19 replies to this topic

[Vezok's Friend]

This is long overdue. So, without further delay, I present my painting of one of the key-scenes in the BZPRPG, done as both request and banner-artwork.

The Herald of Shadow

(Warning! 5000x3000px Size)

About:
Photoshop CS4
Wacom Cintiq
~30hrs

Enjoy!

[Ilyusha Blokfase]

I would say something...but I honestly have nothing to say besides "Wow."

But, to comply with the rules, I'll comment on a couple of things that my comments have no effects on.

You drew Heuani rather well, that Rahkshi looks amazing, and that shadow effect is great.

Well, I hope I passed.

[Dallas Winston]

Fantastic creative interpretation of the Felnas, I'm impressed. Heuani is really the prime part of this piece (as he is in most scenes he's in) but the Rahkshi and Kapura were masterfully done as well. Just...bloody fantastic.

-Teezy

[Toa Onarax]

Wow, that should definitely be the official drawing of Heuani, of course the whole thing is amazing.

The only complaint I have is that the Tree roots look awkward, but it really doesn't detract anything.

EDIT, mind if I use this as a temporary banner for the Podcast Website, while you finish up the actual thing.

Edited by Toa Onarax, Jun 19 2012 - 08:42 PM.

[Mr. Peanuts]

Fantastic. It looks like you had a lot of fun with Heuani-he really shows a lot of detail, and his design is positively splendid. As far as the others go, the left rahkshi's torso a little stocky, though that's my only complaint.

Great work.

Edited by Francis Wisehead, Jun 20 2012 - 01:56 PM.

[Toa Xemnas of Crystal]

Ermagherd! What an unexpected piece. I didn't know you were gonna draw this- but this looks amazing! We have to get Nuju over here and see if he approves of it. I love the detail on Heuani, especially the mask- I think you did a pretty good job of capturing the unmutated Felnas's handsomeness. Excellent job!

[GSR]

I haven't the faintest idea who these characters are.

But that's all right, because it's still an excellent piece. As always, your portrayal of the characters as 'biomechanical' is great; I particularly enjoy the Rahkshi here. The texturing on the characters is also superb.

There's probably room for improvement here, but I don't seem to be the one able to find it. Splendid work as always.

[Sisen]

This is a pretty awe inspiring piece of work. Everything looks amazing and your attention to detail is persistent as always.

Is the image supposed to have a hazy type grain to it though?

[A billion cats]

Oh my god....I love you Vezok's Friend.

Though seriously, this piece is really amazing. Now I'm gonna see this every time I think of Heuani.

[Nuju Metru]

I am in love.

[Ilyusha Blokfase]

I am in love.

Great golly goodness he's capable of emotion.

Now I've seen everything.

[Nuju Metru]

I am in love.

Great golly goodness he's capable of emotion.

Now I've seen everything.

Now now, Kal, stay on-topic.

Okay, now that I've gotten over my fangirlish squeals over this piece, I can and will give you my more detailed feedback here. You did everything for Heuani I asked, man, and then some! He really does look gorgeous - as many have said already, and I'll reiterate, your interpretation of the normal Great Felnas is superb. It invokes the mutated mask, but is at the same time something entirely different, and very fitting for Heuani. The armor design is impeccable - sharp and smooth at once, realized in an even better way than I had imagined. He looks dark - especially compared to everything around him - but is still easy to discern. I love that. The eyes are glowing, but at the same time feel like they're sucking in light... I don't even know how that is possible.

In short, you took all the difficult enigmas I so inconsiderately provided about Heuani's appearance and made them happen. It renders me speechless.

But you did even more than that! You didn't just draw Heuani: you put him in a scene. A great and important scene, to boot - accurate down to the wooden spikes! While of course my focus and love is immediately drawn to Heuani, the other characters are also fantastically realized. Kapura looks great, even if he seems a little bit big for a Matoran (might just be an issue of perspective), and I'm hugely enamored of the fact that you gave him the classic "brains" piece in the back of his head. It's very much in the spirit of Mata Nui.

The Rahkshi are also amazing. Your take on their armor design is immensely detailed and dangerous-looking, perfect for such deadly creatures. One thing that drew my eye looking at the orange Rahkshi was the backjointed leg design. It looks powerful and fast; even if not set-accurate, it meets with my approval. Another thing that I picked up on was the shadow of the spine; very nicely done there. In fact, the light/shadow interaction in this piece is overall phenomenal, and very realistic. It's fitting that a Toa of Shadow has such a light-sensitive environment, which is realized fabulously.

