First Contact War, the Griffons [Final + WIP]

[AIMonkey 197]

Something from a different scale this time And thought I'd share in progress versions this time. Sharing the adventure on a somewhat different style than usual. One I usually take when making full illustration like pieces. even though I haven't done those in a while, let alone get them out the sketching stage.

 

Something I always noticed is how I work with very high contrast when doing my character designs. They contain almost pure black parts. But I've always had an interest in doing that differently. Though I do still like either way.

Probably also look higher because everything is focused on 1 character instead of spread out like this one.

 

Treading outside the mane 6 once again. I think the only other non-mane 6 I made was Applebloom

Or well... something else than Applejack when looking at the past weeks

Anyhow... basically first time doing Luna and Celestia + the royal guards and Griffons, so a bunch of them at once.

 

Wanted to make a bit more dynamic piece, so I thought about something like a war. And because I have been thinking about all the different species and civilizations lately in FiM, and the just released Canon map, I thought about the Griffon. Since their main civilization seemed off on a different continent,

I expected them to possibly have a first encounter... and with all those Sci-fi war stories, I thought... huhm yea sure.

 

 

For those curious, Photoshop, Standard Brush only, 3500x2500 px (so that makes these 30% of the original)

Of course if you'd like to know more, feel free to ask

 

Please, enjoy

Colour theory is a hard thing to master, same goes for lighting, though they tend to go hand in hand, especially with these kind of things.

 

Links to update posts:

Update 1: (WIP3.5 + 4)

Update 2: (WIP4.5 +5)

Update 3: (Final)

 

Final:

 

WIP:

 

The old seperate WIPs:

 

 

WIP 5:

 

 

WIP 4.5:

 

 

WIP 4:

 

 

WIP 3.5:

 

 

WIP3:

 

 

WIP2:

 

 

WIP1:

 

 

 

 

Edited August 13, 2012 by AIMonkey

[BookWorm 47]

This reminds me of "Liberty Leading the People". It looks really cool, so far!

[Axegrabber 67]

*Le gasp!*

 

 

I had to bring cats into this it's that good! *dies once again from decent exposure to art*

[AIMonkey 197]

This reminds me of "Liberty Leading the People". It looks really cool, so far!

 

Thank you and thanks for reminding me of that art

*Le gasp!*

I had to bring cats into this it's that good! *dies once again from decent exposure to art*

 

Oh gawd, the eyes Thanks.

Glad to hear you like it, sorry to hear I made another casualty

[Hazardus_Havard. 479]

Interesting. From the looks of it you apply the sketch and then the different saturation's of black to white. I'm going to go off that you then apply a color sheet on top and adjust the saturation to fit the picture? Tell me if I'm getting close.

[AIMonkey 197]

Interesting. From the looks of it you apply the sketch and then the different saturation's of black to white. I'm going to go off that you then apply a color sheet on top and adjust the saturation to fit the picture? Tell me if I'm getting close.

 

Yes, once I start with the colour, I'll probably start of adding a layer on top and block out the different colours, see how well they fit on the current black/white values and adjust them on the go.

I already foresee some issues when it comes to the Dark parts of especially Luna and her guards. She doesn't really have enough contrast, specifically her necklace (which should be rather black compared to her coat) and the guard's helmets.

 

Then of course also getting a proper focal point in both the values and colour, some depth, detail, light etc. but that's for later on

First I'll work out the rest of the sketch later this day, giving the Griffons some shape. So far it has been great fun taking this different approach.

[Hazardus_Havard. 479]

Yes, once I start with the colour, I'll probably start of adding a layer on top and block out the different colours, see how well they fit on the current black/white values and adjust them on the go.

I already foresee some issues when it comes to the Dark parts of especially Luna and her guards. She doesn't really have enough contrast, specifically her necklace (which should be rather black compared to her coat) and the guard's helmets.

 

Then of course also getting a proper focal point in both the values and colour, some depth, detail, light etc. but that's for later on

First I'll work out the rest of the sketch later this day, giving the Griffons some shape. So far it has been great fun taking this different approach.

