Thank you, mircea. It's been a while since I illustrate something as detailed as this. It's quite interesting for me to print this illustration in a large format (let's say 60 cm square) later & hang it up to the wall. Although it will definitely reveal the secrets & illusions from this illustration. It is not insanely detailed in the larger pixels format for sure. Lol.

This is definitely my favorite illustration so far!! great job author

I envy your patience and effort on this work, and it should get very high score. Details, brush patterns, composition, and colors are awesome. Maybe there are many artworks out there with greater amount of details but considering this is the new entry for a weekly contest, not much people can do the same as you did. However, still there is a 'however' (please forgive me if I'm too strict on giving that critique), each layer of character is quite flat to me, you can work more on shadows and highlight to give more depth to your work, to reach the perfection. Still, elite work!

wonderful piece of art! Raw illustration as its best. However agree with langstrum, the only weakness is the flatten look of the image, it just makes it look more cartoonish, but that's just our opinion that we think a lil' depth would make it even better, maybe this is just the way you intended...

BTW signature is not that hidden... i seriously suggest to remove it for contest purposes, since precisely viewing the details is an important matter to vote...

Thanks for the comments & critiques, esp for langstrum.

Hey, man. Where did you point about the quite flat figure? Is the characters (fairies) or the guardians? There are already so many works on shadows & highlights upon every characters in this work, man. Might be not perfect, but consider this is done because of another jobs coming to me & however... I'll make another depth if I had such a time.

Ofc, I'll boost up my painting speed to another contest for sure. Once again, thanks for reviewing my work so far, everyone. Good luck on your entries too to the contestants.

@ Mike. Uh-Oh! I'll do it right now... completely 'hidden' after this update. Thanks for reviewing that~!

EDIT: NO SIGNATURE visible freely now.

Okay, since you asked I'll give a scale to judge whether you need more depth or not. Focusing on the faces of the fairies, they're very close to the light source, right? comparing the highlight on their face and the midtones, they're dramatically different, so your light source is strong in the center but becomes weaker considerably as the distance increases. Therefore, the shadow and highlight on the dragon and the tree should be more dramatic also. The green and yellow fairies seem to be on the same plane and the two fighters are on top of them., etc.

I understand your situation, that's totally similar to me. You don't need to do that for the contest because you can win it easily and get high score. My critique is for the case if you want to improve and even commercialize your work. Thank you for your effort, if you didn't do that, we can't have this kind of work in Pxleyes ^^

very good work, i like it a lot ,only one small thing,you left the line in the upper left corner of the horns, GL

Great suggestion, langstrum. I'll take that POV from you. Bear with me since I've been working this whole key lighting illustration just a week lately (inspired by Dimitri a.k.a Karaflazz from pxleyes photography contest). No serious lighting matters at the hand like this for the illustrations I've made around concept arts just with the two lights, but you've made my eyes quite open for the depth of colors.

I'm sure you know about manga, the origins of them; they're not bother with the lightings & depth of colors too much. They're seem so flat for instance. But FYI, I try to leave that manga area & follow the realistic approach like my friend, Stanley Lau from IFS. It's kinda like your art, langstrum. A hybrid of manga & realistic called manga realist.

Thanks for your opinions on my work, friend.

@ vexycon: whoa... you notice that?

EDIT: Re-submit the entry.

Just want to say that your entry is one of the best DD I have seen this week. I think you have the talent and the creativity to do works and illustrations like this particular. I have seen your work and I am happy that you posted it here. I think by using Photoshop CS5, Wacom Intuos 4 and Cintiq, gives you the advantage of create a good Illustration, but remember that there are members who do not have all the fancy stuff you use for your work, and are limited to use just a Photoshop program, not even a CS 3! You are a professional, and yes, we like to see work like this. Hope to see some of your tutorials, if you post one. Good luck!

