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Skylord β The Shape of Things to Come
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Published: 2009-12-22 04:06:00 +0000 UTC; Views: 1855; Favourites: 48; Downloads: 0
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"But for Man, no rest and no ending. He must go on, conquest beyond conquest. First this little planet with its winds and ways, and then all the laws of mind and matter that restrain him. Then the planets about him and at last out across immensity to the stars. And when he has conquered all the deeps of space and all the mysteries of time, still he will be beginning."~ H.G. Wells, The Shape of Things to Come
This has been... quite a long time coming. My completely idiotic choice to render the Huntsman's metallic sheen by hand, without digital textures, caused quite the roadblock for this piece. It's long overdue, so suffice it to say I won't ever be colouring metal the same way again.
If composition seems familiar to you, realize this is essentially a second attempt to portray an earlier piece, with updated designs, artistic license, and (hopefully) better composition.
As for the cast of Third Nuclear Theatre... Consider this a taste of things to come.
~Your Clockwork Gentleman
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Comments: 37
I still think TNT is your best idea to date. (As i haven't been around) Have you made any mangas for it yet?
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No, though I'm continuously updating the character designs until I get something workable. My latest piece actually revisits the Princess.
Glad you like it. XD
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The first improvement I noticed was the overall composition: you've really improved a lot with that, and everything looks more unified in the newer piece; you can also tell the connections between characters a lot better because of it. All of the details in the newer piece is excellent as well.
However, the characters (mostly the four major characters in the centre of the piece) all look like they're leaning forwards, though it mostly looks like the girl and the blonde guy are about to fall on their faces. Some of their poses also look a bit rigid and unnatural, mostly with the guy in the red coat unnaturally craning his neck. I would definitely suggest doing some gesture drawing to improve on anatomy and getting more natural poses.
Overall, there's a lot of improvement between both pieces and your improvements in composition are fantastic! Great work!
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It's obvious that through the years you have gotten very good at composition. In the past image, all the characters were pretty scattered about. Having them all grouped together like this gives of the feeling of a more unified piece. Your skills in character design are quite impressive.
Although your style makes your characters seem more like your own, I would suggest anatomy studies to make your characters appear more stable and realistic. Just a few gesture drawings a day can make a HUGE difference.
Good luck, Sky!
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The first thing I noticed was that over the years your faces havenβt changed very much. Iβd encourage you to do some facial studies, because even for a stylized face, the proportions are quite off. The faces are very long with extremely small features, which gives the face a far too βspacedβ appearance. For example, eyes are usually one eye-width apart when facing forward. The blonde in the newer pictures eyes are closer to two eye-widths even at a three-quarter view.
The βstretchedβ look that the faces establish seem to follow throughout the figures. For example, the girlβs neck is extremely long and her shoulders very narrow in comparison to her head. Her arms are uniformly thin for the most part, and not as well defined in terms of curves as arms tend to be.
Youβve got a pretty strong design sense, though, and the details are very nice, without making any of the elements too crowded (I just love the tools shoved into the manβs glove). I have to say the text and the imagery seems kind of conflicting, since the text is very modern-propaganda and the costuming is more 19th century-influence. I find that juxtaposition pretty interesting, though, and the colors pull it together pretty well. I can tell your design sense has really developed, since the newer composition is MUCH more dynamic and interesting. The black figures work much better than the older white ones in terms of bringing the figures on the foreground forward, I think, though the red ties keep drawing my eye and conflict with you color scheme. I think a duller red, similar to the scientist-looking gentlemenβs coat would work better as a background color, and I might tweak up the saturation of that manβs coat to bring him forward more.
Hope some of that mess helped. Honestly Iβve been critiquing stuff in class all day today, and Iβm afraid I might be becoming incoherent. XD
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All right... here I am on the new one. The improvement is amazing. You've got a very stylized way of drawing and it lends it to this genre quite well. The biggest change to me is the three-quarter view of the faces. They show much more shape and depth than the original profiles. The monocled guy's neck bothers me. It appears he's supposed to be thin, but the neck is way too skinny. There needs to be some curve toward the jawbone. He's a man, right? I think his Adam's Apple is missing...
Anyhoo...overall this is an incredible difference from the original. More seems to be going on here. The girl looks more like she can take care of herself now. She looked more like the type that would constantly need rescuing in the first one. If this was the cover for some comic, I'd definitely be intrigued and probably would pick up the first issue to see what's going on.
And I want to be one of the masked guys in hoods. Seriously.
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whoa she's got more laces now! I love both versions! hahhaa 
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I'm actually considering hopping back and forth between her costume designs, so I wouldn't worry too much about that.
Thanks a bunch, hyamei, I appreciate it. C:
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Dang Skylord. The colour makes an already awesome piece of work friggen fantastic.
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I POURED MY SOUL INTO THE METAL.
I never want to colour metal the same way ever again. XD I almost ALMOST didn't finish this piece. It would have been a real shame, too.
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Yeah, metal can be a damn bitch. I just try to maintaine a white highlite.
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That doesn't always work, though. XD
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LAIRD. It has been a long time.
Nice color job--the effects and details were rendered well. You need more work on your poses and anatomy, but other then that, it's a marked improvement over the first edition.
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Oh, ancient, I'm sure.
I'm also well-aware my anatomy is less than perfect, but I suppose that's part of the learning process.
Catch as catch can.
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Yaaaay Milord drew something and finished it!
I think you showed me this months ago xD
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.... Yeeeaaah. Months ago. XD;;;
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Yaaay Skylord art. I really love your designs and style, there's something so unique about them! THE GUY IN RED IS MY FAV.
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The guy in red keeps changing his colour outfit, though I think red suits him. Thanks, Loppi, I'm glad you like it. C:
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god... didn't I see the progress of this last year? time flies.
looks great for it's age XD
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You would be correct, yes. I kind of almost gave up halfway on this piece, as a matter of fact.
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your colors are definitely mad of win. and the princess is still very adorable XD
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haha, thanks. The colours actually took ages. I never want to colour metal this way again.
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... if you meant that in a literal sense, then yes. If not, there's a pun in there somewhere about machinery, haha.
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The pun was unintended, but it is good enough that I'll claim that it's what I was aiming for.
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You are crezzy man, but I love it. <333333333333 Super glad to see it finally done! I love the Huntsman especially, all that extra work paid off big times D8!!!
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The small details in this are astounding! Love it.
And the composition is fantastic!
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Haha, it... was one of the more painful time-consuming pieces I've done, admittedly. Glad someone liked it. XD
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Thanks, Gachy. I appreciate it. C:
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