Azai's Shit

Azai · February 9, 2016 06:34 AM

Someone suggested I'd make a thread where I post my art, and I agreed that that would be a good idea, so here it is.

Here's something I did today:

It's not done yet. When I finish it, or give up, I'll update the post.

This is the first time I've painted anything in like half a year. Most of my art has been lineart, sometimes colored.

I didn't really think about the proportions before starting the painting, so those are off. I think the circle of grassland around the central building should actually be 40 to 100 times as wide as the building is tall, but I wasn't thinking.

Now for the subject matter of the painting. It's set in a fictional universe of mine. In that universe there is an anarchistic society pervading a region called Ayeria. I have yet to think of a good reason that their society works, despite being anarchistic. In Ayeria, there is a city called Lestrey, lying in the mild climate of the Oaln sub-region. The building in the image is the Magical Academy of Lestrey, which is a setting of a story I'm writing. The Academy houses 1 to 10 million people. I haven't really started writing about how daily life would be there, so I can't really say much definite about it. What I have decided, is that all lessons are optional, since there is no government to impose obligatory schooling.

Here's a diagram of the structure of the Academy:

crackers · February 9, 2016 10:27 AM

Quote from: Azai on February 9, 2016 06:34 AM
I have yet to think of a good reason that their society works, despite being anarchistic

rtil · February 9, 2016 11:22 AM

quick opinion about the composition - the focus of the painting is too small ( the spire) and is partially obscured by white on white (the clouds). make sure there is strong contrast on the focus of your composition otherwise it won't pop

Azai · February 9, 2016 01:05 PM

Quote from: rtil on February 9, 2016 11:22 AM
quick opinion about the composition - the focus of the painting is too small ( the spire) and is partially obscured by white on white (the clouds). make sure there is strong contrast on the focus of your composition otherwise it won't pop

Thanks. I considered both points you mention, but by the point I did, I didn't feel like redoing parts of the painting to get it right.
The spire was actually originally larger, but I sized it down as a sort of compromise between "realism" and the focus you mention. I don't feel like the focus of an image need to be all that big, though. Take this image for example: http://syrsa.deviantart.com/art/Zuthayis-180492382 I'll admit it probably helps, though.
Originally, a little shading would have fixed the white-on-white, but there isn't much room to play with anymore after having resized the spire.

I'll see if I can incorporate your suggestions in the future, though, with a little more forethought. Thanks again.

rtil · February 9, 2016 01:28 PM

no , you can certainly get a sense of scale of something without making it 'big' as in taking up all of the canvas. in the image you linked you can tell the object is large because of its distance from the viewer. the camera being close to the ground helps with the illusion. but with yours i find it more difficult to gauge how tall that thing is. there's little frame of reference for its size

Gladius · February 9, 2016 01:54 PM

found u

soup · February 9, 2016 07:46 PM

Quote from: Azai on February 9, 2016 01:05 PM
I sized it down as a sort of compromise between "realism" and the focus you mention.

why are you even concerned about realism its a picture of a magic golf tee

Bamyasi · February 10, 2016 03:36 AM

Quote from: soup on February 9, 2016 07:46 PM
why are you even concerned about realism its a picture of a magic golf tee

I think he means this.

Azai · February 10, 2016 03:58 AM

Quote from: Bamyasi on February 10, 2016 03:36 AM
Quote from: soup on February 9, 2016 07:46 PM
why are you even concerned about realism its a picture of a magic golf tee
I think he means this.

Pretty much, yes. I try to make my artwork stick to my canon, and I try to make my canon believable.

Also, I tried to improve the sense of scale in the image by lowering the clouds, but now there's even more white on white:

d-floe · February 10, 2016 04:37 AM

Oh man a fellow fan of Syrsa. Nice art friend.

Azai · February 10, 2016 10:04 AM

Quote from: Kizunami on February 10, 2016 04:37 AM
Oh man a fellow fan of Syrsa. Nice art friend.

