DWIV - 2D - S.C. Versillee - Azra'il

[Segvoia]

http://www.scversillee.com/cgtalk_stuff/dw4scv/versillee1.gif

Playing with ideas for the wings and helmet...

[Segvoia]

http://www.scversillee.com/cgtalk_stuff/dw4scv/versillee2.gif

http://www.scversillee.com/cgtalk_stuff/dw4scv/versillee3.gif

Armor study and idea for where I can place the team logo.

[Segvoia]

http://www.scversillee.com/cgtalk_stuff/dw4scv/versillee4.gif

Head study...I'm still undecided if horns will be growing from his head or be part of his helmet.

[NH]

Nice start.
According to your works your final piece will be amazing, I like your painting style, I'll keep an eye on your thread.
I was about to give the same name to my demon prince, now I need to find a new one :D
Keep it up :arteest:

[Segvoia]

Sweet, my first crit :D
Thanks NH for your feedback. No problem about the name, it's actually just a variation for Azrael, the angel of death that appears in Christian, Jewish and Islamic scripture. If you want to use the name, feel free, may the best Azrael win!

Ok, here are some more concepts I finished up tonight:

http://www.scversillee.com/cgtalk_stuff/dw4scv/versillee5.jpg

Azra'il's poison sword. I wanted the mist surrounding the sword to appear to have eyes in it.

http://www.scversillee.com/cgtalk_stuff/dw4scv/versillee6.jpg

Concept for his wings. I want them to look faintly bat-like despite the feathers.

http://www.scversillee.com/cgtalk_stuff/dw4scv/versillee7.jpg

Profile study for Azra'il. I'm still deciding if he will have horns.

[decipleofX]

OH man I cant wait to see how this developes! I know your gonna blow minds.

[NavigatorJones]

YES thank you, finally, a sexy GUY instead of a girl. :buttrock:
I'm loving that profile shot, I think you should carry on that narrow, sharp look into the front pic if possible :D

[NavigatorJones]

Also I love the bat/bird wing, great design :D Will it be big compared to his body?

[Segvoia]

YES thank you, finally, a sexy GUY instead of a girl. :buttrock:

I know right? All hail gender equality :D

Thanx to both of you for the comments, most appreciated. Good luck with your concepts.
Mr. DecipleofX, I just visited your thread over at gameartisan. I left a comment but it prolly won't show for a few hours because I'm a newb over there. Love the way it's going, pretty sick creature (http://www.gameartisans.org/forums/showthread.php?t=7830) :D

[Segvoia]

Katie - I just noticed that you asked about the size of the wings. I'm not sure yet if they will be "symbolic" wings meaning that they are too small to actually carry him, or if they will be large - at the moment I'm leaning toward large.

Quick update: I'm using DW4 as an opportunity to practice further in Zbrush. Doing sculpts in ZB has taken the place of doing real clay maquettes of figures as prep for my digital and oil paintings.

I'm fairly certain at this point that he won't have horns, but instead they will be part of his helmet.

http://www.scversillee.com/cgtalk_stuff/dw4scv/versillee8.jpg

And a color test:
http://www.scversillee.com/cgtalk_stuff/dw4scv/versillee9.jpg

[FrozZT]

Hey! Nice start! I like how you are focusing on a charismatic demon. A demon seducing its prey would be cool. He's kind of like an evil elf.. I love the sword idea also, very nice! :) What i think you are missing at the moment is some more experimentation and development on the full figure. Keep it up!

-Niklas

[Sellis]

Great to see someone move away from the archetypal horned demon and make a move towards elegance. I agree with FrozZT, it would be nice to see some development of his body as a whole rather than bits at a time. However, his wings do look cool, i like the feather/bat wing hybrid version you got going on. Keep up the good work.

[DeadInTheAttic]

I like the elvish influence. Something like a dark elf. The lesser demons deform, looking ugly and horrible, while the really bad ass guys control all their power, being not deformed.

[NavigatorJones]

Wooow O_O

You're 3D skills, they blow me away!

