I agrea with you. It bugs me too. I tried to get it as close to my photo refrence as i could. And, the filters I used were limiting... I just couldn't get it totally the way I wanted.
Diving Unicorn by @BlackUniGryphon (Black UniGryphon)
I'm just so sick of seeing thesame old Unicorn illustrations!!!! You know- always profile, or rearing up in profile, or profile in mid gallop, of just the head in profiel... or it just standing there in profile!
In my mind a Unicorn is something of such spirit and energy! In motion! With moods, and passions, and an expressive personality! Lively and frollicksome! Nimble and agile!
That's a Unicorn!
I figured, since the old traditional unicorns of the Romantic Euro periods portray the unicorns by water or purifying water, that they'd probley be playful swimmer... like tigers! But, with spunk!
So, I made a unicorn diving!
I didn't think this would happen. I was just messing arround and the next thing I knew it just looked like this. It didn't takle that much time either...
I used a photo refrence. But, my refrence photo had the figure completely in solid, dark, silowet, shadow. I just wanted my drawning details shown better. So I acented the features witha bit of color....
I used allot of filters for the water... just played with all kinds of things.
Comments & Critiques (4)
Preferred comment/critique type for this content: Any Kind
Posted: Sunday, 02 October, 2005 @ 02:44 PM
This is beautiful! I really like the motion and emotion portrayed in this piece. The warm colors add a certain richness. I also like how you deviated from the typical unicorn piece. I don't think I've ever seen a black unicorn before. =) Plus, like you mentioned, it's frolicking and not just standing in a field or forest. XP
I agree with Klawzie about the water thing. It's extremely difficult to render water (trust me, my water looks like solid ground XP), but since the main focus is the unicorn, I'm not too bothered by it. =)
Great job all around!
Posted: Sunday, 02 October, 2005 @ 10:28 PM
Well, it's actually not suposed to be black. It's in Shadow on the side we're looking at... but, I wanted its hair to still catch the light. The refrence photo has a human figure in it, but you can't see any of the details on the figure. I spent so much time on my unicorn, that I still wanted to show some of the detail... even it it was just a little bit.
When I worked at Top Cow/Image Comics that did a peice for an add of Whitchblade and they also wanted to still show details even tho' it was mostly in shadow. I was trying to incorperate that same thing. :-/
Well, I think you did a lovely job. :) I particularly love the golds and oranges you used in the sunset coloring and the flowy hair.
My only critique would be that I would have liked to see more... water texture(?). Because the only real clue I have that (s)he is about to land in water is because you use the word 'diving'. :) I wish I could offer suggestions on how to make the water look mor elike water, but I've only ever twice rendered water the way I wanted it to turn out and both were rippling to the point of frothiness on the surface. ._. And I think you're going more for a glass-smooth look...
Anyway, again, I like it! :)