CGAN Jan 23 - Weapon - Final entries

Weapon

Brief: Design and illustrate a fictional weapon (or artifact). Once used by a legendary warrior to defeat a powerful foe it was then lost... until now (dun dun duuuun).


Deadline: Midnight of Tuesday the 31st of January.  

This thread is where you post your final entries, WIPs (work in progress) should be posted over here:  cgartnexus.com/index.php/forums/challeng...n-jan-23-weapon-wips


Challenge rules and guidelines:
cgartnexus.com/index.php/forums/challenge-rules

Rules in brief:
- All challenge entries must be your own work.
- You should post at least two WIP images that are clearly different from your final entry and each other.
- Your final entry should contain your image (inserted so it shows up full size) and at least two links to your WIP posts on the forum.
- No chatter in the finals thread – if you have questions, post them in the WIP thread or PM an admin.
- Feedback is allowed & encouraged together with the voting and in the WIP thread.
- Deadline is given in UK time (midnight UTC) with a grace period of 5 minutes for getting the post sorted.
- Each member may cast one vote.
- No cheating! Admins may decide to disqualify an entry that does not adhere to the above rules.

My original intended background was so disastrously terrible that I scrapped that idea and went with something simpler (and quicker).

WIP 1: cgartnexus.com/index.php/forums/challeng...23-weapon-wips#44109
WIP 2: cgartnexus.com/index.php/forums/challeng...-wips?start=10#44167
WIP 3: cgartnexus.com/index.php/forums/challeng...-wips?start=10#44169

 

Don't think I'll get chance to do anything tomorrow either so...

Sword.  
No Sword.  

And now the returning sword again.

Behold, The (slightly straighter?) Stonemaker!

 

Schwing! 

It's voting time. Please cast your vote in a post for your favourite of the two entries in this here thread comprising of Valence and Banj. Voting will conclude (without a tie  ) on Midnight of the 8th of February. 

And I shall vote for Banj whilst not wearing a tie.

I think that focusing just on the weapon fits the brief much better than mine. You continued to lay in those textures with great effort and skill to create an image that is incredibly tactile. I immediately know what it feels like to grip that handle and run my fingers over that cool cutting edge. And those edges are wonderfully controlled especially the little highlight on the underside of the blade that pulls it out of that realistic shadow.
Overall it looks like a great piece of concept art that showcases the kind of item you might craft in one of those survival games.
Also Banj should get an extra vote for his timely and accurate observation that helped me avoid the embarrassment of a wonky sword.
"I used to be an adventurer like you, and then I took a boomerang to the chest."
Many thanks again for that.

And my vote goes to Valence.

The curved straight sword is nicely rendered and detailed, the background tells a story about the weapon where mine doesn't (there is a backstory, it just isn't remotely obvious from looking at it). I like the ferns and the touch or colour with the flowers, and the detail of the sword penetrating the rocks behind the figure.

And now we wait 

Banj wrote:

And now we wait 

So... I guess I should try to cast a deciding vote, then

As usual, I like them both. I like the clean execution (no pun intended) of Banj's, as well as the implication that it's really old and primitive. And I like Valence's for the story and the drama. I think the stone guy is really well done (with or without hands). And my vote will go to Val, again, in spite of him having won something like ten times in a row now

I can't resist admitting that when I look at the rocks under Val's dude, I see the petrified remains of some sort of big fat blob of a monster (nekkid, from the looks of it). I think it might have been dead already, and the unfortunate hero in Val's picture might have stumbled on its corpse, allowing his adversary to plunge the sword into him. And when he did, the tip touched to corpse on the ground and petrified that too.