Very late creatures of the deep entry

I think I set a new record for the latest entry. But I'm only a couple of months late.

17 hours to process the splash particles (still needs more splash), 2 hours to render.

The most feared toy on the Island

OOPS!

This is ‘pee-pee polarbear’. Santa had to wash his sleigh twice after sharing milk and cookies with this little guy.

No one wants a...

Cowboy with Tuberculosis, draft dodging army man, serial killer cereal box, garbage rummaging Teddy Bear or a poop throwing monkey.

What Could Have Been . . .

Tragically, this rough sketch is all that is left of these progressive barbie concepts.

Other dolls rumored to be in the line include "Granola Girl Barbie" and "Turkey Shoot Ken". Unfortunately the concept for these figure is missing and believed to be dead . . .

"LOST" merchandising campaign that never took off

I really needed to work on this picture for another week or so before it was ready to post. But we need to get this blog going again, so here it is anyway.

a misfit puppet

Because I am tired of seeing my mediocre mushroom artwork, I have a toy post. This is a puppet the has chosen the wrong path in life. There is no island though, wait, now what was the topic?
Anybody?
Hello. . . anybody there?

Kaiser Soze's little brother

In a continuing effort to out-do Joe I also have an entry with a red mushroom hat. This is a study of a little known mushroom Kaiser that is briefly visible in Disney's 1967 classic "The Gnome-Mobile".
critiques welcome, though I realize the problems are plentiful.

Another Late Mushroom Entry

Richard, king of the mushrooms and the wild toadstool fairy king.

Late Mushroom Entry

Yeah, and it's a perfect example of something with good potential + poor presentation. That's okay though, it was a rush job.

New Topic: Island of Misfit Toys

Topic suggestion by Adam Ford. Should be a good one.

Optional design exercise: Line (Again)
Since Kevin was the only one to do a mushroom image, we'll repeat the design exercise. Here's a repeat of what I wrote earlier:

This isn't a call for line drawings necessarily, but rather a push to be conscious of what kinds of lines define the edges and shapes in your image, and how they relate to each other. For anyone who wants more information on line here's some good information from Andrew Loomis on line from Creative Illustration: Section on Line, line and composition, line as attention-getting device, relationship of line to emotion Plus, a couple posts from Mark Kennedy with information on line of action that might be useful. That last one he says is on Rhythm, but it seems to have more to do with line than rhythm (plus, we'll have a rhythm exercise later).

Fun Guy

He really is, he's just having a bad day.

He taught me how to paint

Captain Orange.

Sometimes I Feel Like This

TODD VADER

Avalanche White Board Directory

I've been meaning to find an opportunity for this picture to live on forever.

Mini-challenge topic: MUSHROOMS

This is for those among us timid folk who dare not draw pictures of those who we wish to work with for years to come. This is a pretty broad topic, I guess just because mushrooms and other fungus make for cool visuals no matter what the picture is. Mushroom characters, objects, environments, all fair game.

Optional design exercise: Line
This isn't a call for line drawings necessarily, but rather a push to be conscious of what kinds of lines define the edges and shapes in your image, and how they relate to each other.
For anyone who wants more information on line here's some good information from Andrew Loomis on line from Creative Illustration: Section on Line, line and composition, line as attention-getting device, relationship of line to emotion
Plus, a couple posts from Mark Kennedy with information on line of action that might be useful. That last one he says is on Rhythm, but it seems to have more to do with line than rhythm (plus, we'll have a rhythm exercise later).

I'm requesting Sanctuary

New Topic: "Caricatures of Avalanche Employees"

Draw, sketch, paint, or sculpt your favorite co-workers. We don't need to post the names of our subjects with the artwork...that way if they don't think they look like that, they can keep believing it isn't them.