I do not know what is with me and these lines, but there is another on wolf ear sorry but this picture has to be perfect ,I really like your work, I wish you all the best

oh....you're rocking pxleyes.com....! just another super elite work....!:bow2b)

George, your comments most impressed me & also flattered me as well. I'm not that professionally & fancy guy with the kind of fancy stuffs, it's thanks to God for His blessings, talents that He gave to me & I just 'borrow' all my belongings in this world. About CS5, it's from my company, I didn't buy it by myself. Cintiq & Intos4 bought by myself (helped from my parents) years ago to help me speed up my commercial projects. I'm still young & need to improve myself after all.

Since I found Pxleyes accidentally month ago, I would like to share my techniques of illustrations & concept arts here after. Yet a master, but still enough for everyone to pick one or two techniques. Hope I'll finish & establish my first tutorial in no time. Thanks for cheering me up, George.

@Vexycon: MAN... your eyes so pixelated~! Really awesome details captured, thanks, I've already removed the gutter black shadows on my textured brushes.

@dekwid: thanks, man. Not an elite work, just try to share my works around here... since, I don't really dig the manipulation things with people & objects... EXCEPT matte-paintings for environments.

Beautiful composition, but I agree, the characters appear somewhat flat. The center appears to be taking place in a room with the background consisting of painted large creatures watching. This is particularly because of the shadow behind the green figure.

The creature in the lower RH corner (werewolf?) looks out of place, and almost an afterthought, with the glowing edge of the figure in front of his mouth aligning too much with the profile of his face. The glow itself is out of place and inconsistent with the image lighting.

This is a very entertaining image, none the less.

Thank you, MossyB. Your comment always had an interesting POV. "Painting large creatures watching because of the shadow" I notice that after reading your comment & really... really... really looking at my own image. Wow. Point taken.

Yes, it is a dumb werewolf (lol). About the inconsistent glows & shadows, please forgive & bare with me. I've tried to make it as fast as possible without the worry about the precise or perfect outcome, I tried not to render the glow to much at an early stage, but with the adjustments layers turned on; the glow (because of Vibrance FX) burst out leave some of the mid tones desaturated. Maybe I'll correct this later after take some rest, however thanks to your DEEP comments (as always).

Author: Thanks for your feedback on my comment above. By calling you a "professional" I ment to tell you that you have made the effort to follow the suggestions for corrections, or adjustments to your work. You will see that some entries, do not even make corrections, or follow an advise to bette their work. This is a place to learn, it is true, that by looking at work like yours, will open a huge avenue for those who want to learn. Details are important in an entry, shadows, light, perspective, appareance, color harmony....etc, you have shown us that with patience and taking the time to correct your entries, we can learn from you, as well as from other exceptional Artists here in Pxleyes.

You have to have a commitment to create something nice and appealing to others, as I told you, you have the talent and the artistic creativity in your hands and mind. Forget about what I said about you having an advantage over others, by using fancy stuff, to create Art. It is you, who creates this, and your talent is endless. Thanks again for allowing us to be witnessing something beautiful....... !

Dear George; I really thanks to your kind words, I'd love to see the others points of views & try to understand their criticism about my art & I'd love constructive criticism here at Pxleyes as well. It's just a problem with the time spend if I had no change anything at all, but I'll try to fix or correct my entry if there's a break time to me (taking my lunch break or even while I'm relaxing at the office minutes before going home. Lol.)

George, you do have the talents & everyone got their artistic talents as well, it is my job & also commitment to illustrate something that basically from imaginations of a child (back day, while I'm working on the Studio Ghibli), but nowadays, I move to game art departments to produce concept arts; it's always a world of children if I may say so.

I'll be here for sharing my illustrations, passions & emotions. Sometimes, if I might not be here, it's simply because I have my own life to fight for; "my life for the horde..."

WOW I am amazed! Wonderful work author!

Thank you, lordymail. I'm glad that you like it.

exceptional

Welcome to Pxleyes. Glad you found us!!!! What a future you have!! This is a fantastic entry!! GL

Really, thank you very much for everyone's support on this entry. Though it's still lacks of perfection of shadows, values & depth renderings. I hope, I'll improve my illustration works more realistically next time.

