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I would have voted for Misj' and loominous, but decided to stick with people who made it through the workshop.

It's been a lot of fun working with you guys, and I really learned a lot about art and my own capabilities.

Either way, I'll stick with my votes.

That's all very exciting news!  I'm still looking forward to this one.

I like the new title, not too different from the previous.

Keep the updates coming!

I say pronounce it in a way that makes you feel comfortable.

(Also, ignore the promotion, I was not concerned with that.)

I'd love to see the top 3, actually.

As for the additional categories, I'd like to vote waheela for most helpful and cat for best process.

I might have voted for others, but I assumed this should only include those who participated in and finished the workshop.

Made my vote.

Great work, everyone!  I'm amazed at how well everyone can do.  I'm also surprised by my own entry, which I pushed much farther than I'd thought possible.

I hope those who had to drop out will finish their pieces and show them, because this workshop really created some monstrously good results.

With my piece, I ran out of time.  I would have gone further with detail on the rocks, added more fur texture to the monster, and drawn a better human, among other tweaks.  I stupidly drew the light source before the character, and as a result the scale is a little off from what I was going for.

All of the criticisms helped, at least to understand what I was doing wrong.

I was inspired by the 'Frazetta Triangle' we had discussed early on, and I tried to give my piece a geometric feel.

Final criticisms:

I think that ProgZ's is still a little too dark for me, but it came out really nice overall.

I can see that time was an issue for others.  Miguel's as well as my own could have benefited from more attention.  Also, others were unable to complete and had to drop out.  It's unfortunate.

I am surprised with how well selmiak's piece turned out.  The second light source helped a lot.  The same can be said of Cerno's piece.

Kasander, cat, and waheela's pieces are all great, and show really nice progress throughout.

My top picks would have to be Mordalles, Andail, selmiak, 304, and SookieSock, but well done by all.

OK, hope I can still post this:



I'll consider this final as far as the workshop goes, but I may continue to work on this on my own.  There are a few areas I think I could improve.  It was great to have something to work on, but the deadline was difficult to meet.

Thanks for the opportunity, and all of the kind comments and helpful criticism.  I'm pretty happy with this piece, considering it's my first real attempt at real digital art.

Everyone's work looks fantastic!  I'm going to have a hard time deciding who gets my vote.

[cat]

I'll work hard on my monster and try to incorporate everyone's good advice.

cat: Your water dragon is coming along nicely.  I like the limbs, and you've got a better handle on the lighting now.

Mordalles: Your monster looks fantastic.  I tried to think of criticism, but had a lot of trouble.

waheela: Your monster is looking very sinister.  The fixes you made to the hands helped a lot.  The background looks a lot nicer, too.

Kasander: Good job with the colors, I like your decision.  I wonder if the red-orange on the plant-tentacle's mouth is a little too bright for the lighting.

Great work, guys!

I've always said gif with a soft g myself.  Also ping, jaypeg, and gee-you-eye.

And for a long time I pronounced Nike to rhyme with Mike.

Great poster, and wonderful animation!

Thanks for sharing!  Can't wait!

[SookieSock]

OK, It's a bit late, but I did a lot of work on lighting and shadows.  Still some work to go, especially on the environment.  I'm going camping for 3 days this week, but I'm really enjoying this process.  I hope to get some work done on the weekend when I return home.

Anyways, here's the update so far:



As you can see, I decided on the flashlight rather than the torches.  I am really trying to challenge myself with this piece, and I felt it would be more difficult to try the lighting with a singular beam source rather than something more ambient.  I do intend a light source behind the monster as well, thus the incidental lighting around the edges of his body.

I need to give my monster some more texture, create a nice reflection on his eyes, and, oh yeah, put the person back into the picture.  Lots of work left.

Now a little feedback:

SookieSock:  I like where it's going, but I preferred the really dark face on the tree.

304:  The demon is looking great, absolutely horrifying.  The genitals actually increase that effect, although I think perhaps in your fondness for them you may have given them a slight bit too much of a highlight from the moon.

selmiak:  Your monster is definitely creepy, and the cave entrance is looking awesome.  I would try to add a little more light to things, it looks a little bit like an outline.

cat:  This is wonderful work.  It's looking fantastic.  I love the color choices, the dragon looks good and natural in that environment.

Mordalles:  Your idea for the shell is awesome.  You really found a great way to solve the problem you were having.

Sorry to hear about some people dropping out.  I feel like I should.  I hope we see those pieces finished some day!

Everyone's doing so well, I'm very impressed with the talent here!

I haven't had much time to work on my monster this week, but I will get an update done.

I've been looking at all of the input, and you guys have some really good ideas.

Also, I really like where some of you are going with this.  I think everyone has improved their pieces this week, from what I've seen.  I'll provide more insight later, but for now:

Cerno: I like where this is going.  You've got a good handle on the color, I really like the choices you've made.  The blue contrasts nicely with the reds.  Perhaps using more reds in the smoke would help.

Mordalles: I can see where you're having trouble on the shell.  It doesn't look like it matches with the light source.  It looks like it is lit from the side instead.  Adjusting the angle of the shading might help.

Miguel: I really like the new setting you've got him in.  The scene seems to make more sense and feel more natural now.

waheela: The shading on the gut looks a little pillowy, but he is looking a lot better.

Misj': I'm looking forward to seeing that villain in the scene, and I hope that you'll be experimenting more with those brushes.  It looks rather nice.

Again, I'll give some more feedback later when I have the time.

[Miguel:]

Time for the critiques.  I didn't realize that so many of us had gotten involved, this is great!  It's also difficult, because some of them are still early sketches, and a lot of you are doing so well I can't imagine what I could say that would help in any way.  I tried to give a bit of good and bad to everyone.