Baron Friedrich Von Ghoulsmire III

Ok, so I know I'm late, but I figure if they can start playing Christmas songs on the radio in September, then I can post a creepy Halloween painting in November. So I'm killing three birds, or rather art challenge topics, with one stone here: The Goulsmire thing is pretty obvious; he's of royal lineage; and he just happens to be the great, great, great grandfather of John Locke, on his mother's side. So there ya go. Oh yeah, he also meets the portrait requirement of the last pre-blog art challenge, so that's FOUR birds. Ha!!!

Lady of the Deep

Thought i had better get this finished and posted before the new Art Challenge.

Jacque le Crabe (Jack the Crab)

Jacque is a French actor; well, I should say was a French actor. See, Jacque’s career started splendidly: after just a couple of successful plays in New York, he got a part in a Disney movie, playing some kind of a conductor/babysitter. Later on, he played an obsessive compulsive in a Pixar production. He even performed on Broadway!
Unfortunately for Jacque, parts for French crustacean started to get sporadic. He tried to move on to TV but without success. He just got one part as an extra in the TV show “Lost”. You could see him scurry past Hurley’s feet at one point…
Now Jacque is drinking all alone at the Triton Café ready to be the victim of a deep, very deep depression.

It’s hard to be a French crab sometimes!




I put a step by step and a little video on my blog for those who are interested.

http://letiroirabazar.blogspot.com/

Creatures of the deep: Dave goes off the deep end

I have come to realize that in my digital art I have been clinging too religiously to my traditional art painting techniques, and not embracing the possibilities that come from painting in a virtual world. ("You think that's air you're breathing?")
I realize now that just as "there is no spoon", there is no paint, (how's that for deep) and therefore I decided to paint my entry for the Avalanche Art Challenge ENTIRELY WITH THE GLOWBRUSH! That's right, this is 100% glowbrush, nothing else.

Depth Perception

"Finally, the long lost treasure chest of-what the-?"

CREATURES OF THE sanDEEP

Though scientists know little about them, the Chennai Squid (first discovered off the coast of Eastern India in 1947 by a computer programmer/fisherman) is a nocturnal creature that feeds on starfish and sea cucumbers. They are harmless to humans. Though most remain within 100 miles from where they were born, some specimens have been known to migrate half way around the world.

Landscape of the Somewhat Deep...

This is one of the first paintings I *completed* since working here at Avalanche. I thought it would be cool if naval travel over land was magically made possible...interesting idea and rudimentary implementation.

Please hack and slash at this one. The only way I can improve is to see what I can do better next time...

eel of the deep

This subject stretched me a little, I never draw eels or underwater scenes. I decided that I liked the other eels, or eel like creatures, so I made a mean one.

Unintended consequences

Well the story here is obvious. Scott's monster(even after a whale for breakfast) came and ate this young girls family for lunch. I guess Scott just wasn't worried about consequences when he created his monster.

critiques welcome.

GOJIRA

The Japanese "Gojira" which we know as "Godzilla" actually comes from the combination of the english word "gorilla" and the japanese word for whale.

So I decided to reinterpret the classic monster with big muscly arms.

He eats blue whales for breakfast.

Contrast shape design

Before his ignominious death, Humpty Dumpty was moderately famous in a local Vaudeville troupe as a tightrope walker.

It Came from the Deep

April 24, 18 dickedy-doo,

As we were fishing off the port of New Evanshire. We were met by the most terrible beast. It came from the deep and measured a stack tall and about two rods in each direction. With a head of a toad, the body of a seal, and tentacles, its mouth steeped with teeth, we lost Jebadiah and Abraham to the beast, while the sea took Ezra. Later that night Avis died in my arms from the Bilious Fever. I may never return to the sea again.

Phinny J the Third

One more for the art challenge

Avatars for Jeff

I'll never forget that morph that Abe did last year...

Love

Narwhalrus

This is a narwhalrus... obviously.

A tiny bite

Here's my quickie attempt to really focus on varying shape sizes. I totally used shape types that I frequently use though, so nothing new there.
I'd be happy with any critiques or paintovers. If I get some inspiring suggestions I might end up taking it further or giving it some color. Thanks!

