CGAN Dec 2015 Challenge - Exodos - WIPs

Another good topic and much more succinct than my suggestion though conversely much more open to interpretation - here goes.................

Perhaps a little weird and possibly no use for this challenge but I thought this was actually quite cool:
Marcus Lyon Artworks, Exodus

Cool topic, and all I can think about is Christian Bale as Moses, but that's because I watch way to many movies!

This is going to be an epic scale challenge i'm thinking

Managed to grab myself a few minutes to get an initial idea down this evening (with my recent performance expect it to change substantially).

A little more from me, just have to grab time where I can atm. Really struggling to find any ref of crowd scenes too so if anyone knows any decent ones please let me know.


Edit: Or at a push I could just google 'refugees' and find an absolute load of images I need.

Also swapped out the main character. A blindfolded leader seems to echo my own views on religion a little more and represents 'going out' into the unknown a little better. Adds a greater story telling aspect too.

Hey Atto, I see you've been busy Of the three ideas you have the 3rd one is the best, I like the texture of the rock already, nice start.

I have been thinking along the same lines, although I want to have a male sole character searching for something, maybe an Indiana Jones type looking for relics or maybe sort of like Dark Tower, but without the horrible ending! I saw this pic of snowy mountains and the idea popped in there, wasn't really feeling inspired until I saw it. I know i've had similar ideas before, but couldn't get something down I liked.

I'm most likely going to change the perspective and angle, but this is the overall depth and feel I want to have.

Micro - Looking good at this early stage I like the idea that it's a single person in the image, like he's searching for the remnants of an ancient civilisation and the reason for their Exodos. I was very tempted by a similar idea, to portray the after affects of this great upheaval rather than the incident itself......still maybe another time huh?
Wanted to just throw this out there for some C & C. Not moved along a massive way but would like some comments on the placement of the figures. Does the scale work? Is the overall composition strong? Is there enough of human element with the addition of the guy carrying the child? You know the sort of thing. I realise its a little hard to read at this stage with the varying styles of line and the poor quality of drawing to some areas but thanks, in advance, for any help you can give.

Micro: Another great, epic landscape. It looks wonderfully cold and remote.

Atto: That's a nice idea and a well planned composition, especially with the way all the elements are linked together in a big loop: from the distant landscape to the crowd of people then the clothing of the figure who then blindly looks back to the landscape. It's really easy to look at and explore.
There are two issues at the moment (which you would probably sort out in time but I'll mention them anyway )
1: The line of people looks a little too neat. It looks a bit like a contrived arrangement of people rather than a wandering mass. Perhaps more detail will solve that but if not just scatter them a little laterally to stop them looking like an orderly queue.
2: The other thing is the eyeline. When drawing groups of people on a flat plane (ie. Like a desert) the usual method is to have all the heads on the same horizon line. In your pic all the distant crowd seem to be on the same (or similar) level but their heads coincide with the waist of the foreground figure, which would imply that she's twice the height or is standing on a raised area of ground relative to your viewpoint. Of course the latter of those two will be the right one so some kind of shaded undulation to the ground will help to make the perspective a little easier on the eye.

Thanks Val I actually found a better reference image that I liked better to setup the composition. I'm going to build up my design with the forground character and background structure, just wanted to get the feeling, depth down that I want to get on this one.

Atto, I agree with Val regarding feedback. Mostly the central female character, she isn't that far ahead of the rest of the crowd that would warrant that kind of forshortening.

If she was shorter she will still definitely stand out as she does now, the other characters are too close together, some gaps would seem more realistic as people are slower then others, you can just put bloches for the ones furthest back.

Also the structure size is competing with the main female character, but I think if you made it larger or maybe even out of frame it would give it more of a focus.