Steampunk Myths and Legends Entry: Sami Rouhiainen

#1

Sami Rouhiainen is entered in the “Steampunk Myths and Legends” update: View Challenge Page

Latest Update: Final Image: The Guardian of the Labyrinth

#2

First sketch for the competition. I decided to start laying down the colours right from the start since I have a pretty strong vision in my head on how the image should look like.

I’ll continue on trying to get the wanted composition and the dynamics of the image right before taking any other steps.

#3


oops, double post… I is a n00b

#4

Work in progress :slight_smile:

…

So, I totally did not realize there’s only 9 days left before registering for the competition… Not much choice left, other than treat the whole painting as a somewhat more complicated speedpaint and hope for the best.

It’s been fun so far :smiley:

#5

Ok, I failed again with the forum. The WIP image has been properly posted now.

Edit:
I just realized that I did not mention anything about inspiration for this painting in my posts, so I figured I’d replace this silly double post with some actual content.

So, the list for sources of inspiration goes as follows:

  1. The construction yard near my home that is awesomely light up with spotlights every morning I walk by it to the train station.
  2. The snowy trees of Helsinki (which nowadays are a rare sight to behold…)
  3. Iron Maiden, specifically the album Fear of the Dark.
  4. Supernatural TV series.

And I would have not gotten this painting done without my amazing girlfriend. :slight_smile:

#6

Okay, here’s what I got done today…

I think I’m getting dangerously close to overworking some parts of the image :slight_smile: So I’ll start to shift focus more to the actual character which needs to look reaaally menacing. Also, I think I need something to establish it’s size. Somehow.

More tomorrow!

#7

Day 3!

Here’s what I did on day 3. First, I started again with the background and after spending several useless moments working details I realized I should focus on the character finally.

So, I isolated the initial minotaur sketch and had a speedpainting session. The only goal was to give it some more character and details.

I am really happy how the sketch turned out and that really gave me a lot of extra momentum for today.

I figure the next 3 days will be spent on the character and the days remaining after that will go on the BG and the overal mood of the image.

More updates to follow…

#8

Day 5… I think.

Okay, the main character is here. It took a few days to get done but I am happy with the result.
Tomorrow I get to start with the colors and making him part of the BG.

Should be fun :slight_smile:

#9

Cool design

#10

bows respectfully

Thank you for the crit, OZ!

:smiley:

#11

This was done a few days ago.

I got the shapes done for main character and before continuing to the shading and actual coloring I wanted to relax a bit and play around with textures.

Before that though, I did the quick mockup 3d scene with 2 spotlights in the BG to see how the light reacts to the shapes.

After figuring out the basic texture and higlights it was fun and straightforward to finish the character.

I’ll upload that next :slight_smile:

#12

Here’s the finished main character, which took surprisingly long to make and I think that it is due to some old bad habits with texture layering :slight_smile:

The result looks pretty powerful though. Even with the character being somewhat oversaturated :slight_smile:

But luckily, I saw this coming and made everything tweakable for the next phase, which was adding the minotaur back to the actual painting.

#13

Here’s how the painting looked after adding the finished minotaur back to the painting.

And as I suspected, the saturation levels where all over the place :slight_smile:

This stage of the painting did reveal though some issues with the BG lighting that I was not aware of before.

#14

Okay folks, the last one before the final image.

This is where I got after messing around with the minotaur’s saturation and hue values (Way too many mod. layers in the photoshop file… I did name most of them though :-))

Also, I spent a good deal of time with adding several details here and there, like the steam and sparks.

The fun part about this piece was the details, which I only started adding after the overall mood was right.

That will probably be one the biggest lessons of this painting for me.

One more post left :slight_smile:

#15

Software: 3ds max,Photoshop

The stories of travelling men tell of a mysterious and dark behemoth, hidden deep within the cold, forbidding forests of the East.

Massive steel walls riddled with rusty pipes and machinery surround this vast maze-like construction. Nobody knows what it’s purpose is. Nobody knows what secrets are hidden within this labyrinth of concrete and metal, or beyond it for that matter.

Nobody knows how long it has been there.

Some wise men say the construct of the tales exists only to tempt Mankind’s curiosity and stubborness towards the unknown. Taunt them with something that cannot be conquered or owned. The freezing temperatures alone would stop most who seek to discover it.

And the foolhardy adventurers who are skillfull enough to find it and enter it…

They don’t come back, alive.

…

The wisemen say there is a lesson to be learnt by these myths.

For every story told about the behemoth tells a slightly different tale. The one thing all have in common is the guardian of the Labyrinth: described as a mighty, deadly nightmare who hunts down all who dare to gain access.

The legends tell that the hulking, merciless creature used to be a man once, perhaps the very first to enter the dark, dead grounds of the mechanical maze.

Maybe he was the one to find out what the secret was… and paid a high price for that discovery.

The creature hunts.

And it kills.

And it always succeeds.

#16

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