Author Archives: JR19759

Character Design Challenge #170- Shade It

You know, whenever I've asked what contest theme people would like to see one answer always comes up; shading. Now, I've always tried to avoid it, because there are certain people who would just steamroller this kind of challenge and some people who won't even enter because they can't/ don't shade. But this week, what the hell, let's just go for it. So, your challenge this week is to do the best shading you possibly can. No other rules, you can do what ever pose, theme or costume you want, it can be a portrait, landscape or headshot, just so long as it's shaded.

However, only one entry this week please guys, just so certain people who have a definite talent for shading don't enter their entire galleries and make it very hard for me at the end of the week.

Oh, and if you don't know how to do shading, well, there's an AMS tutorial on the forums, a few Suleman tutorials on the blog and I even did a video on it at one point, I'm sure you can find them if you look hard enough.

The contest will close at midnight Saturday (blog time). Please read the contest rules before entering, have fun and good luck.

Rules for posts, contests, and challenges that I am hosting: Original characters only, no copyrighted characters, no characters based on copyrighted characters, no characters based on RPG’s or other games. The characters must be your own design and not based on any character that might be copyrighted in any way. I have the right to delete any post that I believe crosses this line without warnings. Only post characters that you have either created for this contest specifically or you know for certain have never been entered to a contest before. If you aren’t certain, don’t enter it, because I’m not going to go back through all of the contests and check.

Character Design Challenge #169 (Companion Design Challenge) Winner

Honourable Mentions: Superfly30- T-Mech & Vectorman316- Fisticuffs

View post on imgur.com

Winner: Suleman- The Falconer

Return of Friday Night Fights

Hey guys, JR here and I'm gonna try something that hasn't been done in a while. For those of you who aren't aware, the Friday Night Fights is a character design contest style tournament that takes place each Friday (hence the name). Jeff and Kaldath have both done a few contests but we haven't had one in 2 years due to a bad turn out with the last one. But for a pessimist I'm pretty optimistic (why do you think I'm posting this on Friday 13th) and I think we can actually get enough people to make the idea work again.

So, what actually happens. Well, I need at least 8 people as a bare minimum to make this work and 16 as a maximum. There will be 4 rounds (provided we get more than the minimum 8 people, otherwise there will only be 3 rounds) each with a different theme. Each entrant needs to design a character based on each theme and submit them all before the FNF starts. The first round will be a qualification round if we don't get 16 entrants, where the creators of the top 8 images will advance to the next round, where they will be randomly placed into pairs and the tournament starts, so one creator facing off against another in a head to head contest and the winner advancing to the next round until we have an overall winner for the whole thing. I'll be bringing back polls for this contest, so each round will be voted for by you guys, so there's no judges deciding who goes through or who wins each round. Everything clear so far? If you have any questions, feel free to ask in the comments.

Now the important stuff. Rules and entry requirements:

  • You can only submit one entry for each category, so only four pictures from each contestant.
  • Your entries must have been made for this contest.
  • Each entry must be names thus: Creator- Character Name- Category
  • All entries must be sent by email (all four pictures in one email please, to save confusion) to me at jr19759@hotmail.co.uk by Wednesday 1st June. Any entries submitted after that will be ignored.
  • No backgrounds. Characters only.
  • Please do not post your entries on the internet before you are eliminated or the contest is over.

And with that, the categories:

Week 1- Modern (Normal people)

Week 2- Fantasy (Paladins, Mages, Dwarves, Elves, Trolls, Orcs etc.)

Week 3- Sci-Fi (Aliens, Spacemen, Cosmic Beings etc.)

Week 4- Superheroes/ Supervillains

And with that, JR out.

Character Design Challenge #169- Companion Design Challenge

Ok guys for this weeks CDC I want you to create a character/ image using something from one or more of the items from the Companions item slot. You can do what ever you like, provided you don't just stick a companion in front of a back ground and call it good, be a bit creative. You can use the companion as the base for a pose, mask it for parts (the wings of the Pegasus for example, or the feet or tail from one of the dinos) or something along those lines.

