There seems to be some demand for a casual community activity.

How about weekly art challenges?

I wouldn't worry about the word 'challenge' too much though, this is a pretty casual thing and not in any way a contest or inherently competitive, unless you make it that way. If you don't end up doing it no big deal.

Simply read the challenge rules and submit them within the week before the next challenge is posted.

Submit any time during the week. You dont need to tell me in this thread you are participating. Just post em'. Or else if you say you're going to do it and don't, well then you're just gonna look silly aren't you.

If you think you have a great idea for a challenge feel free to let me know about it.

Got questions? Post them. Want help or advice? Post WIP's.

First challenge

Lets open up with some character design.

The goal is to design anoriginal character with a specific theme.

The theme is pretty vague, in fact it can almost be anything. Design a character that embodies a non physical idea or concept. Examples are feelings or emotions or more abstract ideas. The more abstract your idea is though the harder it might be to make a good design that embodies it.

Think rage, sadness, love, death, war, famine, etc.

Common characters like this are the four horsemen of the apocalypse, or the seven deadly sins. Generally they need no introduction and their theme is obvious without you having to tell anybody what it is. That quality specifically should be your main goal. Don't tell anybody what your character is supposed to represent though and see if people can guess what it is when you post it. If they can you probably did a good job. If they cant, not so much eh?

Good luck then.

I am going to make myself look silly anyway and mention regardless that I'm down for this, might give me incentive to get back into things. Will you be making a new thread weekly? Or will everything just be posted here?

That being said, in regards to this particular challenge, I assume it's initially forbidden to post any sort of description or explanation with the work in question? Would have people guess the theme used also be considered part of the challenge, or can we just say it anyways and see if the crowd concurs?

^

I'll probably keep it all in one thread. You can play it however you want, but you'll never know if you did a good job if you tell everybody what your character represents when you display it. Plus it's fun to guess.

At 1/6/14 10:55 AM, Template88 wrote: First challenge

That is a very vague assignment so I hope I did it right.
The first one to guess the theme gets a symbolic fatherly pat on the back.

At 1/6/14 07:28 PM, Nacco wrote:

At 1/6/14 10:55 AM, Template88 wrote: First challenge

That is a very vague assignment so I hope I did it right.
The first one to guess the theme gets a symbolic fatherly pat on the back.

Doesn't really look like a character design so much as a scene... That aside, not really sure. Addiction? Depression? Loneliness?

The character is supposed to embody the theme not merely be pantomiming an idea or concept. What you did is fine, just not exactly what i meant, even if it does work out in the end. You seem to have drawn a sad pathetic soul.

Sounds like fun. I love creating character designs.
Will see if I get something done by tomorrow :)

Also, I dig the idea of weekly challenges. Interested to see where this is going.

Oh wow! This is what I really needed!
Something to tell me what to draw.
WIP, thing...
Right now, it's really hard to guess what I'm going for.

A lot of people seem to be disregarding the character concept part of the assignment and are simply focusing on the theme aspect, portraying scenes rather than concept sketches...

As far as I understand, the challenge is to design a character. Show us his attire, his posture, his expressions. Based on all of that, we should be able to guess what he is. Is he a most villaineous of villains, a slayer of men? A paragon of justice and valor? A professional hitman? A lone wanderer? A quirky, bubbly mechanic? Make it obvious, give it some personnality.

Make your character come to life :3

At 1/6/14 07:40 PM, Template88 wrote: The character is supposed to embody the theme not merely be pantomiming an idea or concept. What you did is fine, just not exactly what i meant, even if it does work out in the end. You seem to have drawn a sad pathetic soul.

'Disappointment' was what I was going for actually.

Since I fucked up the assignment I thought I'd give it another go. I hope I did it sort of right this time:

Done with my part.
Don't feel like coloring it though.

At 1/7/14 08:08 PM, Nacco wrote: Since I fucked up the assignment I thought I'd give it another go. I hope I did it sort of right this time:

It's a character design alright. A bit sketchy, but yes.

