Concept Art Mini-Contest #1 POLL

Credits to Frostwhisper for the slideshow.
Concept Art Mini-Contest #1 Poll

Concept Art Mini-Contest #1 has come to a close, now we must vote for the art!

Our contestants are:
Anduril with -


Ike_Ike with -


Denu with -

Let the voting begin!

Denu. Who else could resist such cute ogres having a hugfest? :D
--donut3.5--

ike ike gmv

Thanks ^^
Denu's one was probably the best technically, although not strictly epic. And the ogres have kinda distorted muscles. But the composition is awesome.

Denu's had to be the best here.

Denu' work is perfect. You should do more skining though..

Oh so you didn't accept my entry. Fine then...

EDIT: Oh yeah, vote goes for Denu, naturally.

i vote for ike_ike. It looks cool

Anduril: I don't even know where to start...It's just that you lack (a lot) experience and practice. Everything is so basic, like a young child's drawing (not to be taken as an insult!). But as I said, it's due to lack of practice mostly.

Composition - nil; looks like a side scrolling game, nothing interesting, nothing to focus on. The characters are way too tiny. This is no way to capture a battle scene. Nothing is dynamic. Those 2 obelisks don't help at all for this clause, they make the composition even more static.
Battle scenes are all about dramatic camera angles, diagonal lines and monumental perspective.

Characters - nil; they are badly drawn (even if you wanted a cartoon style, it's still bad), both technically and anatomicaly speaking. Their poses are so awkward too, they don't look like they're fighting, it's more like a bunch of bad actors made to pose specially for the camera.

Technique - poor; you have A HUGE LOT to learn. Your lines are all the same, there's no perspective, shading is terrible (graphite is NOT meant to be smudged! Charcoal and pastel are), and overall looks clumsy.

Overall: I'd give it a 3 out of 10. Sorry man, but it's poor, I have to say that. Though I advise you too keep on going and practice A LOT, if you really like drawing. Remember to draw from nature, a lot of still lives, it's the most important thing. And don't try to do everything at once, first start by only understanding what you're about to draw, study the object rigorously and construct it as good as you can. And live it like that, only linework. Draw your first still lives only linework, then start studying the lighting. Even if you would ultimately like to draw cartoons, this helps you a lot to gain control over your hand.


Ike Ike: your drawing I find a big step forward from Anduril''s. Though it still has issues.

Composition - below average; although I see you tried to make it more dynamic by following a diagonal line, it's still very boring. Mainly because absolutely nothing happens in the background or foreground. It's just a row of guys trying to fight each other. And I'm saying "trying", because to me it looks just like some ugly dudes show their teeth to some armored fellows. I don't see strife anywhere, just like Anduril, you made the characters very static. The whole dynamic of the camera angle is lost here. And again, no point of interest...your eye is all over the drawing, there's not a single thing to catch your eye and make you look at it.
That texture you overlayed above your drawing doesn't help at all imo, makes everything even more confusing.

Characters - average; well, they are as big as they should, they're the focus of this drawing. BUT, as I said, they're still very static. I can see no action going on there, just some dudes posing for a group photo. No swords in the air, guts in the teeth, no action whatsoever.

Technique - average; it's not bad, but could be much better. Again, lines are inexpressive, they could have used a lot more modulation. Your shading looks ok, but why so shy with it? You could have emphasized your characters much more if you employed it more.

Overall: 5 out of 10. An average drawing if you ask me. The main problems are, to sum up, the composition and character poses. You have potential though, keep it up.


Denu: by far the best of the 3, if you ask me. Let's see why:

Composition - satisfying; why? Because there's just 2 dudes fighting, period. He didn't attempt to make a scene with lots of warriors like the others, but he managed to do a pretty good composition with just 2. Mainly because it's the easiest composition ever, and if one of the other guys made a nice composition with a big battle, they would have totally surpassed this. So making something like this is always a gamble. But it worked, compared to the others it's simple and straight forward.
Another HUGE improvement over the others is that in here I finally see someone fighting! Not just posing for the camera, they actually look like they're striving to break each other's bones. The muscles are all tight, the expression on their face and the clash between them...sells the illusion of fighting pretty well imo.
But there's still room for improvement. You could have made it in monumental perspective, making it much more epic. Like if you were a dwarf looking up on this dudes fighting and smashing mountains and cities in their way...now that would have been awesome.

Characters - good; they are nicely done, although there are several anatomical issues, the single most disturbing one being the left dude's right hand. The shoulder area is really messed up, basically nothing in there resembles correct musculature. In other areas it's pretty ok though.

Technique - average; I, for one, am not a big fan of plain lineart. I hate it when I see lines of the same intensity and thickness everywhere. The lines are basically dead, they have no expressivity. If you would have modulated their thickness in key places, it could have boosted your drawing into a totally new dimension.
Oh and that cloth looks rather like metal or wood, it's so stiff, no folds or anything.

Overall: 7 out of 10. It's a pretty good drawing and I like it. As always, room for improvement. But it's clearly the best out of all the others. So congrats with that, and keep on going, you have HUGE potential.

Therefore, my vote goes to Denu.

Originally Posted by TDR

Composition - nil; looks like a side scrolling game, nothing interesting, nothing to focus on. The characters are way too tiny. This is no way to capture a battle scene. Nothing is dynamic. Those 2 obelisks don't help at all for this clause, they make the composition even more static.
Battle scenes are all about dramatic camera angles, diagonal lines and monumental perspective.

I think you got Ike_Ike and Anduril mixed up.

Denu gmv, I think that those ogres and the overall proportions etc. are really great compared to the others. ;)

Yeah, you got Ike_Ike and Anduril mixed up :P

Vote goes to Denu

ah shit, my bad :P. corrected.

those ogres are just fat as hell XD

I fixed the links in the main post and removed all the comment about them being broken as it is no longer valid.

I know mine is very bad.
I do very much enjoy drawing, and will definitely continue. The obelisks were irrelevant, I know, but they seemed OK (and I like runes a lot). The only reason the people were small as hell was that ImageShack hats my guts. The real picture is MUCH larger and more detailed, but I couldn't get it up.
By the way: the contest was more of an Epic battle scene with ARMIES (No offense Denu, just saying) Otherwise I would have done a duel as well with way lots more detail and better size.
This is, in fact, my first drawing of this kind (I do need LOTS of practice) Although your remark about still lifing, I do enjoy that. Unfortunately I had nothing to base this picture off of. It totally came from my head
I suppose that now that the entries are done with, I can post my list of ideas:
Darth Vader vs Aragorn
Elenai vs his EPIC REFLECTION (in his epic mirror)
Master Hand vs Crazy Hand at: Chess, Thumb Wrestling, Rock Paper Scissors, Etc
Angels vs a giant dragon
Pokemon (let's not go there)
Arthas vs Illidan
Etc
Thanks for constructively criticising, not "Yu suk. Go kell urself. Bern ur drawengs. Go die"