ART WAR 4 | 2D | War of the Elements | The Fire Seer | sparksofdawn

Name: Georgi Madzharov
Email: gmadjarov7@gmail.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Georgi.V.Madjarov (not really art related, but still)
And I have yet to make an artstation account... 3rd year in a row xd

Final Image:

ORIGINAL FIRST POST:
New Year, new art war!
Even though I'm joining kinda late (finally got enough free time, yay), I'm gonna try my best to squeeze a finished piece before the deadline.

The character I'm going for is fighting for team Fire. My initial idea gravitates towards some angelic motives, relating to a heavenly flame and a feeling of weight.

And some initial sketches:

Initial Sketches.jpg1955x3987 2.3 MB

I kinda have a mental image of what I'm aiming for, so I started exploring that idea. I feel like the third one captures it pretty neatly (if 'neatly' is the appropriate word for a messy sketch :D).

Now all that's left is to actually design the character and fix everything wrong with it.

On a sidenote - I've looked at some of the entries, and I've gotta say - you people are even more awesome, compared to last year!

A somewhat cleaner sketch pass and the main design points I'm going to go for (in grayscale and an initial color test).

@3dc Thank you

Ok, I'm gonna call it a day with a final WIP (what a day :D), I don't even know if it's worth the update yet, but for completion's sake, here it is:

I cleaned up the sketch as much as I'm planning to and now I'm off to rendering.

Some thoughts:
I feel like I should differentiate the color of the chestplate and golden ornaments a bit more and the 'dripping' lava doesn't feel quite right.
Also his body underneath the armor is gonna be a bit ethereal/not quite solid/smokey (it'll get there one of these days :D).
Suggestions and critiques are always more than welcome!

@nesokaiyoh Thanks! I really felt like doing something like that (and thus almost no broader exploration) and I'm happy someone else is hyped for it as well

@dreamsequenz Thanks, man!

Time for an update! I decided to upload a bit more frequent stages of the illustration, seeing how the WIPs would be more important due to the lack of a concept sheet:

I wished to do more today (looking at you, deadline countdown! ;p), but hope remains for tomorrow ^^

Ok, I touched up some of the 'flow' elements (smoke and fire trails) and continued rendering. Still not quite happy with the volume and bevels of the wolf pauldrons, but it's getting there. Also the fire particles might use some more polish, I think.

I've been avoiding the arms and belly below the armor, as I'm not sure what I want to do with them in terms of material (I don't want to lose the form with just smoke), but it's time to tackle that.

I've been working on and off the past 2 days, I'm making good-ish progress with the character (a couple of more hours hopefully until he's done) but I think I'll work on the enemies and environment for now, to keep the whole thing more consistent.

I decided to keep the unarmored parts quite ambigious as to material, seeing how he's not really physical anyway under the metal. I should maybe try to reinforce the ethereal feel a bit more in the abdominal area, maybe some swirls would do the trick?

Thank you so much for the kind words! Yeah, I hope I can finish it as well, it's gonna be some fun 10 hours or so ^^

One last WIP before the final (let's see if it gets resized ;D), I hope I'll finish it in a couple of hours.
Time for some flaming broken sword!

Hmmm, some moderator help would be appreciated @malcom
When I hover over the image, I don't see the image name and size and it doesn't go full screen, when I click on it. Any ideas? (Tried it in both chrome and firefox).
The file is 2961x1851 pixels and 1,67 MB on my end.

Thank you and sorry for bothering you in this hectic time

FINAL IMAGE:

At long last - here's the final image! Some areas could've used some more love and attention, but I hope it still does the character justice!
Now for a fitting name... (It just has to be something cheesy )
Originally I was gonna go for 'The Purifier', but it was a bit too abstract, so I think this flamy boi is gonna be called... The Fire Seer! One of the last of his kind, all who meet his fiery gaze shall be judged!

And last (but not least!) - a giant THANK YOU to everyone for the kind words and support! The Art Wars have always been exciting, the community here is amazing and the works I've seen are truly awe-inspiring! Best of luck and keep on being awesome!