Overall, I'm extremely excited and pleased by this work. Thank you so much for choosing Heuani as the focus of this artwork!

[Nuparu1995]

Dude. SWEET!! Love the Rahkshi, very menacing.

[Kughii]

I was just looking at this on DA earlier this morning (usa, lol), and enjoying the incredible beauty of this piece. Excellent job!,

[Wotsiznaim]

Wow. Just wow.

Heani, being the centerpiece of the scene, is naturally my favourite part. His Felnas is brilliant (I myself was always struggling to visualise something that looked both handsome and Felnas-y, but you pulled it off amazingly), and it seems you even implemented some parts of the movie Kraahkan into it, but that might just be me. Although I imagined him having red eyes, I think that wouldn't look quite as good due to one of the Rahkshi having red eyes as well. His armour reminds me almost of Batman (especially the torso and colour scheme), and I love that "Bow" hand gesture he's doing (at least, I think that's what it is ).

The Rahkshi are a bit skinnier and shorter than I imagined, but I always liked to think they had that extra joint in their legs. I love their heads with all the different parts (and their teeth! No one can deny they have teeth now ), and the reptilian look they have all around, from the scaly torsos to how the spines go down their backs.

Kapura seems a bit... Tall? Long-legged? I dunno, but he seems more Toa-proportioned than is my preference. Despite this though, he looks great, there just isn't as much to say about him as he has his back to us (the Toa Mata eyepiece was a nice touch though).

Aside from just being a fantastic depiction of one of my favourite scenes so far, it is a beautiful piece of art that is about as nigh-flawless as the rest of your artwork

[Axilus Prime]

Wow. This is awesome. You made everything, all those characters, and the background. While that Felnas isn't particularly "handsome" as Nuju describes, everything is still awesome. Kapura's too tall, as others have said. I like Heuani's height and the Rahkshi. The Rahkshi are just awesome, my favorite part of the picture. 10/10.

[JustASolitaryWolf]

I'm just so impressed, I mean, I love the shading, very realistic and beautiful. The backround, it gives the feeling of "dark" and "trapped" which I think you were aiming for. Overall, a very impressive piece with no flaws. 10/10.

[Copper Empire]

Well, you always did kill us with your art.
Hurm. I'll try to say things not already said here. There's things I love, there's things I don't so much. This isn't my favorite piece from you (nothing beats the Dragonborn) but it's definately a rare one in that it's fun to look at for great lengths of time. There's always something to draw my eye away from what I was looking at and entertain me further with some little surprise or whatnot.
The texturing, and by extension rendering, is top notch. The different layering was done very well. From the tree, to the different types of armor, the spikes in the pit, even the foliage. The walls of the pit are exeptional, great to look at with the light and shadow creating that kind of webby texture. The actual painting itself is phenomenal, the brushed graphite look and soft angles on the main character are probably the highlights of this peice. While not too realistic, there's a kind of asthetic about it that is just complete. I think someone above mentioned Batman, and yes, it does look a lot like Batman's suit from 05 and 08. However, it has its own flow and integration with the form, blending into actual body parts and armor- it's great. Especially the shiny bits. The collar bone (salivate) is the perfect accent, breaking up the black and drawing more attention to the head that the neck chords lead in even further- this is probably the best compositioning in here, even if it wasn't thought out, it is severely appreciated.
The armor shaping also, I can see you're evolving and testing new things- who doesn't love innovation? I can see parts of your standard fallbacks getting refined into a kind of natural style. Little bits stick out, like Kapura's closer upper arm, the leuitenant's thighs and waist, etc etc. The thighs are actually probably the best part of the armor design, plated, yet flowy and functional, though I would have loved to see some textural reference to their leaf pattern maybe on the shoulder parts right above the collar, as it's evident in the waist, but his top half is relatively smooth and simpler.
I do like how you didn't go overboard on the eyes and lights, the Rahkshi's light up the side plating beautifully but everything else is kind of low key and natural. Some people tend to overboard with that, and it's nice you exercised contraint- though I'll admit, you normally don't have issues with it...
Your composition looks to be accidentally spot-on. It doesn't follow traditional rules of alignment or focus areas, but somehow it still flows quite nicely. From the Rahkshi all by himself getting more "face time" versus the one in the cramped, shadowy position, to the main character's position relative to Kapura and the viewer, it's all quite organic, natural, and I can easily envision the scene as if I had chosen an ill-suited hiding spot to participate in some voyeuristic scheme, or had even fallen in the pit as well and it's just not my turn for an interrogation yet- basically your choice for positioning the character, 'camera' and world is a very strong aspect of the picture.

