Loyalist Portrait Series

[thespaceinvader]

Dude. Holy freakin AWESOME.

People need to use more HIs now...

[Corvvs]

Dude. Holy freakin AWESOME.

^ agree.

[beetlenaut]

This forum is a wasteland of failed HI and shock trooper portraits. Everyone wanted a portrait, but couldn't seem to pull it off. No one else needs to bother now.

[AI]

Committed the heavy infantry in r31979, waiting for Kitty's go-ahead with the shocktrooper/iron mauler.

[Jetrel]

Just a quick comment for now. Might edit this post later with a WIP of the iron mauler.

the only nitpick I can throw at you is that the seargents face looks like an old, silly man, instead of a low-ranking new officer....but that's just me.

The way I see it, every officer of the sergeant line ought to be a battle-hardened veteran. Rather than a "new" officer, it'll take a professional soldier to lead a squad of fresh recruits. Young people on the battle field would be either peasants, low-rank soldiers, or mounted knights raised among nobility youth.
So I'll try to tone down the silly, but do expect age and scars even from the sergeant.

Although in terms of "concept", I agree that the sergeants (specifically only the sergeants, and not what they level into) are meant to be greenhorn, fresh-from-the-academy trainees, I don't see the portrait contradicting this. It looks fine as it is.


Long story:
Sergeants in game can't lead any soldiers - it's only when they become lieutenants that their leadership is acknowledged by their fellow troops. This is kinda retconning for the game mechanics. We basically had a sergeant unit for a few years now that gamewise has never been able to lead troops; I wrote that into the description to account for that oddity.

But this portrait looks fine. If, knowing this, lordbob wants to make something more 'green', and make this the lieutenant instead, that's his call. Personally, I think it would be fine to have the L1 sergeant looking all tough, though. It gives a nice flavor to the game to not cave into visual clichés.


Also, lest we forget, these are all looking very cool. It's also neat/informative to see what the early construction stages look like.

[JW]

LordBob.....holy crap....if you ever want to create some UMC portraits, the EOM would welcome your talent.

[Kestenvarn]

The shock trooper is fantastic!

[Sgt. Groovy]

The Shock Trooper portrait perfectly demonstrates the "inhuman war beast" aspect, but the weapon unfortunately vanishes into the background. I see no reason why it couldn't be made a bit lighter and shinier than the armour to make it stand out better.

[TrashMan]

LordBob.....holy crap....if you ever want to create some UMC portraits, the EOM would welcome your talent.

Who wouldn't welcome his talent?

[kitty]

as all the others already said: great work as usual.

but on a more technical side - could you please mirror him? atm the shield gets cut at the right side, which is bad. thanks you

[woodmouse]

I'm drowning in jealousy. You're so great at making portraits, I can't believe my eyes!

[faring]

I just registered on the forums to tell you that you are a god
seriously, these are amazing
have been kinda lurking here watching each portrait develop and thought i should actually say something
so keep up the brilliant work!

[Orcish Shyde]

I like the sergeant, but it doesn't look dignified for the marshal to be grasping at a weapon. I've always imagined the marshal in "portrait pose" kind of pose, gallant, even a bit pompous, maybe holding the helmet under one arm and holding a marshal's staff in one hand.

Bearing in mind, a marshal in Wesnoth is a warrior, first and foremost. These aren't the kind of people who hide in the officer's tent posing for portraits, these are people who have seen far more than their fair share of battle and are leading raw recruits from the front. "Portrait pose" makes me think "arrogant noble who's yet to be within a mile of a military operation" rather than "dignified hero of a thousand battlefields", so I'd say having a General/Marshal with sword in hand is completely appropriate.

Also, before I forget: These portraits are all AMAZING.

[LordBob]

I see no reason why it couldn't be made a bit lighter and shinier than the armour to make it stand out better.

Actually if I felt too lazy, that'd be good enough a reason. But since it's an easy repair, here you are! Shinier morning star and that's the last I'll ever hear about that weapon

Kitty: I didn't mirror the picture : it just doesn't work - somehow, the mirrored image felt harder to read and didn't satisfy me.
Instead, I slightly reduced the shield so that it isn't cropped anymore.

Various Sergeant comments duly noted, will take them into account when shading.

Last but not least, here's the raw for the revised marshal, following Groovy's proposal of a more dignified pose. Suggestion #2 (is that Charles Quint ? Face is familiar anyway) really caught my eye, so I grossly copied.
Regarding the debate wether high ranking characters should or shouldn't look aggressive, I'll say there's quite a number of armoured units among Loyalists. If all of them are shown weapons on the ready, players will end confused. Therefore, I'm in favour of varying poses and attitudes, hence my final choice.

[thespaceinvader]

As regards the marshall, if you feel up to it, completing both would be ideal - as with the orc warlords, there are a lot of human marshalls who appear as villains, so a couple of alternatives would be good for scenarios where you face more than one at a time. The new one looks great, too.

I'll leave it to kitty for the final word, but i think the flip was probably also because all the portraits are generally left-aligned on the screen, so to have him facing slightly left means he's staring off the edge of the screen. EDIT: it seems to read fine flipped to me. Possibly it looks otherwise to you because of that commonplace thing called artist bias - you made it, so the way you made it looks best to you, or w/e.