 

I've been trying to find a proper way to go about doing this so I can do some more painterly effects over the usual Vector stuff I do right now. I'm just guessing here that you take the colors and make them of a very light opacity which then you change the values behind to lighten/darken the color? Or am I still missing something here?

[AIMonkey 197]

I've been trying to find a proper way to go about doing this so I can do some more painterly effects over the usual Vector stuff I do right now. I'm just guessing here that you take the colors and make them of a very light opacity which then you change the values behind to lighten/darken the color? Or am I still missing something here?

 

In this case I actually just work with the layer on "Color" mode in photoshop above the current image.

Because the B&W values should be enough for my lightness/brightness. It just needs a hue(colour) with a saturation level. In this case a very low saturation because I'm working towards a softer look.

 

In my Applejacks I had quite high saturation in the darker and average lightness areas (and less at the lighted parts)

But also a big difference that this is a scene, rather than a single character. So I'll apply higher saturation where the focus point lies. Also more detail etc. Unless I end up changing that idea on the go

But for this one I'll generally try to keep a low saturation, because of the light effect I want to get throughout the image washing out the colours and because I just want to try that Plenty of works like this with high saturation, it's just what you'd prefer.

 

I'll probably do some general studies for the colours, testing out different saturations, soon. Too see if I got the values right, the B&W image still needs plenty of work anyway. And I could probably work directly with colours, but ok... I guess I don't this time

And when finding out a colour just doesn't work I can always go back and adjust the brightness.

[Hazardus_Havard. 479]

In this case I actually just work with the layer on "Color" mode in photoshop above the current image.

Because the B&W values should be enough for my lightness/brightness. It just needs a hue(colour) with a saturation level. In this case a very low saturation because I'm working towards a softer look.

 

In my Applejacks I had quite high saturation in the darker and average lightness areas (and less at the lighted parts)

But also a big difference that this is a scene, rather than a single character. So I'll apply higher saturation where the focus point lies. Also more detail etc. Unless I end up changing that idea on the go

But for this one I'll generally try to keep a low saturation, because of the light effect I want to get throughout the image washing out the colours and because I just want to try that Plenty of works like this with high saturation, it's just what you'd prefer.

 

I'll probably do some general studies for the colours, testing out different saturations, soon. Too see if I got the values right, the B&W image still needs plenty of work anyway. And I could probably work directly with colours, but ok... I guess I don't this time

And when finding out a colour just doesn't work I can always go back and adjust the brightness.

 

Welp, learned a lesson in Photoshop here. It sucks at being NOT useful for sketching work. Guess I'll do my work on GIMP and then transfer it over for coloring work on an image I'm doing, even though it really doesn't have all that much color.

[AIMonkey 197]

Colour theory is a hard thing to master, same goes for lighting, though they tend to go hand in hand, especially with these kind of things.

 

Update:

 

Started working with colours and as I kind of expected, I wasn't happy with the values/lightness of it. I branched off in different directions.

#1 being my previous WIP with just the color layer on top of it...

Then I took that into #2 where I turned up the contrast/darkness.

Then it somewhat branched of in #3 and #4, trying out different things.

 

And oh Luna... why you have such hard colour scheme for this, I still like you though.

But at the moment I ended up with WIP 4 here.

Colour is just a try though, I'll probably head back into B&W, apply what I learned to the rest of the image. Using the correct lightness on the rest. Like how Luna's necklace is dark.

And I'd probably have to redo a lot of the general lighting colour anyway.

 

Also might have noticed how I removed the princesses wings, it detracted too much from the focus. Especially Celestia's wing, because now I have a more solid and beautiful triangle composition

and that triangle was actually how I started the entire piece...

 

WIP 3.5:

 

WIP 4:

[Hazardus_Havard. 479]

Colour theory is a hard thing to master, same goes for lighting, though they tend to go hand in hand, especially with these kind of things.