By meantime, I'm very sorry, I couldn't change the depth values of it, MossyB, Mike & Langstrum. But I did a minor changes of darkened, highlighted & removed some unwanted lines thanks to Vexycon with so little time for me back then.

I hope this so called illustration fit the orange theme. Good luck & best wishes to everyone~!

This is so beautiful! A real fantasy! My instant favorite!

Orange... Fantassy and lot of fantassy.... lol... you did the fantastic work, Congrats in advance...... (INSTANT FAV) keep entering....

Great

Magnificent! An instant fav here!

I only found Pxleyes a few says ago and use Photoshop mainly for photo editing,but drawings like yours give me a boost to spend more time on digital art.I have to learn a lot of course,but picking up bits and pieces from the 'masters' along the road will certainly help me in the right direction.
The Duel Of Oranges comes close to perfection in my humble opinion,it's stunning !

Author, you have incredible talent! This is fantastic work.

Hello everyone... I'm honored that you like my entry. Though it is more like a plain digital painting rather then the skilled photo-manipulation. To be honest, I just want to share my free-time stuffs like this, not trying to compete nor show off. I really couldn't make an adjustments to some of the suggestions. But still, I would like to thank you very much indeed to those who support me, vote me & offer an opinions to me.

@Duhby63; I believe there are NO masters out there or even here in Pxleyes. We're a couple, a community of learning people together. So as for me, I'm still want to learn, adapt, share & could even get something insight from everyone. I am trying to survive.

So, I would like to give my supports to everyone here in Pxleyes; my best damn entries. Sharing is caring, isn't it?

FANTASTIC!!

AMAZING! You make me want to run out and buy a pen-pad....even though I can't draw quite as exceptionally as you!

I seen this coming! CONGRATS!

a well placed 1st.. congrats...

Congratulations...brilliant work

Congrats ... there was little doubt about it!

Congratulation to everyone as well. Though it's quite not perfect with the renderings of my painting because of the tight schedules, still... I LEARN SO MUCH from you, guys. This community is great. Meantime, I'll share my tutorials. It's not how to do this, but how to speed up your creations with custom brushes & such. So there will be no doubt about how could I achieve this complex illustrations in a single week with another illustrations of mine.

Hope this will answer or even prove some of you which try to ask about it.

Thanks in advance, have a nice day!

Congrats, awesome work

Congrats on your super fantastic victory... and of course congrats on becoming the top entry of 2011., keep them coming and waiting for ur tutorial....

thats a lot of work! wow! congrats!

Congratulations,the hard work has paid off !

Congratulations!! Looking forward to your future entries!!.

What can I tell you....... oh, well...... Congrats!!! waiting to see more....

WOW. Awesome work. Congrats

I can say no words, Mr. cintiq,......just fav from me and full vote...

Umm... you just said the words, Mr. dekwid.

Thanks for your compliments. Just posted this while I'm finishing this one today, not so detailed ofc... Tired of tight schedules. But, I can't hold anymore to post... maybe it's called post-gasm?

JUST PERFECT!!!

Very nice work, but there are some questions about the lighting.

Not perfect, theo... Nobody perfect, rite? And... Noentry perfect too.

IMHO, I still need to tweak the legs, the upper phoenix-like armor, the non-blurred middle-part armor, err... there's so many things so little time. I just don't want to be late to post this girl here... she's ready for battle.

"Do you require aid, human?" she said to my ear while I creating her.

EDIT: yeah, the lighting too... I'm aware of that, I try to paint it over with clipping mask, but it will become dark, desaturated, I frustrated & well... I apologize for being lazy-ass...

gold for this .

Golden thumbs for you, guys... Appreciated so much!

Thanks, Roon. Your works gold too.

Wonky anatomy. Arms, legs and perspective. The cornucopia on the shoulder is visually out of place.
Really nice concept, but somewhat sloppy execution.

"...Not perfect, theo... Nobody perfect, rite? And... No entry perfect too."
That's a poor excuse.
This is not a competition site to make excuses. No entry is perfect, but generally we try our best with our entries...

Author, you also don't need to tell us the software and drawing tablet you use for your entries. This gives away your identity too easily.

