your idea behind the entire thing makes it even greater. Lovely concept, I hope to see this at the end.:thumbsup:

[edatron]

http://assets.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/19/13994/13994_1191368546_medium.jpg (http://assets.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/19/13994/13994_1191368546_large.jpg)

something is sooo wrong here....
like i know the boy is still being painted... but he looks sooooo wrong...
i wanted him to look very much alive and the girl very dead... like .... i ono maybe i went overboard with the coloring.... and when i finish there wont be an outline on him like the girl

any suggestions?

[SteevieWoo]

Hmmm.. you have a point........ It seems to me that the palette and lighting you used, say, on the hand (really well done) is all different from that on the face, the face looks more yellow and your light source doesn't reach the features. I think the girl's light comes more from the right, and the kid's doesn't.....
If you light him from the right the face would be illuminated and look more alive, specially if you keep the kind of nice pink-orange hues on the light areas just as you did with the hand. the girl's skin is not that shinny at all. it looks a bit translucent and that's just great, because that way you make evident that little difference of being alive or not.

Your abstract backgound idea is neat! I hope to see more of that!
See ya.

[Hiun]

SteevieWoo is absolutely right about the lighting. Especially about the inconsistent colors in the face versus the hand.
The real problem I see edatron is that your forms aren't 'turning' on the male figure because of his light source. He will stand apart and separate from the girl no matter how well you paint him, because the light source is completely different between them. As your light is to the right of the image, (and let's forget for the moment that the floor is very reflective), you still need to darken the planes facing us (for example, the back of the guy and the right side of his face). All those planes facing backward should not be catching that much light. The girl is nicely done, and based on her being the focus, it suits her to be so well lit. But may I suggest pulling your male character more into the dark as in your concept. I believe it will be a much stronger image, and you can then let the reflective light then sculpt his form on the shadow side.

But mainly, the problem is that incorrect lighting on the male. Once you fix that it should jump right back into place for you. Good luck my friend, I really hope I helped.:thumbsup:

[edatron]

http://assets.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/19/13994/13994_1191863771_medium.jpg (http://assets.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/19/13994/13994_1191863771_large.jpg)

thanks stevie and hiun on the great advice... i still gotta fix the lighting and the guy.... and that hand.... and the girls leg...
but before that im struggling with what i want the final image to look like... so im still playing with the idea of like a very textural bg... i dono ive though about actually painting a bg but i think it would be cooler without a fully painted one to keep it more ambiguous. i was thinking of just having stuff like a sofa.... or like stuff around the figures to anchor the image..but still keep it mostly jsut textures... im going to print these black and white and just do some acrylic washes and see what happens...

[Hiun]

Hey you have a great idea going there... I really like where this is currently. Keep doing what you are doing!:thumbsup:

[edatron]

http://assets.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/19/13994/13994_1192232095_medium.jpg (http://assets.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/19/13994/13994_1192232095_large.jpg)

some more stuff

[Hiun]

Oh yeah! I am in love with this girl now!:D

[DougFerreira]

I like the style of this illustration! it reminds me of Bill Sienkiewicz work!Do you know/like his work?

[edatron]

http://assets.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/19/13994/13994_1193641383_medium.jpg (http://assets.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/19/13994/13994_1193641383_large.jpg)

added atmospheric effects...
changed the texture
lots of detailing left and small things
should i crop this differently?

[Hiun]

Well you can save the cropping for last, it depends on what else you will add to the image. At this very moment the image size is fine (compositionally) but the wall is just very bare.

Post #17 is a lovely crop and post #19 uses up the wall space well, but since you cleaned everything up it seems very bare now. But now that I think about it, you should go with the crop of post #17 it really pulls you into the scene and allows you be absorbed into what's going on. The 2 most recent ones are the same crop and it's a bit too spaceous.

Definately go with post #17 cropping. :thumbsup:

A note my friend... the girl is floating, she needs a shadow, or something to show she isn't floating. First reason is that if she is actually sitting on the ground then her dress can not be drooping as if she is elevated, the dress would have to be laying flat out on the floor plane. Right now the way the dress is drawn it's as if she is sitting on the edge of a chair and the end of her dress hangs over and falls (that's natural). But there is no chair or something elevated that she is sitting on. Remember that.

Well, they gave a nice extension... 2 full weeks, you should be able to finish comfortably my friend!:bounce:

[Raccoon-Dog]

Hey buddy. Finally taking the time to stop bye and say hi. Sorry it took so long. Anyway dude I love the piece and you know that, its really coming together. As far as the girl floating you can fix that a few ways. One of them being what Hiun said, you could have a little stool (like a small foot rest type stool). Another one would be to fix the legs ever so slightly and just adjust the feet so it looks like they are supporting weight so it gives that "School girl Squat" you are looking for. Or the last one would be to just have her plain floating. Like this aura she uses to travel or something. kinda like the ink streaks you have in number 19. Anyway dude can't wait to see the finish.