 

Update:

 

Started working with colours and as I kind of expected, I wasn't happy with the values/lightness of it. I branched off in different directions.

#1 being my previous WIP with just the color layer on top of it...

Then I took that into #2 where I turned up the contrast/darkness.

Then it somewhat branched of in #3 and #4, trying out different things.

 

And oh Luna... why you have such hard colour scheme for this, I still like you though.

But at the moment I ended up with WIP 4 here.

Colour is just a try though, I'll probably head back into B&W, apply what I learned to the rest of the image. Using the correct lightness on the rest. Like how Luna's necklace is dark.

And I'd probably have to redo a lot of the general lighting colour anyway.

 

Also might have noticed how I removed the princesses wings, it detracted too much from the focus. Especially Celestia's wing, because now I have a more solid and beautiful triangle composition

and that triangle was actually how I started the entire piece...

 

WIP 3.5:

 

WIP 4:

 

Although you removed the wings, maybe you can still include them by having them enclosed and folded on her body. Otherwise it looks a tad strange to see Celestia without them, and you're gonna have a great deal of people bickering "where's her wings!!!" about it.

 

Other than that, the color works pretty darn good here; maybe making them a bit sharper so they don't feel so washed out? I"m gonna take what you and ZirBronium told me on how to use blended grades of black/white and go about some work of my own on Photoshop.

[AIMonkey 197]

Although you removed the wings, maybe you can still include them by having them enclosed and folded on her body. Otherwise it looks a tad strange to see Celestia without them, and you're gonna have a great deal of people bickering "where's her wings!!!" about it.

 

Other than that, the color works pretty darn good here; maybe making them a bit sharper so they don't feel so washed out? I"m gonna take what you and ZirBronium told me on how to use blended grades of black/white and go about some work of my own on Photoshop.

 

Yea, was already thinking of other ways to show the wings. She's standing just slightly high to not have them show.

Or I should move her down and hide them behind Luna

But I added some smaller ones in this update

 

Ps: Good luck and have fun with photoshop

 

Update 2 (WIP 5):

 

Small update, Ok so was about to post, but then went back and spent more time then I expected (I'll include that what I was originally going to post)

 

So I changed the overall values... again, still used the old colours though, I'll probably go about adjusting them instead of replacing.

Also just cleaned up and tried to redefine the Griffons. Worked out the griffons more up to par with the Pony.

Made the sky a bit darker outside the lightsource, very rough, but wanted to make Celestia pop out a bit more by increasing her contrast with the rest. Especially compared to her Sister Luna, sitting there with brightness in the darkness.

 

It's all getting bigger than expected but ok, I guess that's what you get for trying out things differently

 

(I just noticed I mis one of the guard's ear)

WIP4.5:

WIP 5:

[Hazardus_Havard. 479]

Celestia really stands out in that last one; too bad Luna gets flushed into the picture due to her colors. Maybe if you had Luna display some magic it could help? Either way this is pretty darn awesome to look at.

 

Going to attempt a grey scaled painting soon, though it's not gonna be as...pretty as these here.

[AIMonkey 197]

Celestia really stands out in that last one; too bad Luna gets flushed into the picture due to her colors. Maybe if you had Luna display some magic it could help? Either way this is pretty darn awesome to look at.

 

Going to attempt a grey scaled painting soon, though it's not gonna be as...pretty as these here.

 

I'm sad for Luna, she deserves to be in the spotlight more often. I might have to at least try something like that with her. Maybe give her area in the piece more of her colours, so she has more to be the brightest of instead of being brighter than Celestia with her white coat and giant colourful mane

 

I think it's awesome you're going to give it a go! Don't worry too much if it doesn't end up like these, we all have to start somewhere

My (serious) start has been years ago, it came down to time and effort, and of course the occasional help and guidance from others

Especially if it's not for a job, I find it more important to have fun and enjoy

 

It's been great to rediscover how much fun these kind of paintings can be, It's been a while since I done anything similar. I'm happy with how it turned out so far.