It is very beautiful colors are great and the background is beautifuly done and the armor...... wish I could do that. The only 2 things that throw me off about this piece are the left arm (the arm with the hand grabbing the spear) and also the left foot it seems it looks like it's missing the shoe and foot. It's been a while since I been at this, and commenting n stuff

Other than that I think this is a wonderful piece

I apologize about the identity "software + hardware". Changed.

Yeah, ofc it's wonky coz I'm rushing to do this just for several hours. IMHO, I'm trying to put this idea first of all. Okay the execution was sloppy. Fine by me. I'll do the best for next time over a week absolutely just 1 piece of stunning design. Since I'm doing this by speed not accuracy & dexterity. If you want my perfect resume, it can't be done in two days of rushing things together.

So bare with me, would you? Please?

---

Thanks, DigitalDreamer for the input. It's not missing, it's just too narrow for my eyes too. I'll add depth if this contest got enough time to spare.

I think it won't be anonimity in your entries as most of them look the same techniques, and Mossy is right, you do not have to mention the time you spent and the programs you used to make your works, as you have done in all your entries. Well, it is you, the artist who decided what to say and what to post. I am just giving a point of view. Yes, it is beautiful again.

George, thanks for your words.

Time-spent & stuffs like that were NOT to bluff, boast or something.

Really, I'm not comparing pxleyes to any other forums like CGSociety & CGHub.

But.

People out there were add the time consumes + products to recall & honor their valuable times. I learned this way & by doing like that; I really know what I'm doing, not wasting a single time. Speed is the priority of my works. I almost see the clock every-time. Yeah, some people may say it's utterly useless, freak, idiocy or something.

For me, this is who I am.

NP author I checked out the SBS and seen it their just maybe the way the angle looks idk I'm no expert at this stuff hehe.

No entry is perfect lord knows mine are always in need of some tweaking here and their lol, and of course no one is always perfect 100% all the time unless you get paid to do this hehe. While speed is great to have on your side some times speed can ruin the quality of ones entry even if you know what your doing because some members here do vote for quality and execution rather than prettiness and good ideas. You are who you are, don't feel so responsible for it :P We all have our own ways and style of how we do things.

something wrong for the hand? Look like missing? Maybe too close for the body! Try to get more on depth of field! More better feel!

something wrong for the hand? Look like missing? Maybe too close for the body! Try to get more on depth of field! More better feel!

Stunning ! I say no more

Very nice image.

Superb!

beautiful work

You are quite talented, author - chopping, digital drawing AND storytelling - you could produce entire books! I know how it is to get an idea, then try to crank it out in time to upload for a contest. Would love to see this tweaked and then hi-res. Overall, great job.

great work!!

Very well created super hero

Congrats!!

Congrats, fabulous work

Congratulations!! another terrific entry!!

Well deserved! CONGRATULATION!

Thanks for all the supports. I kinda really down about something rite now... But, all the best to whoever support me & encourage me with the great words.

Especially Missy.

congrats!

Congratulations ,great work !

congrats!

Congrats on your entry Author! Well-deserved win! I like missy comment on MossyB. I hope he internalize that.

Thanks, everyone. I went a lot of terrible times within this creation & couldn't change the picture with the suggestions. Also right now, I'm a bit down with some matters. Maybe I'll had the time-off from Pxleyes.

Thanks for the great time, everyone. Cheers!

@bcabilan; thanks for your kind words, man. But it's not "he", but "she".

I'm sorry to put out my Hi-res version since some of the details quite distracting for my eyes. Like the messy cracks & saturated shadows. I would like to make you enjoy the result from the preview version only as the reason for every matte painting quite embarrassing to see the messy details, so I seldom create the detailed versions of it.

Hollywood matte-painters like Dylan Cole taught me before; it isn't necessary for some paintings to be seen in detailed versions, if we're going to produce it to a large-cinema-scope scenes, we would do the 3D matte paintings, because the best-preview-renders should be in hires versions of pixels.

*Cheers*

This is lovely. The only distracting part is the white in the eyes. Being of stone, the white is too bright and distracting from an otherwise truly enchanting image.

