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Most of the interface removed, as is tradition.

That green table looks soo much like it's from Alone In the Dark.

Yay! Here's a somewhat obscure shot from a somewhat obscure film that I'm sure people here will get in a matter of minutes :

Ooh, I feel that I should know this! Almost sure that it's a Polish/Russian Henryk Sienkiewicz adaptation, so...  Ogniem i Mieczem?

Congrats to all the participants and especially to the winners! A bit surprised not to see Andail's piece in the top 3, but I guess that's just because it strayed a bit from the monster theme(which is ironic ) and the awesomeness of the competition, since the illustration itself is really atmospheric and great.

My vote went to Kasander because it's both very energetic and coherent, but Mordalles' monster definitely deserved a win.
All in all, it was a lot of fun, special thanks to Andail for starting this up with a good theme and at a good time! Cheers! 

Adobe Dreamweaver!

(It's Dreamweb, not Dreamworld, but I think this one goes to abstauber )
EDIT: abstauber, yes, that's better.

Looks quite delightful and intriguing! It's always interesting to see non-adventure games that try to have a good story and deep world-building(as I'm hoping this one does) - it feels like there's a lot of unexplored potential there. And it seems to have a nice pinch of noir, which is always a good thing in my book. If the writing will be as good as in Richard & Alice, this has a good chance of being something special. And the current artwork is really charming.

Looking forward to the game and to seeing some anagram action! (what?)

First we had 3 weeks of awesome artwork being made, and now we're having a short debate about what makes a monster, and the role of conflict in illustration? All in all, I think this went rather well!

Hats off to all the participants, it's been great to watch you all [in a creepy, silent way] make progress. I was especially impressed by Cerno's and selmiak's improvement at the final stretch - great job, but everyone did really well in the end and I think we all learned quite a bit from this workshop. We should do it again sometime, methinks! Cheers!

Great pitch video - really charming and funny, insta-backed! Hope the campaign goes well, good luck!

That is indeed quite splendid! And I cannot help but approve of having a "Moebius" section. Thanks for sharing, bookmarked!

cat, I just meant that it's a pretty loose, sketchy sketch that focuses more on the overall composition and motion, rather than on the design of individual elements. And the way it's structured, adding more elements and objects might start confusing things a bit. Having a loose, simple sketch is a good approach, really, but there is a chance you might end up getting lost in the blank parts of your canvas when painting straight from this. Then again, you might not - depends on how comfortable you are with straight on painting and detailing without the guiding "pencils".   

[Miguel:]

First of all - watching this workshop unfold is a real treat. Thanks and kudos to all the participants, and to Andail for starting this beautiful thing!

Now, to the individual pieces:
 
Miguel:
The monster with the thorn in his side, behind whose hatred there lies a murderous desire... for love. He's not strange, he just wants to live his life this way. No, scratch that, he is strange. I actually like how thoroughly strange and creepy, yet somewhat vulnerable(in a strange, creepy way) this guy is. I really like the detailed comic book-like penicls as well.

The colours could use some work, though. Try picking more complicated, less saturated colours or just throw a third colour over the whole thing to start tying the piece together. Also, I think you can skip the proper light rendering here and go for a stylized comic book look. I think It could work really well with Moebius(or most other bande dessinée artists) style colouring.

Misj:
Everything seems pretty good here so far. I like how much time you're spending on creating and designing the main character - it's more of an animator's approach, and it's interesting to see it in the illustration workshop. The composition is really solid so far too - like the arches and character placement. The only potential problem I see here is the low value difference between the background and the right(her left) side of heroine's body, but I'm sure that'll be fixed with the addition of clothing. Oh, and the other problem is that I just wrote "heroine" and had no intention of changing that - she definitely doesn't feel like a monster. I'm sure we'll find it in our hearts to forgive you for that and enjoy the final result.

dactylopus:
There's an action shot if I ever saw one! Good job on capturing the monster's intensity, other than that - keep working on it and always listen to loominous.

cat:
Loving this composition! Very striking, effective and energetic. The only obvious problem with it is that it's not very defined and doesn't allow for a lot of extras, so everything will depend on the rendering of large forms and getting the atmospheric perspective(yeah, probably not aerial in this case ) just right. In any case - a very promising start, good luck!

loominous:
Always a treat to watch your process. Very much looking forward to seeing where you'll take this, because although it's looking great and very atmospheric already, I cannot at this point imagine what it will look like in full colour.

ProgZmax:
Love the epic feel, the lovecraftiness and that it tells a story. It's a pretty ambitious project, hope you'll get it done. Loominous has already covered most of what I wanted to say about this, so I'll just post this edit I scribbled for a thumbnail (Okay, I know we're not supposed to make edits, but it's tiny, unusable and can almost pass as a new thing. I also won't do this again, I promise ).

