[Steven Stahlberg]

In another thread here Socar posted these cool ideas:

quote

Quote:

a more contemplative piece in greens and blues, with the knight giving the dying dragon last rites; a nasty, grotty piece in mouldy browns and grays, with a craven knight striking down a baby dragon....

I'd like anyone who feels like it to post some image-ideas here, ideas that are a bit out of the ordinary, unusual, not your average girl with BFG or Gundam lookalike etc etc. I know I've been guilty of some of that myself in the past, but I'd like to get away from that...
So let's brainstorm.
Don't worry if something sounds stupid to you, someone else might groove on it and come up with something great. Throw any outrageous idea onto the table without shame, and NO criticism please!
But let's stick to some rules: there should be a point to the image, not just "closeup of rock" or something. Nothing too pornographic or disgusting, and no jokes or cartoon characters please, I'd like to keep this reasonably serious. Fantasy, sci-fi and horror would seem to be the best genres for this, but of course any genre is welcome.

Here's a couple ideas to start: a trashy Hong Kong back street, a woman dressed like a nurse; she's throwing transparent plastic bags full of body parts and blood out the back door, into trash cans full to overflowing with the same. A sign on the building says "Dr. Tan's Cosmetic Surgery".

Or: a beautiful chinese princess being pulled along in a rickshaw, along the same Hong Kong streets, neon reflected in the rain-puddles. The rickshaw is pulled by a robot.

Not that creative I know, but at least there are no guns involved.

[Socar MYLES]

Thanks for the compliment on my ideas, Mr. Stahlberg. I will point out now that anyone is more than welcome to use those ideas...much as I'd love to use 'em myself, I'm too busy with work at the moment to do much for-fun painting.

To add a couple more ideas:

A city built entirely of coloured glass, with people walking through mottled halls, their forms distorted by the warping and running of ancient glass. (That, I couldn't paint even if I wanted to!)

A giant army of snakes on horseback.

A poisoned desert oasis with a parched man sitting beside it, considering the worse of two deaths. (Hm, I like that one...although I'm sure I've seen it before somewhere. Maybe in an issue of 'Heavy Metal'.)

[c]

not to be a trouble maker but sometimes i wonder if execution is more important than idea. u can have the greatest idea but if execution fails then it's crud. if you have a not-so-original idea, or maybe, a slight variant thereof, but the execution kicks ass then it's usually pretty successful.

we all won't both, but...

[Affected]

let's try not to get carried too far away from the topic, but: Ideas are way more important than execution, if you ask me. As long as the execution id good enough to actually convey the idea, anyway.

anyway, I tend to try to visualize abstracts these days. Something I've been pondering for a good while, but haven't done yet, is fear. And not in the "full frontal face close-up, eyes wide, mouth screaming way either...

[Socar MYLES]

The way I see it, if you never try new things, explore new ideas, attempt works you don't think you can do, then you'll never improve.

In that way, idea is EVERYTHING. Execution comes with practice, with stretching oneself, with constant effort.

[LoTekK]

well, i had a brainstorm once while i was listening to [U]Crematory[/U], a german gothic metal band, and one of the songs just jammed an image concept in my mind... i was in bed, but immediately turned on the lights and threw a sketch on paper... unfortunately, this sketch never made it past a sketch in painter with some color thrown in... i just couldn't convey the music in it... chalk it up to lack of skill/experience...

anyways, the idea was based on the song in question, [U]Dancing in the Moonlight[/U], in which three sets of vocals play off each other: a couple in love (one clean male vocal, and an ethereal female vocal), and another male death metal-type vocal, portraying a demon of some sort... anyways, my idea was this couple dancing in moonlight, isolated, bathed in the glow, darkness all around... looming above them, but unable to harm them (their love or purity is keeping them safe), is a huge, foreboding demon-type thing, pissed off as all hell because he can't get to this sickeningly happy couple...

[Gothic Gerbil]

I'd still like to see Socar do one of a rat slaying a dragon ... sigh! ...