I got mine finished aswell.
Also can be found here: http://www.newgrounds.com/art/view/bazookabonsai/weekly-challenge-1

At 1/8/14 07:46 AM, BazookaBonsai wrote: I got mine finished aswell.
Also can be found here: http://www.newgrounds.com/art/view/bazookabonsai/weekly-challenge-1

nice! i would probably guess that his concept would be knowledge? or information? something like that?

At 1/8/14 07:46 AM, BazookaBonsai wrote: I got mine finished aswell.
Also can be found here: http://www.newgrounds.com/art/view/bazookabonsai/weekly-challenge-1

Oh wow, that's amazing...
I still won't color my piece though. >.>

Have been sketching, might try to go for linework soon, but im travelling so getting some time alone with my tablet is hard.

Here's part of the sketch , I'm really newb when it comes to making clothes, criticism is very appreciated.

Bloop.

At 1/9/14 04:15 PM, Sr-Estroncio wrote: Have been sketching, might try to go for linework soon, but im travelling so getting some time alone with my tablet is hard.

Here's part of the sketch , I'm really newb when it comes to making clothes, criticism is very appreciated.

Nice sketch. It already looks like a refined idea and you did a fair job with the clothing. The clown neckpiece could be a bit more defined. I suggest taking reference for that.
There seems to be something wrong with the neck, too. It tilts way to strong to the back and it makes the character look crocked (and unfortunately not in a good way). A good way to avoid this to happen with a character with a costume this complex is to draw it in the nude first. After you determined proportions and pose, add the clothing to the sketch.
These technical gripes aside, it's a promising concept. I'd really love to see the final result.

Here's my attempt.

At 1/10/14 09:33 AM, Aigis wrote: Here's my attempt.

i like.
left one is shame and right one is pain?

At 1/10/14 09:38 AM, Flowers10 wrote:

At 1/10/14 09:33 AM, Aigis wrote: Here's my attempt.

i like.
left one is shame and right one is pain?

I'm very certain they're the same character with and without disguise.
My guess is fragile?

At 1/10/14 10:29 AM, Nacco wrote:

At 1/10/14 09:38 AM, Flowers10 wrote: left one is shame and right one is pain?

I'm very certain they're the same character with and without disguise.
My guess is fragile?

I'd say both are the shame

c wut I did thar?!?

At 1/10/14 05:25 AM, BazookaBonsai wrote:

At 1/9/14 04:15 PM, Sr-Estroncio wrote: Have been sketching, might try to go for linework soon, but im travelling so getting some time alone with my tablet is hard.

Here's part of the sketch , I'm really newb when it comes to making clothes, criticism is very appreciated.

Nice sketch. It already looks like a refined idea and you did a fair job with the clothing. The clown neckpiece could be a bit more defined. I suggest taking reference for that.
There seems to be something wrong with the neck, too. It tilts way to strong to the back and it makes the character look crocked (and unfortunately not in a good way). A good way to avoid this to happen with a character with a costume this complex is to draw it in the nude first. After you determined proportions and pose, add the clothing to the sketch.
These technical gripes aside, it's a promising concept. I'd really love to see the final result.

Thank you for the feedback. I'm going for linework now, I'll try to get that neckpiece a bit more defined, finding reference for the kind of neckpiece that I want is a bit hard. I do draw nudes before I draw the clothes, It didn't really feel wrong until I drew the clothes, though... I'll see what I can do to fix it.

Aigis, your concept is fucking cool, I don't know what it is yet, though.

Here's my try at this.

here's my go! hopefully her theme/concept is as clear as i think it is!

At 1/11/14 01:24 AM, takopako wrote: here's my go! hopefully her theme/concept is as clear as i think it is!

Vanity/Indulgence

At 1/10/14 04:21 PM, torithefox wrote: Here's my try at this.

Nervous/Anxiety

At 1/10/14 09:33 AM, Aigis wrote: Here's my attempt.

Depression

At 1/11/14 01:24 AM, takopako wrote: here's my go! hopefully her theme/concept is as clear as i think it is!

I'd go with indulgence aswell.

A sketch only,will probably color it later

honk