[imgzoom]http://i.imgur.com/Qr2leAQ.jpg[/imgzoom]

waheela:
What a charming fellow! Seriously, there's something about this character that just grabs me, hope you'll manage to retain that je ne sais quoi in the colouring. Good luck!

nihilyst:
Good take on the topic, going slightly beyond simply "huge". Looks interesting and dark and depressing so far.

Mordalles:
Ok, this is just awesome. Awesome monster design, awesome details, awesome composition and sense of scale. Another good candidate for Moebius/comic book-style colouring, in my opinion, although the dark painted thing you're going for looks great too. Top marks, really looking forward to seeing the finished piece.

Cerno:
Cute! It may not be the best entry technically, but it has plenty of it's own charm - now you just need to find a palette that enchances this charm.

Andail:
Really digging the sci-fi setting, the warm, sickly, traditional art feeling of the colour scheme and the upward dynamic here. The monster itself is interesting enough as well, so all that's left is refining it.
So good luck with that, you're going to need it! [because there's a lot of stuff to paint here]

selmiak:
Don't have much to say about this one, except for I'm getting a slight Futurama vibe from this guy.

SookieSock:
Excellent, dynamic sketch, especially with the new pose. The colour palette is very atmospheric and harmonious too. Good work so far!

Snarky:
It's at a pretty early stage, so it's hard to say anything constructive, but I like the very particular brand of creepiness that it possesses and the choice of the angle is definitely a good one.

Kasander:
Really love how energetic and dramatic all your sketches are. The monster is really compelling and well though out, really scary too. Easily the most horrific one of the bunch, but because of the backstory - the one that I empathise with. Also, it made me go through some of the new Swamp Thing comics drawn by Yanick Paquette and that made my day. Thanks for that.

Ben304:
I like the design of the demon, but his pose is a bit stiff and nondescript. Coupled with a very backgroundy background it makes the whole scene feel somewhat lifeless and staged. I'm sure you could make it look nice, seeing how that's you, but I feel you should try an entirely different, more dramatic and illustration-appropriate composition for this.

Good luck to everyone who's working on something - all of this is really, really cool! Here, have another cup smiley:

Generally I'm all for subtlety, and I like these - they're charming and not at all over the top, but they don't read too well at a glance, which is problematic, seeing how that's what facial expressions are for. Right now I'd say these range from amused to mock-serious (but actually slightly amused). Apart from making these differ a bit more, I would suggest adding some expressions outside the happy-angry scale - surprised, confused, sad, embarrassed etc.

Here's some creepy, but useful charts from Scott McClouds "Understanding Comics"

Spoiler

Gradation of single emotion:


Mixing two basic emotions:

[close]

Khris, yep, those are correct! Well done, your turn!

I'll relieve you of your turn, ThreeOhFour! It's ТаниÃ'‚а или ÐÅ"оÃ'â,¬Ã'ÐºÐ¾Ðµ ПÃ'Æ'Ã'‚еÃ'ˆÐµÃ'Ã'‚вие, or Tanita: Plasticine Dream, as you would probably call it.

Guessing all these obscure games is all well and good (and quite impressive, to be honest), but how about something a little more challenging, eh? Guess these 4 in correct order! 

What the hey!  This is a super-cool looking background, 304! Really stylish and moody and great. Somehow, you always manage to surprise me in a good way, hats off, sir!

Also - very interesting topic and ruleset, I'd love to participate, although I probably won't.

That's The Dark Crystal all right, go ahead, Eric!

Nope, not 10.000 BC.

Tramponline, that is a very perverse way of not answering.

Oh, well, I think this has gone for long enough - we don't want Ponch to get a turn, do we? Last time he assaulted our manly eyes with a ghastly sight of some chick-flick*, who knows what he'll come up with next! 
*I've actually seen Time Traveler's Wife, and thought it was pretty good

It's Blade Runner, clearly.

Here's another easy one to get this moving again:

[Atmosphere:]

Another excellent round, hats off to all the participants! And it's nice to see 3 high-res entries in one blitz.

Atmosphere: Kastchey - love the colours and the rays of light
Composition: Kastchey - great composition, with Xanadu being a point of interest, but not the main attraction, which creates a sense of anticipation, discovery and adventure. And the readability is good too.
Functionality: MeditativePixel
Technique: MeditativePixel - it's like this background came straight from the golden era of adventure games - very impressive rendering and a great way to introduce yourself to the forums.

It was also great to see ProgZ try his hand at drawing a background - shame we won't get to see it finished, but it's a worthy entry as it is too.
Selmiak's piece has a lot to offer too, and it's clear that a lot of work went into making this, well done!
And I love Kasander's sketch for it's fluidity and rough energy - with a bit of work it easily could've been a winner.

Well done, everyone! Very much looking forward to the next blitz.