[spooge demon]

A freebie for a client that I don't think liked it too much. If I am in error, I will yank it. But I thought I would share anyway. Might be fun to polish this one.

Included where it started below.

[beet]

really really like your minimalistic palette of colors - you're getting more and more illustrative as each of your post now brings a story with it.
bt

[Flinthawk]

You just never cease to amaze me, Spooge. I love that sky and the whole image has that great dirty and gritty look to it, mostly in part to the palette you used. I also love the fact that it looks like it coulda been painted with traditional mediums. Fix it up, render that guy a little more and throw it back out here man. How long did this take, by the way?

Keep on rocking.

-Flinthawk

[A.Buttle]

Very atmospheric, but what it is? I see a hooded dude holding a rocket launchery thing and some airshippy type things. Should I know what this is? Am I just dull? Am I?! Well?!!

------------------
Larry Flint's right! You guys suck!

Joe Dillingham
[email protected]
Three Times A Day

[Vortx]

Coooool spooge! Love it! I like the composition in the thumbnail as well - the lower eye level makes those flying factory things look huge.

-feng

[Rinaldo]

I really like ths one. The sketch is a bit better in concept maybe. it makes a lot more sense than the final. but top stuff nonetheless

[AliasMoze]

I like it allot. Is the ship your design? It's really cool. Also, is that sunshine I see in a Spooge painting?

Seriously, I'd love to see you do some brighter stuff.

[samdragon]

wow! It's amazing to see how some of your sketches have so much potential at such an early stage.
I'm convinced, you're not human at all, you're some kinda clone that was made from DNA of Sargent, A,Whitloch and Rockwell.
BOY!, this sure would make for a NICE tutorial..ahem..hint hint...wink, wink..nudge nudge.

[kimzoll]

Hey Spooge, this is great, man! Do you know the comic by Cam(I think thats his name) Kennedy called "light and darkness war", if you dont check it out, the designs are very similar to this and it one of the greatest comics Ive ever read!
Kennedy got a awesome style!
Kim

[[s]layer]

wow ... that's really really nice man ... the way you got the brown palette to work with the entire image is super ...

one of theese days i'm going to go over this whole forum .... it's so super to see so many artists gathered in one place ...

------------------
MUTATED Gfx �

[Joachim]

very nice. The colors are very nice and I love the design of that character. What is the subject for the picture? , would be nice to know.
For some reason, I like the composition of the black & white sketch you posted more, it looks more "epic". I'm not sure why, but some is because of the placement of the different objects in the scene and also because of the background. Since, on the sketch, the close ship barely touches the ground and since the backgground is more flat(I mean without the mountains) you get a more massive feeling. I guess that is some of what you've done on the colored one too, but the mountains behind makes it feel that the ship is quite small and kind of stops you from imagining what is happening far away, in my opinion.

Will you work more on it ? Would be really interessting to see where you would go from here.

------------------
Joachim's Place

[Leo]

MUck... man, stop killin' us!
��� ����� ���, ����� ������� � ����� ������� �� ����...

i can only suggest 2 things:
1) there are still some dudez with 15' monitors
2) next time take 2 hours per image

just kidding 'bout 2

-leo

[Chapel]

I like the B&W sketch. Looks cool with the extra ships and figures. I really don't like the foreground character in the top pic. I'm hoping since you said "Might be fun to polish this one." that there is a reason it looks unrefined compared to your other stuff.

I feel that the only thing that seems to be working in your recent pics are the palette and composition. The forms in my opinion are very lacking. Not sure if you are doing this on purpose, and I'm kinda surprised that a few particular forum members are still saying "this is great", "my favorite", yada yada. Hate me for saying this or not.. your choice. I try and critique a person's artwork on what I think that artist is capable of and I know you are capable of much more. I just get the feeling that you have become such an idol for the forum that everyone thinks you can do no wrong or afraid to say anything and I don't think that is going to help you. Ok enough of my ranting.

/me looks for full body armor and hides in the corner.

[mjmcchesney]

Well, I somewhat agree with Chapel on this, but I also disagree. I believe that an artist is free to experiment with art as much as he wants; be it drastically changing styles, going against his basic rules he set forth at the beginning of his career, or just doing small experimentations. Yes, I do agree your recent paintings have not been as refined as your older pictures; forms are not as defined as they once used to be, and more is left to be determined by the eye. However, although this is different from what you have done in the past, I believe it is helping you to grow better and better. Why must a person always define their forms clearly? Is that a "law" of painting? I believe Craig, in this case, Chapel, is merely experimenting with and developing a new, robust style. Defined edges in some places, muttled edges that are undefined in others.

Personally, I feel it is refreshing to see this work from you, Craig. Not often do we see the style of a person change drastically, as well as the experimentations involved in this evolution. Sorry to bring another artist into this, but Picasso had achieved hyper-realism and just got tired of it. He then went into more emotional works, trying to break the world up into different planes and geometrical shapes. Is this what you, too, are doing? You have achieved such realism in your art that you now are refining it to express emotions, rather than actual life?

Overall, I believe it is the course of all artists to develop their style over time; there is not "set" way for them to do something. Craig is a perfect example. Although not everyone will like this change, it is the artist's own judgement on whether the style is a success or failure. With the way your pictures have been going, from palette to perspective to composition to defining only few edges, it seems that your style is getting more expressive rather than trying to paint a photograph of another world. I'm rather excited about this, and I'm hoping to see more works in this area.

Good job Craig, and good input Chapel

[The Dude]

I like them both and I think experimentation
and change are good things.

I especially like the sky in the top pic.

| The.Dude |
My Hobby: WorthlessFacts.com
My Art: burden

[Frost]

Very nice Spooge. What I had to say was said by Joachim earlier .. and the character seems tilted in an unnatural way in my very humble oppinion.