[SteevieWoo]

Haha! love it but if you're not gonna add any of the dark fumes of your sketches (which I think you should) then I'd say yes to cropping, wallpaper is cute and all but there's not much more there.

But as I said I'd preffer to use this space to urge you to add some of the nice aquarel stain work you did before... it really pushed the whole pic in a different direction and I liked it a lot!!

Uh... I don't know if you have separate layer for them but maybe moving the boy more down and to the left so they are not so close would look better and tell better his actitude of rejection, just an Idea.

and any of Kamal's suggestions about the 'float' issue would work fine, I think.

Seeyou around Ed, this is going juicy good!:applause:

[edatron]

http://assets.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/19/13994/13994_1195025966_medium.jpg (http://assets.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/19/13994/13994_1195025966_large.jpg)

not much time left... ive been putting this off for so long...
i addressed the floating issue, the cropping, added a frame.. to sill that negative space.
although im not sure if i should lose the frame or if im keeping it what i should put in it.
i might put a pattern on the sofa and ottoman . and i still gotta properly paint the cookies and stuff on ground..

[Hiun]

Good update. With the frame cut off that much it will be difficult to put anything significant in it, unless it will serve no actual purpose to the story, then you could just put anything in there. I don't know if you intended to bring back that very high contrast highly saturated color back into the image but it could REALLY use it. The color, contrast, and expressiveness in the piece has disappeared, and is feeling bare in relation to previous posts. The magic of the piece has always been the expressive qualities. Excellent job on seating her, very natural now!:thumbsup:
Not sure what you have in mind for the background or frame my friend, I am having a tough time thinking about what could possibly go there, only you could know that though. But if the background is not really an important part of the image as far as story, then I would pull the focus heavily on the characters and occupy the background with textures and expressive marks, much like in your earlier posts.

Stepping back for a second...

The empty frame could actually mean a space to be filled, also since it is partially seen can show that it's incomplete but still putting itself out there to be seen. You can use that to tie to the girl being that she is looking to fill the space in her heart and putting herself out there hoping to be with the male to feel complete. Just something to think about, it caught my attention. (That frame could be waiting for a picture of her and her love; story wise it adds to her weirdness/strangeness)

With that element, the image as is does have a nice mood with the less saturated color, a lot of room for happiness to step in and richen the place up. So maybe you could show some hope of upcoming happiness and add more saturated color to where you think will help. The cookies for one should definately be rich in color, that's the gift, and first trial to attain happiness from her. You can move on from there, it will come together, you are doing a GREAT job!!

I hope this helps a little my friend, please, please feel free to ignore.
best wishes!:thumbsup:

[Raccoon-Dog]

Hey Buddy, Great job. I really dig the ottoman, it really works well. I say if you have the time to put in the pattern on the furniture then by all means go for it, just make sure its not too distracting. And if you decide not to add it or don't have the time then I don't think it will take away from the overall piece.

For saturation I think you can bump it up just a bit (not to much), right now its has a very unified look as is and its one of those things that in the end doesn't give or take away from the piece. As far as the frame I agree with Hiun. On the one hand I do like how you painted the frame and it ads to the setting in that respect. But on the other it is a big weight at the top of the image and commands a lot of attention. In the end its up to you. I know you do good shit and it will turn out awesome so gods speed dude!

[edatron]

http://assets.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/19/13994/13994_1195095809_medium.jpg (http://assets.cgsociety.org/challenge/entries/19/13994/13994_1195095809_large.jpg)


i wanted to create an image of a zombie exgirlfriend trying to feed her former lover a batch of heart shaped cookies she baked while he is trying to escape. The idea of un-returned love is an idea that everybody can relate to, while the idea of the walking dead returning to love is very strange.

[SteevieWoo]

Hahaha !! I got to say I like the final result of it all, after nearly loosing your file you came back and did just great!
Somehow the big empty space doesnt botherme either...(Maybe it is the charming wallpaper :D)

Someone in this thread said that the girl was cute and wrote: 'I would eat her candy', well thats the strangest par of it all, you managerd to do a quite appealing and nice rotting undead girl. (her remaining eye is a great part of the picture and is very well done). I got to bow before you for acomplishing that!
Good luck and congratulations!:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup: ...mmmmm , pink frosting................

[Hiun]

Great job!! It's a very successful image as it is right now. Good move on completely removing the frame, it just works!! Congratualtions my friend!! I wish you all the best!:D

[edatron]

big thanks to hiun, steeviewoo, and raccoon dog nook who have been there with the great advice since day one. i really appreciate all your help <3

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