[Amaakir]

Spotlight Winner - TwoDD

Anatomicae #30 - Sentinel's Shield

Due Date: July 16th, 2012, 12:00 PM PST

Please make sure to visit the
Reference Image guidelines
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How to Attach Images

Challengers! Hereth lie the rules for this round's challenge! Make sure to read them entirely!

"A Madman's Ramblings (Introduction)"

I have a weak spot for storytelling. I believe that every artist has a natural voice, capable of telling unimaginable stories through their artwork. I hold this belief close to me and constantly remind myself of it when I'm painting or sketching.

Therefore, on this Anatomicae challenge, wel will do some further exploration into the art of storytelling through strong design. Participants will be tasked to design and paint the shield of a Sentinel, with a special focus in the shield's emblem or crest. As some of you know, I usually undertake the Anatomica Challenges in a series of themes: Human Anatomy, Art Basics, Animal Anatomy and Fantasy Anatomy. The latter will explore more storytelling than the rest, in an effort to keep the challenges interesting and have a wide variety of themes to pull people with different profiles into participating.

Anyway, for this challenge we will have a lot of storytelling to do, what does your shield represent, does it belong to a devout paladin, a fallen templar? What does the crest on the shield tell us about your story? Keep close attention to details like textures, colors and symbols used in designing your shield and amaze us!
Onward!

Objectives

Challengers will be tasked to design and paint a shield. The shield must be able to tell a story about it's owner (If there is one) and the battles it has been through. Strong design and details such as textures and colors will be part of the artists arsenal to tell a believable and appealing story about the object, giving it its unique personality.

Rules and Requirements

- Challengers are required to show their WIP and Reference Materials. These challenges are an opportunity for all of us to make contact with other artists and be a part of a growing community and it would be unfair for the artists who are making an effort to share their work and ideas if you are allowed to enter the finals without participating in the WIP thread.
- Challengers are to paint a shield with a crest or emblem. The shield should be able to tell a story without depending on other elements. A simple background is acceptable, but the Shield must be the main focus on the final entry, ocuppying at least 80% of the image.

Some Tips to get you on your way...

- When you start sketching, think about the following:
* Silhouette: The silhouette of your shield should be as unique as possible, explore different shapes and be bold in doing so!
* Always ask why: When coming up with a new idea to add into your design, always ask yourself the purpose of it being there. Did you add the dragon crest because the shield belongs to an order of dragon slaying warriors? If not, ask yourself if it should really be there and what part of the story is being missed by not leaving it there.

- This is a great opportunity to explore textures. Is the shield really battered up or spanking shiny new? Make sure it all adds up to tell your story!

- Here are a couple reference images and some links of interest:

http://schoolism.com/interview.php?id=78
In this interview with Antony Jones from Schoolism, he talks a lot about his tool presets when painting creatures. What's really awesome about this link is that you can access his tool presets, some of which include some really sweet textures and brushes to simulate the glow of metallic objects. I hope it helps!

http://www.oshel.com/symbols.htm










Have fun, guys, and welcome to round #30!

[Cj_Marsh]

Awesome topic buddy! I think ill have to get in on this one!

[PLyczkowski]

Hi, could you tell from what image the thumbnail is made?

[Amaakir]

@PLyczkowski: Sure, mate, I googled it and found it from here:
http://www.lifesize-models.co.uk/product.php?id=632

[PLyczkowski]

@Amaakir Thx.

[htkpeh]

hey ho
it´s a very cool topic

here are some of my sketches
for the inspiration i use a architecture book
(sry for the bad photos)

[htkpeh]

and a few more,i think i will target some sort of oriental style
i like the idea of the 3th one with the elephant,could easy tell the viewer where it come from

[Amaakir]

@htkpeh: Wow, I love where you drew inspiration from, an architecture book! Sweet, that's pretty original! I personally liked the last ones, but an Elephant as main feature is a very interesting idea, according to this website: http://www.oshel.com/symbols.htm

Elephant: Great strength, wit, longevity, happiness, royalty, good luck, and ambition

[natzuurjk]

I hope to find time to participate, but I may not be able to. I want to share a resource Met Museum Shields

They have a bunch of photos of tons of different shields, but not all have photos. However they also have fullscreen views and downloads of them, and there are some real gems.

[Sorknes]

Been ages since I've done anything like this, so here goes....

Thought process:

I wanted something organic. So I started with flowers and such. Didn't really work out, but I decided I like thistle as a possible thing on the coat of arms. Don't really wanna wade through a field of them. Checked them out here: http://www.fleurdelis.com/meanings.htm and it says "defiance and surliness". Workable.

Then I thought I might go to the animals kingdom instead for ideas, and the one animal I would never try to pass is rhinoceros. I have seen them in the wild, and I was totally awed by them. Checked out the same site, and it says "ferocious when aroused". Works.

So then I thought to try to use the rhino for the design instead of the coat of arms. Also thinking about vine for the coat of arms (in addition to thistle) since it says "Strong and lasting friendship; Peace and plenty; luck and strength" - it fits with the ideas in the back of my mind.

I'm leaning to either go utterly sci-fi or utterly high fantasy with this, just have to find the right design first...

Here's what I did while thinking:





Didn't add ref pics since I think you guys knows what rhino, thistle and vine is... When I go more in depth on the designs, I'll find some good pics for refs.

[Sorknes]

Think I might found a form I liked right away... playing with colour.

One of the reasons for thistle was purple, because I thought it royal. My ref page on the earlier post says: "Royal majesty, sovereignty, and justice."

Then I used blue (Truth and loyalty), silver (Peace and sincerity), maroon (Patient in battle, and yet victorious) just because I thought they looked prettiful. Green (Hope, joy, and loyalty in love) was kind of an accident with the thistle, I might change that into one of the others.... Too many of them, maybe?

[jeanmoore]

This sounds like it would be a lot of fun. This would be the first time I have participated.

[htkpeh]

thx @ Amaakir

@Sorknes: interesting idea but maybe you are thinking to much about the colour meanings and you should watch out more about colours which are working good together,mayber one colour theme like the purple
and i´m very interested about your next steps.

in my next step i try to make a combination and still use the elephant theme

[Amaakir]

@natzuurjk: I hope you do find some time to join us, and thank you very much for sharing!

@Sorknes: Your process is very interesting, I love when artists share their thought process when developing concept, thank you for sharing yours! I agree with htkpeh, I see a lot of colors in your design, while I do like the thought behind choosing those colors, I think that going with a color that best describes your concept and making it predominant should work. For example, if you where to use purple, make at least 70% of your concept of that same color and add secondary or tertiary colors by using complementary, analogous or triadic colors. Take a peek into:
http://kuler.adobe.com
I always use this application, you can also find it in the Photoshop extensions from CS4 up I think. The little program is of great aid when it comes to picking color schemes, so choose a main color, and fill in the 30% of the image left with up to 2 colors that complement your main color.

@jeanmoore: Welcome and please feel free to join

@zeichenwut: Please do, It'd be great to see you participate in this one!

@htkpeh: I love the stylization of the elephant on your shield, it's elegant and the concept behind the design of the shield works great along with it. Keep up the great work!

I'll definitely be joining in on this one, school will be less stressful for a while and it's being a while since I joined the fun so...expect something from me soon!

[htkpeh]

many thanks Amaakir

my last post get lost and also the post of zeichenwut(maybe a forum problem)

so here is my re-post
i tried out different colours and textures i found on google to get the right feeling,the coloured versions seems to show the elephant style very good but i´m missing the shield look.
the uncoloured version works better as a shield i think.
every thought/idea/critic is welcome