washka – Banzai

[washka]

-Last contest (Sea creature) I did some black and white stuff, (shapes & tentacles thingies), mostfully dynamics and stylistic linework (with stains). About the painting's target audience, the inner message, I was considering a target audience with a Q.I. around 80 and 100. (Adult people.)
And I had 6 votes from 25. (Thanks for your support! And congrats to all participants)

-It was funny, but the fact is: I lost...
Ok we were two to loose (I wasn't alone), that's a small number, considering a 3 units participation. So we had more chance to win (statistically), that's a bit frustrating too...

So this time I will change da tactic: I'll consider a target audience with a Q.I. around 40 and 80. (lower and wider range) (Kids & Teenagers)
So (still on horror mood), for this circus contest, I'll just use a hamster (originality = 0% , idiotic empathy = 100% ), and I'll just focus on da mood and on colors, with this "keep it simple and =don't think=" words on my mind.

Let's see where we go and what we obtain (gl to all participants):

Don't feed the animals!
(Banzai)
Old coffee stained sketch and 2h15 speed painting. (Against the image's blur, take a lill' step back from your screen)

[washka]

Seems I've been inspired a bit by Bobby Chiu in da cartoon style kawai monster mood for this one.

Maybe a lill' baby girl in front trying to give him a candy? What dya think?

[BiG ToE-3DT]

You done yet?

[washka]

Nope boss, and thanks for passing by.
Imo except the whole mood the rest is quite crappy. I think I'll add two other ones and a baby girl with an ice cream.

Thinking too much is bad, when I think I don't work, when I work I start to think, except sleep is there a pause button?

When there's no participation my motivation approach zero, the concurence and the intereactions effects do a lot in the motivation everybody push into a challenge.

But I think I can go over it, I can still challenge myself even if it's boring and that the last time I did it...the fact is: I've lost.

Where is M. Cederstorm, where is vnmribaya, L3xicon, polysmooth, wargrafix, kidchuckle. And where is DD???
Where are da painting warriors?

[Born8th]

Originally Posted by washka

When there's no participation my motivation approach zero, the concurence and the intereactions effects do a lot in the motivation everybody push into a challenge.

washka : I agree with you. I hope other entrants will take part in that challenge...

[BiG ToE-3DT]

that's a good question, where did everyone go?

[washka]

Holiday?

[aby arty]

^^get richard tilbury and av sir to do entries for this everyone will flyover. like CG sir always does starters or maybe if a mod has done zbrush concepting you could add it as starter here as well. just saying

@ washka your hippo beaver looks highly promising provided you dont doze off like a hippo in the cool mud. XD i think i am missing madagascar lol

[ignacio197]

I will probably enter, I just haven't worked out what to do yet .......

[washka]

Update, I can't be serious for this one, wanted to speedpaint another one (Oliphant) for a brained public... Omg I did it again

[washka]

Wich one go your votes for guys, Hamster or Oliphant?

[BiG ToE-3DT]

I'm digging the Dragon Ball Z guy.

[bladnman]

either way, really nice stuff!

[nucron]

yeah, I agree with bladnman--you have two nice paintings here (of course one being more "serious" than the other, like you were saying. but definitely, lol at the random Dragon Ball Z guy). you have a really interesting way of using texture/brushstrokes and color.

it was cool to see how your first painting evolved from a literally "coffee-stained sketch." and I think I can indeed see some Bobby Chiu-esque touches in that hamster. the contrast with the little girl does help to give it some action and narrative, but at the moment it seems for some reason that it is not quite conveying as much of a sense of drama as it maybe could, but I'm not quite sure why. I think it might have something to do with there not being a clear connection between what the hamster is doing and what the girl is doing. that might have been intentional on your part, like the hamster is so big and oblivious that it does not even notice the girl, in which case it works. I actually do kind of like that dead stare the hamster has. yeah, I'm not sure I can really give any advice, here, since I'm not sure which direction you are going with it. since you are just having fun with it, it might be cool to make it even more random and crazy somehow, but who knows.

your second painting has a nice classic tone and a unique dreamy color scheme. and you can really feel the weight of that elephant. the elephant also has some real character to it. I can practically imagine its thought processes. at first it might only be concentrating on staying balanced, but then it starts thinking "ok, how am I going to get down from here?"--there's some good drama in that pose. by the way, am I seeing ghosts of previous paintings in those elephant skin textures? I feel like there's some crazy alien staring at me in there somewhere. also, I do like that funny touch of having the mouse (dreaded enemy of elephants!) calling the shots in the corner. I will say, though, that as a painting this is the one part that is not working for me. I think since the rest of it is so loose and painterly, the brushstrokes on the mouse are maybe a bit too neat and tidy with very sharp edges that sort of make it feel like it is not part of the rest of the painting. I know this might be a work in progress, though, so sorry if it is too early for me to be pointing out such things.

