CGAN June 2018 - Elemental - WIPs

Elemental

Brief: Taken from the suggestions thread posted by octoberstormxx . Create a representation of an element (Earth, Wind, Fire, or Water).


Deadline: Entries must be posted by midnight (GMT) on Saturday the 30th of June.

This is where you post your WIPs. Final entries should be posted in the thread over here: cgartnexus.com/index.php/forums/current-...mental-final-entries

Challenge rules and guidelines:
cgartnexus.com/index.php/forums/challeng...s/39-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 GMT) 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.

Ok, love this theme but I've been struggling to decide which element to take on. I knew I wanted it on a ma-hooo-sive scale but that was all.
Here's my first sketch - a fire elemental indescriminately laying siege to a city as the summoner walks away, her job done. I really struggled to find the horizon line here (thats why the mage is on the rocky outcrop to our right). Early days but I would love some feedback regarding the very loose perspective I have set up and any thoughts on the composition. About half an hour in so please excuse the very rough sketch.

I'm not very good at making the best of perspectives myself, but here are my thoughts:
The current perspective divides the image in two equal halves. Yet I feel like we're approximately at eye level with the elemental. I think I'd suggest a higher horizon line. That could also leave room at the bottom for some forground rocks and trees, to further emphasize scale (plus dark tree silhouettes against firey inferno = amazing )

For the mage, I think she's a bit too far out to the side... The elemental is at one third in from the left, maybe she should be at leasty closer to one third in from the right (not too exactly though, that'd look constructed ). She also looks fairly big just now, being larger than the hinted town structures below... Yet she doesn't feel like she's that much closer. But like you said, it's an early sketch

Not sure if I’ll get the time to finish this, but I started a piece for water/ice!

Good stuff October - loving the early colours and forms and the idea of a portrait is something I never thought of.

@ Charlotte - Thanks thats a real help and forced me too take a second look. This is now more along the lines of my original thought and came together pretty quickly by just copying and pasting the original sketch on to a new canvas. Much happier with this but as always C&C would be a huge help.

Atto: I still think the horizon line behind the elemental could be higher (just mountain silhouettes might do ) - but yes this has a "tighter" feel to it!

Thanks, there's still some mountains and more trees to put in and I'm thinking of dropping the nearest side of the plateau the cities sitting on to extend the towers and wall down the crevasse I've hinted at too. I may drop part of the right hand side of the cliff our mage is standing on to undeline the fact that she is seperated from the city by a great distance - that should help the scale too.
I've already flipped her so she's walking out of shot to symbolise her disregard for her actions, then its just a matter of redrawing everything as I'm hating the way I've rendered EVERYTHING right now and I want to add cool blue shadows to all the forms that arent facing the elemental - but my colour theory is poor and not sure it's up to the challenge. Ho-hum still 25 days to go.

Good starts from everyone!

I love the colours in your pic, Madi. It manages to look icy and radiant at the same time.

And I like the changes you've already made, Atto. In the first version the land seemed to be falling away on the left (I always make that error with vanishing points too. ) As Charlotte said, this one does look tighter and more efficient.
25 days is plenty of time to finish.

A little more and I've taken a colour pass to try to define the light I want to capture - I feel its still a little unrefined almost 'childlike' especially round the city walls but I'll keep working into it and hopefully it'll look a little less colour by numbers.

Adding those darker background hills has really enhanced the fiery glow from the figure, Atto. Hope it continues to a finish this week.

And I hope you get time to do another update too, Madi.
Ice vs Fire will be a great contest!

Sadly I'm a bit out of action at the moment due to excessive football and some techie issues. I was thinking of doing a stone giant for "Earth" but I can't even get started.