Santharian Development

All right , this has been a tough one.  Here is my depiction of the Swamp Stalker in the SilverMarshes.  You will notice that the Stalker is busy feeding on a Red Lysh Pike.  You may also notice some Krakenweed in the water and Squilla Fungus on the tree behind the Stalker. 

The Stalker is well described however I found myself struggling with putting some of the details to "canvas" .  Let me know what you think I could use some help.

I really like the way you work, you pay a lot of attention to the written entries and your talent seems to just... flow freely :)

I like the blurred branches in the front, it's a really nice way to simulate perspective. I can see how this one was a bit hard to draw if I'm thinking at how there would be no way to show what exactly is the creature doing with that fish. But that's why we still need to read the entries and not just look at the pictures :P

I'm really curious what you're going to draw next... (*tries to appear casual* "Oh, this little bugger http://www.santharia.com/bestiary/eye_crab.htm (http://www.santharia.com/bestiary/eye_crab.htm) was just following me around, really, he's mostly harmless, there's nothing to worry about...")


PS: You do have a white stripe on the bottom right margin that probably shouldn't be there.

Oh, if we're going to shamelessly (*ahem*) promote our own entries... I saw you were saying something about things without definite form. The White Lady (http://www.santharia.com/bestiary/white_lady.htm) does have a definite form :P

Ok, enough with the advertising. For this pic I don't have too many comments. Or to be more exact, I don't have any comments. Just curious what your next project is going to be! Carry on the good work  :thumbup:

White Lady, hmmm?  And what's THIS, pray tell?   


Boy, drop out of sight for a month and you're forgotten.....    ;)

Ooopsie.... Guess I still haven't integrated that one... Should get to that one soon! :nerd: - Also: Irid obviously is just so enthusiastic about how great Seeker's pics turn out, so that she tries to secure one for her... :lol:

Anyway, comments on the Swamp Stalker pic still to follow. Stay tuned!

That looks great, Seeker! I've got no comments to make other than I am loving the great pics from you. Its like suddenly striking gold and it just keeps popping out of the ground!

The Stalker looks very alien and creepy. I like the fish detail and the landscape. Maybe add some mist along the water to give it a really nice swampy, humid look?

I definitely must add, Seeker, that your talent could be used in other areas such as...oh say...the North?  :innoc:

Just teasing. Getting good illustrations is what we sorely needed around here and poor Judy can't possibly illustrate the entire site herself!

Thanks for the positive comments so far. Art I look forward to any suggestions you may have.

 I definitely like suggestion for areas that need illustrating.  Alysse is the one who introduced me to the SwampStalker after all. (And I am especially interested in getting her comments)  So please don't feel embarrased by suggesting areas that need illustrating.

However I was browsing yesterday and I noticed Gouran (Avath cao').  She is really interesting and I would like an opportunity to illustrate her if there are no objections.

By the way, Bard Judith I love your picture of the White Lady. I like the feeling of emotion in her face.  In fact I have noticed that you and Faugur have provided many of the illustrations and they really help bring Santharia to life. 

And still they come!

Another triumph from Seeker!

The fuzzy branches in the foreground, coupled with the stalker's head-up posture makes me think that he has just heard a small twig snap as our intrepid artist edges closer for a better view!

Well done, yet again, Seeker.

Oh, Azhira, such obvious lobbying.  You should be ashamed.  What's next?  Subliminal messages?
North! North! North! North! North!
Remusian Men !Remusian Men !Remusian Men !Remusian Men !
Anothr great work, Seeker.  And the speed of which you do this is amazing.  I hope that your enthusiasm doesn't wane, for at this rate, we can get the entire compendium illustrated in no time.North! North! North!
Remusian Men !Remusian Men !Remusian Men !Remusian Men !
And Judith, you could never be forgotten.  And I love the Woman in White pic.  Very nice.North! North! North!

I apologize Seeker for the shameless lengths the people on this site have gone in order to influence the direction of your next works. :)
North!
Remusian Men !

Wow!


Seeker, this is fantastic!  I must admit I had not expected you to finish this so quickly and I have been away so my chances to get online are limited. (I am currently using my mom's computer.) 

I love it, it's so creepy!  You obviously followed my description very thoroughly, down to the fine details.  I love the mossy bits and fungi growing on this thing.

I have only two suggestions for you.  One, can you make the eyes a little smaller?  That would make the lack of other facial features, like a mouth, nose, etc., more obvious so it would look even ghastlier.  But just a little, they're cool and very "fly-like", if that is a word.

The second suggestion would be to make the swamp a little murkier.  Right now the gorgeous vibrant green, while very beautiful, is too fresh looking.  Maybe just tone it down, "grey" it a little bit?  It's almost too attractive a background for this monster.

