Amazing as always. Sign my ars up as soon as you decide to take a commision!
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What servers do you guys play on? - so maybe the one night off I take a week I can make a noob or transfer a character and join you guys for some sillyness.
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What server do I play on? I have 132 alts. That's not hard math. 
The Alt Alphabet ~ OPC: Other People's Characters ~ Terrific Screenshots of Cool ~ Superhero Fiction
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I can't fathom it. I have a primitive mind, to me it's magic. That's a little piece of magic you made there.
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I'm familiar with Photoshop and have done a lot of photo-editing (look for UnstableFiend on worth1000.com if you want to see some stuff of mine)... That's still freaking magic, imo.
@Johnstone & @Johnstone 2
ediblePoly.com
All my characters
There's a group of us that play on Liberty. We have the Envisionaries, which is filled with people from the art forums. I play sporadically but there almost always seems to be someone on when I do. Feel free to roll up a character and I am sure one of us can log on to invite you.
FREEEEEEEEEDOOOOOM!!! Exclusively.
Anyone else from around here on Freedom? I swear I feel like the only one.
I am virtuous.
>
really, I am.
I've got someone on every server but play mostly on Liberty these days. I used to play on Freedom, but the lag just got to me too much. I can handle it more, now, since I've upgraded my computer, but by then I had already moved to Liberty.
"If I fail, they write me off as another statistic. If I succeed, they pay me a million bucks to fly out to Hollywood and fart." --- George A. Romero
"If I had any dignity, that would have been humiliating" --- Adam Savage
Virtue Server: Kheprera, Malefic Elf, Lady Omen, Night Rune, La Muerte Roja, Scarab Lafayette, Serena Ravensong, Kyrse, and Arachnavoodoo among others.
oh boy... That was pretty sweet I could favorite almost all your work in your gallery... Some great stuff man.
The lich is very cool. I like the long hair (nice touch) and that helmet is killer with the creepy gleam as he is grabbing his sword. Good job on the flowing robe. so much things I like about this. the lighting, the mood, coloring, texture. damn nice.
I looked at the sketch and think this looks better than the original.
Hmmm...I think I have a character on Liberty. Maybe I'll pop over there some time.
I usually play on Virtue these days but I still have a stable over on Victory, and a few characters on Protector.
Busting heads since 1938
Character references * My DeviantArt gallery * I am an altoholic
Cool guys thanks for the info - ill have to take a spin onto one of these servers and try and maybe catch up with one or more of ya.
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So yeah... I opened the link and my jaw dropped.
Fantastic piece. The only critique I could offer would be that there is so much detail on the lich's head and helmet area that everything else feels kind of... flat by comparison. One of the things that digital painting lacks is something called implied texture, which comes about in physical media thanks to the combination of the brushstrokes and the interaction of the medium with the substrate. It makes things look more detailed than they are by giving the eye some variation to pick up on in any large uniform area. When painting digitally, this implied texture needs to be consciously included, otherwise you get that "digital feeling" which everybody recognizes and usually calls "flat" or "plastic" or, pardon me while I grit my teeth, "Photoshopped". This painting has a lot of large uniform areas which could really benefit from implied texture (the sword, the foggy silhouettes, parts of the grass), all the more so because of the excellent level of detail contrasting with them from the skeleton's head.
Actually, the sword could use some re-tooling; because of the color change on the blade, I get the impression that the tip of it above the bright reflection is displaced into the fog beyond the skeleton. It's a weird optical illusion caused by everything in the background being blue and everything in the foreground being yellow/orange/red. Also, the reflection itself creates tangent (I assume unintentional) with the line of the skeleton's cloak. Moving it down the blade a touch farther would probably make the point of emphasis in the piece a little less confusing, since it currently competes with the skeleton's face.
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I really appreciate this insight and critique - it helps me think outside the box.
While I definately *see* where your coming from, I dont share it, and ill tell you why:
The backdrop is intended to be somewhat undefined. I find that leaving aspects like that in the piece allows the viewer to fill in the blanks with thier own imagination, and this - I find - is critical to including the viewer in the story.
