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Heres the start of one of my latest Warhammer doodling'...I plan to do a video of me painting it.

Lemme know your thoughts so far.

Your paint work and concept are EXCELLENT.

There's only one problem: the head. Even by rediculous space marine standards, the head is teeny tiny. To show you what I mean, I've placed a human-scale armature over your last picture...



Were the emperor the size of a normal human, his feet wouldn't even go out to his knee pads, nor his fingers out to the elbow joints, given the size of his head.

Yes, I know that space marines have genetic engineering to make them larger, but still...

Drool...

I'd love to know technical specifics on your technique. Looks like photoshop with custom brushes to me. Do you sketch on paper first? Do you create your own custom brushes? What do you use for tonal, lighting and reflection reference?

Sorry to bombard lol, would kill to get a hold of one of your .psd's to see how you layer them up, if you're a masker, a paths guy, adjustment layers etc etc.

Ailaros-These are the standards I've always drawn my marines by...never really liked the look of the models and thought they looked teeny.


I've used these as ref when drawing my marines, but I may size his head up a bit as I am noticing it more now that you pointed it out.

MajorTom11- I use PS with many custom brushes, sometimes I'll sketch on paper but usually just start directly in PS. To be honest these I haven't used any reference for any of that past few works, if I could make a recommendation though I'd say maybe a metal cylinder of some kind? My PSDs are usually around 450-500mb so I can't really email them, I tend to work with as few of layers a possible usually only 4-8.

Looks nice! though the head might be abit "small" for my taste and the power fist/claw looks odd with that red colour, maybe some golden plating on it or complete gold would look nicer.

Mr. nipples wrote:Ailaros-These are the standards I've always drawn my marines by...never really liked the look of the models and thought they looked teeny.


I've used these as ref when drawing my marines, but I may size his head up a bit as I am noticing it more now that you pointed it out.

MajorTom11- I use PS with many custom brushes, sometimes I'll sketch on paper but usually just start directly in PS. To be honest these I haven't used any reference for any of that past few works, if I could make a recommendation though I'd say maybe a metal cylinder of some kind? My PSDs are usually around 450-500mb so I can't really email them, I tend to work with as few of layers a possible usually only 4-8.

Shrink to 72 dpi and put the image size to 1000 pixels wide constrained
Lol don't worry about it though, I'm just a big fan of learning from people who put out inspiring stuff. Speaking of which, if you haven't already, Nagel brushes are amazing and free. The guy has put out about 70 series of them for all types of effects, I use quite a few of them regularly - http://photoshop.digitalmedianet.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=36502

heres an update with a fixed head size.

Glorious!

If I might suggest one thing -- I would make His face a bit more difficult to apprehend, if you get my meaning. Visually, maybe add more light, have His face almost project light and conflict with the artificial light of His armor. Conceptually, the Emperor is always described as mysterious in aspect: a thousand expressions, a thousand thoughts and judgments and decrees forming in each second. It's okay if His armor and weapons are concrete but His face is another matter. See The First Heretic for a specific example.

But let me reiterate: glorious!

Looks fantastic. I'd give it a 8.0/10, but I have a couple nitpicks:

- Head is too small
- Not a fan of the light around the face...looks really strange
- His sword arm is really small, especially when compared to the claw arm

Oh, there ya go. He still looks huge and imposing, but his head is now within the realm of believable.

Excellent work!

Griever wrote:- Not a fan of the light around the face...looks really strange

You should google a picture of Horus. That light source is pretty well-established.

Manchu wrote:

Griever wrote:- Not a fan of the light around the face...looks really strange

You should google a picture of Horus. That light source is pretty well-established.

I know, but that still doesn't make it any less ugly.

That's a bit strong but to each his own.

Griever wrote:

Manchu wrote:

Griever wrote:- Not a fan of the light around the face...looks really strange

You should google a picture of Horus. That light source is pretty well-established.

I know, but that still doesn't make it any less ugly.

Just because you don't like an established part of the background, doesn't mean that everyone should stop acknowledging it.

I opted for the light like Manchu is talking about, mainly to help give him an aura.

Also the size of claw arm is consistent with previous pieces of warhammer art I've seen by Kopinski and other GW artists. I like the bulk it gives, it shows how crazy powerful those claws are.

ph34r wrote:Just because you don't like an established part of the background . . .

See:

Griever wrote:- His sword arm is really small, especially when compared to the claw arm

. . .

I love it. Much respect for these digital skills.

Manchu wrote:

ph34r wrote:Just because you don't like an established part of the background . . .

See:

Griever wrote:- His sword arm is really small, especially when compared to the claw arm

. . .

What does that have to do with anything? Neither my nor my quoted posts had anything to do with an arm. Perhaps you should re-read.

Incredible!

ph34r wrote:

Manchu wrote:

ph34r wrote:Just because you don't like an established part of the background . . .

See:

Griever wrote:- His sword arm is really small, especially when compared to the claw arm

. . .

What does that have to do with anything? Neither my nor my quoted posts had anything to do with an arm. Perhaps you should re-read.

I was pointing out that the poster you replied to may not know much about the established background. Kindly dial back the hostility.

This piece looks great. One question i have though.. were you looking at drawn artwork of Conan when you did the face on the Emperor?? Seriously the first thing i thought when i saw the "completed" face

i love to see peoples ideas of what the emperor looks like.this is a really exciting piece.

Manchu wrote:I was pointing out that the poster you replied to may not know much about the established background. Kindly dial back the hostility.

Your post was unclear and did not imply that to me at all. As it turns out ". . ." is one of the least descriptive things that can be said. I replied in a neutral way.

It does look a lot better with the bigger head.

Very nice work! I am no artist, but for what it is worth, I think the mysterious, lighting effects are a good idea. It would certainly portray the Emperor as a more otherworldly being even before he was worshiped as a god. Nice work.

P.S. - I am glad you got rid of his teeny, tiny head. I mean...how could a man with such a tiny brain rule humanity?!

Well let's face it, the emperor is mentioned in the books as being a glowing being of light most of the time, I always took his physical features and expressions to appear differently to each individual looking at him, almost like he may have already looked like a cadaver, but he projected an image of vibrant well-being to his subjects.

Then on the other hand, in all the visions of heresy artbooks, and previous depictions, he was shown with the same level of collar glow as nipples has depicted here, if at all.

It could legitimately go both ways.

The point is that no artist can please everyone all the time, the best you can hope for is to mostly please most. And in nipples case, I think most people would be floored.

ph34r wrote:

Manchu wrote:I was pointing out that the poster you replied to may not know much about the established background. Kindly dial back the hostility.

Your post was unclear and did not imply that to me at all. As it turns out ". . ." is one of the least descriptive things that can be said. I replied in a neutral way.

You're right. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

Forgive the pun but am gonna stick my neck on the block and say the head is not too small.
Or at worst not by much. Taking the mannikin as being a six footer, then the big dude is about 10' tall in his powersocks. IMHO the head would remain the same size as a regular human
My only problem is that the inspection of troops is not possible due to the gardbrace "wings" blocking any side view. I blame the Imperial Armouerers for that though!

super work Mr Nipples

lol.

"If I could turn my neck in this armor, I'd TOTALLY be inspecting you right now."

daaamn, that looks awesome!
if it would be possible i'd be interested in a .psd file to, i'm interested in giving digital art a try and i want to see how others do it.
if you're not sure how to send it upload it to megaupload and pm the link.

and did you make this with a mouse, a tablet or a tablet-pc/touchscreen-ish thing?