CGAN Sept 2016 - Random - WIPs

Torch beams? Argggh! hate 'em hate em hate em! I've never done one even halfway successfully. Still it looks good so far Val.

Just as thought but if you wanted to include dolphins into your pic I think they could make pretty cool looking sarcophagi with their noses in the air and their streamlined bodies. Could be fun idea that they were the original space fairing species who eventually settled on earth - I dunno, but you can have that one gratis

I am going to enter this one - I promise! or at least start one if not complete - been spending to many hours slaying beer and drinking dragons recently.

Valence
You have me beat on antiques but mine is older than Charlotte’s by a year or two. Bought it in 2007, though it may have been a prior year model on sale. Did upgrade to Windows 7 in 2009 with Adobe CS4 in 2012.
Anyway great start on your image as always. If you want to add more words, then how about the two guardians being alligators and you could add some dolphin reliefs in the stone work.

Just for fun.
Haven't been active art wise for a while, but I saw this and two of the words came together right away (guess which ones ).
Don't know where to go with this and a third word. At least it gave me a new profile picture,

I love the little fish swimming inside the helmet!
It immediately makes me think of Douglas Adams and "So Long, And Thanks For All The Fish!" It would be a perfect illustration/cover for that.
I hope you can fit in some more "words" in an equally surreal way.

And yes I was thinking of sneaking in some dolphin hieroglyphics in the background of my pic. But first things first: flashlight. And I agree with Atto, they're surprisingly tricky.

EDIT: You try and spell hieroglyphics right the first time around! I dare you.

Spent a very happy few hours throwing down a rough for this one - its good to be back.

I always loved Han Solo since I was a kid and I love the whole sci fi/western thing that developed as a basis for their smuggler characters so here's a complete rip off. I also thought a big green humanoid alligator may contrast nicely with our cowgirl smuggler.

As a second nod to the movie element here I thought I'd have a go at using thirds as a compositional tool on a 16:9 canvas.

Nice beginning Atto, though I feel it's a bit heavy on the right side. I'd probably try to position the gator farther to the left, myself. (Right now you have "rule of third X's" on the left side where there's nothing to see... Maybe put the gator's head at the top one? Or the orb... but then it'd still be right side heavy I think)

Nice start Atto.
Adding some contrast variation to the background could help fix the balance that Charlotte mentioned. I'm liking the big alligator creature though.

Done some more on mine...


I'm still experimenting with the flashlight. I've put it on a seperate layer and painted in the background behind it so that I can easily play around with opacity and blend modes.It still looks too dominant at the moment but I'm gonna leave it alone until the end when I'll probably be adding some other lighting gimmicks and it should be easier to balance everything then. I need to try and fix that right side next.

Not that I've ever painted a flashlight but I think the beam is barely visible unless there's a lot of dust or fog or something and the sky seems relatively clear here... so maybe just a hint of light from the torch and then where the light strikes, you will see colours, higher contrast and more detail (not just white)... The lit area would look like the same scene in daylight, approximately
I think.

Or make it look like the astronaut is kicking up some dust with some lit up swirlies in the lower part of the beam? Just an idea. Would be way too complex for me, though

This is the way I would approach the beam...

1. Create a selection for the beam shape on a new layer.
2. Lightly airbrush from the source end (bulb) fading out towards the far end. This layer should be fairly subtle. (maybe blur this layer slightly).
3. Create a new layer above, and again airbrush from the source fading out. This layer should be brighter and should fade faster (closer to the source).
4. Take a textured eraser (cloudy smoke brush) and erase out to create atmospheric effect in beam.
5. Add another layer above, airbrush again. Erase out of this as before.
6. Another layer above and airbrush in detail near the source.

I would also make sure the object in the distance where the beam hits it is not as bright or brighter than the light source. The beam in this example was 5 layers using a regular soft airbrush and a cloud/smoke brush (part of a set of Photoshop cloud brushes - do a search for Nagel cloud brushes).

I would probably make the beam even more subtle than I did it here, but that depends on the environment and atmosphere.

Valence,
Thanks, that’s probably where that image was rattling around in my brain. Loved the series. So the answer is 42 or add a bunch of Vogon demolition ships to add a third word from the list. So here is a second shot at this.

Maybe the little fish are Babblefish, need to stick one in my ear to find out .

That's coming along well, Kodabble.
The colour and texture of the dolphin works nicely and I like the repeated shape of the the helmet and the planet.

And of course they're babel fish!
I don't know why I didn't make that connection too!