As per usual, no limits on the number of entries and the contest will close at midnight Saturday (blog time). Please read the contest rules before entering, have fun and good luck.

Rules for posts, contests, and challenges that I am hosting: Original characters only, no copyrighted characters, no characters based on copyrighted characters, no characters based on RPG’s or other games. The characters must be your own design and not based on any character that might be copyrighted in any way. I have the right to delete any post that I believe crosses this line without warnings. Only post characters that you have either created for this contest specifically or you know for certain have never been entered to a contest before. If you aren’t certain, don’t enter it, because I’m not going to go back through all of the contests and check.

Character Design Challenge #168 (Inhuman) Winner

Honourable Mentions: Xinmodic- Underground Beast & Superfly30- Reaver

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Winner: djuby- Bladewalker

Character Design Challenge #168- Inhuman

Ok guys, your challenge this week is to create something inhuman, so in essence a monster of some kind that is obviously not human. It can be humanoid, but can't pass it's self as human (so no vampires, zombies or werewolves), or it can be non-humanoid.

As per usual, no limits on the number of entries and the contest will close at midnight Saturday (blog time). Please read the contest rules before entering, have fun and good luck.

Rules for posts, contests, and challenges that I am hosting: Original characters only, no copyrighted characters, no characters based on copyrighted characters, no characters based on RPG’s or other games. The characters must be your own design and not based on any character that might be copyrighted in any way. I have the right to delete any post that I believe crosses this line without warnings. Only post characters that you have either created for this contest specifically or you know for certain have never been entered to a contest before. If you aren’t certain, don’t enter it, because I’m not going to go back through all of the contests and check.

Character Design Challenge #167 (Shakespeare) Winner

I know I don't usually say anything in these anymore, but I have to acknowledge the quality of the entries for this weeks contest. There were at least 5 that could have won the contest and a couple more that could have been honourable mentions. However, there can only be one winner. So here are the four others that could have won (to save space I'll put links to their entries in each persons name).

Honourable Mentions: Brons, Superfly30, Candruth, djuby

Winner: Cliff- Puck

Character Of The Week: Linea24- Merti

So, in case anyone didn't know, Linea's back in action after a few months absence and it seems to have done her some good. The picture I'm featuring this week is a remake of a picture from a few years ago and if you compare the two on her thread you can see the improvement. But taking it as it's own picture, rather than a remake, there is still a lot to commend. The costume (love the colours, the purple is very delicate and it really sets off the vibrant blue), the item usage (see the cape used as a dress so it matches the pose), the expression and the wings (very subtle, almost fading away into the background, which really fits the fairy idea, especially with insectoid wings which are usually semi transparent).

Gallery: Linea's Astra Universe

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Character Design Challenge #167- Shakespeare

As this past Saturday marked the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare's death, I thought now might be a good time to do a contest based upon the bards work. So basically the idea is, go find a list of Shakespearian characters and do your take on them. You can stay word for word faithful to the source material or you can modernise the character, if you want to you can do the characters in a completely different genre, just so long as they are recognisable. You may do multiple characters in one picture if you are feeling ambitious, provided they are from the same play. Also, please put which play the character is from with your entry (unless blindingly obvious e.g. Macbeth or Hamlet).

As per usual, no limits on the number of entries and the contest will close at midnight Saturday (blog time). Please read the contest rules before entering, have fun and good luck.

Rules for posts, contests, and challenges that I am hosting: Original characters only, no copyrighted characters, no characters based on copyrighted characters, no characters based on RPG’s or other games. The characters must be your own design and not based on any character that might be copyrighted in any way. I have the right to delete any post that I believe crosses this line without warnings. Only post characters that you have either created for this contest specifically or you know for certain have never been entered to a contest before. If you aren’t certain, don’t enter it, because I’m not going to go back through all of the contests and check.

Character Design Challenge #166 (The World Is Mine) Winner

Honourable Mentions: Brons- Dictator & Hawk007- Dragon Hunter

Winner: Xinmodic- World Conquering Army