[Vgta]

Hmm I like this.
This is an idea that's been burning in the back of my head and I've been toying with the layout for awhile.
Seven Angels surrounding the eart, each Angel holds a vial that represents either seven sins or pestilence.
They are either standing on some Roman style dome or in the pitch black of outter space. These angels are not your standar toga wearing angels, more along the lines of fully clothed armored type angels, both male and females.

The other one is a seven headed beast (seven is a number that comes up in many religions but mainly judeo christian) anyway the seven head beast been ridden by a woman. Same idea, seven heads, seven sins, the would be shown as a temptress of sorts.

[Steven Stahlberg]

Cool ideas, keep them coming!
About the relative importance of a Good Execution versus a Good Idea, I think it depends on the genre a lot. To a portrait painter the ratio might be 90/10, while to a character designer or cartoonist it would probably be more like 10/90. Fantasy, Sci-Fi and Horror tend to need a ratio of about 50/50 to 30/70 to work... what do you think?
Comparing Buffy the movie and Buffy the series - a good example of the importance of execution. The same writer, the same idea, in the movie it was executed badly (by others), in the series done exceptionally well, and the difference is obvious.
But most of the other threads in Sijun concern execution, so I thought me might focus more on ideas here.

Here's half an idea, looking for its other half: A man made out of tin-foil. What's he doing?

[edible snowman]

a giant tree cutting down a man with an axe, or any kind of dancing midget, or a giant potato with legs fleeing a hunter with a buttered knife and some gravy, or a skeleton doing a tabledance, or a game of russian roulette, or a greasy man behind the counter of a 7-11 wearing a cowboy hat fingering a revolver under a sign that says "violators will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law," or something else thats actually a good idea. this is fun eh..

[Derek]

A dragon giving a modern day knight last rights.
An evil celery stalk, with evidence as to why it's evil.
Theme: Fight or Flight.
Daily life a board a starship, from an ant's point of view, and in storyboards with one or two illustrated.
People gathered around a television that isn't electronic.
Seven zebras, one stands out from all the rest.

[Queezy]

A hand drawing a hand, oh wait...

I've always been meaning to draw a sort of highway between the Earth and the moon. Along the "very" long highway there could be many cities, and I'm probably saying that on the road there should be accelerators to speed up a vehicle. You know, make the trip shorter. It's a rather abstract concept at this point, maybe one day I'll actually solidify it all.

[Socar MYLES]

Why was the celery arrested?

Because stalking is illegal.

[Steven Stahlberg]

LOL
I hate celery, why do chefs insist on ruining perfectly good food with it...

Good stuff. About "Russian roulette" - how about a group of thugs, each with a gun aimed at the head of the thug on his right, sitting in a circle, spinning a bottle on the table to see who gets shot? This could be a parable for war.

About the snake cavalry - how do the snakes stay in the saddle?? Intrigueing.

About brainstorming visuals to music, I used to do that, back when I had time to just listen to the music without doing anything else. Oh, the visions I had... can't remember any of it now. That threesome you mention of lovers and demon, that's interesting, there's an image in that somewhere... but I'd like to darken it a bit, for more drama... maybe they're holding the demon off with a torch that's obviously going to sputter out any moment? Torches and fire and such lend themselves to creating cool lighting effects.

Vgta, this popped into my head when I read your idea:
Seven angels of a terrifying beauty standing evenly spaced out around the earth (but we're close enough to only see some of them).
One is standing in the Atlantic (the water only reaching his armored calves), one in North America, one in Russia etc. Each is pointing a flaming sword downward, boiling the seas and the very atmosphere, huge rings of fire spreading outward...

[Socar MYLES]

Ehhh...they're very LONG snakes, and have attached themselves in coils around the horses' midriffs.

Yeah, that's it.

[Socar MYLES]

He's using part of his right leg to wrap a sandwich.

