Illustration Workshop - Box art edition II, from sketch to painting

[selmiak]

and while I'm still here I can also write down some thoughts...

Ben:
Beautiful lazy latesummer colors, keep that colorscheme. Nice arrangement of the elements on the picture.

selmiak
You gotta try harder. But remember, you don't have time anyways

Babar:
Cool idea to use the tree on the cover. For a somehow tradition cover you could still use the 2 maincharacters' faces looking meaningful into the distance with some reduced opacity composed somewhere over the tree. I'd just copy the font technocrat used for the game, he'll like it.

whaeela
That are some cool ideas, I like your favourite 3rd sketch also the most. These characters a bit distorted in perspective over the sphere is an instant classic.

oraxon
Yep, strangle everyone, go for F. The old man not actually visible, but his beard is very suspenseful.

soxbrooker
That's a cool composition, but I'd use a more fancy font for the title. And don't forget to overlay a color correction layer at the end to level out the colorscheme of the different elements to another.

Ilych
all your thumbnailideas are great, I like 2 the least, 1, 3 and 4 are all cool on their own. Look at the waheelas feedback post above, maybe you can split these 3 scenes and arrange them with a bold border like in one of the comic panels.

calicoreverie
Yay, streets with zombies nearing are an instant win. The character has to hove that I don't give a fuck kickass attitude

nihilyst
cool heroic pose, but every hero needs his girl on the cover too, maybe from behind as she is leaving through the door, which is her main role in the game as far as I remember.

cat
it's funny to read your thoughts on your concepts. I like the 'interesting but not readable' from above view. But the current perspective is even more interesting, keep it dark, maybe in a sin city style with only the orange of the overall as a single flashy color and the shadows of the bars on her do their own moodenhancing thing.

Ascovel
Yay, splitscreens with speedlines for the win! Does the hero really wear mintgreen pants?

miez
Cool concepts, a mix between 4 and 12 but would be without BJ then, so the current one is the right choice. Love that colors and texture of the water already.

CitizenParagon
Cool shot with a priceless look on the hero's face. Wouldn't know what to suggest, it's simple and great, simply great, perhaps make the font more 3d like and fit it to the wacky cartoony perspective.

[Babar]

First off, in response to comments about my work:
The thing in the first image is half a gardening shear attached to a rake handle, a reference to one of the first puzzles in the game . I mostly did the first sketch as a thing to amuse myself, as I don't think the traditional "Important characters looking into the distance" box-art would really work for this game. Like many of you who commented (although it seems those that liked it were the ones who hadn't played the game? ), my personal favourite is the 3rd one.

I'm not sure about pollution in the universe of Technobabylon (although it does have a lot of smokey, cool looking sunset/sunrise images), so maybe I can remove the other smoke lines, and just leave the one emanating from the exploded building.

The binary was just quickly generated filler, the final would have to be better incorporated into the BG, and probably be made up of similar snippets of text to the ones hidden about in the game. I wanted to somehow represent the "Trance" part of the universe, although it plays less of a role here than in the other Technobabylon games, so maybe it can be abandoned- so it was the building silhouettes, then the binary code buildings as a reflection of the real buildings, but distorted for being in water.
If I didn't go with the 3rd image, I'd probably go with the second, maybe include some ideas like the tiny people on the buildings and the smoking building in the background.
I would definitely be curious as to the rules on incorporating the game's title text style into the box-art. It seems a pretty vital part of the representation of the game.


Now as to the other sketches:
For reference, I haven't played any of the games except By the Numbers and Ben Jordan 2, and I'm not a very good artist (my major method of drawing something is simply what looks right to me).

ThreeOhFour:
Very cheerful sketch, although I'd almost think it was some sort of farming simulator, if it wasn't for the cat with the key .

Waheela:
My personal favourite is actually the 2nd sketch, I can totally imagine that on the box-art. Maybe you can have the letters of the secret language floating about, mostly faded in the background.

oraxon:
Following the beard-strangly idea, I'd probably prefer E, as F, but otherwise maybe A with the animals included in it somehow?

