Translucent Character Challenge

[WeirdOwl]

Dear members of the Art School, and especially those interested in trying your skills at making a translucent character design, lets make this happen!
Here are some boundaries I came up with to make it easier and more straightforward:
1. We make one character, can be a human or creature.
2. Minimal or no clothing to show off the translucent skin.
3. Explain what material the skin is made with: crystals, jellyfish-like skin, glass, etc.
4. Show what the character does or is about—habitat, occupation, goals, etc.

Deadline: September 24th (so we have enough time, but not indefinite).
Goal: re-post each others finished work on social media with hashtag #translucentskinchallenge
Final submission: Post your art with tag "final submission", include the name of your art piece and your Facebook name no later than September 24th. I will collect all finalized art and present them together for Marc's critique on Saturday.

[chiara.arcidiaco]

@WeirdOwl thanks for this post!! I'm so looking forward to it hahah even if here there is so much competition in character design here... maybe it could be a way to be better at it

And the idea of jellyfish skin... crazy but I LOVE IT HAHAH
Great idea to give constraints, in this way it is so much better!!

[IndrawnArt]

Great. I'm in!
The deadline is perfect and the rules are a great idea, too. Can't wait to start and to see what you guys will come up with.

[WeirdOwl]

Happy you ladies approve! I personally always struggle the most with a topic of my art, so I like to have at least some direction for any challenge.

@chiara.arcidiaco there's a lot of competition for character design no matter where I look. That's why we're here to make each other better.

I suggest starting the challenge with posting your WIPs as well as any struggles in the process. We can check each other's anatomy, proportions and help pick colors.

[IndrawnArt]

We post the WIPs under this topic, right? Will be easier to keep track of it and support.

I also assume that we show the pictures of the character challenge in the livestreams after the challenge ended, right?

Can't wait to start. ^^

[chiara.arcidiaco]

I'm waiting forward to see all the works toghether in one stream hahah

Guys yesterday I couldn't sleep thinking about this so many things in my mind hahah

So I decided to gave birth to the abyss queen. For now she is just, the queen of the deep sea I would like to make her as a gigantic woman (I was thinking about the colossal squid hahah) but for this I have to put other elements in the scene to understand her proportion, do you have any advice?

Here some thumbnails, feel free to point out if you prefer one in particular.

And, of course , she will have a transparent skin hahah

Waiting to see your ideas!! peace out

[WeirdOwl]

@chiara.arcidiaco I personally like the "C" composition the most. My only suggestion would be to maybe curve the tail up to redirect the viewer's attention back to her head?

@IndrawnArt yeah, I was thinking about posting everything related here, including ideas, thumbnails and critique. As for the live stream feedback, I had two ideas in mind:
1. We post our own art with the big name Translucent Skin Challenge, so Marc knows they're all related.
2. If we have less than 6 people participate, we can make a compile of all finished pieces with the artists' names below and submit it as one for critique and comparison of who nailed what.

What do you think?

[IndrawnArt]

I went for an underwater/ deep cave theme.

The idea is that the tentacles on his back glow on the inside, so I have a nice light source behind him.
I'm still not sure what kind of face and hands I should give him, but I think that I wanna give him some cool horns.

I threw in some values to make it more clear for you guys how the light will work.
What do you think?

[IndrawnArt]

Very nice, Chiara! I actually wanted to draw a mermaid....pardon....abyss queen sorta theme as well. You were faster. XD
I like "C" a lot, too. The focus will be more on the character and the translucence of her skin in the end.
I would definitely advice you, too, to curve the tail of her up. Otherwise the eye follows her tail out of the frame.

Can't wait what you'll come up with while progessing with this image!

[chiara.arcidiaco]

Indra I think that I will dream your character this night hahahah it's so scaryyyy, I love it hahaha but very difficult angle, you've been very brave

And a question for the challenge, should it be like a character design or maybe an illustration? I was wondering If it should be just a standing pose showing the design elements or maybe something different with more storytelling. Probably it will be a personal choice but I would like to ask you your opinion

[WeirdOwl]

Daang, that's a difficult pose! Seems like you picked an anatomy challenge as well. So previous art was a hearbreak, this one is a scare, going for emotional roller coaster here?
I think this will be awesome to to to research tentacle structure as well. Go for it. The only thing I'm unsure of is the left arm right now. Not understanding the position at this point.

@chiara.arcidiaco I personally think we should go for an illustration as a final piece. After all, we're practicing translucent skin, which would be difficult to emphasize on, if it is a static character sheet.

[Apath]

Just wondering on whether this challenge is open for everyone despite their art skill level? 0-0

[WeirdOwl]

For sure! Join in! If we were super skilled we wouldn't be here in the Art School. The idea of the challenge was to learn to draw translucent skin on characters and help each other. We just came up with it during a live stream chat.

[Apath]

So this is my rough idea for the challenge! And as you can notice my anatomy other than the torso part is still ehh.. >.< But yeah this challenge reminds of creatures from Marianas trench so yeah. Heavily inspired from an angler fish and other translucent creatures from the trench.

[WeirdOwl]

That's a great start Ivan! Will you be competing with Indra here for the creepiest sea creature?
2 suggestions: her midsection looks extra long and I think you forgot the trap muscle where it connects the neck to the shoulder (which makes her neck look too long); also, maybe curve the tail a little more upward, so it's not pointing the viewer to look off canvas?

Love the creepy eyes and the hairstyle!

[Apath]

Not sure about competing but I'm a fan of creepy stuff so I'll definitely try. ^-^ Thank you for pointing out some mistakes, really appreciate it! Though that's not really the final concept since I kind of wanted to have her in a much more dynamic pose(for learning purposes).

[Apath]

Hello it's me again! ^=^ I just finished my rough draft the actual piece that I'm gonna work on for the challenge. I'm currently having a hard time working on the anatomy of top of the shoulders and her breast >.<. I would really appreciate it if anyone can help me adjust it incase I did something wrong.

"What's beneath"

[IndrawnArt]

My art creates nightmares or heartbreaks......that's goooood! Muhahaha. XD

@WeirdOwl Illustration FTW! Wohooo!

[IndrawnArt]

Yes. The pose is hard indeed. Gonna check some more reference to get it as correct as possible.
But rollercoasters are nice, aren't they?

Okay! Thank you. His left arm or the arm on the left side?

I definitely have to study some tentacles.

[IndrawnArt]

Really cool start! I love that you used the angler fish as a reference.

Will you use the design you showed on her arm and throat everywhere or only on some body parts? Thinking of the "Rule of Thirds" the design might be overcrowded if you apply it everywhere.