Author Archives: JR19759

Character Design Contest ♯65- Free For All

Ok guys, this week there is no category for the challenge, you can just enter what you want (so long as it sticks within the blog rules obviously). So just go wild. You don't have to enter with something made specifically for this contest, but it can't be something you've entered into a contest before. And also, as a special stipend, you've only got one entry into the contest this week, so make it something special.

As I said, only one entry per person this week and the contest will close at midnight Saturday (blog time). The winner gets to claim a custom made item from dblade to be put into heromachine, so long as the item conforms to his prize rules, which you can find here: http://www.heromachine.com/forum/the-heromachine-art-gallery/dblades-whiz-bang-item-dispenser/. 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 Contest ♯63 (Gadgets) Winner

The winner of this weeks poll got very lucky indeed, actually entering the contest late and getting added to the poll to round out the 5 entries needed for me to actually put the poll up. But despite this, they went and won it. So congratulations to QuantumCookies whose piece Steampunk Guitar Gun ran away with this weeks poll from the very bringing. Well done QC, please go speak to dblade about your prize, and thank you to the other 4 entrants.

63- QuantumCookies- Steampunk Guitar Gun

Character Design Contest ♯64- Bad Superpowers

So, this week I want you guys to come up with a character that has a bad or useless superpower. By bad/ useless, I mean something that you couldn't use in a combat situation (see the Inferior 5) or that has a drawback so bad that it can't be used (e.g. being able to explode your body, but only once). I won't be too strict on these, just so long as you give a decent explanation for why it's a bad power.

As usual, no entry limit and the contest will close at midnight Saturday (blog time). The winner gets to claim a custom made item from dblade to be put into heromachine, so long as the item conforms to his prize rules, which you can find here: http://www.heromachine.com/forum/the-heromachine-art-gallery/dblades-whiz-bang-item-dispenser/. 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 Contest ♯63 (Gadgets) Poll

[polldaddy poll="7863539"]

Character Design Contest ♯62 (Faces) Winner

This weeks poll had the largest turn out for any CDC poll I've run, thrashing the previous record by 20 votes. And the person who can out on top of it all was Domhellsing for Ingrid. Congratulations Dom, please make sure you speak to dblade about your prize, and great work from everyone who entered.

62 Domhellsing- Ingrid

Character Design Contest ♯63- Gadgets

For this weeks challenge I want you guys to design an awesome gadget or machine. I don't want robots, but more along the lines of everyday mundane objects made cooler, so for example you could do a steampunk coffee-machine or a futuristic pair of shoes, that sort of thing. You don't have to create a character to go with the gadget, I'll be judging solely on the gadget/ machine it's self. I'll be interested to see what you guys come up with.

As usual, no entry limit and the contest will close at midnight Saturday (blog time). The winner gets to claim a custom made item from dblade to be put into heromachine, so long as the item conforms to his prize rules, which you can find here: http://www.heromachine.com/forum/the-heromachine-art-gallery/dblades-whiz-bang-item-dispenser/. 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 Contest ♯62 (Face Off) Poll

[polldaddy poll="7842839"]

Character Design Contest ♯61 (OS: Aliens) Winner

This weeks poll got the highest turn out for any CDC (not including the Character Of The Year contest) and one creator ran away with it from the start. And that creator was MadJack for his aliens the Croa. Congratulations MadJack, I'll let you sort out what will happen with the prize for this weeks contest, and well done to everyone who entered.

61 MadJack-Croa

Character Of The Week: Candruth- Summer Flight

I know I don't do Character Of The Week as a regular blog post anymore but I thought I might as well bring it back as a one off because I feel that this picture is in need of being singled out for sheer awesomeness.

Now, Cadruth has been doing a lot of truly amazing stuff recently (if you haven't checked out the forum thread Candruth's Characters :3 you've really been missing out), but I think this one takes the biscuit, if not the entire cookie jar. And if I had to single out one reason and one reason alone (which is quite hard actually), it would be the shading.  The use of colour here to accentuate and add depth is truly superb, especially on the wings and on the neck. And whilst we're on the neck, I have to applaud Candruth's posing here. It is fairly difficult to do a raised head in Heromachine, mostly because the join between the chin and the neck is quite hard to get right, but it is pulled of brilliantly here and the use of shading just add to this. I also have to make mention of the colour usage here. We'll start of with the colour usage in the shading, because I haven't gone on about the shading enough yet, but it's nice to see shadowing without using black (especially as someone who uses that technique exclusively) it adds much more vibrancy to the picture and allows the highlighting to make the subject shine. Then we have the contrast between foreground and background. Whilst I do think there could have been more done to the background (maybe loosing the outlines around and adding some shading to the clouds, as they look quite flat currently, also maybe a few more stars would make it more visually pleasing) but the overall sunrise/ sunset (I think it's more likely meant to be sunrise going by the colours) effect is very nice and it contrasts well against the main foreground colours, the light creamy gold of the wings against the slate grey is especially effective. Overall a very impressive composition.

Character Design Contest ♯62- Face Off

Ok guys, for this weeks challenge I want you to create the best headshot you can. It can be human or non-human, male or female, but I only want a headshot, so that is head, neck & shoulders, nothing else. You can dress the character up, give them headgear and stuff like that and you can give the picture a background, but the one thing I don't want is a mask. I want to be able to see the characters face. What I'm looking for here is good expression and how you put together the design on just one area of the character. I look forward to seeing what you come up with.

As usual, no entry limit and the contest will close at midnight Saturday (blog time). The winner gets to claim a custom made item from dblade to be put into heromachine, so long as the item conforms to his prize rules, which you can find here: http://www.heromachine.com/forum/the-heromachine-art-gallery/dblades-whiz-bang-item-dispenser/. 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.