Creating a series of creature paintings. Started with it's gestation egg. Then an interior view of the egg.
PREVIOUS IMAGES IN SERIES
NEW IMAGE IN SERIESUp to date WIP steps:
Am now working on the creature shortly after birth, still a helpless hatchling, posed in an organic writhing mess of living tubes and veins and all that cool Gigeresque stuff I like so much.
As an adult, it becomes a six-legged hydralisk, preying mantis-looking thing. And like some insect species - termites and ants, there will be several different forms - from basic-looking workers, to a horned razor-appendage armed warrior class, maybe even a king and/or queen type.WIP -
A little inspiration I can cite would definitely be Zerg stuff from StarCraft II, like this pic of Kerrigan, hatching from an egg.
(WIP pic above is scaled; actual version is 3x larger)Gonna get my lines right and then really get started . . .
The bg/surrounding environment was actually an afterthought. The organism itself was done first, then the BG tossed in after-the-fact, so it's lighting/shading will need to change I'm sure.
I anticipate this one to take
lot of work, more than the previous two.
Now that I have a full-time job again and have dropped all freelance, I feel I have the bandwidth to sit around doing fun graphics projects again, instead of meaningless commercial garbage 24/7.
As with each new painting project I take on, I have certain goals, that I always hope will promote my skills growing.
So, GOALS for this one . . .- COLORING. Unlike the previous 2 pics in the series I'm going to avoid cheap gradient map coloring to colorize greyscale painting. Originally, planning this series I established that the milky green/blue gradient map coloring would be used on all pics and therefore be a defining characteristic of the series. Now though, I'm very bored and unimpressed with it. It's too digital, too automatic, too easy. There's just no merit in it. For this one, I want to take my coloring up a notch, or three. So even if at the cost of continuity for the series I'm going a totally new direction with how this one will be finally rendered and polished.
- I like noah. I want to figure out how he paints, so I'll be experimenting with different brushes, techniques, etc. The massive void between me and him bothers me - I want to close it a little if I can.
- DEPTH. Will try for a strong sense of depth. Might use depth of field blurring, might not.
- FORM. Strength of form. Especially when I try to feign perspective my shapes/forms seem to take on a 'fake' look and feel. I want a believable illusion of 3D with strong, interesting shapes that are correctly lit.
- EERIE LIGHT. Want to use light to re-enforce a weird, alien vibe. Might set the main light light source as coming from the floor so there's that automatic eerie, bottom-up lighting effect. Will obscure much of the scene in darkness.
- DETAIL. Lots of detail, covering all surfaces. Will try not to be too repetitive, but give the eye many different things to bounce around on.
- TEXTURE. I never really have figured out how to add nice texture to my paint. Will try. Previous two pics are just basically airbrush style, which I'm bored with now.
Just thought I'd post it here, and fish for whatever thoughts, comments, ideas you guys might have. I like the collaborative association, as well as the opportunity to be inspired by better ideas and also catch mistakes I'll probably make along the way. Plus, this is the only site I post "low spec" artwork on - no desire to slather the internet with my junk.
I expect a steady stream of progress for this project. I doubt it'll stagnate, unless I really get carried away with monotonous details . . . that tends to wear on you hehe.