The shapes are also intended to frame or block in the main characters, and while I understand you feel they are flat and uniform I disagree. The moon-lit fog serves to add complexity to the scenery. The fact that its night-time also supports a sense of undefined flatness simply because objects at night (especially surrounded by humidity and fog) can become amorphous and inclusive.
I feel also that this flatness is further diminished by the implied depth of the fog obscured walkway leading to a hollowed out building - and treeline beyond it - to his right.
As for the sword - ill have to take your word for it?
I dunno, perhaps im visually defecient on some level but Im not at all seeing this optical illusion you speak of.
Im not sure how one could make a leap like the end of the blade being behind the skeleton unless there were some serious distortions of both physics and perspective; and while I dont dispute the possibility of it being there - its obviously so subtle that you miss it for the overall impact of the composition.
The sword and the young warrior are supposed to be secondary focus' and the sword is supposed to compete with the lich to some degree; as it is the namesake of the work.
But with the detail of the lich's helm, the moon framing its head and the scenery reaching up to box his upper torso - I think it would be kind of hard to mistake what the intended focus of the work is.
Again - thanks for this valuable perspective and critique, it will help me improve.
Hmm. I must not have been communicating well, sorry about that. Undefined wasn't necessarily what I meant when I was talking about implied texture.
Let's take this image as an example. It has large areas which are largely undefined, without significant detail; the floor, the rafters, the sky itself, even the large uniform color patches of the pillars. And yet there is a ton of texture in there, created by the brush strokes and various colors used. They don't detract from the focal point of the work, but they do add a lot of visual richness, a sort of 'grit' to simulate the texture that canvas would lend to traditional media. Craig Mullins' art is a fantastic source for finding observing effective compositional principles.
Actually, even just for the fun of it, browsing through goodbrush.com is an awesome thing to do. When it comes to digital artists, nobody does it better than Craig Mullins. I periodically visit the site just to browse, like a fine art gallery.
"Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty."
"Nothing is unchangeable but the inherent and unalienable rights of man."
- Thomas Jefferson
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Hey all!
Just finished a piece that some of you guys expressed some interest in - namely Khep and Dark-E.
Im a little nervous about it since some folks have already seen the sketch and might already have some expectations - hopefully my version will live up to the one they had in mind.
http://cryptcrawler.deviantart.com/a...sword-92333558
As always - thanks for all the support, you guys rule.
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That is a seriously GREAT piece.
/envy
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But with the detail of the lich's helm, the moon framing its head and the scenery reaching up to box his upper torso - I think it would be kind of hard to mistake what the intended focus of the work is.
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That's good to know. Despite the name of the piece, I found myself constantly being drawn to the lich rather than the sword-bearer in the foreground. The definition in his armor and his face in comparison to the surroundings, the sheen of the metal helm, and the fact that he's clearly in the process of drawing that big evil sword on his belt made him the center of the focus for my viewings of the piece. I really wanted to see him finish unsheathing that sword.
I liked the contrast of the sharply defined central figures versus the less-defined terrain. It didn't feel flat to me, it felt "fuzzy" and it reinforced that the light and focus were on the two central figures.
Course, as I've said before, I'm no artist. I just know what I like. *heh*
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Hey all!
Just finished a piece that some of you guys expressed some interest in - namely Khep and Dark-E.
Im a little nervous about it since some folks have already seen the sketch and might already have some expectations - hopefully my version will live up to the one they had in mind.
http://cryptcrawler.deviantart.com/a...sword-92333558
As always - thanks for all the support, you guys rule.
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That is a seriously GREAT piece.
/envy
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Juggs thanks a lot man!
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oh boy... That was pretty sweet I could favorite almost all your work in your gallery... Some great stuff man.
The lich is very cool. I like the long hair (nice touch) and that helmet is killer with the creepy gleam as he is grabbing his sword. Good job on the flowing robe. so much things I like about this. the lighting, the mood, coloring, texture. damn nice.
I looked at the sketch and think this looks better than the original.
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Hey, thanks for that, I really appreciate the support - it means a lot!
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But with the detail of the lich's helm, the moon framing its head and the scenery reaching up to box his upper torso - I think it would be kind of hard to mistake what the intended focus of the work is.
