CGAN April 2017 - Warlock - WIPs

Nice updates, everyone.

Atto: I think this pose is more unusual and intriguing than the first. The tensed muscles are looking great and I'm interested to see what's going to happen to the hair.

Oaktree: I was sure I'd seen a sketch from you, then I thought I was going mad and must have imagined it! Hope you get another idea working.

Micro: That's another great dose of "epic" from you. The mood and atmosphere is fantastic. Mr S makes some interesting points about the scale of your character so it's worth experimenting. But then again, you always do keep changing your pics right until the end.

More of my scribble...


Still a bit sketchy, and I'm not sure if that'll change much but I'll try and tighten it up as I go and maybe find some stronger edges.
The magic is a bit of a placeholder at the moment so its colour may change but I do prefer this green to the red/orange. Oh, and I'll have to nudge the skull a bit. I've only just realised it's not central with the door.

I much prefer this colour way Val - I tried something similar to your earlier colour way myself but felt it said more sorcerer than warlock - I always see sorcerers using the elements for their magic. Warlocks to me are more death magic and rituals.
The paintover that Mr S. has done on yours Micro certainly defines the whole action that may be going on in your image. Your mix of texture and lighting should provide a little ambiguity that I think is lacking in the paintover (I know Mr S. it was a quick job but it's a quality I always admire in Micros work).
Played around some more with mine - not sure about the rendering on the hair right now or the position of the birds. I've added a layer to knock the skin tone back some but very aware right now I need to work back into it.

Love whats happening here with all the work its all great. I have spent far to much time trying to get my first idea to work and have finally abandoned it. Going to try this at the moment it is more wizard than warlock but you have to start somewhere.

Mr. wrote:

i painted over a little bit , so you can see how it may work.
i hope this helps you get some ideas.

Hey thanks for the positive encouragement Mr S! , I always feel special when someone gets inspired enough to paint over stuff especially so rough! I was trying to go for depth, with a one point perspective and eye level horizon line, I really like what you did with the dragons, I was working on mine yesterday, but I hit that artist wall, where I feel like everything more I do will be cliché.

If you see by the update, i'm trying to develop an ancient city, with a lot of spiritual energy as it was a dynasty that was destroyed all the spirits didn't ascend with death. The warlock is attempting to use the spiritual energy to conjure a supreme entity. Although I think the walls look cramped and the perspective is cliche and all I can think of is not making it symmetrical but it's hard because of the composition, also the details are overwhelming me so that's my mindset atm, I think i'm going to take a step back and hope I can progress. I'm glad to see everyone else is doing great.

Look at this mess!

Atto, really clean and sharp look to your lock, the hair looks great so far as does the skin texture and lighting, really cool design so far, he looks like he's getting electrocuted, but it works!

Val, I love the background with the skull and the character is coming along great, keep going with that one, it's really looking good!

Oak, that's an awesome sketch so far! You could use foreshortening to make the book and his hand seem larger then the rest of his body to show more depth. Warlocks have to study too !

Thanks micro for the suggestion here is my first attempt at extreme foreshortening I think this will
working better as a composition.

I like both of those compositions, Oaktree. Those big hands are very expressive and show off the depth of the view. Also I think the candlestick worked very well at balancing the right side. It might be worthwhile to bring it back later in some form if you have time. But I think you should dive in and throw some colour in there! And push those values!

microscopi wrote:

Mr. wrote:

i painted over a little bit , so you can see how it may work.
i hope this helps you get some ideas.

Hey thanks for the positive encouragement Mr S! , I always feel special when someone gets inspired enough to paint over stuff especially so rough! I was trying to go for depth, with a one point perspective and eye level horizon line, I really like what you did with the dragons, I was working on mine yesterday, but I hit that artist wall, where I feel like everything more I do will be cliché.

If you see by the update, i'm trying to develop an ancient city, with a lot of spiritual energy as it was a dynasty that was destroyed all the spirits didn't ascend with death. The warlock is attempting to use the spiritual energy to conjure a supreme entity. Although I think the walls look cramped and the perspective is cliche and all I can think of is not making it symmetrical but it's hard because of the composition, also the details are overwhelming me so that's my mindset atm, I think i'm going to take a step back and hope I can progress. I'm glad to see everyone else is doing great.

Look at this mess!

oh sorry to heard that man, well practically everything is cliche in fantasy art if you come to think of it, is just a matter of presentation and giving enough of a twist to the subject to make it appealing.

THIS HAPPENS SOMETIMES , you are painting something and you´re like two hours into it , but in that early stage you get that kind of gut feeling that it is coming all right, and guess what? it will , but sometimes it just doesn´t click, it feels wrong and you can´t seem to make it work, and no matter how much time you spend trying to fix it or make it work, it wont be quite good. It is better to cut your loses and start over, do some more thumbnails until you get a cool idea and develop form there.

Thanks Mr B that's what I ended up doing, I think i forgot to keep things rough. I was feeling trapped, i'm not as good as exterior interiors then exteriors. Oak I think you should go with what you feel comfortable with, I was feeling the suggestion, but there's so many directions you can take especially when you know what lighting setup you're going with, but look forward to see how it progresses.

I started from scratch, I put two of the reference photos I used so far.