Official fanart contest results are in!

[Lmnop]

Re: Official fanart contest results are in!

Anyone notice that it's hard to tell what prizes are valued higher than the others? Like Ramuh Prize vs Moogle Prize vs Goblin Prize? Which is higher than which? I think they state criteria they were looking for - such as a drawing of beastmen.

I seem to have been regularly defending BRP's posts in recent times, so I'll go ahead and be the first to say this:

Legal Fish, when you weren't trying to sound like a scientist you seem like you're just trying to get a rise out of Hyrist. Your posts are geared towards nothing but saying "BAD! VERY BAD!" I think you're a very objective person. Logic-driven. And your logic drive hasn't come to the conclusion that S-E wants a representation of things that are unique?

Read the caption on the Manthra picture - doesn't that seem like something Napolean Dynamite would say? Isn't it possible that S-E thought "hah, that's fun." If you're going to have a picture where beastmen are the focus, don't you think S-E would want to choose one with a humorous tone? (that'd be the goblin prize)

This is like art class, folks. Even the terrible artists get A's. They just have to try, and "think critically."

I like S-E's take on that one with the taru eating. The idea that this is what it's like every time you pop a Sis Kebabi during a fight - your character sits down and spreads out a blanket for a picnic, meanwhile your allies are fighting to the death.

[Manatra]

Re: Official fanart contest results are in!

And the lesson of the day is:

Constructive criticism (I like/dislike this work because...) is good, non-constructive criticism (This piece is sucks.) is bad.

The Beastmen Ladies picture is interesting. A part of me dislikes it for aesthetic reasons, yet another part of me thinks it is quite clever in its composition. To fully gauge it though, I'd have to see more of Irisjir's work.

[Tatsuhara]

Re: Official fanart contest results are in!

Manatra you're name is too close to Manthra. LMAO

[Manatra]

Re: Official fanart contest results are in!

Manatra you're name is too close to Manthra. LMAO

...It has nothing to do with a "manthra" -.-; Besides, even if I ever did play a mithra, I wouldn't be a manthra by definition

[Nakti]

Re: Official fanart contest results are in!

One piece that no one's mentioned is the Bomb Prize, "AZIMA!!" It's very simple, but also very appealing. The expression on the woman's face, as well as the artist's comments make it fun to look at.

I mentioned it.

[Irisjir Callard]

Re: Official fanart contest results are in!

And the lesson of the day is:
Constructive criticism (I like/dislike this work because...) is good, non-constructive criticism (This piece is sucks.) is bad.
The Beastmen Ladies picture is interesting. A part of me dislikes it for aesthetic reasons, yet another part of me thinks it is quite clever in its composition. To fully gauge it though, I'd have to see more of Irisjir's work.

Provided.
This is the piece that was the 'central' for my OTHER entry, the one I wanted to win with, but kinda admitted I wouldn't...
((I also have another favored piece, , IF this link still works))
Minority Women came from a discussion I was having with a whitemage on my friendslist, I forget what exactly was said but the idea that popped into my mind was a female goblin, naked except for a pink veil over her....snout I guess, lower half of her face, with a cigarette in one hand and blowing a kiss with the other. Disturbing, but also viscerally funny in a way I couldn't deny. I walked around for three days snickering at the mental image (And I WANTED to talk Fred Perry into drawing the final picture, for those who are fans of his cheesecake...the image in my head was done very much in his style of work), but he refused to get online, and rather than have it go quietly into the grave (And leave innocent minds uncorrupted! Gods forbid!) I simply drew it myself.
A note about my art,
Yes. It sucks. I know it sucks. You're not going to 'irritate' or 'annoy' me or provoke me into a flame war by posting how godawful it is. I am good enough of an art critic myself to know when something I draw sucks, and minority women is pretty terrible execution-wise.
It also would have helped if I would have had a tablet or at LEAST a mouse when I drew it, I was using the touchpad on a laptop to do all the linework, in photoshop...and the colors were destroyed in the conversion to JPEG/BMP, I forget which I used, I just remember being upset nearly to the point of tears because so much color information was lost, no matter what I did I could not get the colors to convert smoothly, and I could not for the life of me understand why I could not send in submissions in PNG format, which I have never had a problem with loss of color/detail in. Oh...and texture...the original had lovely texture...meh. Oh well.
Oh, and one last note...the green one with the pink eyeshadow and moahawk is an orc woman. Yes, orcs in game do not have hair. Shaigans also do not have big fluffy pink bows (Did the bow get cropped? I can't remember. It was there in the original.) Yagudo do not have boobs, and quadav do not remove their shells, and I have NEVER seen a goblin wearing a sports bra OR a pink veil OR smoking a cigarette.

