The Summoning

Spoiler

St. Yrvin's Day, 16th of Hunter's Moon
In the Year of Felgarven, 646​

The time had come. After months of waiting and preparation, the day when they were to summon the Instrument had finally arrived. Two hooded men watched as another hunched, cloaked figure poured black liquid from a goblet onto the underground chamber floor, drawing lines and circles with it as he went. It was Grumpig blood, milked from the fangs of a Golbat that had been feeding at midnight.

No other way, thought the hunched man, completing the sangrogram and returning to his other companions. There can be no other way.

The man set aside the onyx goblet, now empty, on a table. A jagged knife lay beside the goblet, as well as several bones that might have once belonged to a small rodent.

For a moment the three men were silent, as if waiting for the blood to dry. Then one of them spoke in a wheezy voice, "Snuff out the lights, brothers."

The cloaked men made their way to extinguish the only source of light in the chamber. One by one the purple candle-flames went out like dying stars. Darkness embraced the chamber. The men regrouped, and started chanting in unison:

Dark One, hear us...
Answer our call.
Send us the Instrument,
As we break the Wall.

At this, a third of the sangrogram burst into purple light.

Incarnate of destruction;
Author of Death.
The Wall weakens, Dark One...
Send us the Instrument.

Another third of the bloody Summoning Circle lit up ominously.

Born in shadow,
Sustained by lies.
Forged with a burning head...
And burning eyes.

Now the light from the sangrogram rose into eeriee flames; the purple embers danced madly against the darkness.

The Wall is broken.
Come forth.
We bid You.

CHANDELURE.

The last portion of the Circle was set ablaze.

Rise.

Spoiler

​

The Summoning​

Spoiler

The candles the cloaked men had put out relit and floated towards the Circle. The floor erupted swaths of purple flame, though none of the hooded acolytes caught fire. Then, from the sangrogram rose a grotesque figure, bulbous and blazing. The Dark Being gurgled as it spoke:



To the unknowing townsfolk above the chamber it would be meaningless garble. Some would consider it profane, even, but to the acolytes, who knew the Vilest Speech, the creature now floating before them was speaking perfectly clear: I am the Instrument of Malaccar; I am Chandelure.

No other way, the hunched acolyte thought again; elated he was that the Summons went as they had planned it. He knew that there were payments to be made, but that would come later. Much later...

Once again, the men spoke together and shouted:

"Strength to Malaccar! The Instrument has arrived! The Great Dæmon Chandelure has risen!"

Incarnate of destruction; author of Death.

Spoiler

I'm going for Litwick () instead of Chandelure, which requires a score of at least 55. This is layered art; for the background I used watercolors and cut up some Morocco paper for the bricks. On a separate sheet of paper I used colored pencils to draw Chandelure and the sangrogram/Summoning Circle, cut them up, and pasted it on the paper with the background. I did the same process with the acolytes, except I used watercolor to paint them. I stylized Chandelure on purpose to make it look more Dæmonic, haha. Afterwards I edited this on GIMP, most notably the flames. Signature is the double M on the middle acolyte.

 

@Ichy
Litwick - The summoning

Spoiler

Form/Detail
Theres a lot of detail I like in this image. The one that Ill point out first is the gloved hand, its really good, since I know how hard hands can be. its simple, yet has enough shape and shading to give it a decent look. The different bricks with mortar in between is also a nice level of detail. By using form, you make the three robed figures point to the central aspect of your piece, which is the pokemon prominently featured in the center. The image could seem a little busy to some though, especially in the fire. If one was not looking the pokemon could become lost in the purple maelstrom.

The mixed mediums were risky, but overall I think it worked out well and allowed you to showcase different talents in different ways. The fire is the most obvious aberration compared to the rest, but it isn’t so different as to be a bad things, it even almost looks like it was painted on afterwards to mesh nicely with the other painted segments.

Color, Texture, and Shading
FOr colors, everything works out with the complementary reds and pruples, the brown and grey adding in a bit of contrast. The best contrast would have to be the Chandelure’s eyes, very striking and centralized to bring attention there. Im kinda mixed on the color of the floor, it seems too bright in general for the tone of the image, shading could have done a lot for you there. Shading could actually have improved the mood in a few areas; the robed figures seem backlit as opposed to lit from the front, the floor is fairly uniform glowy, and the brick arches don’t receive much light from the flames so close to them. SHading isn't just shadows but highlights too. Colored lights will interact with the colors of surfaces, creating new colors and giving more colorful scenes if done correctly, it can add a lot to the image. While the aforementioned robes are backlit the shading is very well done. Ive never been good with watercolors so I give credit that you were able to do something like that.

There’s not as much texture as there could be here, it goes along with some of the finer shading points I mentioned. The best examples of texture that I can see would be the varied colorations on the brick wall and white arch stones, there's enough variation to create the look of aged, work\n down stone.

Pokemon Anatomy
Despite you having taken a few liberties with Chandelure, I would have to say it is still quite recognizable and well within acceptable limits. The face is truly creepy, it looks like its foaming purple with the evil. The purple flames give it a better sense of life than the traditional glowing ball, and the shading is fairly well done. it has both life and emotion as has been plainly displayed in your image. Chandelure seems like it is a bit large, but I could chalk that up to the medium as well as the supernatural nature of the image.

The only things that bug me would be that there only seem to be two arms, and that the ends of the arms seem to end in somewhat… ‘phallic’ representations.I know its a bit odd of a critique, but its there if someone was looking at it is a bit off putting, distracting from the dark and scary purpose of this image. I also would love to see the Pokemon’s eyes better convey its mood, right now they are lifeless and almost derpy, a few minor changes to them could have shifted the emotions one way or the other.

Environment/Perspective
I like the underground environment here. You’ve already set a gloomy, dim atmosphere with the low lit brick archways leading to darkness, and the drab robed figures in the foreground. These three layers give a good sense of distance and scale to the location, something not always noticeable in images. They way it all fits together makes for a good, clean, and precise image that very distinctly shows the viewer its intended message. Something that might have enhanced the image would be some more volume and meaning to the arches. Right now thay abruptly cut off the light, a fade to black instead might have given the viewer some sense of how far they went back.

Creativity/Effort
I like the different mediums blended together to create the image, it shows some creativity as well as the effort to cut out the different pieces and add them together successfully. You also added a bit of a story to the image, giving it more depth and tying everything together better.

Improvements
For improvements? Shading/lighting. its the one spot I can really see some changes making a major impact on the image, both in giving the correct light source placement as well as the colors associated with said light sources.otherwise just continue adding detail and depth to enhance the viewer’s experience of the images you submit.

Score
55/100

Despite the problems I outlined its still a good image, so Im granting you the ghostly lighter.

 

woops I never realized this got graded curated. Claiming after forever. Thanks Axion!