King Orca by SupImToha on Newgrounds

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King Orca

I made this drawing for an art challenge on a discord server back in mid 2020 (no, I definitely didn't forgot on what month did I stress myself out over the course of 2 days) and wow I think I did alright.

Everything you see here is totally different to what my original sketch is like. He was supposed to be a big whale + comodo hybrid (that was the challenge) sitting on a pile of gold in an abandoned ship/ cave thingy, and, there would be a knight in the corner who's there for whatever reason. I had to change everything because time was short and I was slow.

I basically winged everything. The waves? I just drew a bunch of curved shapes and then did some basic shading on them (+ airbrush cuz dat shine is all what I'm bout). The scales? Yup. Buncha random shapes that somewhat resemble animal scales. People like to focus quite some time on the eyes but I can't afford that. Actually, I probably spent 1/5 of my time on the eyelids.

I also added a poorly done aura of sort around the fire. I had to put it there because it felt empty.

And, as you can see, I was trying really hard to get the colors and stuff on his snout to look good. I was basically freaking out as there's only a few hours left at that point. I was forced to betray my inner perfectionist and left it like that, which bothered me for months. Also I REALLY dislike that one weirdly shaped scale. And the fact that I haven't drawn the scales for his partially obscured lower half.

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Cyberdevil

2021-01-08 14:50:37

This most definitely was pretty amazing too! :D Was going to say you really have a thing for fish but... is that a fish? A dinosaur/reptilian breed of sorts? A hybrid? A lost link in our evolutionary chain? Or maybe a creative take on Poseidon of the s... or wait the title says it all already. XD

He does look majestic! The fire really burns in a strange flower-like pastel splatter kind of way, the waves rise in theatrical mode and King Orca himself looks at a glance a bit blotchy in simplicity, but when you look close those details are really pretty majestic... I feel like maybe the inside of his mouth could be a little more polished, and his arms look somewhat strange, and the waves do look a little rushed when you look close, the teeth a bit rounded or ethereal, the eye not all intense when you zoom in but... overall this is solid for such a short time!

I don't feel the snout color's wrong at all - at least it's nothing I'd ponder if you didn't mention it, just the lower jaw that seems a bit simpler; everything gets a bit simpler the lower you go there The scale that stands out most seems like a scar. :) Or: mark of a king? Maybe a somewhat thinner one would've been even better but it gives him character too IMO.

Not all perfect but solid, and atmospheric! Appreciate the backstory too. How did that challenge go? Any response/contest kind of jury/potential prize?

-cd-

SupImToha responds:

Thanks for another solid review. As for what I've got, I didn't win anything. The owner started it as a way of getting their community engaged during Covid break, and your artwork gets featured in a slideshow, but with commentary on YouTube. If you've made something, it's going to be featured regardless of its quality. you can see the vid here, my drawing is at the 14:30 mark if you're interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0exzC4Su6qs

And yeah, I wanted to do some more work inside of his mouth but I can't exactly do it as I've spent a fair amount of time doing the scales on him. I gave the mouth some basic shading and left it at that.
Yes, exactly, everything does get a bit simple the lower you go, that's why I wanted to make the waves to cover a good chunk of him up. There was originally a tail too but that was scrapped.

I couldn't think of a quick way to get waves looking good if they were just your standard-looking ones, so I had to stylize them. The teeth are rounded because I was, again, running out of time so I just used my lazily made placeholder tooth and tweaked them a little bit. I also remember duplicating the teeth layer and cutting and pasting each tooth to a new location on the upper jaw as a time saver. I'm happy with his left arm, as that's what I'm going for, but his right is just garbage. Should've made the fingers look thinner like his left instead of going with bear paws. I also remember that there used to be a tiny golden wine cup that he's supposed to hold on his left, so if the hand posture is a bit funky, you know why.