CGAN Zodiac Challenge - Leo - WIPs

Cheers Microscopi. I like how your lion is coming on, can't wait to see it progress.

Here is my next WIP with some rough lighting and a background.

Thanks Mercury, yours is progressing great, the background has a lot of depth to it, the lighting from the sun really comes across on the lions, look forward to see your progress too.

I searched a few images online and got inspired by some other zodiac artists, I was sort of hoping this is looking different but the same sort of idea in mind, so I came up with this. I think it's looking good so just going to keep the gold color theme and add some subtle colors and detail everything more.

Mercurycat: I really like the little cub stretching its neck up. And the whole colour scheme is working well and looking unified.

Micro: That's some nice stylization and symbolism going on there with the frame and the sun, and the gold looks super shiny and convincing. I always find it hard to stop it looking like dull yellow but you've got the proper metallic appearance here.

Seeing as I'm struggling with my composition in the Mad Hatter challenge I thought I'd throw some colour on this sketch. I'm not overly impressed by the sky gradient (smooth transitions are always beyond my skill) and it looked a little pale for the night scene that I wanted (controlling dark tones also seems to be beyond my skill!) So I tweaked the levels a little (perhaps too much) for the second version posted below and that now looks closer to what I'd envisioned.
I'm now gonna take it into Photoshop to clean up some of the ropey bits, perhaps work the details a little more and then add the star field and constellation in the sky.

Val I think the blue color scheme is a great direction to go in, night scene with stars and nebula in the sky above would look great too, maybe a constallation ? Some ideas for you, also the lion is better on the 2nd wip, although he looks great in both, you did a great job with the detail, and it's not even a ref, admire you for that.

I tidied up mine a bit, I'm trying to add some colors, but all i can think of is green for vines and maybe some flowers, I hate drawing flowers tho!

hey guys there's a lot of really good progress since I looked last. Val I also think the second one is the better one because it has more vibrance (And you all know I love vibrant colors ^^) and saturation. Just a thought his left (actually his right^^) paw looks a little bit ... clumsy. a bit more shaping would be nice I guess

micro: great addition of the gold and the fire and everything else! so this would be your scheme, mh? fire for the fiery zodiac, water for the water zodiac, ... ? cool idea!

mercurycat: I really adore this style of you it's such a lovely, peaceful scene! the colors and especially the lighting works really well.

Micro: Nice work with the lettering and the fire. It's coming together nicely.
And just to clarify, as mentioned in my previous sketch post I DID use two refs for my lion, one for the body and one for the head and if you google "roaring lion" you'll probably find at least one on the first page. I have no patience when trying to find refs (horrible chore it is) and I usually use the first things I can find
Spent an hour or so today fixing the sky gradient in photoshop and I'm happier. Still have to fix that big paw (thanks for noticing that Cherry) and I've realised I may have to extend the canvas at the top in order to fit in the correct constellation. Must be astronomically accurate, science pedant that I am.

These are all coming along quite nice!

There's now a finals thread for the zodiac challenge too.

Since kazky is busy IRL (looking for her pet parrot that's now been missing for a whole month! ) I guess I'm the one to determine whether the challenge should run longer than Aug. 1st, as was proposed earlier. Do you guys feel you need a bit longer to avoid having two deadlines at almost the same time?

Hope the parrot flies back home soon.

Regarding the challenge, having already posted my final it makes no difference to me either way this month but a bit of leeway for late starters would be perfectly acceptable. For future months it may be a good idea to stagger the deadlines by a couple of weeks so that when one finishes you still have time to make a start on the other.
The downside of that would probably be more work for the mods having to set things up in the middle of the month, and there is a simplicity to having one deadline and one countdown that makes it easy for everyone to understand and remember.