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StarlightSovereign β The HellSmith - Lord Azazel
Published: 2010-05-30 08:47:22 +0000 UTC; Views: 5545; Favourites: 36; Downloads: 112
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Description
-===-Imagine the sounds of a forge.
The metal clanging, beat after beat...
As he stands there, pounding with his hammer,
Metal on Metal rings it's song.
Sweat and flame and smoldering...
Smoke and soot and warm fire-light.
He stands at the forge in the burning room...
And his servants stop and stare and hurry away again...
And he is alone... And the metal is alone with him.
In his hands it finds its only shape...
He hears the masterwork's name... Whispers...
And breathes life with fire into molten ore...
He is the Hell-Smith.
What he has created today...
Tomorrow, it will taste fresh blood.
He is and was and will be...
Lord Azazel... Creator of the Tools of War.
Listen to the metal-song... and you will see him there.
Churning his creations... until the end of days.
-===-
What can I say about this piece? I have poured a piece of myself into this, heart and soul... It is everything I dreamed in my mind's eye that it would be... In my heart I knew I could make this vision come to reality... But I was not sure because it was such a great task.
This is #3 in my Demons of SII series.
This is Lord Azazel. The poetry above says all. The image is more.
He is the most powerful Devil in the circles... Second of the Second Circle. Second only to Samaeul in the Second Circle. He is a fantastically powerful creature to have once been human...
And yet he is bound in a sense... bound to his duty to the forge... to his work. Ever the craftsman, however, he is not bound to drudgery. However, his work does take its toll. He is an interesting character, to say the least and I was deeply inspired to draw him for some great time... However, I am NOT normally good with so many things I needed to create him:
*MUSCLES
*Objects
*Lighting
*Backgrounds
Yeah... I'm normally into drawing bishies in voids... This was an enormous undertaking for me... and I am amazed I was able to complete it at all... I am VERY happy with the outcome.
I left the lineart sketchy for several reasons. Style for one... Feeling for another... Also, he was so muscley and it just seemed to keep better in that style.
I spent SO much time on this piece... and made so many leaps forward, so much progress! I'm so happy with it. His proportions aren't bad, his muscles are believable, and even the non-realistic such as his horns are really good and believable.
I'm really happy with all of this.I was also pleased with my background and objects...
Then the lighting.
Omg... I spent a couple of hours just on the lighting. I did like three layers just for that. A multiply layer for ALL the ground work and shadowing and then two add layers for light. One for basic light and one to REALLY shine some places. I tried hard to think about the light sources since there was one strong source (The forge) and two weaker sources (the two magic-hot-rock lanterns on the walls).
I had to pay attention to everything that would cast a shadow and everything that would catch light... It was a great exercise for me...
I'm just glad it came out looking warm and like firelight.
The only thing I was a little iffy about were the goblins. I was not sure from the outset how to put Azazel's servitors in the image. They scurry in and out through their small tunnels and bring him bars of metals, refill his troughs for quenching hot weapons, and generally serve him in whatever way he needs. They are somewhat comical, ridiculous little guys... but not over-much so it was a hard balance to strike. I'm glad they are not TOO obvious in the picture. I'm glad they don't draw the eye away from him at first... at least it seems that way to me.
My favorite features: The lighting and Azazel's shadow on the left wall.
My least favorites: My crappy perspective in places.
-===-
So I would give a ton of hugs for some good critique on this!
Seriously. I have never undertaken such an ambitious project and I really would adore some feedback!
-===-
The lineart:
Made in Photoshop
The coloring and painting and virtually the WHOLE painting:
Made in Open Canvas.
And my Wacom Intuos4ML ~~ HURRAY~
Azazel (c) Annathesa Darksbane and the Dreamweave RPG Project
Art (c) Arsiei Darksbane 2010
Do not use this work or any part of it in any way. Do not distribute or alter.
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Comments: 33
I really love how dark is your drawing, keep up the good work ; )
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Thank you much! I really appreciate the feedback.
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You're very welcome ^__^
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Thank you. :3
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This really reminds me of okami the capcom game, I think it is the blend of black lines and the realism of the piece, very nice mood
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Thank you. I recall the art in that game was quite nice.
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your welcome, yes it was quite beautiful, like a japanese print
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Thanks for the liking and faving!
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Thank you very much for the feature! I'm honored
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Thank you again!
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Thank you muchly!
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you're welcome
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The first thing I notice (I critique in order of presence. Whatever pops the most to me, probably pops the most other viewers as well) is the lighting. A soft bronze and crimson blaze really helped emphasize the main character and give him a unique, solid feel. The kiln (is that what they're called?) was a great choice of lighting prop, since it gives a very directional lighting effect that targets a respective region and allows the rest of the picture to fall into darkness and act as a more somber frame to the central subject. The one issue I notice with it is the glow effect you gave to some parts of the character. When you're using a style with such sharp, heavy lines, the blurry feel of glows and blending techniques take away a lot of the power and feeling of the piece.
The subject himself, the blacksmith, has a great design. A very unique, very strong, humanoid figure. The bold, scratchy outlines help to give him a more withered, aged feel as well as giving him far more demonic properties. He seems to be far stronger and more experienced than a human, but has the composure and expression of an aged workman moreso than a demon. The two comments I would make is that the eyes seem a little bit too vivid for the rest of the design and the lower abs could be broken down into two. A more present pair of pupils would have given a little more depth to his expression as well as toning down the eyes without taking away their importance. In his abdomen, the lowest pair of abs are significantly larger than the rest. You could have broken them into two pairs and given even more room for the thick, heavy outlines to define his muscle tone in the process.