Oh, hey. What a coincidence. Or maybe not. I mean I think I remember checking Rtil's stuff out because it reminded me of Syrsa's. Then again the only similarity I've been able to properly articulate is "cute space girl".
Anyway, while I like his work, I wouldn't really describe myself as a "fan", since that comes from the word "fanatic". Admittedly I have been checking his work fairly regularly for like 5 years, but that's because we've sort of become friends. (#humblebrag)

But yeah. Wasn't expecting to meet someone else who likes his stuff.

michaell · February 10, 2016 10:48 AM

this looks odd to me

because the clouds look as if they lay sprawled on the ground, virtually touching it

michaell · February 10, 2016 10:49 AM

it looks like sea, ocean or somethen this way

Stu4U · February 10, 2016 10:55 AM

i've been watching syrsa for a looooooooong time. his future fantasy stuff and sound effects are great.

though imo hes been making some poor decisions for his current project, that being making a game and then hounding on vinesauce to stream it, only to to have their entire community check out his dA to find a bunch of weird alien fetish art. He claims it isn't a fetish and rather lore for his world, but lets be honest, textwalls of how alien boobs are used for energy storage won't fool anyone.

d-floe · February 10, 2016 04:41 PM

While I do agree that Syrsa makes some weird choices, I think his world building is really something else. I'm not a fan of his game nor his weird art, but the way his concepts and designs work out is really inspiring. Terrahypt actually inspired me to build my own worlds back from 2013 to 2014 and I still grab concepts from there today.

soup · February 10, 2016 06:08 PM

syrsa actually represents everything i find cringy or disappointing about other peoples work. when they elaborate on everything from the unpronounceable name of every single type of grass to how tall individual buildings are. it makes me think theyre stalling and completely alienates me when you have no fucking clue if theres a story or a point to any of it. textwalls about tit batteries was a great example of something that means nothing to me (or anyone else) but means a great deal to him im sure

obviously this is all just opinions and sure if you enjoy deciding what fake brand of space clothes character #32 likes to wear on the weekend or how many individual energon relays make up the SPIRES OF GOLLMAKK ok good for you, but i believe in show not tell. if you need 10 diagrams a powerpoint and a small essay to describe the world youre creating i think something is wrong and youre probably a better writer than you are an illustrator.

also i think i discussed this in several streams with people but syrsa seems like a pretty good example of someone whos character style would be really cute if it wasnt for the noses they look pretty damn weird to the point where id prefer they just werent there.

d-floe · February 10, 2016 06:49 PM

I would probably like him more if he wasn't so aggressively independent. I feel like he tries way too hard to go out of his way to make things complicated and difficult to understand. I think he has a bit too strong of a "nobody understands me because I'm complicated" mentality, yet he sort of expects people to like that. Like the way he responds to criticism is overly defensive.

soup · February 10, 2016 06:59 PM

i was actually going to say the only reason i can see people creating ridiculous extensive lore is for a personal project that means a lot to them (which very much SEEMED like the case with this syrsa guy) and therefore its almost like a piece of fine art created entirely for the pleasure of the artist and no one else

however yeh i got that vibe from him as well and i agree after going through a lot of the deviations he gets pretty defensive about stuff, which implies he actually cares what other people think about the lore, which implies he wants people to like it

ive just tried to get my head around it and its not even dense in an interesting 40k gods villains and myths way. its just unpronounceable names and vore. even a pretty bad case of sameface going on

Bamyasi · February 11, 2016 01:02 AM

Quote from: soup on February 10, 2016 06:08 PM
if you need 10 diagrams a powerpoint and a small essay to describe the world youre creating i think something is wrong and youre probably a better writer than you are an illustrator.

I'm by no means a talented writer or familiar with Sysra but I can say pretty confidently this is false.

The best worlds are built around stories, not the other way around.

rtil · February 11, 2016 01:36 AM

Quote from: Bamyasi on February 11, 2016 01:02 AM
Quote from: soup on February 10, 2016 06:08 PM
if you need 10 diagrams a powerpoint and a small essay to describe the world youre creating i think something is wrong and youre probably a better writer than you are an illustrator.
I'm by no means a talented writer or familiar with Sysra but I can say pretty confidently this is false.

The best worlds are built around stories, not the other way around.

i'm not familiar with sysra either but there is a point where lore gets trivial and can even in some cases totally ruin the allure of a fictional world. take a good chunk of the star wars extended universe for example. literally every character and place that ever showed up in the movies had to have a backstory, main characters got fleshed out down to their items of clothing and every little thing they ever did. then you get shit like midichlorians, we've all been down that road.

imo these aren't stories anymore but overindulgent fanfiction. you have to leave the audience with something left to their imagination or the illusion is no longer interesting. it's part of what makes the world we live in fascinating. the fact that the more we know about it the more questions we have. with the diagram-type stuff with the alien boob energy storage thing it's basically the other way around.