:bowdown:

Can't wait to see the next update, maybe more of his body??

[Segvoia]

Thanks everyone for your comments.

Katie, I'm flattered by your praise of my 3D skills, I consider them quite limited right now though, I'm no where near some of the true masters on this site when it comes to 3D, though I am an apt pupil and I'm getting my hands on everything I can to help me learn and become a better 3D sculptor. But I thank you for the encouragement! :D

I have not had much time to play over the past two weeks so I am posting what I have been able to work ont: a refined head shot (part of my required modeling sheet). Body shots are coming next.

I played with the concept of him having no horns and having them be attached to a helmet instead, but I opted to have him sport a rack of horns growing from his head instead because the helmet was distracting too much from his facial features. Since the horn theme is a bit hackneyed (as pointed out by Sellis), I'm aiming to put a more unique spin on it by giving him a crown of horns vs just a set of two.

I've also added a third eye, a bit of borrowed symbolism from the Hindu pantheon of gods. Symbolically, the third eye allows deities to see in a dimension inaccessible to mortals. Just another small element to add to his "otherworldliness".

Promise, next time full body drawings ;)

http://www.scversillee.com/cgtalk_stuff/dw4scv/versillee10.jpg

[NavigatorJones]

Creepy third eye is creepy!
Also I like how his horns go down lower on his head, and are kinda knobbly :D

[numabrush]

Very cool man! I'm very interested in what your final image will look like! Keep it up!

[Segvoia]

Looks like I'm not going to have the time to finish this challenge, real-life work is demanding my time, but I wish everyone the best of luck :wavey:

[NavigatorJones]

Really? Even with the week extension?? :(!!! Woe! I hope you come back next year and get to finish :D

[Segvoia]

Hmm. what is thie week extension you speak of? Is the new due date the 18th? If so maybe I can squeeze this out, I'll see...

[NavigatorJones]

Yah! Go check out the DW main site, first they gave us a 48 extenssion, now they've bumped it up to a week :D!

[DTRAN]

Seg, I m digging what you got going on here, the face is wick! you gotta finish! Use the week extension!!! go go go go go!!

BTW nice sculpt!

[Segvoia]

All thanks to Katie for letting me know about the extension. I guess I've got enough time to give this a go since I just finished a major project at work. Let's see if I can get this concept done before another distraction kicks it to the back of the line again...

Some work I did tonight, I'l try to dedicate a few hours a night to getting it done.

http://www.scversillee.com/cgtalk_stuff/dw4scv/versillee12.jpg http://www.scversillee.com/cgtalk_stuff/dw4scv/versillee13.jpg

Close ups:

http://www.scversillee.com/cgtalk_stuff/dw4scv/versillee14.jpg http://www.scversillee.com/cgtalk_stuff/dw4scv/versillee15.jpg

Thanks for cheering me on, I'll try my best not to disappoint :D

[NavigatorJones]

Cool, is he holding someone's head? XD!!!

[Segvoia]

Katie - you are correct :)

Blazing away on this, Latest Updates:

http://www.scversillee.com/cgtalk_stuff/dw4scv/versillee18.jpg

http://www.scversillee.com/cgtalk_stuff/dw4scv/versillee19.jpg

[decipleofX]

So glad you decided to stick in the race ^_^ love the updates!!

[Segvoia]

Thanks bro, I still dodn't know if I'll finish in time but I'm chugging along.

Latest update -

http://www.scversillee.com/cgtalk_stuff/dw4scv/versillee20.jpg

http://www.scversillee.com/cgtalk_stuff/dw4scv/versillee22.jpg

[GaeasHerald]

Very nice character Segvoia, I like it a lot. I myself was about to go for some sort of dark angel at first, but decided otherwise. The pallette is particulary good, the blue shades against the brownish background works wonderfully.
It would be cool if the hill he is standing on were made out of carcasses from fallen warriors, maybe you already had that in mind.

I'll keep an eye on this thread for sure!