[/ QUOTE ]
That's good to know. Despite the name of the piece, I found myself constantly being drawn to the lich rather than the sword-bearer in the foreground. The definition in his armor and his face in comparison to the surroundings, the sheen of the metal helm, and the fact that he's clearly in the process of drawing that big evil sword on his belt made him the center of the focus for my viewings of the piece. I really wanted to see him finish unsheathing that sword.
I liked the contrast of the sharply defined central figures versus the less-defined terrain. It didn't feel flat to me, it felt "fuzzy" and it reinforced that the light and focus were on the two central figures.
Course, as I've said before, I'm no artist. I just know what I like. *heh*
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You dont have to be an artist or an educated critic to have a reason to like something or have a valid opinion about it either.
There are several artists I love who mess up proportions, fudge backgrounds and cut corners. I love "them", sometimes even moreso when they arent perfect draftsmen.
Its awesome you kept being pulled to the lich, that was absolutely the intent and im very happy to hear it worked for you.
I really love to hear how you wanted to complete the story; thats what its all about for me, I love that you really wanted him to finish drawing that sword; thats just pure gold in my book, it lets me know that you got involved - and thats what makes me want to get better and better!
/Battlewraith
You've really got a gift for rendering there, my friend. That helmet looks like I could reach up and grab it. There are a lot of elements in your other pieces that rival 3d shading as well.
Personally, though, the reason I savor this one and many of the pieces in your gallery is that they really bring to mind the era of EERIE and CREEPY particularly, but Epic and Heavy Metal too. The vocabulary and design sensibility of your stuff evokes to me the stuff I loved as a kid that got me into art. Keep working, keep growing, and most of all keep enjoying what you're doing. Thanks for sharing!
Blacklisted
"I'AM SATANS FAVORITE CHILD!!"
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/Battlewraith
You've really got a gift for rendering there, my friend. That helmet looks like I could reach up and grab it. There are a lot of elements in your other pieces that rival 3d shading as well.
Personally, though, the reason I savor this one and many of the pieces in your gallery is that they really bring to mind the era of EERIE and CREEPY particularly, but Epic and Heavy Metal too. The vocabulary and design sensibility of your stuff evokes to me the stuff I loved as a kid that got me into art. Keep working, keep growing, and most of all keep enjoying what you're doing. Thanks for sharing!
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Dude, this one of the best compliments ive ever gotten - thanks very much!
Like you I grew up on CREEPY, EERIE, Heavy Metal and TWISTED TALES, so im extremely happy that this came through for you.
And the 3d compliments means a lot to me.
Richard Corben is what got me wanting to achieve that look.
I saw his stuff when I was 11 years old and said to myself " I want that..and ill do anything in the world to get it.."
Granted it was one of his fantasy babes with juddering melons; but being a young artist it introduced me to what was possible and that hunger has never ceased.
Thanks very much for this, it made my night.
So yeah... I opened the link and my jaw dropped.
Fantastic piece. The only critique I could offer would be that there is so much detail on the lich's head and helmet area that everything else feels kind of... flat by comparison. One of the things that digital painting lacks is something called implied texture, which comes about in physical media thanks to the combination of the brushstrokes and the interaction of the medium with the substrate. It makes things look more detailed than they are by giving the eye some variation to pick up on in any large uniform area. When painting digitally, this implied texture needs to be consciously included, otherwise you get that "digital feeling" which everybody recognizes and usually calls "flat" or "plastic" or, pardon me while I grit my teeth, "Photoshopped". This painting has a lot of large uniform areas which could really benefit from implied texture (the sword, the foggy silhouettes, parts of the grass), all the more so because of the excellent level of detail contrasting with them from the skeleton's head.
Actually, the sword could use some re-tooling; because of the color change on the blade, I get the impression that the tip of it above the bright reflection is displaced into the fog beyond the skeleton. It's a weird optical illusion caused by everything in the background being blue and everything in the foreground being yellow/orange/red. Also, the reflection itself creates tangent (I assume unintentional) with the line of the skeleton's cloak. Moving it down the blade a touch farther would probably make the point of emphasis in the piece a little less confusing, since it currently competes with the skeleton's face.
"Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty."
"Nothing is unchangeable but the inherent and unalienable rights of man."
- Thomas Jefferson