Spectacular 2D Entry: Nathaniel West

#50

Thanks for all of the comments everyone. I have to say the last two seem to be doing the job of showing some story, but also showing a vast city shot behind them. I think I’m going to work in this direction…maybe I’ll do a pirate ship first though, just because. :slight_smile:

Rebaccak-We might have met…I’m not too sure. When were you attending ACCD? I noticed on your site that you studied with some of the life drawing masters, but I came too late to have their classes. Nonetheless, it’s always nice to hear from a fellow alumni!

Avatarist-I’ll consider a pure city shot without a ship, so as not to distract the eye. Does anyone else have an opinion on whether the foreground elements are taking away from a spectacular landscape shot?

Digital_bobert-Yeah, I like the serene quality of a cruise ship with active docks full of wealthy patrons. I’m not sure if that’s too boring though, or if we need some impending doom or action to make it more interesting to the viewer. Anyone have an opinion on what is more interesting?

ColbyBuss-The building on the right is a photo that I copied a couple times and manipulated. The entire sketch was under a half hour.

Kirt-Thanks so much for the kind words! The last sketch was something around 15-20 minutes. There’s really no detail in it, so it goes pretty fast initially.

So I’ll wait for some opinions on which of the latest I should go with, or if you all like a whole new subject, maybe I can start playing with those. I’m taking all requests! :stuck_out_tongue: A few more comps, and then we’ll make a decision and start tightening a couple up. Hey, maybe I’ll work on two at the same time, and we can figure out which one to go with at the end. Is that allowed, because I’m having trouble deciding at the moment. Anyhow, thanks again everyone, and keep up all of the great work! :

Warm regards,

Nathaniel

#51

Hey Nate,
I sure like looking at your sketches. Nice use of color and diffused lighting.
Anyway I like the sketch of the giant ship over the city from a while back.
Maybe make it a Laputa/ floating island city thing to push it over the top.
I think you could really pull something like that off.

Best of luck to you.

#52

Nathaniel, you have a big experience with lighting!:bounce: I need sunglasses to view your images!
good sketches, especially the first of the spaceship?! and the dark city!

keep it up!

Gus

#53

You’ve a very good eye for colour, looking forward to see what you’ll decide on.

#54

Nothing to say more as the others!!!really nice lightening and sketches you got there.Curious too to sse which way you’ll be heading!!!:thumbsup:

#55

KOryH-The floating city is a pretty cool idea. I’ll play with that idea a bit.

#56

those sketches are way above cool! will there be more?
cheers !

#57

I like your lighting in you concepts. Keep it up.:thumbsup:

#58

Okay, here’s one more rough value color test. This is basically a waterfall in the foreground, with a city extending to the horizon. I’ve thrown in some massive structures on the right to give it a grand scale. Anyhow, please let me know what you think compared to the rest. I think I’m going to pick two versions and take them to a near completed level and then submit whichever one you guys like the most. I need your help deciding which are the most spectacular though, as well as ideas to make them more spectacular.

Oh, and Koryh, I tried the floating city, but just wasn’t feeling it. Oh well, maybe it’ll come back at another time.

One last thing. Since these competitions are about learning and sharing, I was thinking of turning this thread into an in depth view of my thought process and techniques for all to see. Like breaking down every step and explaining more about the process. Maybe we can all do this for our threads in order to share different views etc. I don’t know, I’m just thinking out loud! If anyone’s interested, let me know. Keep up the great work everyone!!

#59

wow impressive lighting! I love this one, very dramatic. Nice work! :slight_smile:

#60

I like it! Definately one of the best concepts you have done.:slight_smile: Really nice colour and lighting. It might be cool if the city was built on a series of waterfalls/rivers, with bridges conecting each section:shrug:Maybe it wouldnt, but i thought it could make it more spectacular, and probably somewhere i’d like to live!

#61

hi,
that’s great light you have there, I mean this is spectacular :applause:

#62

Hi Nathaniel! Glad to see you’re entering in this challenge :slight_smile: You do some killer work, and I really loved your Grand Space Opera entry! Looking forward to more of your sketches :bounce:

#63

Hey YeeWu! Thanks for stopping by, and I’ll definitely be checking out your thread.

#64

yAdam-I completely forgot to respond to your comment. I think it’s a really really great idea, and I’m going to play around with some different designs. I think I’m going to be going with the waterfall city and the upshot of the ships passing over the city. Thanks! :thumbsup:

#65

nice sketch… good luck…!:thumbsup:

#66

Cool sketch,
I know! maybe a waterfall city on a FLYING ISLAND. Huh?
just kidding.

Anyway, I would still like to see a hook. Now that we’ve seen Erik and Ryan’s stuff in the last three star wars “art of” book we really need to go beyond that as concept guys. While having people marveling at the technique is nice it is also important to get people to think or experience a bit more than oh wow pretty colors.
Shoot for “that’s F***in insane!” and maybe you will get a “oh, S***, that’s wicked”
And that’s not bad. I am always a fan of stuff that looks like it could be part of a series. There are some concepts and Illustrations that seem to give the impression that there is something more to be seen and the world they created is a cohesive one.
I’m not saying you don’t do this in your stuff. It’s just always good to hear it and think about it from time to time.

BTW this post was keeping in line with your desire to get more into the process and thinking involved with this piece

#67

Kory-Thank you very much for the reply.

I truly appreciate the time you took to think about the piece, and to remind me to really think things through and push the envelope. I agree with you that clunky metal spaceships and large metal buildings are nothing new, and I’m going to make sure that if I go that route, there will be something that separates it from past designs. I’m going to throw some more ideas around in my head, do a little reading, and focus awhile on not only making the visuals spectacular, but also the concept behind it.

Thanks again Kory. I think this will be very beneficial, and I’d appreciate any additional comments along the way. Don’t worry about strong critiques with me…ACCD gets us used to that pretty fast, as you already know!

Nathaniel

#68

I expect to see something, spectacular out of you, Nice skectch so far, this last has great lighting in it! I don’t know what you can do with this, try to give it some more dynamics! Try to like make an image from a vehicle, or have like some camera man on a cliff taking pictures of this spectacular city! I hope to see this one go more development, I am liking this image too much, Good luck with it!:thumbsup:

#69

Hiya, I like where this is going…will be watching :thumbsup:

E5