Awards
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Daily 2nd Place –
06/28/2009
Author's Comments
Snow cave speedy. I wasn't feeling good that week so I did something easy... snow and rocks ;D
Hope you enjoy. I think I could have done more dramatic lighting on this one a la LOTR.... but whatever :)
The People Have Spoken
Average Score: 9.8 / 10
We lack only the hissing sound of the wind and then everything in this painting would be perfect!
I really love this piece, there's a lot of good suspense/drama about this picture, I'm thinking about the battle that is about to take place between the warrior and the beast (dragon?)
You are a true artist man!
reminds me of the concept art from Icewind Dale and Icewind Dale 2, (if any ancient D&D nerds exist around here.) ANY-way, I like the art work, I must of taken some time to get that fogginess over the entrance of the cave. I the eyes are fantastically painted, the orange glow as a really good touch, especially when the eyes need to look utterly and completely evil. Cannot wait to any future projects you're working on!
god of war? should be...nice one
said the beast as it was pulled out of the cave by its testicles. haha that's so how dragon slaying goes.
you can almost hear the low, gutteral growl of the whatever-is-in-the-cave and
the whistling wind whipping up and around the rocks.
What you said about the lighting though, can see what you mean. Maybe setting the pic in the twilight hours so the glowing orange eyes cast a faint glow on the cave mouth and the intrepid man and dog. Dramatic lighting an all.
LOVE your style, what do you do the pics in? photoshop? Been hankering after tips and tricks of drawing landscapes for aages. Must say though, you're probs one of the bet artist i've seen on this site so far.
for the fact of the eyes in the cave the blood around it and the fog feature looming out of the cave
I like the look of all your work very imaginative.
I love the composition of this piece. Setting the figures off-centre just makes them look even smaller and outmatched. Just a few suggestions that could bring it up to a 10 and could quite easily be done with a bit of burn tool magic :)
By arranging the cave mouth sitting in the centre of the picture, you'd think your eyes would be drawn straight to the cave however I found that it just didn't stand out enough from the surroundings enough to immediately draw my attention. I guess it's mostly due to the whispy fog (which is awesome and deserves more presence, just not in the cave :) ) which almost blends it into the snow but I think it would also look really cool if you darkened the black of the cave. It would make the eyes stand out more and would just make the whole thing look that bit more foreboding.
Having just typed all this out, I feel rather sheepish when I realise that you already mentioned you could change the lighting but I've written it now so I might as well post it.
Hope this means something to you, I'm normally quite crap at talking about art xD
Author's Response:
I do quite appreciate the effort! The reason I didn't make the cave too dark is because with painting, the same as taking a photo, you have a very limited value range. You've got essentially 0-10, 10 being black and 0 being white. Because of the nature of human vision, most painters (ones that know what they are doing anyways) will attempt to squish the value scale. Essentially, instead of using every value available to you, you only use say, 2-8. This way, 2 is your white (note that there is no white in this painting at all... you can color pick the brightest spot if you like, and you'll find it's actually a little far from white). 8 becomes your black. (the cave is maybe a 7 actually). This way, you are doing alot more description with less values, which actually increases realism. If you have a piece with several different lighting situations, say you're inside a tomb or something, and the door has just opened, the light will initially seem like 1-3 values, very bright, but once you readjust it's back down to 5's and stuff. It can get very confusing. HOpe this helped though, and thanks again for the long and insightful comment!
DM:(looking up sinisterly) don't fail your spot check
out of shaky hands rolls the d-20...click...click,click,click
DM:"no way"
d&d player:"hell yeah"
a 20 looks up triumphantly.
DM:"you look at the top of the cave entrance and notice a few loose rocks holding up an enormous boulder"
d&d player:"I draw my sword & fling it at the top of the entrance"
click,click,click..."17"
DM:"congrats you just killed a red dragon"
d&d player:"ALRIGHT"
DM:"BUT your sword lay broken in half three feet from the bloodly remains of the fallen dragon"
d&d player:"damn...but still I killed a red dragon I'm damn happy"
sorry for this reveiw but I want to be a DM and this weird but something came over me and I had to share...I feel like such a turbo nerd
Author's Response:
It's a perfect review. I feel really good when I can inspire people and get them to run a dialogue of the image in their head. A friend of mine is going to start doing some DnD sessions, I've never played but sometime in the next few months I'm going to learn. He says he often plays with friends and they have sketchbooks out and will draw the stuff as they are talking. It sounds like a really great chance to get inspired while having fun! Thanks again for your review!
Wow, I love the textures and the mood you've created here. There's a lot of good suspense about this picture. The colors of the eyes make a really interesting contrast with the rest of the darkness.
Only suggestion I've got is to take what you've got and refine it a little while maintaining the style.
Keep it up dude.
this totally looks like a image off a magic card totally pro
Author's Response:
Haha, thank you :)
like it a lot with the warrior and i think either the wolf or dog.Iwonder what type of animal is in that cave
I don't know what to say really, I just love to stare at this piece and let my imagination fly, at the same time as I'm thinking about the battle that is about to take place between the warrior and his pet and the monster. Great atmosphere and brushwork, simply a great piece. Good work! ;)
The lighting shows suspense more then drama, and isn't that what you wanted from it? Because of the shading and lighting, I think this might be even better then LOTR works. You really surprise me sometimes. To think that this kind of work is easy for you, even when you're not feeling good... you're like an art god.
I want to see your work when you're at your best. I believe you can easily become the top artist on the portal.
Author's Response:
Thank you! Hopefully each new piece I update from now on (trying not to update old work) will be my best, so we'll see, and thank you for the support!