Miguel: This is a wonderful piece.  I really love the design and attention to detail.  If I didn't know that Gorn was an inspiration, I would have said the hands are a little weak, but they actually look perfect.  My only question: What is he doing there?  He looks bored.  Maybe he could have some scraps of food or something in front of him.

Misj': I love this work.  You have a great style, and it works well in this image.  I love the expressiveness of the background characters.  The monster itself is a great idea, and looks truly beautiful and powerful.  While you've said this is set in a cathedral or church, I think it is better if that building is ancient and partially in ruin.  Just my thoughts, because what you have there already looks somewhat cavernous and I like it.

cat: I like the composition of your image.  The idea of a water dragon is awesome, and having it swoop down from the kelp forest is a really cool way of reconciling the differences between land and sea dragons.  I'm looking forward to seeing more detail.

loominous: This is fantastic.  The mood of your piece is wonderful.  The playfulness of the little creatures is great next to the large monster.  In a low contrast piece, I like the high contrast between the character types.  I would suggest not going the route of adding a whole hood full of them, though, as I think it would offset the scene a bit, making the kittens seem like the monsters in the room.

ProgZmax: I really like this elder god.  Your lighting on the left is going very well, and I am eager to see what full application will look like.    As far as the monster itself, I think the wings could use a bit of work, but it looks great.

waheela: This guy is awesome.  For some reason I doubt he's playing fair in that card game.  I like the He-Man inspired equipment as well.  I'm a little worried we're going to see up his skirt when it's all finished, but I trust you not to make him that monstrous.

nihilyst: This picture is very nice.  It has a sense of mystery and dread.  It's a bit tricky to notice the tentacles are even there, but I assume that's a part of what makes them so terrifying.  Also, I am curious about the scale, as it's tough to tell if that is a row boat or a galleon.

Mordalles: This thing is awesome.  It reminds me of some of the big creatures in Star Wars (mostly the prequels, like the Acklay).  The angle is nicely chosen, it gives a good overview of the scene and includes the scale of the monster.  I'm looking forward to seeing your color choices and lighting.

Cerno: I love the look of this beast.  The scene is set really well, and if I wasn't sure that was a wizard I would say that guy is toast.  The issue I see is that the bottom claws are somewhat unreadable.  I would definitely take a look at those eagle pictures, I think they could help.

Andail: This is a really nice scene.  The idea is great, and your monster is a looming menace.  I would consider adding some luminescence, mostly to the monster because your sci-fi environment still has a fairly natural feel that I think works.

selmiak: Your picture is wonderful.  The atmosphere and mood are great, and the monster, while indeed scary, has the most confused look on his face and I love it.  Another character might help to give a sense of scale, so I'd say go for that.

SookieSock: This is a fantastic shot.  There is a lot of energy, and a real sense of urgency on the part of the horse archer.  The faceless tree monster is a haunting thing to behold.  I imagine it having leaves (albeit dried, dead leaves).

Snarky: This is really cool.  It's one of the most interesting concepts, and it's coming along nicely.  The composition of the shot is great, really makes you feel like this is your new mother.  She's really creepy, too.  I'd like to see what the interior of the house will look like, and anticipate the colors.

And here's a little update on my own image:



I traced the pencil drawing and moved some things around a bit.  I worked out the issue with him looking too tall, and a couple of the other proportion problems.  Don't mind the colors, I was just messing around.  I'd rather not have it be blue, actually, but it may stick because it looked better than other colors.  I also need to do something about the shoulders, I'm toying with the idea of adding more horns or something like that.

I'm pondering fur patterns and lighting next.  Lighting is another one of my weaknesses, so I'm trying to avoid what my instincts are telling me, which is to have the creature lit from a torch or flashlight held by the observer in front.

Thanks for the critiques, I've gained a lot of insight already!  I'm not likely to put this guy in an ice cave, although I like the idea.  The Wampa is a huge inspiration here, no doubt.  I am actually designing this as a piece of concept art for a possible game I've been planning, which would put this monster in a series of caves and tunnels below a mine.  But, if I ever do an icy setting, I could see a cold weather variant being a probability.

Alright, this is my initial Sketch:



On to week 2!

OK, big post.  I'm a little late getting my sketches in, but work has kept me pretty busy over the last few days.  Still, this is a really nice concept, and a lot of fun, so I'd really enjoy participating.

Here are my pose references:



I've been trying to get a handle on this pose, but it's been difficult finding an image with the pose I'm looking for.  Either way, it's coming along.

Here are my references for environment:



Yeah, so basically it's in a cave.

OK, so now let's see some of those sketches I was working on:



Worked out his face, but I may add a few spikes or horns before we're through.  Pretty happy with how he looks with that mean brow and creepy, cold insect eyes.  Lots of spikes and horns, big teeth, and of course lots of fur.



Working on the pose a bit.  Finally got something I liked towards the end.

And here's my initial sketch:



A big beastie.  I think I ended up making him taller than I intended while working out the fore shortening, but when I get working on it in the computer that may be changed.  The hand reaching forward will likely be larger and rotated to the right a bit.  Aside from that, I'm happy with this sketch as a starting point for the digital work.

OK, I've taken a look at some faces, and I think I've pieced together a good idea of where I'm going to take this furry monster.



Still evaluating poses and doing various rough sketches (mostly on paper).

Everyone in here is doing such a great job so far!

Selmiak, the ambiance in your image is already fantastic.

Miguel, wow, that's a lot of scales.

I'd like to go ahead and join in the fun.

I decided to work on a Furry Monster:



So those are my primary references thus far.  I'd still like to investigate more face ideas, and establish some references for the pose.

Why not?



How about Unlikely Superhero Origins?

This is a clever concept, and it looks great so far!

Looking forward to it!