[washka]

It's getting nasty pixel-chick , nice stuff!

[Kismet_Knell]

Its true..I could've gone with a more creative approach. I will do better next time!

[choo]

Friends:

You have posted some great works in progress. The Final thread was supposed to be posted today, but in consideration of time and the work put in so far I'm going to extend this through to this Friday before posting the finals.

This will give you more time to tweak your designs, and perhaps even give time for new entrants! It will also give me time to better critique your entries (we've been dealing with work and some pretty inclement weather recently in my neck of the woods that's been cutting down on my availability here.)

[Rdhillon]

Washka: thanks for the feedback looks like I can add to the final now we have more time.

[mindbender]

@Washka: Thank you for the feedback. Glad you think I have a personal style and that you fins it appealing. I'm very influenced by old masters such as Rembrandt, Constable, Monet etc when I paint. I currently subscribe to reproductions of art masterpieces and continuously draw and paint studies from these hoping for osmosis to occur while doing something I really enjoy

I used ArtRage3Pro for this one and postadjusted in PS when the painting was done.

@choo: Would be great if you could create the "finals" thread a few days before the deadline, so we don't have to worry about posting in time

[pixel-chick]

Thanks, Washka Yeah, the skull of the creature is definitely more like that of a horse.

Kismet, your creature has alot more depth now, it's looking good. I think it could still use some more detail like spots and slime or something, but those tentacles are definitely looking like they have volume to them. Perhaps add an overlay layer (or something similar, play around with various layers) of various blobs of other colors like yellows, blues and greens (in moderation since its the complement of red). I'd be interested to see what you come up with. That way it won't look like such a big expanse of red, variation will add interest to the image. Maybe give him some variable stripes?

Mindbender, nice image. I love the styles of the old masters as well, your style is refreshing to see.

Hi 'Spoons and Nethri, I like both of your octopus studies, the broken line strokes that 'spoons uses are cool, and I like the color version of your creature, Nethri. Wish my color sense were that keen, perhaps it'll come with more practice, heh.

Rdhillon, your image rocks, not much I can say beyond that.

Here's some more progress, trying to make the snake-like body look like it is twisting logically. I included the reference I used for the mouth.

I played around with some color versions, but my color skills still stink, so I left it black and white for now, lol. I just finished reading 'Color Theory' by Jose Parramon, great book and I highly recommend it, and I started on 'Confident Color' by Nita Leland. I think that I just have to practice alot more to feel confident with color because, in all honesty, it terrifies me! :P

[pixel-chick]

I've been playing around with some shading, adding blocks of solid grey fills, though I'm not sure if i like it completely black and white (all pen stroke) or whether I should have the fill in there. What do you guys suggest? I tend to opt for simplicity in my work so as to keep the painting process as relaxing as possible, but I'm thinking the fill may actually look better.

[pixel-chick]

Hah, sorry for 3 posts in a row, but I had some time to work on this today and wanted to get as far as I could. This will most likely be my final. I had fun with this theme.

[washka]

I prefer it with the filling pixel-chick.

Some story, some tips about colors:

Don't be terrified by colors, just have some fun with those and you'll learn how to use your palette without even noticing it.

When I started painting I was thinking that I was quite good with colors and had nothing to learn from those, I wasn't terrified at all. (I should have)
But in fact, I was using those like sh*t, and didn't knew anything at all about them. (I had a palette of 4 colors: black, white, red and blue, yes that was quite weak...)
I wasn't having any fun with colors because in my head there was nothing to learn from those, I already knew it all.

I was wrong.

Then while I was painting with unseenable tones, I slowly became aware that I knew nothing about colors, and hopefully people were pointing that to me.

So I changed my mind and started to get some more fun with those, and even if the result of my work was quite cheap I slowly extended the use of my palette, and with my mistakes and people's help, I could compare my works and advance on my learning way. You can go look at my 2D thread on 3dtotal, lot's of experiment there and I'm still having lot's of fun (and doing lot's of mistakes, but I really don't care).

I'm still not terrified by colors, but now I care a bit more about those: they're no longer innocuous for me.

Honestly, who care the result when you learn?
Imo, knowing something and doing it are two different things.
There is not just perfection, imperfection is also part of the world and of life too. What's important?

I was blocked on my way because I just considered perfection and had no fear, but I was blind, I think you're blocked because you're blind too, in an opposite way.

Colors won't eat you, and even if they do there's always the exit door: delete layer or desaturate, compared to an octopus hunter, a real one, the risk you take is really really low.

[Rdhillon]

So here we have it just a quick touch up added a few lights/shadow to the scene.
Thanks for the compliment pixel-chick your attention to detail within your sketch is awesome.