Hurakan Project

Hurakan part 4 is over... long live Hurakan part 5! Okay, maybe that was a bit cheesy, but I'm getting really excited about wrapping up this challenge. Note to self, long arc challenges are informative, but they are looong! Not to mention, if you caught my post the other day concerning my changing role, then I've got a new focus, and I want to focus some of the challenges towards finding artists that can help me in that role (nudge, nudge). New Challenge. Concept name Hurakan, God of storms. Concept Description. Do you remember the description of Hurakan? If not, swing by and check out the original post. An in case you don't remember the steps in the 5 part process we are using. Here's how the challenge arc is going to go. Phase 1 character silhouettes (completed). Phase 2 character thumbs (completed). Phase 3 Black and White detailed character drawings & compositional Book Cover thumbnails (completed). Phase 4 Character color roughs & Black & White Book Cover detailed drawings (completed). Phase 5 Final color Character development & Book Cover color rough. Phase 6 Book Cover Final. Were moving into phase 5. This part of the challenge has two parts to it. Character, final color and Cover, color rough.
 

Part 1. We coming down to the end of the line with our characters. It's time to pull out all the stops and do the final render on our character. Do you remember the dwarf that Kieran Yanner was working on last week? Well, he took his tight drawing and his color palette, and gave me a tight render. Now I've got myself a solid concept piece. Something that I can either develop further, drop into a style guide, or use for the basis for further explorations. In case you missed it, here was the progression, rough, tight drawing, color palette, final render. Part 2. So we've played with our composition, we've looked at the details of the image, now it's time to take the lessons learned and start looking at the palette of the image. While you working on this portion of the challenge, remember that our marketing professionals from cartoon coloring pages have told us that they think that blue and green will be big colors next season. Think about how you will let this information influence your color decisions. It is also very important to think about how hue and contrast will affect the visual impact of the image. It will either enhance, or detract from your composition and overall image quality.

Details. For part 5, I would like to see the final character render, and the detailed cover drawing with it's color palette in a single file, no larger than 1600 x 1600 pixels. Arrangement and presentation is up to you. Requirements. Image should be submitted as RGB, jpg format files. A link to the image should be sent to Hurakan challenge Part 5. Do not send attachments! The Judging. There will not be any judging, per se. I will select submissions for discussion and critiques only. The goal of these challenges is to build towards the final judged book cover challenge. Speaking of, keep your eyes peeled for upcoming announcements concerning our judging panel for the final segment of the challenge! From ArtDrop. I've been seeing a lot of stellar submissions at ArtDrop lately, and it feels like a great time to grab a submission and throw it into the spotlight. I've been watching this artists work for a bit, and she keep stepping up her game. One of the things I appreciate about Nicole, is that she updates her website pretty often. There's nothing I hate more than to get a note from an artists about the "great work they are doing", and when I go to their website it hasn't been updated for two years. Shameful! Go forth and Create!

That Familiar Feeling

There was a familiarity to this day, the kind you never want to be familiar with. The breeze was cold, my lungs struggled to breath the chill of the morning during my run. I am again in this city I have come to relate with emergencies, tragedy, doctors, hospitals. A large contrast to what it has always been fun, runs, laughs, friends. The heaviness in my eyes, the result of less hours of sleep than I need, is also familiar. I turned a corner and see people busy with their day, kids walking to school, cars barely stopping at red lights while I cross the street. There is a large feeling of impotence to this new turn of events in the life of someone I love dearly. I have to get my run in before going back to the hospital. I had to stop at a light to compose and continue my run. Funny how we relate places and moments with feelings and emotions, there are memories that bring back anxiety, tears, sadness. Today my mind is remembering moments like that, remembering that months ago I ran these streets awaiting the passing of my aunt. I am remembering that day. And when one strong emotion invades me others of similar nature follow. Other memories assault me, some totally unrelated. I am remembering the days when I would rush to a bathroom to hide my sadness. Sadness is a powerful emotion and not a very useful one. It renders us worthless far longer than any emotion should. But there are times when we can't do anything other than feel what we need to feel. Today seems to be one of those days. Today is familiar, way too familiar.