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SC Portrait Contest Fail
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Raihn
United States216 Posts
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BigFan
TLADT24920 Posts
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The_Red_Viper
19533 Posts
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GeneralStan
United States4789 Posts
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Sigrun
United States1655 Posts
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The_Red_Viper
19533 Posts
On August 31 2017 07:39 Sigrun wrote: Looks great! Blizzard seems to have a very odd selection process for contest entries. I feel like they often choose some pieces that have a different style or are relatively bad just to have diversity for the sake of diversity. Yeah looking at all the finalists again i can definitely say that the portrait of this blog would be in my top5 for sure. | ||
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Raihn
United States216 Posts
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Shana
Indonesia1814 Posts
Wasn't what I expected from the title | ||
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Zambrah
United States7384 Posts
I expected something more... stylized from the comments in the blog, but some of these are just badly painted/drafted, yours is definitely better than MOST of those. The Merge/Queen of Blade/Mecha Hydralisk/Dragoon Fishbowl are easily the best ones and I'll tell ya they come from people with legit art backgrounds. I'd say ours is a relatively clear fifth as far as draftsmanship is concerned, I think what likely killed you was that theres not too much going on conceptually with it, since its a relatively standard 3/4 view of a classic Ghost. I think a gimmick/pun/humor element and some cleaning up with regards to creating a focal point/composition would've made you an EASY top ten 100%. I'd STILL put you at an easy top ten based on draftsmanship, but based on the way Blizzard hires and chooses their artists, they often put a premium on a certain level of uniqueness and personality to the person's work, so thats often a big factor for what they bring in as far as arts concerned. | ||
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Essbee
Canada2371 Posts
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c3rberUs
Japan11286 Posts
Don't take it personally, it certainly looks good and better than most people's. | ||
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[sc1f]eonzerg
Belgium6789 Posts
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asel
Germany1601 Posts
The Fishdragoon is hot though. | ||
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Starlightsun
United States1405 Posts
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JWD[9]
364 Posts
Only glaring mistake is that it is framed wrong, The big eye shouldn't go out of bounds, looks like someone didn't know how to hold a camera. Rest seems okish, though it would probably be even better if you removed the half assed attempt at a shoulder under the big eye and just extend the bright background all the way to the lower bound and probably half way under his snout, would give this sickish looking ghost/reaper a sick looking posture aswell. MS-paint skillz, ACTIVATE! ![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/KTBcajN.png) on second thought, maybe it is the background that does not fit into your style ![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/JVlFgqj.png) | ||
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Glider
United States1353 Posts
And to commenters above who question the finalists and how they are not that great etc. You are missing the entire point of the competition. The point is to improve public relations and get the community engaged. The selection of the final artwork is not based on "quality" alone, but represents a variety of styles, skill levels, and perhaps humorous designs by the average person who loves the game but is not an artist by trade. So usually you'll see in the finalists 1 or 2 professional level work, a bunch amateur work and a few funny ones. Who is gonna be interested and submit their work again in the future if all they see in the final selection are a bunch of professional level work that the average gamer can't do. They definitely have enough high quality work to fill the entire finalist slots but if I were the art director, regarding this competition I would pick a similar selection as what is currently there. | ||
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Zambrah
United States7384 Posts
It's like submitting a concept art lineup and one or two pieces are obviously more rendered | ||
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c3rberUs
Japan11286 Posts
On September 02 2017 03:41 Zambrah wrote: Why include the professional level work at all though? It's super clear which people have legitimate art backgrounds and training and which ones don't, variety is nice but I would have preferred to see all non professional works or just open the flood gated for pros and semi-pros, the Mish mash is weird, the great stuff is obviously a tier above and makes the not so amazing stuff just look comparatively worse. It's like submitting a concept art lineup and one or two pieces are obviously more rendered I think in this case, Blizz cannot appease everyone. If they only included professional works, people who did it for fun will feel left out. On the other hand, if they only included 'amateurs' then professionals might feel the competition was rigged or something like this. Either way, it seems the competition was aimed for a general appeal and as such having a "mish mash" is the only way to give attention to both sides. I guess I'll conclude this with the question 'can't we all just have fun for once?' Not everything has to be a cold competition to be the best. This is art after all. ^_^ | ||
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Zambrah
United States7384 Posts
Looking at the top four of five of this contest makes everything else just look bad because they're so obviously well done, I mean Mecha Hydralisk hits color theory, depth, its got materiality and its obviously using a more advanced digital brush kit than an amateur is going to really consider to create the painterly feel that gives it so much of it's appeal. I mean I'm only being this bitchy because I enjoy talking about art and on this Tech and Science dominant forum I never get to, but I think the contest is a wee bit wonky and I'd have preferred to see a harder line against obvious professional quality and actual amateur quality. Another way to think of it is, if you had to choose between a Mecha Hydralisk portrait and any of the amateur ones, are you REALLY gonna say that you don't want the Mecha Hydralisk? I like art talk. | ||
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Th1rdEye
United States1074 Posts
 Nice work. | ||
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rel
Guam3521 Posts
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jaeboss
68 Posts
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ninazerg