[Hazardus_Havard. 479]

I'm sad for Luna, she deserves to be in the spotlight more often. I might have to at least try something like that with her. Maybe give her area in the piece more of her colours, so she has more to be the brightest of instead of being brighter than Celestia with her white coat and giant colourful mane

 

I think it's awesome you're going to give it a go! Don't worry too much if it doesn't end up like these, we all have to start somewhere

My (serious) start has been years ago, it came down to time and effort, and of course the occasional help and guidance from others

Especially if it's not for a job, I find it more important to have fun and enjoy

 

It's been great to rediscover how much fun these kind of paintings can be, It's been a while since I done anything similar. I'm happy with how it turned out so far.

 

Well don't change the image TOO much, it looks pretty darn nice as is. Maybe having some of her personal guards more in the spot would better define her as a result? Not sure.

 

And what I'm doing, not sure exactly how it'll turn out. Can only hope for the best. Attempting something Grimdark though. Gonna take a while.

[AIMonkey 197]

Well don't change the image TOO much, it looks pretty darn nice as is. Maybe having some of her personal guards more in the spot would better define her as a result? Not sure.

 

And what I'm doing, not sure exactly how it'll turn out. Can only hope for the best. Attempting something Grimdark though. Gonna take a while.

 

Yea, was already having in mind finishing this off. At some point I just have to stop any further work and apply the finishing touches. especially with this scale, I could go on forever

Finishing up the last things before uploading as I type this. Putting together the WIPs for upload on DA as well.

 

Grimdark should be interesting

 

Update 3 (Final):

 

Al right, calling it final, put my finishing touches on it, calling it done, hope you all enjoy

Also put together all the WIPs

 

Was a great experience, good fun, quite different than my previous works.

 

Final:

 

WIP:

Edited August 12, 2012 by AIMonkey

[Hazardus_Havard. 479]

The final image really looks nice. This must've taken a great deal of work to get done. I feel like the gray tone is going to be a great headache for me in the near future; sorta wish there was a tutorial for it on YouTube but all people post is stupid speed art sessions.

 

And remember when you said you were thinking of posting a topic full of your art? I thought you had meant at the time that it was for all your W.I.P. or brand new art, my bad. Those should be their own topics, but it could help you out if you posted a topic with your best pieces to get people to know your art here a bit better.

[Taco Horse 116]

holy cow dude, how long did this take? Also did you only use the brush tool or did you use any of the smear, blur, or burn effects?

[AIMonkey 197]

The final image really looks nice. This must've taken a great deal of work to get done. I feel like the gray tone is going to be a great headache for me in the near future; sorta wish there was a tutorial for it on YouTube but all people post is stupid speed art sessions.

 

And remember when you said you were thinking of posting a topic full of your art? I thought you had meant at the time that it was for all your W.I.P. or brand new art, my bad. Those should be their own topics, but it could help you out if you posted a topic with your best pieces to get people to know your art here a bit better.

 

Thank you, I'm quite happy with the result. It was quite a hassle at times to get things right, changing a bunch of things, leaving plenty things out (like about almost everything behind Luna ) But it was fun, makes it all good.

 

It can be weird/hard working in grayscale, I guess it kind of depends on what you're used to, some people prefer working directly with colour.

If you can't find any tutorial specific on grayscale, I think lighting tutorials are a good alternative. Or you can try putting different artworks you like into black&white through Photoshop too see how they look like that and study those.

 

as for the Topics, my initial thought was just threads like these filled with WIPs for the specific work/project. I actually didn't think of general thread with best works that represent me, until you mentioned it

Might have to think about that one.

 

holy cow dude, how long did this take? Also did you only use the brush tool or did you use any of the smear, blur, or burn effects?

 

I was actually just trying to recall how long it took. Looking at my updates here it were 4 different sessions, which I think took roughly 3-5 hours each. So from start to finish (having it uploaded) roughly between 13 and 18 hours

 

as for my methods, I only use the basic brush. Only changing the size and hardness. Hard erasor for full erasing and masks to partially softly erase specific layers/parts

In the final stretch I usually also play around with different layer settings, like overlay, or colour burn, combined with masks and opacity. playing around with those to make those final adjustments.