His pants seem to take away a lot of the texture from his body, and the side of them could have benefited from heavier shading to match the shading on his skin.
From here I notice one of the most significant issues with the piece, the perspective. You tried to express too much of every object in the frame. Many of the objects, like the kiln, would not normally be facing the "camera" (I reffer to the audience-side / front of the picture as camera, because of old habits) , especially with the direction of the lighting. The object is actually behind the blacksmith in relation to the audience, but the light is hitting him from the front.
The anvil in front of him suffers the same issue. Naturally it would be lined up parallel to his waist, but its going off on a bit of a tilt
The next issue I notice is the outlines of the background and objects. The outlines of most of the objects in the background are similar to those of the central character, but a lot thicker and more erratic. Frankly, they almost look rushed. The lamps have a more solid outline, but the shape seems unusual and they could benefit from a heavier glare effect, like often found on glass surfaces.
From there (and I don't have any idea how I noticed this last), I see the horns of the main character. Which, in full honesty, look amazing. The lighting off them is spectacular, and the texture is marvelous. Their design, overall, help to compliment the character and complete his entire structure (which is probably why I didn't notice them-- they look too natural on him!). The level of design on these horns just prove even further that you could have created a far more powerful, fitting background with a little more specific attention to detail.
Hope my critique was worthwhile, enjoy!
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Wow!
Thank you Rusky! This is a wonderful critique!
I really appreciate your honesty in this.
I knew my perspective was wonky. It's not easy for me to get perspective right. I seem to be impaired in spacial relations (no joke!).
But I was thinking that the forge (what you called the kiln) was more "beside him" and beside the anvil for that matter than behind him. It's tilted toward him and the anvil, and that's why the light hits them both. I don't doubt my perspective is STILL wonky but that's more how I meant it.
The strange lanterns are meant to be strangely shaped because it's an unusual place with unusual things. I didn't want them to look like normal lanterns. They're more like wall-hanging bowls with magical burning rocks in them.
I did the lines on the wall maybe too hastily, yes, but had hoped my coloring/lighting was going to make them turn out looking great. I didn't get the shading as good on the rock wall as I might have liked but after a point I felt I couldn't do better. I am usually awful at objects/backgrounds so I was more resigned to accept that it was the best I've yet done! I see your point though! If I could have gotten them more detailed it would have been more powerful. And now I'm eyeing that with thoughts of future work.
His kilt is not the best part of the image, I know! I had a hard time making it look right. Objects are so hard for me. I am glad that the anvil/forge/hammer are recognizable lol.
I'm glad the horns turned out so well. I worked really hard on them and thought hard on their shading/lighting and details. The burning lines on the horns were something I really took my time on and tried best to make sure they blended into the horns and didn't stand out glaringly or anything. Haa I'm glad you noticed the work I put into the horns because it teaches me to take that care more often.
I wasn't really hurrying on this piece, but I can get over-excited sometimes and work faster. That might have been my problem on the background some. Especially since backgrounds are so hard for me, I hurry to finish so I can work on the parts I enjoy more.
Azazel's eyes are supposed to glow... so I tried to make them glowing but I did try putting pupils in some times and it just looked weird. I am not sure how to do a pupil in a glowing eye.
What you said about Azazel and his stance and composure is SO appropriate. I'm SO GLAD he came off correctly!
Thank you soooo much for the hard critique! I really appreciate it so much!
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!! I had a feeling kiln wasnt right. :<
Hm. Either way, the light source seems to be coming from a little bit in front of him, so changing the forges location and direction would make sense.
The lanterns make sense, I get what you mean. I guess Hell really wouldn't have ikea lamps... :I
I feel your pain. Fabrics and clothing are ebil. I try to color/shade em with really tiny crosshatching. And backgrounds are no fun either, but alas they're just as noticeable as the character himself.
My best suggestion for a pupil in a glowing eye would be a small dot and then a line around it, kinda of like I did for the blond girl in the comic you critiqued, except much smaller and smoother.
No problem. I enjoy critiquing.
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Ooh I get ya on fabrics. I may work on that. haha. I am going to touch at this again and see if I can polish it a bit.
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No problem, good luck on your revisions!
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hell smith is really scary..
please check my gallery>
[link]
PEACE!!!!
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Thank you <3
I did! It's impressive o_o
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Holy hell, Arsh! @______@
LOOK AT YOU GO!
I'm sorry I never got back to you, things kinda went berserk here on my end (tell you about it later).
This is GORGEOUS. The fire light, the shadows, Az himself, just wow! To have seen this progress as it did and you come to the final product, hun, my mind is blown! I love how warm it is, I can almost feel the heat of the forge burning and hear the sounds of metal striking. It makes my spine tingle in that good way!
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Hurrray! Thanks Soulsy! I'm glad you like the finished piece!!
Thanks for the repeated suggestions as I worked on it!
The feeling of this piece was far more important than correctness of so many points, but I was really happy that in this case I didn't need to sacrifice much in way of correctness to find that feeling coming to life. This piece fell together as hard as it could for me I think.
Thank you for coming and commenting! It is so good to know it turned out according to plan and you saw my vision before it was complete so you can give me a stance on this like no one else. *huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuugs* *hughughug*
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ThatΒ΄s.....ThatΒ΄s.....THATΒ΄S.......I canΒ΄t even describe how cool that is... But itΒ΄s really Awesome....And cool....And Into My Faves now....
Good job. LOVE IT!!!
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Oh wow! Thank you so much for commenting! I can't tell you how happy I am that the image has impact!
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