as I said before, both of these painting have some interesting qualities. as far as picking which one to continue with, I know you might feel like you need to really play to the audience and try to figure out exactly what sort of painting people want to see and so on. but my personal feeling is that for a challenge like this, you should just follow your instincts and go for whatever will be the most fun for you and will help you grow as an artist. I mean, sure, I guess part of doing concept art in the professional world is thinking about what a client or art director might want, and maybe you could imagine the people browsing these threads are your "clients." but I think this is a difficult path to go down because you'll always be trying to imagine the mindset of random people on the interwebs and really there isn't much of a way to reliably guess how crowds of people will react to things as complex as a piece of art. so I say just go for whatever feels right for you even if you think other people might not "get" it or whatever.

it is the fate of most people, not just artists, to not be understood at least some of the time, if not most of it. for example, during his lifetime people thought Vincent Van Gogh was crazy, and, well, actually he was a little crazy, but the point is audiences weren't ready for his work. many of his greatest masterpieces were considered strange, amateurish work. it was only a long time afterwards that he was hailed as a genius and he is still considered so today. so if you think people don't understand what you are trying to do, maybe you are just ahead of your time. what would have happened if Van Gogh decided to start trying to guess what the random people that walked into Paris salons wanted and painted that? he probably would have just imitated the famous Impressionists of the day and thus fallen into obscurity as one of the many lesser-known figures of that movement, rather than the revolutionary artistic pioneer that he came to be despite the problems he had in his life. if you're painting to some imaginary specifications that exist outside of yourself you are always chasing after something you can never fully understand. of course we all can improve and learning to take criticism can help us to move in that direction. the way an audience reacts to something can be instructive and yield some valuable insights. but at the end of the day, part of what one is doing when they are practicing some skill is developing an instinct--a way of formulating ideas and just following the muse wherever it takes you. so instead of trying to change standards to conform to some perceived audience that may or may not be the way they are imagined to be, one ought to instead follow that inner voice, and if people do not understand it then just step back and think about where that reaction is coming from. after all, it is only your own mind that can filter things out and say "yes, that is a valid point," or "no, this critic clearly doesn't see the intention." and, hey, in some instances if people do not get the message, maybe it simply isn't clear enough, and even knowing that provides some actionable information for future development. but when all else fails, it could be that, like Van Gogh, you are actually ahead of the curve. so wear those misunderstandings as a badge of honor, because you're in good company. just don't go cutting your ear off or anything crazy like that, haha.

I hope all that made some semblance of sense. I'm not really even sure what I wrote. anyway, nice work, keep it up. peace.

[washka]

I don't like standards, but I think I'm not clear enough here, hopefully it's a WIP, thanks for your reply nucron and thanks for your comments Big-Toe and bladnman.

-About the elephant, it's about "prostitution", I used " " because it's not really prostitution as the way we usually use, so it's not just about sex, that's what I mean. It's more about using your talent for money or just for life, for an audience or for anything.
Having your talent distorted by the people, the audience, the standard, the world or simply the life in a way.
What's funny it's that the painting's idea is related to the meaning of nucron's comment.

-That's quite funny isn't it? His answer's quite the same than this elephant concept.
(Even if the "how" in "ok, how am I going to get down from here?" isn't really defined, because there's no timeline there, he could also try to go up, no? Ok, usually the elephants are advancing forward, Ok we're in a circus... But I like this "how", I wasn't thinking about it, nice mood there.)

-So here's the elephant on his own tusks, in equilibrium, I think that into The circus: that's the animal's life (for both elephant and man).
The tusks symbolize preciousness and the elephant has to trample on its own tusks to survive (onto the "circus's world"), the world is kinda a big circus. He has to trample on its "talent". It has to sharpen those tusks, and it must even tear those. A broken toy?
And the elephant can see the big wave of the unknown coming on its side, even if there's nice colors to it, that's the circus, you're never 100% sure your acrobatic partner will catch you when you fly, will you fall, there is no security net below, that's the real circus. There is real risk, it can be dangerous even for pro, even with experienced people. It's like on a big concert's scene, or onto a soccer field, or onto a ring box.
And what's that for? For money? For a mouse's shadow? That is not even integrated to the whole piece => the mouse... (It isn't part of the painting, it's "outside of it", the mouse won't even take the wave, because it's just a lill' shadow, joke for old cartoons lovers, and an Hollywood, Vegas, or world & cie critic) .

-So it's quite an horrible painting in a way but it's still an elephant on equilibrium, that's all.

I'll finish the elephant with my point and show you the previous ones, ideas can change like everything, image too.

And thanks a lot for your sincerity nucron.