[Tatsuhara]

Re: Official fanart contest results are in!

What's with the WHM pants? BTW um... It looks like you drew them with paint.

Edit: MS Paint

[Legal Fish]

Re: Official fanart contest results are in!

Orcs have hair.

Quadav can remove their shell.

[Irisjir Callard]

Re: Official fanart contest results are in!

As far as my personal criticisms go;
Nominee for top prize: Lu the reaper
I've always had a preference for darker imagery, and this certainly has that in abundance, at the same time, the piece itself is not oppressively dark. The woman's skin is rather pale, and I can't decide if I like that (I do, it gives her a very gothic look) or I don't (For a piece remarkably true to game-appearances, the sudden stark doll-like whiteness of the face is...offbalancing).
Also a personal reason, I happen to love Xca<tab>CRAP. Xcarabard? I think that's the spelling.
Objectively, the texture of metal and snow is awesome, the balance of color is good (although a touch bland) the proportions are better than most of the other pieces, the person in it is dynamic, caught in a moment of motion and interest.
By contrast, the watercolor most people love, Four Goddess, is rather bland. The characters are static and stagnant, the textures almost non-existant. The women are very realistically drawn, but also flat...this is the medium's fault more than the artist's, I think, but it is still there. I am more drawn to the spire of the city beyond, or to the variegated coloring of the plants, than the women themselves, and my attention is lost.
The titan prize winner annoys me because most of the other avatar-winners had something that ties them in with the avatar they won under. The fenrir winner has a dog, and the ifrit winner is mainly red. There is nothing tying a warped mithran face to titan, and that...irritates me.
Oh! Carbuncle prizewinner. Easily my second favorite piece. As Hyrist says, it "Looks like a logo". The colors are soft, but the lines are sharp, and the shapes themselves are very remniscent of my natural art style, which flows from doodling with sharpies, and thus has a great emphasis on incomplete outline and line of varying width, usually with sharply pointed ends (I find sharp points more aesthetic than round nubs), and only small accent areas filled in, as in the tip of her ear. Very clean piece, much kudos.
Fenrir prize and Ifrit prize also get high marks in my book. Ifrit definitely should have scored higher than it did. The detailing, the vivid color, the intent look, the muted background aspects filling in the details of the scene, all incredible quality.
Fenrir prize entertains me, plain and simple, with wonderful detail, and a wonderful idea...befriending a monster (Especially as an 'evil' blackmage!) and playing with them in a spooky old abandoned mine. Then again, I have always thought it would be interesting to be able to 'domesticate' much of the bestiary in vanadiel. I know for a fact Iris would have a scorpion lounging around her house somewhere for burglar patrol, and a garden full of crawlers she could harvest silk thread from.
Another entertainment-value favorite is the one featuring "Cosmo cleanse!". As if I have not already made pathetically obvious, I enjoy peering into the less-celebrated aspects of adventuring, of which personal hygeine is a...well, I can't say a shining example. There is no 'soap' for sale on the auction house, most definitely no teen spirit...I imagine my character holds her nose going through Jueno, or lately, Whitegate. There really is no cologne, no toiletries for the mog house, no lipstick (or chapstick! My poor windburnt lips!), no lotion...although I suppose there is 'remedy ointment' but still.
This person, although the art looks like something I could turn out in Microsoft Powerpoint, gets full points for orginality in concept and design...because let's face it...the only 'advertisements' in all of Vanadiel are either shouted or in bazaar comments.

[Feba]

Re: Official fanart contest results are in!

Tatsu, that's a WHM..

[Irisjir Callard]

Re: Official fanart contest results are in!

What's with the WHM pants? BTW um... It looks like you drew them with paint.
Edit: MS Paint

Cloth stumps me. I seem to be incapable of producing a decent cloth texture, woe is me. The version that SE saw is not only minus blood and gore and black eye, but was cropped just below the waist.

I did a pretty good cloth texture on the tonberry's coat in minority women before the jpeg file corruption got it's nasty little hands on it and completely destroyed it.

Orcs have hair.
Quadav can remove their shell.

I've never seen an orc with hair. I've seen orcs with hair on their helmet.

And I suppose I should have phrased it "Quadav do not remove their shells in the flow of gameplay"

[Irisjir Callard]

Re: Official fanart contest results are in!

Haha I apologize, Hyrist, for my scathing appraisal of your fiancee's character. The image gave me the impression that I stated, which should be taken just as much as a reflection of my myself. If nothing else I give her full credit for being bold and actually putting that out there.

By the way, yes I do think situational nudity is quite funny.