New Topic: "Creatures of the Deep"

Could be anything from fish to sea monsters. Funny, beautiful, mysterious, terrifying---anything's game.


Optional design exercise: Contrasting Shapes
For those particularly interested in stretching their design muscles, use this topic to test the principle of contrasting shapes. Use a variety of shape types and sizes in your design and try to position them in ways that maximize the appeal of the design. If you want to push yourself, try to go outside of the norm and incorporate shapes you don't usually use.

Mark Kennedy at Disney Feature Animation has a good blog post here about using contrast and variety in shapes. If anyone else has useful links on the subject please post them as well.

Bwahaahaahaaaaaaa...

Here it is now with a little advice from Sam and Ryan. I have a horrible memory, so I probably forgot to implement 90% of what they told me. Besides, I need to move on and stop being so nit-picky. All I can say is that I can't stand the airbrush in Painter.

Welcome, Foolish Mortals...

...to Ghoulsmire Castle!

-Critiques are welcome.

Ghoulsmire sketch

A relic recovered from Ghoulsmire Castle, which was destroyed yesterday.

Jeff Bunker needs an Avatar

Since he is too "busy" to create one for himself, I think that we should help Jeff develop his avatar for posting. We can all submit our designs and then we vote for the winner.

Grandpappy Ghoulsmire

After 2 bypass surgeries, periodontal disease and an on-going losing battle with an addiction to fried foods, Dracula realized that the glory days of his youth had pretty much been sucked dry.

Melancholy Monarch

He's sad because I posted him a topic behind.

Critiques

The blog has been so successful that I'm hesitant to suggest a change. I think that the "just for fun" nature of it is important to that success. However, I think there's no reason why we couldn't be helping each other improve while we're at it.

So here's what I propose: If you want help, ask for suggestions when you post your image. If you don't want help, don't ask for suggestions.
People can either leave critiques in your comments or e-mail them to you, according to your request. These critiques could also include posting or e-mailing paintovers, if the person asks for them.

If you're entering an image just for fun and don't want critiques on it, we'll respect that and just give "good job!" comments instead. Once again, I think the fun of the mini-challenge is probably the most important part.

But I'd love to see the art-smarts getting passed around a little more, too.

Any thoughts?


Also, I had the idea that some of the topics could include an optional design exercise like:
Topic: Castle Ghoulsmire.
Optional Exercise: Repetition of shape---try to unify the design by creatively using similar shapes throughout your image

This would be additional criteria for those who are really trying to push themselves to improve, but completely optional for use when drawing for the topic. Does anyone like that idea as well?

La Niña Ghoulsmire

...kids are creepy.

Ghoulsmire Shy Cousin

Tim is an introverted, unassuming guy. He is the “cartoonist” of the family, always drawing skeletons and spirals. Everybody thinks he’s weird and nobody really believes in his doodlings. However the butler heard yesterday that he was accepted to the California Institute of the Arts. It’s probably not true. This guy is a failure. He’ll never do anything good with his life. Everybody is sure of it!

Ghoulsmire trick or treater

This creepy neighbor kid comes for candy every year. No one dares tell him he's getting a little too old for this sort of thing.

So... I'm guessing we changed the topic again.

Well, here's Prince Arthas... I think he's a prince. Maybe I'm just thinking he's one so that I could say that I submitted something to our art challenges. Oh, for those of you who I haven't met yet... I think I the newbiest of the newbs. And it's an honnor to join your ranks.

Sheesh. Alright already.

I did this one last night. Apparently two cousins wasn't enough. Here's Cleo. She likes writing letters and taxedermy. Or is this Leo who can sew and samba? I always confuse the two.

Ghoulsmire scarecrow

Creepy Fat Kid: CHECK!

Cousins Vlad and Louis

Distant relatives of the Ghoulsmires (on the mother's side, twice reburied) are Vlad and Louis. Here are their portraits as they were during the summers when Vlad and Louis would come and spend time with the family, swimming in moats and scaring the locals.