World of WarCraft Battle Piece

Blizzard recently posted a job opening for Conceptual Artist, which has been my dream job for the longest time. No one ever just advertises for "concept artist", though, and companies usually have someone in-house for that sort of stuff. Being a huge blizzard fan on top of it all, I realize I can't pass up this opportunity. I didn't feel like my portfolio really shows what I can do though, so before I send them my stuff, I wanted to do a big World of WarCraft piece.

Even if they don't care, it will probably get posted in the fan art section, and it's good practice.

Just recently finished the pencils. Original is 27" x 21" (which was a huge hassle to scan). I included some close-ups since the detail gets mushy zoomed out. I'll post more as work on it; I'm trying a new painting technique where I don't need to ink the pencils.

Edit: Added link to final.

http://www.the-nextlevel.com/board/a...chmentid=16371

Close ups: Horde, Alliance

http://www.the-nextlevel.com/board/a...chmentid=15747

Theres no gnome or dwarf...don't hate on the little people.

The paladin is a dwarf. I left out undead and gnomes because it was crowded as it was, and I generally hate the designs of both those races : )

That rules hard.

edit: A DWARVEN FEMALE. XD

Yeah, I saw that listing the other day and while I really want it I just don't think I stand a chance in hell of pulling off a portfolio (since I really have absolutely nothing considering my typical medium, i.e. pen on tiny restaurant notepad) for anything at this time. Makes me extremely sad. Ah well, I'll be getting back into art fairly heavily in about a spare $400 and will begin approaching it as a method of making money.

Anywho, great piece, the weapon detail in particular is awesome. I think the face and hands of the Succubus seem unnaturally flat but that's my only problem with the picture. [edit] I think it's her left eye, it's too far over on her face.

That's amazing, and definitely in the style Blizzard likes to go for. You obviously know your stuff when it comes to form and anatomy. I'd also give them another piece similar to that one that shows off how accurate you can be with armor and different body shapes to really impress them.

Blizzard isn't a "you need a great resume and references" type of company... if you don't get the job or at least get considered for it, you will definitely get their attention for the future, and they will put that up on their World of Warcraft site for everyone to see it so other companies will take notice. Chris Metzen, who's a supremely talented artist there, got his start just from getting noticed somehow, and now he's a lead creative designer on World of Warcraft, I believe.

That is going to be even better when it's colored.

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Originally Posted by MechDeus

I think it's her left eye, it's too far over on her face.

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I might enlarge it a bit; her heads slightly tilted.

Jeez! How long did that take you?

If you post a colored version, I'm definitely gonna have to make it my new wallpaper. :tu:

I just popped ten boners.

Can you please add an Infernal beating the shit out of a warlock?

Great work.

<3<3<3FURYFOX<3<3<3

The paladin looks especially Blizzardy. The NE warrior in the bottom right's shoulder actually look like the new Beaststalkers look, which isnt in game yet.

Goddamn, even the Night elf looks badass and I hate Night Elves

Those are some insanely clean pencils.

Good luck, man.

I demand colour.

Looks great so far. I love the fat outlines around the characters.

I think the house in the BG looks good too. Not neglected.

And again I'm jealous of your illustration abilities.

I think maybe the outlines on the alliance side need toned down a bit. Up close the difference in outlines really stands out. The succubus is the weakest part of the drawing. She just looks unnatural and lacks the ferocity found in the rest of the characters.

Well, she is a succubus...ever play a warlock? The succubus just sort of skips to and fro while whipping people and slapping her own ass. Not a character to really take seriously. I did notice that the upper right corner is a little darker overall (which, despite my intentions to avoid it being that way, was also the last part finished). I'm hoping to fix imbalances like that with the painting.

Random story: To scan this picture, I took the 27x21 picture to a campus lab, that had a bigger (flat, with no lip) scanner. It could do it in four scans. However, the scanning quality was terrible and it took forever to even scan a preview. I eventually gave up and had to make 10 individual scans with my personal unit. That many is needed since the scanner has a lip and it distorts the light at the edge of the bed. I think certain parts of the picture have different tonal values, because I wasn't able to make them all up just right. I'll try to fix everything as I go along, although surprisingly, even putting a flat color behind the lines (like say, purple) makes a lot of the tonal problems disappear.

The upper right corner is fine because the chin hair of the Tauren on the left kind of softens its blow. If you squint your eyes you can see that those are the only two regions that really differ.

Did you have to tile all of these things in photoshop by eye?

awesome :tu:

This could seriously be a picture in the game's manual or on the website. Excellent job dude, I really hope they acknowledge your talent.

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Originally Posted by Andrew

I demand colour.

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LOL. If you know a colorist with like a week of free time, maybe.

That undead looks like it's throwing down totems.

It's a troll.

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Originally Posted by The Dave

That undead looks like it's throwing down totems.

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You're just upset your primary racial trait is ugly.

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Originally Posted by FuryFox

You're just upset your primary racial trait is ugly.

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Nerf Furyfox.

Sweet fucking hell.

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Originally Posted by Bacon McShig

LOL. If you know a colorist with like a week of free time, maybe.

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A colorist?

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Originally Posted by Andrew

A colorist?

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Are you trying to be cute here by implying this isn't the right name for such a position?

Because if so, you should be aware that that's actually the exact term they use in comics for crediting the person/persons who apply color to lineart.

Beautiful Fury. If the whole Blizzard thing doesn't pan out you could probably make some respectable dough doing character portraits.

I'm not kidding.

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Originally Posted by Bacon McShig

Are you trying to be cute here by implying this isn't the right name for such a position?