[edit] -- Hmm, I guess you're feeling as though you're losing your touch in that the client didn't like or rejected it. Don't feel that way if you do, you're an amazing artist that CAN get the job done. One thing to notice however is that we haven't seen a highly detailed image of yours in a long time, but only sketches with large brush strokes... but it's clearly understandable that creating detailed images takes a lot longer to do than the natural base image/sketch. Are you currently employed? Still working at Lucas?

[edit 2] -- Looking back at the black and white sketch you made, it reall does stand out much more I think... the picture seems well balanced, and the lack of a humanoid character makes it cold and industrial, very alienating, especially with the flying ships. The color one has the guy just sitting there with no purpose, no story, just a paste-on character (although a nice design). Perhaps something along Micke's post Apocalyptic contest image with a caravan or a group of people looking at the ships departure, what is the real point of interest in the painting, would be a lot more appropriate and natural, which would pull us in more. (I read somewhere that directors never have actors stare/face straight at the camera because it breaks the rule of you being a spectator to the art)... hope this helps.

cheers, (+ keep up the good work Craig!)
frost.

[This message has been edited by Frost (edited December 14, 2000).]

[Kjetil Nystuen]

This is great work. I really like the way you handle the light. You should keep on expeerimenting, it can't make you a less good artist. I think it's healthy to try other styles, you already know you can do those "polished" pictures better than most artist... Since you are in the experimenting moods these days, why don't you try some less dramatic light? More flat lightning? It would have been really fun to see how you handle that...

-Kjetil

[Jaymo]

Nice dark atmosphere, spooge. I'd like to know if sketch and picture you posted have their original resolution.

[Chapel]

mjmcchesney: Don't get me wrong... I'm all for experimenting. Like I said.. if that was the look he was going for then fine, but I just felt it was lacking. I just think that it isn't going to help him much in his experimenting if everyone says "wow, that looks fantastic". I love to hear and see praise just as much as the next guy, but I really don't take anything into consideration till someone rips me a new a$$hole. hehe. Ask Rinaldo.. I consider every comment given to me and I think the most about the harsh ones.

Sorry, if I crapped all over your post spooge.

[TheMilkMan]

you know spooge if you did these in oil you would be one of the great masters people read about in books after you die....awsome pic man..always look forward to your posts!

[mjmcchesney]

Chapel: Well, I think I may have partly misunderstood your post. I understand what you're saying about negative feedback, I just felt that you were slashing down Craig's work only because it's different and less "Mullinish" than his other work. No harm done, right?

Also, that is why I felt obliged to say:
"Good job Craig, and good input Chapel. "

[Plop]

... wow. Of all the computer art i've seen yours looks very little like its been done on one. Very inspiring, thank you.

[Bg]

I can't believe how good you are in making your images look so rich. Ships look really rusty and dirty and the smoke coming out of them is very heavy and weighty. Marvellous, it's all so realistic. The composition is good, but I would make the guy look more interesting by adding more shape to the body. I dunno what you're aiming for, but if you made the guy smaller, then the ships would look a lot more powerful. In my opinion the earlier stage's composition is better than current. Adding curves to the man's robe would make the contrast between him and the closer ship smaller.

------------------
---
Timo Vihola
http://www.mbnet.fi/~badgers/

[plant42]

I try to keep quiet most of the time, but I have to back up Chapel here - the sketch has much better composition, and is much more expressive and interesting.
I'd even go so far as to say the color is better or more appropriate. I know his ability to pick values are second to none, but it still seems like he's playing it 'safe'.
Recently, most of his work seem to just lift color schemes from classical renaissance paintings, and don't try to push that at all.

My 2 cents. I'll go back into hiding now.

plant 42

[SlightlyTwisted]

I can't see why anyone in their right mind wouldn't like this. I love the design of the chap with the large gun, but what really strikes me is the grounded ship looking factory thing. It's fantastic!

[micke]

CraigM: Nice! Overall i like the picture very well.
I love the design of the character in the foreground! looks very cool, weapon and especially the hand, the highlights on it and the red thumb(very nice touch).
There are 2 things that i that i think looks a little weird.
It seems like the skies has some sort of texture on it that makes it a little flat(!) It's just my impression. I never seen it in any of your other pics before. The other thing is the space ship. I like the overall design on it, but somehow i can't
make some of the shapes on it make sense in a way. i can't really put my finger on it..
maybe because it's so rough.
I agree with Joachim. The thumbnail has a more interresting composition i think and there is more going on there.

Chapel: Craig has a very high standard on his work, and i think that people are alowed to say so and i think they are being honest.

-Mikael

------------------
-Mikael Noguchi-

Mikael's artwork

[This message has been edited by micke (edited December 14, 2000).]

[This message has been edited by micke (edited December 14, 2000).]

[ceenda]

Craig: These are fantastic. In a way, the ships remind me of the Harkonnen ship designs in the film DUNE.

Incredible.

[Binke]

Very nice Craig. And I agree with the others, I dig the small sketch more..it has like more depth..


------------------
Art Dimensional

[Awetopsy]

Darnit Spooge,

Everytime I look at any of your work I see new little details.. I love the subtle details of the gun in this.(like the end of the barrel.) Someday Ill paint well...

kinda weird though.. your characters chest kinda reminds me of Spawn a little bit..

Awesome work man.

------------------
I think Im wearing out my CTRL-'z'
http://noelsart.cjb.net

[Anthony]

I can't really add any critique that Micke, Joachim, and Frost didn't already mention. I love the pic, even if the colors on the guy are a little weid. It's the ship/bg that's best.

------------------
-Anthony
Carpe Carpem