Soxbrooker:
Considering the limitations of the game, I think you did pretty well. As a suggestion (no idea how well it'll work), perhaps you can integrate some ruler/grid/angle overlays of measurements of eye-openness, or shape of mouth or something (I think they had something similar in the TV show "Lie to Me", but I can't find any references right now .

Ilych:
All the thumbnails are pretty awesome, and I can't even narrow down which I like best beyond 2,3 and 4. 4 definitely looks the most box-artish, I could almost expect him to be holding a gun up next to his face, looking tense . 3 is cool to me too, although as someone else said, perhaps it might be a bit boring composition-wise. If you go with 2 or 3, you could maybe add some small details that personalise it to that game (again, I couldn't say what, as I haven't played), beyond it being a game about/on a train.

calicoreverie:
Hahah..I quite like the layout you've gone with. Maybe it's just me being influenced by all the little logos and things you added, but it already looks like a game-box I might find in a store somewhere. You could probably also test around with adding a few zombie heads showing in the foreground.

nihilyst:
I like the references for this image as well . As miez suggested, you could fade the suited character somehow more into the background somehow. I guess the hidden text could be a problem, but I couldn't think what else the game title would've been (maybe "The Burger Flipbar"? ). I'm curious to see what else you'll add!

cat:
You obviously settled on the best composition, and it's quite striking and dramatic as well. Can't think of anything else I could add.

Ascovel:
Seeing the image first, then the text, I didn't really get that it was comic book panels, I thought it was just a street. Maybe you can make the borders white? Then again, it could just be that it hasn't been refined yet at the sketch level. The panel idea itself, and the individual panels, though, look quite good so far!

miez:
I think you definitely chose the best layout. I thought the same as Waheela: it would've been cool if you had it as in your initial sketch, with Ben's legs outside the frame, and the title text in the area outside it.

CitizenParagon:
Heh..quite cute box art, and fairly reminiscent of what I know of the game .

[cat]

Before this thread falls asleep I post some work in progress:



Next steps will be to add structure and details to wall and sheets. I also need to spend more time on the large shadow on the wall.

[Armageddon]

Oh man, this is such a cool one and I missed it completely somehow.

Good luck to everyone, I love that Technobabylon render Babar.

[waheela]

Quick question to Andail...
Are our next drafts due tomorrow, or is this week dedicated solely to critique? Gotta be on top of this since I already used up my "you may enter late" card.

[Andail]

No, my thought is we just make next tuesday the final deadline. So everyone has one week now to produce the final result. Of course, that shouldn't prevent people from posting more wip posts and offer more c&c.

[oraxon]

In progress, all comments welcome. Thanks for everyone's advice so far.

Looking closely at Kasander's illustrations taught me a lot. He made a lot of smart color and shading choices.
I started by copy-pasting his characters to help me get the composition right, and then I repainted everyone to hopefully make them mine.

[miguel]

Hi guys, just want to apologize for not saying anything at all. I just can't make the extra effort, August is a killer month for me at work.
Like always, talent erupts from every post in this thread. Congrats to all and good luck on finishing this!

[CaptainD]

Cat - I really love the design of yours. 

The others are great too - I just particularly like that game and the way your design brings out the solitude and darkness of the game.

[Andail]

Just two pieces of c&c now:

Cat, your first sketch was a killer, it felt immediately right. This version less so - the super-strong contrast don't work that well imho. I think you should step back and soften it up. Strong yellow, orange and then pitch black... something has to give!

Miez, Really promising, but the scene lacks a focus point. My eyes are just searching for something to land on. The main character is turned away, the attacking shadow is far down in a corner, the objects are small and partially buried... it's like everything is just trying to escape your attention.
What if the character (Ben) looked over his shoulder? That would let us viewers actually see him, and it would also allow him to convey some really strong emotion, which would add to the scene.
Or the objects he's looking for are much more interesting, maybe he sees the entire ship in the distance, or something more spectacular is semi-buried just in front of him. Just something!

[Miez]

Miez, Really promising, but the scene lacks a focus point. My eyes are just searching for something to land on. The main character is turned away, the attacking shadow is far down in a corner, the objects are small and partially buried... it's like everything is just trying to escape your attention.
What if the character (Ben) looked over his shoulder? That would let us viewers actually see him, and it would also allow him to convey some really strong emotion, which would add to the scene.
Or the objects he's looking for are much more interesting, maybe he sees the entire ship in the distance, or something more spectacular is semi-buried just in front of him. Just something!

