Portrait: Queen

[Pickslide]

New Queen Asheviere Portrait?

[zookeeper]

I dare to say she really needs hair.

[Zhukov]

The nose looks very flat...like a boxer who has caught a few too many punches.

And Zoo is right about the hair. It should probably be noted that the story images show her with long hair.

[Ranger M]

She definately needs hair similar to the story pics, while your at it you could make sure that the face is the same too.

also the face needs more contrast, the shadows are far too light.

[Boucman]

there's something wrong with the dress, but I can't really figure out what.

the way it's done makes it look like it was ripped of. Not opened on purpose. I can't really tell why, nor how to correct it...

maybe because she has a pose where the dress shouldn't stick to her body that much...

[zookeeper]

Besides, showing that much skin just doesn't fit, in my mind (and it looks a bit like her dress is just about to fall off).

[Jetrel]

This is really well done. Of the things I especially, admire, the subtle lines in the face to indicate some age, yet not full-on "old age", hit the mark perfectly.


I am going to have to side with the rest of the gang on the "pro-hair" camp. I'm usually sympathetic towards unconventional character designs, but in this case, I can see only a few weak reasons to justify her baldness, and several stronger reasons against it. If nothing else, I imagine Asheviere as having some amount of vanity.


As for the dress/slit-front, I think what boucman may have seen is an inconsistency between the centerline of the abdomen and the hips surrounding it - the hips may suggest a different centerpoint than is there. Photoshop's Transform->Warp, or even Transform->Perspective could probably fix this really fast (applied to a copied section pasted as a new layer).


I should mention that your current style of skin shading (seen also in UtBS, and TEI) rocks.

[Pickslide]

Whoops! The things we forget sometimes! ;)

I fixed her hooked nose, which was looking a little strange, and here's the sketch! In case anyone was curious.

With hair all along.

Of course.

P.S. I can reframe it depending on whether the devs want it to be closer up or anything. I notice that portraits have been zooming in more and more as of late.

Edit: Upped reframed version

[Darth Fool]

P.S. I can reframe it depending on whether the devs want it to be closer up or anything. I notice that portraits have been zooming in more and more as of late.

I would reframe it so you either see more or less of her hips. While in your sketch it is obvious why the dress falls the way it does because you can see how her torso is twisted from her legs, the current framing makes it look like the dress is oddly twisted.

Nice work overall!

[Jetrel]

Nice work overall!

Yep.

P.S. I can reframe it depending on whether the devs want it to be closer up or anything. I notice that portraits have been zooming in more and more as of late.

I would reframe it so you either see more or less of her hips. While in your sketch it is obvious why the dress falls the way it does because you can see how her torso is twisted from her legs, the current framing makes it look like the dress is oddly twisted.

I very much agree with what Darth fool said, and I'd lean in the "more of the hips" direction.


Also, I'd like it if you could provide a post of "the whole thing" (obviously only what you've actually finished - I'm not asking for you to do additional work). The reason is - I'd like to, down the road:
• investigate ways to incorporate "full-body" pictures into the actual game
• vis-a-vis for the website
• It also makes a great bit of wallpaper/"marketing" clip art (t-shirts, anyone?)

[Pickslide]

Huzzah! I'm happy to see my portrait so well received. Full pic is no problem...

It *just* fits into the filesize limits.

Update Dec 4, 2006: Cleaned up some things, minor fixes to the face. I didn't want to eat up more room on the server so I just slapped it up here again.

[Sgt. Groovy]

The corkscrew curls look nice, but otherwise the hair looks like a huge fur hat. I guess it's because they it's of heavy, it's better in the skecth, when the hair are flowing in the air.

The far-side eye is too small, and the eye socket looks too shallow.

The breasts seem like they're under some strange repulsive force, even though the clothing looks like it should rather pull them together.

Then there's the pose. I guess it's some kind of symbolism, that her spine is as crooked as her soul (like evil men are often hunchbacks). If it's some kind of catwalk-sway you're after, though, it looks terribly awkward and unrealistic. Check out some fashion photos for reference (like this or this)

On the positive side, I totally agree with Jetryl that the subtle marks of age on the face work really well.

[Sgt. Groovy]

Oh, and the skull in the jewel is a nice touch (though maybe the skull as the "brand" of evil is a sort of cliché, perhaps a snake, spider, scorpio etc.?).

[zookeeper]

Looks mostly great.

I think the pose is very good. I especially like the overall "attitude", so to speak, as well as the legs and feet, which IMO are very nice looking. The costume is good, even if personally I'd rather not have that gap in the middle. I'm fine with the hair: sure, it looks more lumpy than in the sketch, but I don't think that matters. It sort of fits in my mind.

Things that don't look as good to me: her left hand - that finger thing she's doing just looks a bit out of place. Also, since I dislike that type of chin and I don't think she should be especially ugly , I wouldn't mind if you reconsidered slimming the chin down a bit, as I sketched in the attached image (just an example, no need to do it like that exactly). Oh, and I'd also remove the thing that looks like a nose piercing, for aesthetic reasons (I've never seen a nose piercing or other decoration that didn't make the face look worse). I don't like the idea of always depicting people as "pretty" (since that's inherently unrealistic), but still, it's hard to fight the tendency to want to remove features that aren't pleasing to one's own eye (of course, art is supposed to look nice, but...gah, maybe you understand what I mean anyway).

Good work!

[Jetrel]

I'll preface this by reminding everyone that "devil's advocate" comments like this are very welcome. Even in a case where he's criticising art by someone other than me, I (and everyone else concerned) learn something.

Also, this portrait is (more than) gameworthy as-is, even if I do agree with some of these comments. It's up to pickslide if he wants to make any edits.

The corkscrew curls look nice, but otherwise the hair looks like a huge fur hat. I guess it's because they it's of heavy, it's better in the skecth, when the hair are flowing in the air.

Though it looks acceptable, it's true there's some disconnect between the hair on the back, and the front curls. If pickslide wanted to add in several more "ringlets" of hair behind the front ones, that would probably be an improvement.

The far-side eye is too small, and the eye socket looks too shallow.

The far side eye is foreshortened a wee bit much, now that you mention it, but I disagree about the eye socket thing. Many people's eyes do not sink into their heads like you're describing (many do, but then again, many others don't). I don't know which groups do or do not have this - I've seen a goodly number of white people with "unsunken" eyes, but it's also an extremely prevalent feature on japanese faces.

The breasts seem like they're under some strange repulsive force, even though the clothing looks like it should rather pull them together.

I disagree, breast spacing/hang is rather variable in women, and the pull of cloth depends on the cut of cloth - in this case, the lack of side-to-side pull is actually rather accurate on pickslide's part, because the slashed dress would do that. If the "brassiere central join", joining the two sides (current one is covered by the jewel), were towards the middle or lower part of the breasts, then you'd be absolutely right, but by being at the top, the fabric won't cup to pull them in. It just hangs over them.

I've seen women with breasts exactly like this. In fact, in a curiously appropriate irony, said visual memories are often of some hollywood actress in a kitschy dress that no one other than a ... hollywood actress (or fashion model) would wear. That somehow seems appropriate for Asheviere.

Then there's the pose. I guess it's some kind of symbolism, that her spine is as crooked as her soul (like evil men are often hunchbacks). If it's some kind of catwalk-sway you're after, though, it looks terribly awkward and unrealistic. Check out some fashion photos for reference (like this or this)

As far as my judgement can see, I don't think her pose/spine are unrealistic, or awkward at all.

On the positive side, I totally agree with Jetryl that the subtle marks of age on the face work really well.

Gosh, I agree with this, too.