Concept art: Lightbearing Brigade

[Quoux]

You know, I don't really see why there is a non-starfox related forum, but hey, I'm not complaining!

This is my art thread for the awesome concept art for: The LightBearing Brigade. They are a group of "missionaries" that come from a civilised land down into the Land known as Darkness. The Land of Darkness is completely dark, except for a select few places. The creatures that inhabit it are the Demos, (Like demon but without the n), which are incredibly dangerous, but have a weakness to light. The other inhabitants are tribes of savage humans that have learned to live there with constant onslaught from the Demos, but they have either no religions, or a pagan one. The Lightbearing Brigade's mission is to change all of that; to bring light to the Land of Darkness, and to spread their religion.

This is a Lightbearing Paladin; his charge is to carry that staff so that he may fend off the darkness from the lightbearing camps.

This is a Lightbearing Boulder. Although he is carrying a hammer, they also may use other large swords. They destory the darkness before them, swoop by swoop.

I'll have more up later. Dunno when I'll have time to draw, next :-)

[CrypticQuery]

I'm loving the amounts of detail and work that have gone into both of the sketches; everything is a pleasure to look at, and the basic concept is also rather intriguing. For lack of a better way to put this, good job! :lol:

[Quoux]

Thanks! Yeah, the crosshatch style really does add alot of detail.

[Fluxy]

Well, I am jelly. I am pretty bad when it comes to giving full on 'Critiques' but I can easily say; Although this paladin-ish/holy characters aren't my thing, I really like your style of shading and detail work. Sorry it's nothing more big or complex.

[Quoux]

Oh no that's fine. I'm just glad you liked it! Yeah, the holy thing was just part of the idea. It's mostly symbolic.

[Xortberg]

Balls, I had a rather sizable post typed up and accidentally lost it. Welp, round two.

First and foremost, I'll make my one big complaint. This:

The Lightbearing Brigade's mission is to change all of that; to bring light to the Land of Darkness, and to spread their religion.

Really irks me. As I was reading your description, I thought that although the plot seemed a bit contrived and maybe just the tiniest bit cliched, it had potential. Then, you mentioned missionaries

But, that's just my own personal tastes, and I figured it was best to get my big complaint out of the way early. As for the art itself, I'm very impressed. Like you said, crosshatching allows for an interesting style and a lot of good detail, and you're pretty good at it. Plus, considering your whole 'Light vs Dark' thing you've got going on, a monochrome approach manages to highlight that nicely.

The armor design looks - coming from someone who doesn't know much at all about actual armor functionality - pretty practical and effective, and manages to convey pretty well just what exactly this group is all about. Some of the design choices seem a tad silly (is that a lightbulb on that guy's helmet? O.o) but given the context, they still manage to make pretty good sense so I won't hold that against it.

Overall, I really like your art and would definitely like to see more. I already have a soft spot for good, monochrome/pencil art, and you're good enough to really hit that spot.

[Quoux]

Thanks! I'm glad you like monochromatic, cause that's about all I can do lol I can't color at all. I did color the LightBearing Boulder, which I'll probably post later, but it is very below par. I just did it to show how these guys are colored. And yes, that's a lightbulb on his head x) It was requested, so I drew it. Again, the majority of this is symbolic, and a light appearing from someones head is a symbol for enlightenment. Also, they are supposed to keep the entire area around them lit, hence the light on his back and hammer. The idea was to make them serious, yet different somehow, so that they are unique.

Yeah, don't take the religion part seriously, if you don't want to. Although some symbols are a tad obvious, I am actually making a reference to Christianity. But, that is just a metaphor. It literally is just Light VS Dark. The main focus was on the European Imperial expanison into Africa, and the way they saw Africa at that time. Again, Europe was collectively Christian at the time, which sponsered the expeditions. If your problem with "missionaries" stems from religion also, well that is common, but what that actually refers to is the sending of any group of people to do things to better another place, such as in education or economy. It just turns out that many religions view their expeditions as "missions".

[Xortberg]

Like I said, that's just my own personal tastes making me have issue with the Christian imagery and the like, so I didn't mean in any way that I thought you should stop it. As for the lightbulb on the head, I love it. Silly, yes, but again, the context of it all makes it very acceptable, and I like silly anyway, so it's great.

[Quoux]

Haha, yeah, it is pretty silly . And I understand completely.

[Quoux]

As I said, here is a colored version of the Lightbearing Boulder.