United States7291 Posts
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B-royal
Belgium1330 Posts
1. Dark archon (This is the one I voted for). It has a great style and the picture feels very much alive. 2. Dragoon fish bowl. The quality/craftsmanship of this one can not be ignored. It also has a nice humorous element. 3. Lurker birth. I like this one quite a bit, but the background feels very lazy and uninspired. | ||
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beentheredonethat
2934 Posts
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Raihn
United States216 Posts
@Shana: Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed it @ Zambrah: I think you make some really solid points, I likely did not put enough personality into the rendering, even if the draftsmanship was maybe better than average. @Essbee: Appreciated. Always something to learn, though :D @c3rberUs: Thank for the comment. I do take it personally in that I really do think I can come away having learned something. So far, for this, thanks to a lot of the feed back I've several things to consider. 1. that I need to put more effort into personality/story, no matter what the framing. 2. My composition was a bit off the mark, and could have been more interesting. 3. The background was a rushed job, and I should have spent more time on it. 4. I know I rushed the whole illustration, I didn't want to spent much time on it, as they say, you get what you put into something, and I didn't put in enough. @[sc1f]eonzerg: All too easy. @asel: Thanks! I agree the styles are pretty divergent. SC1 seems to have more of a humorous yet serious grit to hit, SC2 seems to have a more cartoony yet fantasy art vibe. SC1 is more Pantra and SC2 is more Imagine Dragons, me thinks @Starlightsun: Thanks! @JWD[9]: Thanks for taking the time to do some paint over critiques, fun! I think the left to right thing works. The common design principle is that if you want to evoke impending danger or uneasiness having 'motion' from left to right is best. If you want to evoke things going well or more calm left to right is preferred. This is due to western culture's left to right reading conventions, so might not work as intended for say a Japanese audience. I think that since there is no facial expression to read, one is forced to derive meaning from other ques. My presentation as previously commented on is a fairly boring textbook 3/4 view of the face, so that leave much to be desired in terms of hints at situation or meaning. The flip certainly adds that tension that the composition is devoid of. The eye comment on the composition is legit as well. I should have recognized how much of a focal point it is, and ensured that the it was placed wisely. In retrospect I should have leveraged the Golden mean and had the eye as the centerpiece with the rest built around it. Removing the accurately described half assed shoulder is a good move, and evokes the reflection of having no story or queues for meaning/emotion. Sans shoulder the character seems to be leaning in, shoulders back, maybe in a half turn, as if suddenly becoming aware of danger to the side, or looming over his target just about to pull up his rifle for the kill. Sweet Mspaint skills, imho Your correct in that the background doesn't fit my style. Another half assed attempt I thought might add a contrasting texture, but was wrong. @Glider: Thanks! I think you make some interesting points @Zambrah: Agreed, I was taken aback by the mish mash only because I remember the tag line 'Ever think you could do better? (than current SC portraits)' - From the post I read about the contest, from memory. I think it's cool, though, that they have a variety to include a wide range of passionate fans, just unexpected. @ c3rberUS: Agreed. I think we can all have fun, for sure. As an older SC fan I grew up wanting to be able to render as well as Samwise, to obtain a high level of expertise, and for awhile that worked for me. Now, though, I'm forced to learn a different art. I've done several emotes for the likes of Kripp, most are on included in his pool, but some I made were turned down because they were too well rendered, and the twitch fans love their dank meme styles. I reminds me of when grunge rock rolled out and conquered the industry for awhile, leaving highly skilled guitar solos and classically trained vocals in the dust for a long while. @Zambrah: WELCOME TO ART TALK! You make some good points, I think a lot of the above replies would interest you. 'Successful' Art is always subject to contemporary subjectivity. If I'm not mistaken, Van Gogh was a considered a failure in his lifetime. Medieval art is light years behind roman and Greek draftsmanship, even though the knowledge of the 'correct' way to do perspective etc was known, it was of little interest to artists at the time, the renaissance, or 'rebirth' is just that, the rebirth of the practices and techniques of Greek and roman art. I think there are definitely going to be a lot of people that wont choose the Mecha Hydralisk. Art is about communication, and what 'speaks' to a person. The 'poor' draftsmanship of some of the others could communicate more personality with those that feel that we live in an age of over saturated perfected rendering in art. Much like how the electric guitar distortion was just noise to contemporary elders at the time of it's emergence, but struck a chord (pun intended) of something raw amongst the youngon's. Even in well rendered art we see it all the time, artists blanketing their perfect canvas with faux canvas textures, using rougher brushes, etc. to add interest and energy. Memes are raw, simple, and inviting in that anyone can look at it and feel like they could have done it, or could in the future. Dank culture has changed art forever! @Th1rdEye: Thanks! Theirs is much funnier though :/ @rel: Perhaps, but being a 'community' contest means that participation is exactly the goal of the campaign. @jaeboss: Thanks, and I do not know, lol. I took a stab in the dark and missed. @ninazerg: ROFL - likely. @B-royal: All very cool :D @beentheredonethat: Thanks! Side Note: But.. Did you get the T-Shirt? | ||
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Zambrah
United States7384 Posts
I've also considered that what once was counter-cultural abstraction has become the culture which means that rendering has become the new counter culture, but I'm not gonna lie, thinking about all of that makes me wee head hurt so I just like to vaguely grumble about over abstraction from afar. But theres always something I'll admire about dramatic lighting, dramatic posing, and an engaging composition, though from what I've heard as my eyesight diminishes and I get older Ill appreciate fuzzy life paintings of landscapes more and more as the years go on.  | ||
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beentheredonethat
2934 Posts
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NoS-Craig
Australia3122 Posts
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[GiTM]-Ace
United States4935 Posts
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