There are a few things that are iffy I guess, but again, and as always, pay little heed to them as they pale in comparison to the grand scheme of things- that scheme being how good your art is.
I get what you're trying to do with the grain, integration and variation mostly, right? While yes, it unifies most of the elements in the picture, it also stands out to me, I can easily tell it's a nearly universal application of screen fuzz, the noise just detracts from parts of the picture that should be a lot clearer- mainly the orange Rahkshi and Kapura's eyes/hands (though most of that can be attributed to the shadow that I assume is acting as handcuffs(?) that excessively darkens that part.) And while it does help create more intrinsic colors and depth, it would be better suited to only be as severe as it is on the background, like the walls of the pit and the greenery, as those naturally are going to have more variations in tone than metallic armor.
The orange Rahkshi's top hand is too wide where the fingers are- hands are relatively square, not trapezoidal or triangular. It would be as simple as moving the fingers closer together for him, since there are only three and it's not so hard to fit them all in, but you did it very successfully with Heuani's hand, and I applaud you for that. (There's also no shame in hiding the other one, it didn't need to be in the picture so it wasn't, perfectly fine and reasonable.) As you know I jump immediately to the hands, as those are some of the harder things to draw and it shows better who can draw verses just rendering in tones/details.
Those spikes seem to come out of nowhere- am I correct in thinking they are wooden? Because they seem to grow out of the ground, with only a tiny fraction of earth to lodge them in to stay, or even create any kind of threat/obstacle. But, who cares I guess. I overthought that a little too much I suppose.
Also, Kapura looks to be a bit pudgy... actually quite a bit wide in the middle. His uniformly/flat plating looks wide and strong, but then his hip attaches too far out and mades it look like he is a lot 'bigger' than intended. I don't know, you can tell how big he is supposed to be, so it's probably not nearly as big (lol?) an issue I made it out to be. I digress.
One last thing, you're foliage is great. The smaller leaves on the left side are painted well, and the fact that you did not shy away from them anywhere else speaks loads to your skill and work ethic.

so um Good job 7/10 bro?
NO! Just kidding. I love it. It makes me want to do more paintings of robots (I've mostly stopped, dunno why) and also join the RPG. I have time now I guess.
But keep on trucking, it's obvious you've learned a lot and are always growing, and that's one of the best signs of an artist you can ever find.

[Shioi]

Hi there amazing artist.

I'm going to join in and say "Wow!"

I am so glad you linked us to such a huge rendering of your painting for I literally drank in, bit by bit, the awesome enlarged detail on this Rahkshi here:



The whole piece is very. very good. And the artwork on each seen character is terrific..but this guy...man! I'm so impressed.

Be straight with me. Did you invest the most time and concentration on him? I realize the others are more in the shadows, true. And one has his back to us (who is that guy in the red; he has some massively built up thighs...wow! lol)

Anyway, the design on this Rahkshi is great and the way you handled the lighting on his spikes and all of the gray made the material it is made of so real looking...so believable. And over his stomach as well, the detail there, ...I feel as if I managed to run my hand over him there I would feel the 3d looking bumps with ease. Touche.

I would like to add that I have the utmost respect for the Bzprpg, and for those so very skilled and creative writers who participate there. This scene that you have depicted makes me wonder what the storylines are like these days...for the dramatic action going on here certainly is engaging. What a wonderful gift to be shared, your talent in art, that you can be one to bring alive some of what is going on in the Bzprpg!

I'll just end saying I so enjoyed viewing this (especially that Rahkshi!!! luv him!) and thank you for working on the piece and posting it here for all of us to see.

~Shioi

Edited by Shioi, Jun 25 2012 - 07:05 PM.

[Taka Nuvia]

With all the praise you've already received, I doubt there's actually anything left for me to say, so I'll just point out that I am fascinated by the textures. The different materials are easy to tell apart, and it just seems so realistic.

And then there's the focusing effect. The blurring seems all fine the way it is, and really creates a sense of depth.

Background. How come you're so good at this?

I truly admire your skills. Keep up the awesome work.