[Segvoia]

Hustling to get this done by the deadline:

http://www.scversillee.com/cgtalk_stuff/dw4scv/versillee24.jpg

Thought it would be interesting to juxtipose modern soldiers with the primeval qualities of the angel. I also opted to do away with armor on Azra'il because he looks more lethal without it. The need for armore denotes weakness.

[NavigatorJones]

I like the lack of armor, also! It's so true :D! He looks quite at home, stepping on and over those soldiers XD!!! Like this is just a day's work for him :D!
And hey, more eye candy... I'm not complaining ... :twisted:
Hope you can get all the concept and modelling sheets done too! I just submitted mine, but it hasn't shown up yet in the gallery...I hope it shows up before the dead line lol (it's already the 18th for me here in aussie land!) :D It's strange that instead of a page with just the final images on it, it actually takes you to the person's whole thread. Did they do that last year, do you know?

[Silkcats]

This is one of my favourite characters of the competition, really enigmatic and mystical I really hope you can finish it.

Keep up and good luck!!

[Segvoia]

Finally completed the concept.

http://www.scversillee.com/cgtalk_stuff/dw4scv/text.jpg

http://www.scversillee.com/cgtalk_stuff/dw4scv/final_illustration.jpg

http://www.scversillee.com/cgtalk_stuff/dw4scv/modeling_sheet.jpg

http://www.scversillee.com/cgtalk_stuff/dw4scv/concept_sheet.jpg

[PuiArt]

hi hi Segovia, Congrats on finishing the war, i been on the last minute train the whole day and my mindset for this Journey has been confine a bit so i haven't have time to drop by and comment on your thread or any competitors/rivals for that matter.

i do like your entry, simple, clean, straight to the point =)

one possible critique/discussion that i would like to mention is that among your work( i took the liberty to visit your site, :bowdown:*i am not worthy*), this particular piece most likely follow the likely approach of the following:

1. overall solid shape,
2. define
3. refine
4. composition
5. lighting
6. rinse and repeat again and again

there is certainly no disagreement regarding your lighting, composition, proportion and perspective skill sets; superb :thumbsup:. What i am getting at is this end result is at like step tenths of thousands, while the highlight pieces on your portfolio are at like step gazillion, because when you compare the two, there is a so much more rinse and repeats steps that can be add in, not sure how pros like you work so fast tho; certainly the amount of experiences under your bell is a plausible answer.

your highlight piece "Saraphim" is a great comparison example, what i like about your work is that the color palette on that piece is magnificent, so i would feel that should you use the extreme-medium light and monochromatic palette with hints of exotic color, like introducing your piece "Sun: Clouded Sulfur Butterfly" and especially "Sun: Clouded Sulfur Butterfly" as exotic pallettes onto the manochromatic pieces like "Saraphim", it would be a viewing pleasure to die for on this piece, but i can understand that experimenting is a journey on its own that can yield from great rewards to short scraps of experience and as a working artist i am sure time is not a leisure nor can it be easily measured.

as a graduate right out of college a short yr after, i been attempting to understand in detail on how you pros work, speed and results, i wonder what your input is on this? =)
congrats once again on completion of this competition, :beer: best of wishes to us both.

[NavigatorJones]

Huzzah! You finished! Awsome :D!

[Segvoia]

Yup Katie, I got in right under the wire :beer:

PuiArt - Thanks for the detailed feedback. I too wanted to comment in length on more people's entries, time just didn't allow it.

I agree with you, I could still go in and work this some more to make it grand. I think I will and I'll enter it into the 2D Gallery here on CGT. It's a bit rushed, if I didn't have other priorities yanking on my chain every five minutes I could have gone in and given it a bit more detail, so that's what I'll do (time permitting). I thank you also for your comments on teh work from my site.

On speed - I really prefer to work slowly (I'm an oil painter more than a digital painter) but to make a piece go quickly I'll just block in the basic shapes and then go in and sculpt them out into more refined figures. The more you practice, the faster and more confident you eventualy become.

I just want to tell you again how much I love your own unique style of rendering. It's unmistakably your own, and it should take you far. Can't wait to see what else you make in the future :thumbsup:

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