A tale of souls and swords, eternally retold...

brucege said:
Beautiful coloring, Vil. The beer mug is now the highlight of the painting lol. Soooo thirsty. And Mulan's always the shit.
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Thanks mate, for me pirate lady, i have to agree on the beer mug, i tried to match the different hair colors with the beer because i did the blonde version after the brunette.
Finding the right colors was a real challenge as i wanted the whole combination of val(hues) :P to be rich and vibrant yet coherent, hence i tried to limit the number of basic colors i used and used them for different parts of the painting as you call it.
You probably remember I used the same technique back then when i picked colors for my CAS : making sure colors match added to the wow factor instead of ruining a good design.
So here i used medium brush strength with low opacity and applied different layers (more work but it allowed me to do gradients).
 
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brucege said:
That is just the kinda thing I'd draw if I had your skills, 'cept less PG-13 lol. When I'm bored, I still occasionally draw epic stick figure battles.
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I did my share of stick figure battles in my younger years, don't be ashamed.
I also leaned towards the outright gory and bloody in my early or high school stuff.
I will try to come up with some oldies or some of Lil Vil stuff :)
 
He's quite a gifted artist. Much cooler than my sketches. Really cool rifles. somehow, my stick figures had more blood to spray around, far more than their slender bodies could possibly account for though lol.
 
Thanks man, i'll show him your comments...when i did stick battles i did just as you (blood splatter, beheadings, dismemberments etc.)...that is why i am considering MKX as a future purchase :)
Oooooh, and Monsieur Le Bello still around. I noticed how he teases me with such subtlety by liking Lil Vil's sketch but none of mine...Probably boyfriend censored again :P
No word comes out of his keyboard though, comme c'est dommage ! :(
 
Once told he couldnt stand having you dig someone else's art.
How are you btw, has your hand fully recovered?is your boss still forcing you to work in gloomy backrooms?how is minifridge, you cool with him? Oh and when is Mr Bean's next movie gonna come out? ...
 
VILARCANE said:
Once told he couldnt stand having you dig someone else's art.
How are you btw, has your hand fully recovered?is your boss still forcing you to work in gloomy backrooms?how is minifridge, you cool with him? Oh and when is Mr Bean's next movie gonna come out? ...
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Same as last time man, they closed my store, me and Joe broke up and I lost my home because of it. My hand healed like, a year ago though :P And I have no idea, but sooner rather than later I hope.
 
Ok, mon ami, let us move on then, now you don't have to hold back on your comments, maybe the many hours i have put into what follows will trigger some kind of emotional response :)
Remember that one from my mayan / aztec cast...

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I always toyed with the idea of making an aztec related scene featuring human sacrifice without actually showing the thing in all its goriness.
It came to my mind that i could use perspective drawing as a new challenge as well as an artistic way to suggest without having to draw a severed head and mutilated body...
I used my mayan CAS design as a starting point in terms of materials and color scheme, but i did not want it to be an exact copy...

I ventured into uncharted techical territory doing this, both in terms of composition, character and animal drawing, and coloring / shading techniques...
For the rest, feel free to comment / ask anything.



Bonus pics :

Face close-up shot :


Quezal close-up shot :


Panther close-up shot :


From concept rough to digital coloring :
 
Spectacular design. The snake hat is my favorite detail for some reason. Really cool under-angle perspective too. It looks like she's already finished witht the sacrificial ritual, since she's already descended to the bottom of the stairs. It's also pretty neat to observe the ways people play with perspective IRL. Like asshole bosses leaning back and thrusting out their chins for an artificial power angle. Or girls angling their heads downward to express innocence while sharpening their chins for selfies.
 
brucege said:
Spectacular design. The snake hat is my favorite detail for some reason. Really cool under-angle perspective too. It looks like she's already finished witht the sacrificial ritual, since she's already descended to the bottom of the stairs. It's also pretty neat to observe the ways people play with perspective IRL. Like asshole bosses leaning back and thrusting out their chins for an artificial power angle. Or girls angling their heads downward to express innocence while sharpening their chins for selfies.
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Thanks mate., means a lot :)

Cool you like the feathers...the Feathered Serpent (Quezalcoatl in Nahuatl language) was incredibly difficult to draw. Actually, i am not 100% satisfied with how the feathers came out, but i am 200% satisfied with how the eye came out.
Did you notice the venom dribbling from the fangs and "chin" ? i kinda made that tiny subtle detail specifically for you to point out :P

There are other hidden details too, like the fact she actually has hair in a braid which you can spot on the left of her neck...black as a raven's wing
Also, the skull like smoke billow in the upper rh corner...

I am impressed once again how you captured the chronology and logic behind the scene and especially the under-angle. I guess it is your science of deduction. I gotta do a labcoat CAS representing you sometimes, i got some ideas :)

Ok, so yes the perspective was used for a reason.
In fact, the sacrifice has been made, and the god-like priestess descended the flight of stairs to let her pets drink of the victim's blood pouring from the severed head which just rolled down the steps moments ago.
The scene of the ritual in Apocalypto came to mind when i imagined the scene (one of my favourite Mel Gibson Movie)

Fun stuff and so true 'bout the angle games in real life, and the bosses, lol.
My angle at life is to enjoy it and to make others happy in the process, guess that is why i am still posting here, despite the limited audience / comments (what's that for an understatement :)
 
I was at my parent's house a few week backs, and i dug into my early high-school / college years drawings, and found a few things worth sharing, which certainly show a lot of room for improvement, but also more spontaneous and totally freehand art :


Translation of text above (wizard : hey, i said on the roast leg ! / dragon : oops !) /
below : so what, i had foot callus !


 
Been toying with the idea of doing a Far West theme artwork someone could use a a basis for a CAS why not (not that i didn't go gunslinger type CAS of all sorts back then).
A lot of effort and tiny details and a lot of time spent coloring this badass mf :)

A slightly updated version (mainly painted the sky to add some more contrast to the scene)



A sepia version (like an oldschool photograph) :

 
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I really like this gunslinger. All the crazy lil' accessories are very tastefully distributed. I'll give it a try, but I've been fresh out of ideas lately.
 
brucege said:
I really like this gunslinger. All the crazy lil' accessories are very tastefully distributed. I'll give it a try, but I've been fresh out of ideas lately.
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Oh but please.
I would love to see if you got all the details / lil' accessories figured out, so if you have the time, i'd like to know what you spotted and why do you think it tasteful :)
Then i can elaborate on the background story i had in mind for this one when creating the piece...

A little bonus for you mate, showing a few steps of the creation process :
 
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