PRM MW: Spiderguts vs. Marcelino : Red Sonja

[marcelino]

Spiderguts
http://i1208.photobucket.com/albums/cc372/spiderguts2/PUMMELjuly2012.jpg

Marcelino
http://fc06.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2012/207/e/9/red_sonja_by_marcelinorodriguez-d58qxbl.jpg

[BringerOfStorms]

Went with Spiderguts for the tons of drama! Great work on both. I really like the color without inks on your piece Marcelino.

~BoS

[paintingfire]

Two great pieces! Spiderguts, I love the selective color, it really adds to the drama here.

[tudore]

Marcelino: love the winter setting and the birch trees for providing high contrast.
Spiderguts: stark, dramatic, and though the hair being the only colored element was unintentional, it works very well.

[Aabh]

Went with Spiderguts: More drama, and I know you wanted to color more, but the flaming red hair all by itself really REALLY works. If you had colored this piece, it would have ruined that.

[scmarooney]

Both of these are really good. I think both are great representations of the Red Sonja character! I went with Spiderguts this time out, because the inclusion of the children, the torch, and the night-environment in that illustration really ramped up the level of drama!

Nice job to both on this one!

[Fallenangel]

Great job guys! Voted for Spiderguts because of the already mentioned above "drama".

Fallen.

[shannonh]

Great pose spiderguts!

[Walril]

Marc's piece is blocked at work. Subbing so I can look at it later.

[dreno360]

This is a MW battle!?!?! both of these illustrations show a respect for the character of red sonja. Spiderguts gets my vote but both artist get my respect for sure!

[ghostcat]

Spiderguts' composition, anatomy, and perspective are all great, and it got my vote, but here's what knocks it out of the park for me: I absolutely love the story of the sword shadow shielding their eyes against the enemy. You know the experienced mother, with her closed eyes crying, knows the true horror of what's coming after them, while the open eyes of the child shows the naive curiosity of youth, and the face shows a mixture of terror at the enemy and awe for Red Sonja. This is either incredibly well thought out, or you are just an instinctively good storyteller with your art. Either way, kudos!

One nitpick is that the grey gradient looks a little like a bad scanning job. I would have preferred crosshatching or solid greys for the torch lighting.

Marcelino, your artwork is great too, but Spiderguts killed it for me with the story.

[NewYorkPicasso]

Both of you killed it. And I agree with Dreno, this work is above Middleweight.

[thEbrEEze]

You guys brought some good stuff to the table. Love the character. Had to go with Spiderguts for the drama.

[Juggertha]

Spider has got a LH+ piece there.

[marcelino]

Thanks everyone, I agree that Spiderguts definitely brought it. Very awesome piece!

[basil81]

Spiderguts gets the vote, the piece has depth (or at least starts to have depth until we get to the lack of rendering on the stone work), and despite it being a bit of an oft-worn cliche, the red hair contrasted against the B&W actually looks good here. Another thing is that since the only immediate source of light is that torch (the moon would cast a muted glow rather than any stark illumination), it should have been indicated more effectively with further shading.
Marcelino, the rendering on that wooden shield looks great, and is the best thing about the piece. The background isn't dramatic enough, there is no context of danger to justify her running. Is she running from something? What is it? Also, that photoshop smudged red part doesn't look like it belongs there at all.
Spiderguts gets the vote.