I agree with you about the Hi-Res version not always being necessary in order to preserve the visual illusion created. Best of success to you!

Thank you, MossyB. I would like you to travel to my SBS. There's a credit to you there. ( ^~^)v

I blurred & darken the eyes before posting this, but it seems the statue so lifeless, since the main idea was an ancient idol with a protection and regeneration and blah2... so, it would be nice if the eyes should remain a little bit shiny.

its lovely work author I really like the background, and I think we can see enough details to not need a high res anyway
goodluck.

Wow wow wow.... Amazing work, in every detail! Congrats...

I'm agree with Dylan Cole but I'm just curious, very nice worik, GL!

Well done...congrants

love the moss effect! Congrats!

man you are amazing

keep on ROCKING, Mr. Cintiq,......hehehehe......yes you are briliant...! breathtaking entries..!:rockb)

man, thanks... it means a lot to me... well, it's just a speed illustration done in hours... so, forgive my shattered pixels & blank composition. A lot need to be fixed. BUT I run out the time...

sounds gay, dude...haha, nice idea dude!
love that techno-looking-eye! =)

Love everything in it.... lol, another congrats in advance.....

wow...awesome entry

Stunning

I like the story you placed on your entry and this creation, wow...magnificent!

cool

There's nothing to give the black sheep any sense of "lord" or "overlord," or leader. He just looks really unhappy about being in the forest with the white sheep.

If you want him as the "ringleader," you'll need more than just a cigarette. Maybe a crown, maybe a gangster suit with a flower in the lapel, maybe have him on a dais with the other sheep beneath him looking at him.

Just changing the background is not conveying your concept, you need to put a little more adjustment into it to visually establish the "pecking order" of the group.

Really nice painting skills! The problem that I see is that the original source has such a shallow depth of field. So the background of your painting is more in focus with a higher depth of field. You might be able to fix this with a gradient lens blur for the background, but I couldn't be sure without seeing it. Good luck!

I like the way you changed the expressions on the sheeps faces. The black sheep didn't look mad to me until MossyB pointed it out. He just looks really serious to me. And the white sheep seem a bit intimidated, which i guess is the point. Really nice painted background, too! I like it. GL

gorgeous background! really gives that oil painted feel! good luck author!

Great mood, great BG, great SBS.

Thank you, my friends... I'll take some time AFTER my recent commercial works done to put my update here FAR BETTER than that one before. I'll take your consideration about the looks of the Black Sheep Lord as my primary objective, MossyB. And some gradient blur adjustments that pointed by Chalty669.

Thanks for your kind words, Alyssadanielle & Greymval. Your comments worth thousand flowers to me. Haha... sounds like a gay. But I'm NOT.

Good Luck to everyone! I'll make my piece of sheep better from time to time.

The background gives life to the source image. Fantastic! GL!

nice background! well done!

ba ba black sheep, have you any wool? nice idea for a children picture book

nice background compositing! like it =D

Great work and well done. I love the forest setting and The Black Sheep Lord has a very mean look!

Great approach, it's better to do a painting-like work in this case, very wise choice and nicely done. You must have nice skill of drawing with hard brush, so just participate more with drawing contests, looking forward to see you there

Thanks for viewing & voting. I don't have any time to change the picture, so please forgive my unaccomplished promises. Next time, I'll do the best for my entries as well.

@ arca; it doesn't seems like a Lord to others. But thanks for the comments, appreciated so much. (⌒˛⌒)

@ langstrum; I'm very glad that you like my kind of painting style. It's been a while that I make scenery scene. I'm doing the drawing contest as well with the traditional drawings. Most of my works play the role with digital painting, concept arts & a little of 3D matte-painting; so pardon my poor photoshop skills of combining stuffs like photo-manipulation. (⌒˛⌒)

Congrats, beautiful work

congrats!

I seen this coming . Good work! Congrats!

Thank you, dear friends & voters. Love you all. ╭(′ ▽`)╯

Congrats Hayato, I can predict your win easily, keep it up

Awesome and congrats