Blitzed it big today, might not have much more time to spend on it:

---

Starbuck:

Space thats way better!!! is it like a snowdome? i like it anyway!!

I was toying with that idea... not sure now since I doodled this frame

---

Great work everyone!

Eaglecaste your angel is so lovely. I love the shape of the hand. Looking forward to your progress on this one.

Sinistral-your angel is also quite a beauty. I like the pose and especially the hands. Nice work. 

These weeklies go too fast !

Eaglecaste - Thanks. I'll try to take part more often, even if I only manage a sketch.
Great pools of light on the face and hands. Top shading.

Spacepenguin - Thanks. Your second castle is definately more ethereal. I prefered the plain circle though.
The new border kind of overwhelms all the subtle shading.

apprentice - like that abstract feel to the pic.

robin - always like your costume designs. Now which one to choose ?

tomagnetti - cool angle and story developing.

starbuck - like the messenger idea. Armour is looking great.

sinistral - love the backlight and transparent wings. She's looking a bit masculine though.
Then again, angels are often portrayed as androgynous.

seamanarts - nice smooth soft relaxing colours.

Second WIP. Wasn't keen on his face so blotted it. It's kind of turned into a mask.
Will probably keep it fairly loose.

---

"Because you're worth it !" - Jovovich

http://jakdaw.deviantart.com/

Jackdaw:

Spacepenguin - Thanks. Your second castle is definately more ethereal. I prefered the plain circle though.
The new border kind of overwhelms all the subtle shading.

Yes you are right about the border. I like the frame but not for this image. I shall file it away - watch out for it in future challenges 

 

---

OK, I have tried to get it to a submittable state today in case I don't get any more spare time. Anything obvious let me know.

 

---

Wow getting bust around here!  Thanks for the comments Jackdaw and Red'- much appreciated.  I dont find hands too difficult, I have read and see some great tutorials but faces I do find hard and Jackdaw is right.  I think 'her' face does look a bit masculine.  I like the idea that Angels are androgynous,a great get out clause lol!  I might actually need to do some work on softening the face. 

 Spacepenguin- definitely the round border.  Focuses on the image better.  Perhaps put an angel in the foreground, putting the castle into a context?

Jachdaw-  As already said, great pose and style.  Glorious wings.  Figure reminds me of the style Joseph Michael Linsner.  Good stuff

Eaglecaste- Great as usual, although the hand does look long in the mainbody of the hand.  Fingers look fine and I love those wings! What's the secret?

Seamanarts-Love the colour scheme.  Great contemplative pose.  Look forward to seeing more

Robin-  Looks good as usual, keep plugging at the face (if you see what I mean) I know you can do it!

Starbuck-  Kudos for going with the full metal armour.  That's tough to do and its looking great so far.  Lets see another wip

---

You can't build a reputation on what you're going to do.

Sinistral, my pleasure.  

SpacePenguin, nice revision. Now your border no longer competes with your main image. Much better. :)

Your image is pretty symmetrical. (the clouds, the towers) As a result the heavier side of your cliff (left) keeps drawing my eye. Which distracts from the over all image. I'm not saying it should be perfectly symmetrical. I can see this is more organic than that. But still, it seems a bit heavy.

I love the isolated tower idea. :) 

I  haven't read Scar Night, Starbuck, though I'd like to check it out. Who's the author?

Kaz and Wendy, I use pictures of Kate Bush for my ref as to hand size, mind you in that Wuthering Heights video she has hands like paddles!

Sinistral, I know where you're coming from with your dissatisfaction with the face of your angel. I had the same problem last week with Metamorphosis. You do right to get on with the rest of the image and not let the face distract you. You can alway go back to it. I'll definately revisit my butterfly woman. As to her looking too masculine..not sure I agree but either way, just like the angel in the film Constantine, androgyny isn't necessarilly a bad thing. I love the way you've tackled the wings. It gets you out of doing endless feathers.

Speaking of feathers, this is my second attempt at angel wings. Long long ago, when I was a traditional air brush artist, I ruined a piece by botching the feathers. I painted eagle style feathers instead of big fluffy Barbarella angel wings. This style of wings suits my soft round brush perfectly.

Space, that's a big improvement. 

Thanks Red Ninja.

Cheers Jackdaw.

---

Any rules on using photos? Thought I might try something different (if I make time)

---

Sonofwolfhound3:

Any rules on using photos? Thought I might try something different (if I make time)

I 'aint sure. I know that if you use them and don't declare it you get hammered. I'm sure Kaz or one of the Mods will pipe up soon enough.

---

I've done a bit more - not sure about my use of stronger colour though.

 

---

Ars sine scientia nihil est
Skill without knowledge is worthless.

nice idea of using Kate as a ref eagle! man why do i never think of those things!!

Sonof, it depends how you are using the photos and who's photos they are i guess, are you thinking of doing a matte painting kinda thing? There's no rules against it, so as long as you are sensible and not nicking images etc, (which i know you wouldn't anyway) i'm thinking it will be fine. i know we've had entries with photographic elements in anyway. i'd say go for it. 

---

wow, everyone's wips looking good this week.  Let's see if i can finish this one in time...should be intresting.

 

Wow lots of really great work, everybody has been really busy. I haven't had time to do much around here but I could not resist when I saw this topic. Apparently I need to do more paintings of existing characters and less of my own. So I'm going to try and get in on these challenges when I see an opening that fits the topic and some fan art at the same time.

So if there are any Death Note anime or manga fans out there you will recognize this guy, for everyone else his name is Ryuk. For times same I'll just say he is more or less an angel of death, known in Death Note as a shinigami.

 

---

Bunny Bunny I been thinking, what the heck have you been drinking?
Looks like water tastes like wine, Oh my God it's turpentine!