Because if so, you should be aware that that's actually the exact term they use in comics for crediting the person/persons who apply color to lineart.

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No I was asking.

But I think Fox can handle colouring it. He's proven in the past he's not too shabby around photoshop.

It would take forever to color that properly, but I think furyfox is man enough for the job.

I don't know anything about warcraft, but that is an excellent peice, I like the detail on the Orc's face on the bottom and the ninja looking guy right/center is cool too.

He's proven in the past that he is, and since he's sending this in for a job I'm pretty sure he's already started on giving that piece some colour.

Soo we ever find out what happened?

Holy virgin mother of fuck.

I can't believe how awesome that is. It's so clean, and... just damn. Really good shit.

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Originally Posted by Thief~Silver

Soo we ever find out what happened?

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I have it all flat base tones in, which I typically find to be the worse-looking part of the process. Any volume implied by the lineart gets lost, and the color is too simple to add anything. When I get at least one character all shaded in I'll post an update.

Also, to everyone commenting on the cleanliness of the line art, well first off thanks :) , but secondly, I hope you realize it's not like I just flat out drew it all in one go. The whole thing was sketched out 3 times on legal sheets, then drawn in non-photo blue, then drawn with a 3H pencil (hard and light), and then finished with other pencils up to 2B (same as regular pencil). I also have various techniques for not smudging (mainly sticking a piece of paper under your hand, but it takes a while to get used to drawing while doing that). Once it's in the computer, things can be cleaned up further, and of course the non-photo blue underdrawing is removed.

Although it would be badass if I could just draw something like this without ever erasing, smudging, or fixing stuff with the computer.

The caption underneath should read "omfg 4 on 3, alliance zerg ftw"

I should probably add another shaman in the background running away the flag. And add a lot more totems.

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Originally Posted by FuryFox

Although it would be badass if I could just draw something like this without ever erasing, smudging, or fixing stuff with the computer.

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If you have money to splurge, try a tablet PC (or one of those tablets with the screen built in) with Alias Sketchbook Pro. It's so close to drawing on real paper it's actually kind of scary. You have to play with the tools a little since the base values suck, but they simulate pencils and ink even better than Painter does. Of course you can also do things you can't do with paper like zoom, expand the canvas size, draw on multiple layers, etc. Interface is tiny so you can use most of the screen for pure drawing. For some reason it doesn't work as well with a normal tablet on a home PC, however.

Your massive melee is already incredible as it is though that you might be better off sticking to what you do best the way you do it best.

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Originally Posted by FuryFox

I should probably add another shaman in the background running away the flag.

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:lol:

The only thing that doesn't look right, to me, is the rear spike on the night-elf's armor. It looks like it's positioned a bit wrong relative to the shoulder position.

But I'm no artist.

Well, I finally finished this, but I was totally rushing and taking shortcuts at the end so I'd have it ready for Comic-Con (which, incidentally, I need to leave for in 15 hours). Mistakes galore and a lazy background, but overall I'm still pleased with it.

Wow.

That seriously looks amazing.

The one thing in the piece that reeeally bothers me is the boobs on the Paladin. Her right boob looks WAY bigger then the left one and it's really awkward looking. Other than that, it's awesome.

That is awesome but I agree with Interpol.

I don't tend to disagree with people who critique my stuff, because I really do appreciate the criticism, but I think the breast looks fine. Her left breast is angled more towards the viewer, and you can see it extends past her braid (thus, wider but shorter; foreshortened). I've proven this phenomena with nude busty women photos before. However, if it looks odd to the viewer, it's something to consider whether or not it's right.

A little more colorful than I was expecting, but still awesome. Great job, FuryFox.

Sick as hell FuryFox.

How do you even start to color something like that? Start with one character or the background?

My response verbally:

Holy shit! <... pause> Holy shit!.... Holy shit!... holy shit...

Wow, Fury that is amazing. Thats well beyond just some Fan art submission, I would have to imagine the people at Blizzard should be at the very least impressed and interested in you.

:(


Tears of joy.

Fucking rad man, I hope it nets you a job, you deserve it.

JM

Sooo any word or what? Have you sent it in? Have they hired you? Wha?

Mister Fox, If THIS is a coloring job that you describe as 'Lazy' Then I REALLY don't want to be in any art class where you are setting the grading curve.

Just looking at all that detail gives my wrist a cramp.

Haven't seen FF around :( I hope he's so busy with his new job at Blizzard he just can't make it to TNL.

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Originally Posted by Segatron314

Mister Fox, If THIS is a coloring job that you describe as 'Lazy'...

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Well, to clarify, I only got lazy on the background. The characters took forever.

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Originally Posted by Thief~Silver

Haven't seen FF around :( I hope he's so busy with his new job at Blizzard he just can't make it to TNL.

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lol, not exactly. Although Blizzard just announced a new fanart contest with nice prizes, so now I have to do that too. Main reason I haven't posted much or been able to follow up with Blizzard is the insane numbers of side jobs I have right now, most of which have impossible amounts of work in tiny little timeframes.

I'm always a little behind this thread, but fuck does that look amazing.

I have to agree with everyone, that is amazing. I especially like the night elf and his armor. My only gripe is the facial expression and overall look of the paladin.

Yeah, she's not driving a hummer.

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Originally Posted by Chux

Yeah, she's not driving a hummer.

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haha! That shit still makes me laugh.

FRONT PAGE!

Awesome. Yours is definitely one of the best up there Fox.

Thanks. It took them long enough.