Good points Andail, and touching upon some of the issues I have myself. I was thinking of having Ben look over his shoulder, and if the sketch for that turns out ok, I will go that way. Also thinking of replacing the ships' wheel with the angel-with-a-skull-for-a-face figurehead.
Thanks for the c&c!

[waheela]

Hey guys, I just realized that I have a family thing I'm flying out for on 8/30, so I won't be here for the entire workshop.
I'm really enjoying this one though, and I really don't want to scrap it. Basically, I have tomorrow only to finish it, so I'M GOING TO WORK HARD AND GET SHIT DONE!
Does anyone have any last-minute critiques for me?



A couple things I plan on changing...

• Dark orange outline on top and bottom of the piece (to match sides)
• Moving red-haired girl more towards the border on the left
• General cleaning up and polishing

*EDIT*
I forgot to thank everyone for their thoughts on my piece so far. THANKS EVERYBODY! I tried to incorporate all of your guys' critiques into the above draft as much as possible.

[Andail]

Waheela, looking really good

I've suggested a couple of adjustments here:


* Made the main character stand out better by lowering contrast and saturation of the rest
* Centered the evil shape
* Added more lighting to make it more dramatic - increased glowing effect of the object in his hand
* Turned him more towards the "camera", so we can see him better
* Turned the colour scheme a bit more homogenous - I think there were too many strong colours competing in your version

[waheela]

Aghhhh! Andail! I was literally right in the middle of making my post when you posted. D:

Unfortunately, it's 4am here and I have to leave for my flight in an hour. This is what I was able to throw together. I'm not 100% happy with it, because I think it still needs a little more work. Although the workshop will be over by the time I get back, I'd like to continue working on it.

Andail, I really want to incorporate a lot of your suggestions, I think you have some really awesome feedback. When I get back, I'll mess around with the pic more.

[Snarky]

In addition to Andail's edits (I like how instead of having the characters rotated, all pointing out from the central logo, he's straightened them out, using fading/smoke to exclude their lower bodies), I think the purple-to-white gradient background is a little plain. If you could come up with something more concrete, I think that would help a lot. One idea might be an old-timey world map, relating back to the title.

[Andail]

Excellent idea about the backdrop, Snarky, and Waheela, excellent new version
As Snarky pointed out, having the character lean out of the center circle probably isn't ideal. Composition-wise, it does make sense to have the elements sort of grow out like that, but being human figures they end up with really weird poses.

Since this workshop seems to be slowly dying, I thought maybe it should be transformed into a general activity without a deadline or a winner, and I'll take it upon myself to provide feedback and paintovers to whomever wants to stay in it.

Of course, we still have until Tuesday to see if there are enough finished pictures to make this a proper competition, warranting a vote. Thoughts?

[cat]

Sorry, didn't have much time recently, I hope I can work on my illustration this weekend.
Thanks for your suggestion, btw. I'll try to work on the colors and contrast a bit.

[Igor Hardy]

Great work so far guys. Sorry, I didn't have time to be more active in the thread.

waheela, your cover art reminds me of the Lupin III anime movies' posters. Gives you a strong feeling of a complex adventurous story to be discovered. I agree with Snarky about the background being a little bit (just a little bit) too plain. Personally I like the characters growing out of the central circle though. I generally like when things in an image are a bit weirder than in reality, when elements are skewed a little bit in favor of composition.

I'll be finished with mine this weekend. I don't want to work on it forever.

[ThreeOhFour]

Hello! Apologies for my absence, I'm having some rather awkward computer issues and am actually posting this from my Playstation 3 with a mouse & keyboard plugged in. Hopefully I can resolve these issues, get my computer going again and finish up my piece in time to make an entry in the activity. How untimely!

[Miez]

Well crap - I had a pile of work waiting when I got back from Mittens, so I've had way too little time to spend on this... a shame, as I was really enjoying it.

Any chance of getting a deadline extension on this?