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Drawn by Yours Truly for the cover of my (not sufficiently playtested to put on the internet) skirmish rulebook:

Sweet!  That Chaos Marine got so pumped he totally kicked that Genestealer Hybrid right in the face!  Chaos Marines are sooooooooooo sweet that I want to crap my pants.

Exactly what I was thinking!!!!!!!!!

Posted By Pariah Press on 09/22/2007 1:18 PM
Exactly what I was thinking!!!!!!!!!

Me too!!!!!111!!!!ONE!!!1!

THIS IS EXACTLY THE SORT OF CRITIQUE THAT AN ARTIST NEEDS TO HELP HIM TO PERFECT HIS CRAFT!!!!!!ONE!!111!!!!!!1!! LAWLZ!!

Oh man I was so pumped by that pic that I envisioned it when I went to the gym and I INCREASED MY ONE-REP MAX BY 200%! Oh man that picture is truly inspirational.

In all seriousness, Pariah, I think the boot is a little too small. Given the size of the boots on the models, that one just doesn't look big enough. It just doesn't look right to me.

So that's as serious as I can give you. Bigger boot to stomp with.

The technique reminds me of linocut prints.

The face of the stealer could use a bit more "OMF MY FACE!!" destruction going on. It may be fearless, but do its teeth not shatter and its (glowy purple) blood not bleed? If nothing else, the facial expression is kinda off, for me anyway ...

The Boot could also be bigger, as noted. But I do dig the subject matter! Initiative 6 be damned!

- Salvage

Yeah, love the style of the picture but I agree with what has been said already. The Hybrid's mouth should be open with blood/spit/alien goo flying out of it and the marine's boot could be a bit meatier.

Also I wouldn't be entirely opposed to some sort of starburst effect around the boot/hybrid head to emphasize the 'KA-POW' action occuring.

But again, great job, I like it a lot!

Right. Bigger boot. More blood. Teeth flying. OMFG my face.

Thanks guys. I'll fix it when I do the next version of the rules.

If possible, if you could add a THIS IS SPARTA! joke on an offshoot cover, that'd be even more Awesome.

Too funny to pass up on:

I just wet my pants a little.

If I may offer a few tips, Pariah :

- Get rid of the moon, make it smaller, or move it so it doesn't overlap the title. The eye loves white, it eats it up like crack. Having that big honking white spot is drawing the eye to it like anarchists to Starbucks, the comparatively little bit of white that describes the marine and cultist can't compete.

Also, it makes the title look clumsy because the chop going through the letters is really awkward (like that tiny little end of the R in "heart" and the thin tops of the S and T in "41st").

- Some of the shapes are confusing: what's that thing under the marine's leg? Is that a rock between his butt and the cultists's arm? The rock I might lose entirely unless you add in more background, it seems to be the only piece of setting in there and it's not interacting with anything. It looks randomly tossed in.

- Granted, learning anatomy is a years-long pursuit, but I think a bit of practice with the human form could help you work out some of the shapes. The marine's body looks a bit squised and the torso/waist is ambiguos. It doesn't look like his head and shoulders synch up with his waist. I'm sure you could find a few pics of similar poses to use as reference.

- Last thing I think would be the lighting. If the black leg is supposed to be a part of the marine's color scheme (his leg armor is dark) then this point is unimportant, but if it's shadow-- it looks funny because few places have shadows on the side facing away from the lightsource (which I'm assuming would be the moon) or hidden by something else (the cultists's chest). Shadows become complicated if you start having more involved poses, but it helps if you think of it as a 3D, the lightsource is a point, then mentally pull lines away from it. Put shadows where appropriate.

How there's something of use in there.

(Is that Chaos Marine wearing an Imperial jumppack?)

Thanks for the input, everyone. I'm about to release a new version of the rulebook, so I've gotten off my duff and updated the cover image. Prepare to be EVEN MORE PUMPED!!!!!!!1!!11!

Still looking good! Great rendition of poor Ed Gruberman.

Wow. You know how finals and the holidays tend to make you stop hitting the gym? Yeah I felt like a pig the last month. I was gonna start today, doing a maybe, maybe-not undecided thing.

But thanks for reminding me I NEED TO GET PUMPED. OH MAN I'M SO PSYCHED RIGHT NOW I'LL START PREPARING TO LIFT SOME HEAVY IRON TO SHOW HOW AWESOME PHYSICS IS!

The shin is also too small. It looks like he is wearing either thigh high cowboy boots or some manner of frog. Recall that marine armor flares a lot by the foot, and so should look more like an inverted V.

You also might think about looking into some BRUTE prints for inspiration. He did almost all the artwork for KMFDM's albums that I can think of, and has a very stark, violent style that might fit this theme nicely. Plus it pretty much kicks ass in general. Or face. Or whatever.

Right. I forgot that space marines wear bellbottoms. Well, too late for this edition (I just had it printed today) but I'll fix it next time.

How many versions of this have you drawn?

Put in a "THIS IS CAKETOWN!" reference, please!