Very much a WIP, especially the right side of the image (and the stick figure).  Suggestions are welcome, especially opinions about mast/sails, oars, whatever.

Edited by ThereIsNoCure - 02 October 2006 at 12:57pm

Borrows hankie from skull.

Edited by jalonso - 31 July 2006 at 1:46am

excellent work so far. :D I love it, cure. Can't wait to see the finished product. Although, I think he'd be scarier with more tentacles flying everywhere.

Can't wait to see the finished product :)

Damn, that rocks. Love the colours and the amount of details on the vikings.
Can't wait to see the final result :)

I love this, nice work so far. I was just wondering about that little group of pixels at the front of the main body of the ship. Is that meant to be a 'chip' in the wood? To me it stands out quite a lot. Anyway, those little viking people are brilliant. I don't know if it would fit in with the style you were going for, but perhaps the boat and monster could be partially reflected in the water.

Edited by Lawrence - 02 August 2006 at 2:34pm

It'd be nice to see the last viking's oars floating on the water where he dropped them. Cute characters and a cool scene. I'm a bit iffy about the jaggies on the squid and how the light source hits them.

Something has been bothering me since your initial post and I have been unable to see it till now. If you stand back a bit and concentrate on the shapes/outlines that you have you will notice that the bow with the dragons head and the tentacle with the viking are not only the same shape but the same size, ?,,?  <--- like that. The 2 vikings in between does not help the composition much since they are of the same height. I think one of these 2 items needs modifications to have a more dynamic layout. Lowering the dragon's head is easiest. Altering the tentacle holding the viking would be better tho. Having the front viking in the ship 3-4 pixels higher will also add a sense of movement. Otherwise, this update is great, the waves are much better now. The floating oar looks good. The mast and sail could also float if not being help on a tentacle.

i think the floating oar should be a bit longer than that judging by the other one. the new waves are great. nice catch on the shapes jal.

Look who I found hiding on page 3:  This topic!  Sorry for the lack of updates, I had a case of artist's block (and apathy).  Fear not, I haven't forgotten about this though, and it will eventually be finished.

Edited by ThereIsNoCure - 20 August 2006 at 1:38pm

it's looking great. I'm glad you've still got it in mind to finish this.
Some things I think would benefit this:

• more splashes... especially on the tentacle that's holding the viking guy. Have some dripping from the end.
• something in the distance - perhaps an island, some fog.. something
• the sky could use some action - like birds. The clouds might look a bit better if they weren't so even at the bottom.
  

things that are working for me:

• the water ripples... top notch
• the simplistic colours and use of dithering, etc. Sometimes one can overwork a piece and put too much detail. This is a cartoony scene and should remain so IMO.
• style and action. very eye catching overall.

Keep at it!

A jet-ski, wtf? I think Sab's observation may not be noticeable once other details are added. I would leave those for now. It may be worth the effort to move the tentacle holding the viking so that it slightly overlaps the rear of the boat itself (just a few pixels). There is a certain pause having the two scenes within the scene not touching that interrupt the storytelling aspect of this most awesome piece.

I like the overall piece, but I'm not loving the shading on the back of the boat.

looking great cure!  cant wait to see the final result...  however... it has a tad of humor, but it lacks your tradmark smartassness

i say a city scape, like nyc, make it look like they are just a bunch of dweebs riding a boat in ny harbor and getting attacked for it. 

Omg omg land.

This is looking great now. The land really hugs the rest of the image well.

tidal waves man, tidal waves ...having a storm in the back ground and a huge one at that would produce bigass waves, a good way to break up the flat horizon line wouldn't it ?

@all, I c+c cure on the PJ irc channel often and show edits there. This edit was intended for that but I just found out that he is firewalled at his new school so I posted it for him here. Congrats to cure on new school, btw!

@cure, another quick rough visual thought for you. I now think the rear of the ship should go over the tentacles rather than behind (shadow added there). I did add 2 colors and feel free to ignore that. I am really just showing you that a stormy sky and heavy wave action will both fill the area and make the story more impactful and dramatic. Sadly the birds would need to go with this direction. The thunderbolts would replace them, I guess. The heavy wave action will also help with the jaggies on the right side of the kraken. The water drips looks like "ya know" as I drew them but the idea of water to create motion is very much worth pursuing. I did also replace the black with a dark red/brown (It bothered me when editing and forgot to recolor back to black. I know you're a fan of black outlining.) Lastly, I added a broken mast to indicate its existence but not having to show it elsewhere.




Edited by jalonso - 22 August 2006 at 11:36pm

Jal, I love you.  I'd been hoping for just such an edit.  I once considered adding that dark blue you did, mostly to detail the water more, but never did.  I tried the tentacle both behind and in front of the boat, wasn't sure which I preferred.  I'm going to try and follow the stormy idea you've drawn out, and see if I can't accomplish while adding only one new color (12 just has a ring to it, and 13 is unlucky). Hooray for jalonso!

Sorry this is taking so long kids, heres a little bit of an update for you:

I love the sunset, but I fear it doesn't fit the mood of the piece and brightens the sky a little much.  Guess it and the seagulls will just have to find their way into a later work.  I've still got work to do, the sea and water effects in particular.

And just for kicks:

Yeah, THAT pallete.

I'm not too fond of the clouds being the same color as the water.

Once again, thank you for this insightful and useful comment. Now please stop it.

First off the lightning bolts are awesome. Now for the crit. The lighting on the foreground suggests that the moon is shining from the left hand side of the image. The sunset while it fills the srea well would, as mentioned, change all the foreground shadeing/lighting. It is also very centered on the canvas (boring). Perhaps if one lighting bolt was at the moment of striking, producing a flash of light, a similar type of lighting could be used. I would try having the farthest most left hand side bolt emit a light similar to the sunset.
The palette test is not for this piece. Stop f**ukin around and concentrate.