[arttorney]

Thumbnails.



Santana and kovah- Where are the spheres?

[Santana]

woops.... i should learn to read.. first i miss the 4 eyes... now the spheres... haha... ok, i've added them... thanks for pointing that out. I hope i didn't miss anything else...

[kovah]

attorney: Give me time i'm getting there ^^ and i quite like the top pyramiddy shaped one

[arttorney]

Just friendly kibbutzing. Virtually everybody is making a bilaterally symmetrical organism when it is supposed to be asymmetrical. I used a pretty random program to generate thumbs here and at least two of my thumbs look like bilateral symmetry too. I think the "asymmetrical" thing is probably going to be the hardest part. My pyramid one is the one I am pretty sure I can work with to make a clearly asymmetrical creature. That lower left one I think looks bilaterally symmetrical whether you view it as a profile of a creature or as the "sharky thing coming straight at you" look. Regrettable, since I liked the "sharky thing" look when I saw it.

[Brynn_Metheney]

Wow! this is really taking off! Another great round in the works for sure!

Some thoughts:

@ Darryl_Elliott - I like the start of this. I think what kovah is talking about will help the image. As for the organism itself, I think the mouth could look a little more integrated into the body. You might look at microscopic shrimp and other sea organisms for help. They have more complicated mouth-parts and are still translucent. I like your take though! Keep going!

@ CartoonBeaver - Nice start! I'm excited to see it develop further! Watch out for those growths on the back of the organism there, you might want them to look a little more random - right now they have a bit of a pattern going.

@ Lwng - Nice sketch! Kovah had mentioned it before about being a herbivore, however I did mention that it eats other organisms to supplement its diet. You could add some sort of secondary lure system, however it might be slow to develop in the evolution of the organism if it isn't it's first nature - to hunt. Excited to see more!

@ JonathanMayer - Nice sketches! I like number 5 the best as well. I normally don't do thumbnails either but I find it help immensely.

@ kovah - Looks great so far! You have some nice atmosphere happening! Maybe you could flatten out those front limbs a bit to match the rest of the body?

@ Santana - Looks great! I like your take! Watch out for those hand in the front - you don't want to make them look like robotic - they have those circular joints. Look closely at crabs and such for reference if that whats your going for. Although you might want to try and integrate it in to the look of the animal more too.

@ cyl1981 - Look great so far! I agree with the dental issue that kovah brought up. I'm looking forward to fins as well. I really like the scale you've achieved in this piece.

@ arttorney - I always love the way you start things! What program do you use? I really like the movement and the shape of the lower left one. Excited to see more! Glad you're here!

Whew! Ok! Looking awesome everyone! Excited to see this lineup! Keep helping each other too - you all have great ideas and see things that I don't always catch!

[DefiledVisions]

really digging the topic, will have some sketches up later!

[arttorney]

My thumbs are basically from a program called alchemy ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alchemy_%28software%29 ), though I resorted to the GIMP for putting spheres on the back.

[JonathanMayer]

I went with the fifth design. The spheres on the back are going to constitute the asymmetrical element of my creature. I think I'll have some divers swimming around near him, just to give a better sense of scale.

[rlttdoc]

Another day of painting...
Thanks to kovah for the instructions! Is better now?
There's a lot of good works

santana: i love your work because is really personal, work on the sea but in the same way you work on the creature, Scretched! you need more contrast on the creature.
kovah: is a black and white study? or you want to work this way for the final?
Thanks at all bye

[AIMonkey]

This week is going very nice!, been enjoying what everyone has up so far

Seeing that all that just made me try out a quick sketch
Also trying out a different way of painting again

the Asymmetry haunted my mind allot this time. Gave allot of thoughts about the flippers/fins and the growth, and some other things

This creature is on its way to swim from horizontal to vertical. You could say it's a diagonal creature, but with Triangular front view in mind (1 side of growth, 1 backside, 1 belly(?)side)

The growth is located on either the left or right flank on the back. The side with growth is considered the topside of the creature the dorsal and pelvic fins also grow appropriate according to the side of its growths

On each side of the head there is a jointed limb to help maneuver across the surfaces

4 big tail fins/flippers, used to control both forward motion and rolling of its body

... but might just make them more triangular and take one of the tail flippers and put it on its flank

It feeds diagonally because of the growths being located on one side and that being the Top, but also having 2 other flanks

[Santana]

rittdoc - thanks.. i like your piece too.... 'Scretched' ??? lol, what does that exactly mean??? I think i'm getting old, don't recognize that word..

[DefiledVisions]

Starting out with the head before exploring thumbs. Aiming for some kind of cow-whale-thing. A bit inspired by the electric eel, it too being a slow-moving creature, with bad eye-sight it uses sensors all over it's body to navigate. I feel this creature needs something like that too, could also be a good way of communication.
Having a lot of fun ^^

[Santana]

Hi all, thanks for all the help and crits.... here is an update.

thanks

[JonathanMayer]

@Soulshade - I love the head design! I kinda wish the eyes were more forward, like where those nostril-things are. But that's just personal preference. Man, I wish I could sketch like that in Photoshop... are you using a Cintiq?

@Santana - The design is looking good. However, I notice you have a tendency to go right into the details. You end up with a very flat-looking high-contrast creature, which is hard to shade and render from that point. Try using a bigger brush to start with, and just get the general forms and lighting down. Also, try to use more gray values and less black and white. From that point, it's a lot easier to add color and details as your painting progresses.

Here's another progress shot of mine.

[Dona]

Darryl_Elliott - I second what kovah said. But I do love its soft looks!

CartoonBeaver - Interesting, do work on it more! I like the blue/yellow-green contrast.

kovah, that's lovely, it really reminds me of a seal

cyl1981 - no crit for yours, I just LOVE the colours and mood and dragon-like design. <3

rlttdoc - Using a whale for size comparison is such a good idea Your image looks a bit too dark and contrasty to me, tho it could be just my personal taste.

AIMonkey - it's kinda hard to see what's going on with the design right now, but I like your thoughts on asymmetry and spherical growth. Definitely gave me something to think about, too...

Soulshade, that looks nice, I'm really curious about how you're going to deal with the rest of its body

Santana - I like the 'gothic' look Have you thought about making fishes even smaller? I think it would help accentuate the size of the creature.

JonathanMayer - Oh my, that's so amazing *_* I really, really love the soft light and the way you dealt with bands/stripes.

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Here's some progress on mine - I'm a bit stuck about a lot of things :[ I went with a dinosaur for the sake of showing the creature's size, but I'm not sure if that works well. Also, it lacks assymetry... I'll have to tweak design a lot, I think. I'm just very confused at the moment, perhaps I should sleep on it...