Other than that, I can only applaud with everyone else.  It's amazing.  Thank you so much for being willing to illustrate my revolting monster!  I'm very excited to get a picture done for it, as you can probably tell.  I will try to check in a few more times this week and comment further, but I'm afraid right now I need to go chase my kids  :)
 
Thanks again,  :hug:

Alysse

I see that Alysse likes the picture very much, so you've definitely managed to pretty much capture the vision of the author. :) It might be more challenging to make a picture where you don't have any direct reference to something on Earth and need to work mainly from the description, but eventually these are the pictures that give the world its character. So these are very important, and it's good so see that you try to tackle some of these.

Alysse has addressed some things already, so here are a couple of general notes from me:

- Maybe you could add more swamp water/ooze to the arms of our little fellow, dripping down, so that you don't see the arms so clearly?

- Very thoughtful of you to include some plants, Santharian fish etc. - this way we can crop these parts and make double and triple use of the picture, can't ask for more! Guess you've got the idea  :cool:

- In this respect a note on backgrounds: This might not always apply, but if you do a background on an own layer and put something in front, it helps to post the background as a seperate piece as well (in case it's not too complicated to do). Backgrounds are great stuff to use them in the Santhworld environment - there they are effective as room illustrations, or they can be used to combine it with something that we add to a picture. Or, say, if we want to show different pictures to depict different swamp "rooms" we can make two pictures out of one background, or rearrange a background with a little Photoshopping so that it doesn't look the same anymore. Thus: One good background - lots of stuff I can do with it ;)

Oh, and: :lol: No, there are surely no objections to a picture of Gouran (Avath'cao) if you'd like to try that one next, Seeker! As you can see everyone of course would like to have his/her entry illustrated, but the most important is that you enjoy working on a particular picture :)

Gerroff, 'es mine! I called him :p
Anyways, yes, another good addition Seeker - but perhaps tone the eyes down, and maybe make him pop out a little more- try a small drop shadow, see if that helps. Otherwise, I think its another great entry, and you're visualizing these things very well.

Here we go, an update to the Swamp Stalker.  These were easy changes so please let me know if for some reason you had something else in mind I can easily tweak the picture.  I am posting two pictures one with just the background.

Also Arti here is the background from the Black Unicorn in case you have use for it.

Could be added to the Venlaken Enclave entry, the background, I mean...

 :clap: :clap: :clap:  (jumping up and down with enthusiasm)

This is great, Seeker!  Now it's more obvious that there are no other facial features.  And I really like the background too.  More gloomy-looking.   This is quite an amazing picture--especially when as Art says, there's no "Real Life" analog and it has to come out of your head.  And your integration of other Santharian things is very well done, making the picture more valuable in its versatility.

Congratulations, Seeker, you haven't been here a full month and you've produced THREE pictures that are virtually perfect! 


Alysse

Seeker has 'Mary Poppins' syndrome..........His pictures are Practically Perfect in every way!

 :rolleyes:  Ah shucks guys.  *Seeker blushes and looks embarrassingly down at the floor*

Hey, don't give him too much praise! He'll get uppity :p
Now, if you'll just affix these chains to your wrists, then we'll have you drawing new giant ravens and things in no time!

Yep, very cool, Seeker! If there are no further objections we'll take this one as the final version! Thanks as well for the backgroud images, we can always use these somewhere!  :thumbup:

@Deci: Yeah, the Venlaken entry might be a possibility for the swamp, though the entry itself already has 4 pics attached to it. But it could fit to the "Tears of Askanis" - the Enclave's southern marshes right? This section still needs its pic :D

Tears of Askanis sounds good to me Art!

I'm sure those backgrounds will find a place in Santhworld, neh Artimidor?  Wandering through that forest around the graveyard, perchance?

Seeker, welcome over to the Limners and Painters Guild of Santharia!  We're very glad to have you join us and to see your cool new contributions, in the spirit of the Dream.  I would love to request a crop of those mushrooms for my Shelfung, as I think they are a bit clearer and better definition than the ones we currently have...    or I could be convinced to whip up yet another Fungus entry (as the apparent reigning expert...) :)

Anyhow, a hearty welcome to you, and hoping to see more of your work soon!

We have that Remusian celler dweller fungus, Murmir that could use an expert hand at developing  :rolleyes:

Here are the fungus and mushrooms up close in case it helps.

Thanks for these crops as well, Seeker!

@Judy: Yep, we can use any kinds of background pics we can get, and here we definitely get something nice for sinister places stuff :) Hmmm... The Shelfung entry currently already has no less than two pictures, even if they're not entirely accurate, they both pretty much depict the same thing. So methinks if we replace one picture, then the other one has to go as well for consistency reasons. - So anyone up for describing that other type?