 

That's basically what I use the most, or at least consistently most of the time. Few times I also change more brush settings, like a scatter.

[Hazardus_Havard. 479]

Thank you, I'm quite happy with the result. It was quite a hassle at times to get things right, changing a bunch of things, leaving plenty things out (like about almost everything behind Luna ) But it was fun, makes it all good.

 

It can be weird/hard working in grayscale, I guess it kind of depends on what you're used to, some people prefer working directly with colour.

If you can't find any tutorial specific on grayscale, I think lighting tutorials are a good alternative. Or you can try putting different artworks you like into black&white through Photoshop too see how they look like that and study those.

 

as for the Topics, my initial thought was just threads like these filled with WIPs for the specific work/project. I actually didn't think of general thread with best works that represent me, until you mentioned it

Might have to think about that one.

 

 

I was actually just trying to recall how long it took. Looking at my updates here it were 4 different sessions, which I think took roughly 3-5 hours each. So from start to finish (having it uploaded) roughly between 13 and 18 hours

 

as for my methods, I only use the basic brush. Only changing the size and hardness. Hard erasor for full erasing and masks to partially softly erase specific layers/parts

In the final stretch I usually also play around with different layer settings, like overlay, or colour burn, combined with masks and opacity. playing around with those to make those final adjustments.

 

That's basically what I use the most, or at least consistently most of the time. Few times I also change more brush settings, like a scatter.

 

That's ....actually a good idea I hadn't thought of. I'm gonna go get some stock photos, gray tone them and study how the lighting effects work with them. Still wish I knew how to apply the proper brush strokes in Photoshop and such. Since I can't find any proper tutorials online guess I'm stuck with experimenting.

[InfinityWhale 771]

This is fantastic! Amazing! EqD worthy by far! How do you only have 69 followers on dA? Make that seventy? Bravo, my good pony, bravo!

[moneyshredderofdeath 414]

Wow, really nice job. Loving the detail and the perspective; you can certainly feel a sense of action about to start.

[CommadorTheCyborgPony 53]

*looks at final product* My god, what did i do to disereve to view this masterpiece! Tis' be an amazing picture!

[AIMonkey 197]

This is fantastic! Amazing! EqD worthy by far! How do you only have 69 followers on dA? Make that seventy? Bravo, my good pony, bravo!

 

Thanks for the extra watch, It's been booming suddenly since I posted this one on DA lol. Same for my page views

Also put out a submit to EqD just in case they agree with you No message back though, but also no new drawfriend yet as of now

Wow, really nice job. Loving the detail and the perspective; you can certainly feel a sense of action about to start.

 

Thanks, glad to hear the tension carries over

*looks at final product* My god, what did i do to disereve to view this masterpiece! Tis' be an amazing picture!

 

My best guess? Brony, being a Brony, yes, Ponies always are the answer, yes yes that must be it Brony on, in the awesome community.

 

Makes me feel like I can at least give something back to the community

 

Edit:

 

Oh gawd Frontpage on EQD?!

So... awesome... that's, I don't even... so that's why I didn't get a mail back

[InfinityWhale 771]

Thanks for the extra watch, It's been booming suddenly since I posted this one on DA lol. Same for my page views

Also put out a submit to EqD just in case they agree with you No message back though, but also no new drawfriend yet as of now

 

Thanks, glad to hear the tension carries over

 

My best guess? Brony, being a Brony, yes, Ponies always are the answer, yes yes that must be it Brony on, in the awesome community.

 

Makes me feel like I can at least give something back to the community

 

Edit:

 

Oh gawd Frontpage on EQD?!

So... awesome... that's, I don't even... so that's why I didn't get a mail back

 

QUICK QUICK LINK TO THE FORUMS. ALL THE SPAMMING.

 

No, for reals though. Totally deserved. It's amazing, and astounding.

 

Your art is good, and you should feel good.