[caster]

Its completely annoying.
And lately it became fashionable to do speed paintings. I hate it. the guy says; "oh hi, i did this in two hours or so" and then posts something i would work a year on and it would still look crappy.
Like this:
http://mediamaster.deviantart.com/art/Rihanna-Speed-Painting-78168125
http://mediamaster.deviantart.com/art/Jessica-Alba-Speed-Painting-56131404


Like seeing something like this illustration above isnt enough to destroy any will to learn of any beginner.


-
Maybe it would be worth thinking about getting in there and providing those people and artists with a channel to express their skill in more valuable manners?
Like doing art for iron towers games?
Many of them do regular jobs for games, or bands and cd design and so on.
But many dont have a proper outlet.

Everyone is making and just inventing all kinds of competitions overthere, all the time.
If someone would just make an AoD competition - 1st prize : free copy of the game, boxed set and opportunity to draw art for one of the future projects etc..

And then youre in... what was that last number... 100 million members...yeah, something like that

just sayin...

[Gregorus Prime]

That first map you posted is really nothing special. There are some guys over at The Cartographer's Guild who hammer that shit out like crazy. Lots of automatization techniques involved. Those paintings, though... Jesus Tap-Dancing Christ.

I think Vince and co. are well beyond the concept art stage of things.

[caster]

I know that first map was nothing special.
Looky here:
http://www.irontowerstudio.com/forum/index.php/topic,728.msg22495/topicseen.html#msg22495

newb...

[Morbus]

That guy paints like chinese play ping pong. Holy marshmallows!!! I painted like that, I wouldn't speak, I wouldn't write, I would eat or walk or sleep. I'd just paint! And nothing else!

[Scott]

The artist did an amazing work and even helped us remodel not overly human characters.

What does that mean, that he tweaked certain avatar models?

A lot of these artists have no contact information whatsoever, so I guess they're just doing it for the lulz.  (Not that I could offer more)

[Zach]

Portraits are awesome. All kudos to the artist.

Any chance of maybe trying a convince roll to make him do a new world map? Something like this :

http://saktoth.deviantart.com/art/Map-28921107
http://johnmccambridge.deviantart.com/art/DunnaMallacht-129834720
http://suirebit.deviantart.com/art/Drakko-the-edge-of-the-Realm-74110275
http://suirebit.deviantart.com/art/Immortal-Guardians-105792589

Just to clear up a few misconceptions here, those are actually mattepaintings.  They are photographs retouched, generally used as backdrops in movies for things they couldn't or wouldn't want to build.  http://www.mattepainting.org/

And lately it became fashionable to do speed paintings. I hate it. the guy says; "oh hi, i did this in two hours or so" and then posts something i would work a year on and it would still look crappy.

http://mediamaster.deviantart.com/art/Rihanna-Speed-Painting-78168125
http://mediamaster.deviantart.com/art/Jessica-Alba-Speed-Painting-56131404

Speed paintings are done as an exercise in value or colour, the objective is to avoid any unnecessary detail and focus on practice.  It's not a contest of how long they took, the time stipulations should be to control the amount of detail and nobody else cares.  None of these are actually concept art or paintings, try here for more info...http://www.conceptart.org/forums/

The artist did an amazing work and even helped us remodel not overly human characters.
What does that mean, that he tweaked certain avatar models?

Nice.  The models look good as always, just wanted to clear this stuff up in case anyone is interested.

[Gareth]

Heh, to echo Zach, yes, those are matte paintings guys. It's like touching photos up with photoshop...but with a guy painting on a photo instead of using a clone tool.

Paint has now been superseded by digital images created using photo references, 3-D models, and drawing tablets. Matte painters combine their digitally matte painted textures within computer-generated 3-D environments, allowing for 3-D camera movement.[6] Lighting algorithms used to simulate lighting sources expanded in scope in 1995, when radiosity rendering was applied to film for the first time in Martin Scorsese’s Casino. Matte World Digital collaborated with LightScape to simulate the indirect bounce-light effect[7] of millions of neon lights of the 70s-era Las Vegas strip.[8] Speedier computer processing times continue to alter and expand matte painting technologies and techniques.

So, for example, taking a photo of a landscape, building a 3D textured building, rendering the building with radiosity, 'shopping the building into the landscape, then painting over that to make it look more "painterly" and to add details like clouds or modify mountains into structures unlike Earth structures.

It looks cool and all, but it's not "painting" in the traditional sense, don't get too awed. 

[caster]

Could you two move out of the way?
Shush... shush... move...

You have your own forums to post art if you wanna show us how its really done.
You want a link?

A lot of these artists have no contact information whatsoever, so I guess they're just doing it for the lulz.  (Not that I could offer more)

Its easy to send a note to anyone once your registered.
And good competitions spread through quickly.

Lots of talent there, among the grains.

[caster]

Shush i said! 

http://arcipello.deviantart.com/gallery/

http://browse.deviantart.com/?qh=&section=&q=games#catpath=gameart&order=9&q=games
there is a little nice menu on the left so be kind, browse a little into categories.


and a new one from one of my favorites
http://blackeri.deviantart.com/art/Moths-126856849

[Wrath of Dagon]

Heh, to echo Zach, yes, those are matte paintings guys. It's like touching photos up with photoshop...but with a guy painting on a photo instead of using a clone tool.

That's what I thought they were, though I have no actual knowledge of the technique.