[greenmode]

koeau

ok, there's this scene with the camera pointing upward. almost like a fisheye lense. and there is this kid standing looking downward at the ground, towards the camera. you can barely see his face. in the background you see abunch of airplanes in the sky. and i really mean a bunch, almost like a braveheart war scene, but besides people, there are airplanes. you can only see the airplanes where there are lights of explosions in and out of the clouds.but on the ground there isnt anyone but the kid, in a desertlike enviroment...or maybe jungle, or something. at the bottom of the scene, next to the boy's feet, there is a skull, burried half to the ground.? or something...wait a sec... i think i already use that. he, hmm


okk, lemme tink of one more. draw a woman...a mother holding this bloody axe in her hand with her face looking like she's about to turn into something...bad. at the bottom, holding to her legs, are her kids giggling and smiling and all that. the mother is standing straight with a bloody dress. everything seems normal and famillike ...but her. bgah, this is a f*cked up idea. but just incase it's not , each kid is wearing one color of clothing, one is wearing red, the other is wearing brown, and the last one, which is the girl, is wearing blue. oh, and they have their ears cut off... Aggh, IM NOT A PSYCHO!!

[Steven Stahlberg]

Cool... hundreds of WW2 type planes (bombers?) coming our way through a turbulent dark red sky, this kid facing us... maybe he or she's lit from below, with a weird expression... It almost looks like the kid's controlling this vast armada.

[Speed3D]

The horror of ww2 as viewed in the reflection of a puddle of water by someone.

A WW1 dogfight complete with zepplins, biplanes etc.

A fawn split off from the herd grazing in a clearing with predators waiting in the shadows.

A faerie playing a lute on a jetty, with one foot in tranquil water, with audience looking on.

A crazed pianist.

[Steven Stahlberg]

I just did a sketch of the faery playing the lute, it's in the WIP section, didn't think I should put it here... c&c welcome. I'd like to do more of these ideas, but no time right now...

[AfterShoxX]

Hmmm, perhaps a Demon, not a particularly grotesque one, sitting on a dark morble block, elboe on knee, hand on chin, thinking, like its dawned on him that he is capable of good.

That thing with the seven Angels, except fleeing for their lives, terror in their faces. You see a man, dressed in all black, expressionless stance, just standing. A total white backround, focused on the face of a single angel fleeing, hands and arms sprawled out towards the man in black, with the man in black visible behind him and his eyes pointed at the angel, and maybe you can give him a horn or something as if hes of some significance apart from the others.

And uhh, something with big tree giants, not monsters, but benevolent giants that only do good, and only fight when their in danger. Tree giants are pimps, everyone knows that.

[Vgta]

Hey awesome to see this thread is getting more hits.
Steven, yeah I like that idea quite a bit. I'm trying to visualize the scale though. It would be like a long plate as far as the continents so we don't see the entire earth..hmmm. Well I could ramble quite a bit from here.
Okay another idea:
Along the lines of lossing a loved one through the ages, a series of three "paintings" with the same theme.
A knight, an army man and the third one I haven't decided yet. All these three men have fought and overcome some huge obstacle and are all beat up and almost broken, yet the idea of their loved one waiting for them has kept them alive. Finishing their quest they come back home only to find out that they are too late and their loved one has gone to the other side. What remains is but their shell (read their body)

[Affected]

Lucifer, the lightbringer.

(if you see the biblical myth of Adam, Eve, the snake Samael and the apple, as meaning our intellect is what separates us from animals, banishing us from "paradise" - a blissful state of ignorance - what would that make Satan? Misunderstood? How would this being feel about this? (assuming such a being could feel at all) And, of course, what would one paint on the subject?

[Steven Stahlberg]

Hm, tree giants, do they look like trees or do they live in trees?

An army man with a lost love - I see a WW1 footsoldier, british maybe, walking along a little country road with a big backpack, passing a loving couple. They only have eyes for each other, the soldier looks very tired and depressed, like he knows there's nothing and no one waiting for him at his destination.

Lucifer... maybe make him a handsome angelic type instead, seeing as he was an angel once (all this snake and horns and ugly stuff may just be the winner bad-mouthing the looser).
He's offering an open book to a naked savage Eve, symbolizing knowledge - he's looking sad but determined, as if he knows this knowledge will be a heavy burden for her to bear, but she must be allowed to choose for herself.
Eve is reaching for the book eagerly, too innocent and naive to clearly see the consequences of her choice.
Adam may be there too, trying to stop Eve, not because he's wiser, but because he's afraid of the unknown... (of course later when Eve has read the book and gained the knowledge, Adam comes around and wants it too.)
Or maybe it should be the old glowing apple symbol instead, to clarify that this is the Fall from Grace and not your ordinary missionary guy with a Bible.

[Teaweed]

An idea I've had for a while: Stormy sea and sky. In the foreground there's a rock with a small girl flying a kite. The wind is blowing her hair and dress, and waves are breaking. In the distance there's a ship that looks like it's about to sink and scattered through the waves are pumpkins. Lots and lots of pumpkins, some of which are being smashed against the rocks in the foreground.

[Dryfire]

Well here are some ideas i had.. bit lack the technique and skill to execute them properly.. so i'm jsut savign them for a later time. Anyone can try to depict them though.. i wanna see how other people do it=D

1. I like new angles at viewing things from. I was thinking of illustrating an Apache helicopter becing shotdown, from the viewpoint of a soldier on the ground. This will also include the enemy craft that has just shot it down. This would not be a view from right below the craft, but perhaps several meters away, about thirty feet up in the air.

2. Me preferring spiderman, since he's my favorite character, but i suppose any character would work with this. My idea is to have a view from inside a building, looking out the window and seeing spiderman stuck to it on the outside, looking down at the city.

3. A scene of an ancient egyptian city. I've had many ideas on egyptian cities like this, but i just lack the technical skilsl to do it =D This city would be in the middle of a large peice of irrigated land, with several buildings rising about the water. Water would only be about 4 feet deep throughout the city, and have many large temples and buildings throughout the city. The view would be from a bird's eye... several hundred meters away fro mthe city, with the sun rising up behind the city (or sun setting) and reflecting on the water aroudn the temples and such.


Well thats all i got for now.

[Steven Stahlberg]

Smashing pumpkins, hm, won't most people think that's a pun? I love the idea visually. Stormy rocky coastlines always make wonderful imagery.

Spiderman from inside the window!! LOL I love it!!

The ancient city with the water also sounds very interesting. Would they use walkways or little boats?

BTW I updated the singing faery image in the WIP section.

[Steven Stahlberg]

A few environment-ideas:

An enormous circular waterfall in the middle of a calm ocean. We can't see the bottom, spray-mist rises out of it like smoke out of a pipe. In the center is an equally huge tower, reaching up way past the mists. Anyone like to develop that or change it? Are there several of these crater-like waterfalls in view? Where does the water go? What does the sky look like? Does anybody live in the tower, and if so how do they get in and out?

A big building in the shape of a Ferris-wheel, rotates slowly, one circuit in one month or so, so all apartments get a part of the same view. (Each flat counter-rotates around it's own axis as well.) The design of it looks more like a fat tire than anything else. Could be fun to imagine some kind of disaster or powerfailure in there.

[bld]

An angel being cast down from heaving, falling backwards from the clouds, wings flowing past the front of her, stressed and pushed forward from the speed of the fall.
Fire is flowing around the angel as well from the speed and some feathers beging to burn.

A man nervously sitting at a bus stop. He is middle aged, well dressed (3-piece suit with jacket slung over left shoulder), but unshaven and unkept (his short brown hair is mess). He seems to be in a hurry. He is leaning against a street light pole, smoking a ciggarette while anxiously looking in the direction the bus should come.

[LoTekK]

continuing with the fallen angel motif, here's an idea i've been wanting to translate to paper to eventually become a full-sized tattoo on my right shoulder blade:

a fallen angel, but seeking redemption... he's on his knees, wings tattered and torn, looking towards heaven from where he fell, arms raised, palms facing up... a look of pure anguish on his face...