Save us, oh Lord from the portraits and animations!

[A-Red]

Only parts of it are quite dark--the helmet, beard, and sword, I'd say. Also, there's something about the sword that bothers me. I think it's at an awkward angle in relation to the arm holding it; The sword would need to be pointed much lower, or else the arm would need to be held out more.

[Girgistian]

Alright, issues hopefully solved.

[Turuk]

This can be ignored as it might be too much or inconsequential to fix, but the angle of his head, sword and shield combined with the bent knees all seem as if he is leaning backwards at the waist. I think this comes from the fact that his shoulders appear to be behind his hips, and if your knees are bent that much and you try to do that.... well, try it.

You are fine with only a slight bend, but the more you bend your knees, the more such a lean back will deposit you on your butt.

[Girgistian]

Righty, how 'bout now?

edit: pffft, [censored] it. gonna see to this again later today, maybe after sleeping for a few hours

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edit 2: while I'm still drawing, here's a first crack at vaeringjar portraits. I present thee the fyrd. It looked better when I saved it on photoshop :/. The face and the hair probably need a lot more care, at the moment they're a bit distracting and fuzzy. It looks a great deal better if you cover the face with your hand

[Cloud]

Jarl is looking very good.

The Fyrd portrait has great potential, and I like the concept a lot (and it's certainly a thousand times better than anything I could make).

[Girgistian]

Thanks. Here's a hopefully finished version of the jarl, and at least an enhanced version of the portrait. Next up is the base frame for Carl (as an idea, we could also use Karl).

[Turuk]

Just echoing what Cloud said, the Jarl looks great now, and it's nice to see you are working on giving them portraits as well. This faction would make great campaign material.

As far as critique, the perspective on the knife in his hand looks odd.

[Flameslash]

To me the Knife is a different shape to its holder. Can you fix this or is it just me?

[thespaceinvader]

A few things strike me:

* His brows are very flat - this is something that you do in a lot of your pics. Human eyebrows simply aren't that horizontal.
* The direction of the knife blade doesn't agree with that of the handle and hand - you either need to turn the had so we see more of the back of it, or foreshorten the knife blade more. The knife also looks rather too wide to fit the scabbard.
* It's all a bit pillow-shaded - there's no real definitive light source, just a general feel of light from the front - this means that the whole thing lacks volume somewhat, and feels more like a frieze than the 3D shape. Giving it a more definitive light source and being a little braver with deep shadows and bright highlights would go a long way to averting this.

But overall, it looks like an excellent rendition of the sprite. He's timid and a little scared, as befits a level 0. It's gratifying to see units being developed in parallel like this - sprites and portraits together, by the same artist. It makes for a very unified and coherent feel.

[Girgistian]

His belt buckle's the wrong way around as well

...pillow-shaded...

That's a traumatizing word. Basically means a complete repaint. I'll get back to this some day later and try to see to the issues raised, thanks. In the meantime, there's a good bunch of L2 sprites to be made.

[thespaceinvader]

It's tough, but that's art, unfortunately - you can avoid it next time if you plan out your lighting in the early stages before you fill in the details too much.

[Quietus]

The sprite is very nice, though the blade could use a little AA.

[Girgistian]

[censored] sleeping, there are sprites to be done!

No anti-aliasing for the jarl's blade for now, I'll probably add it when finalizing the L2 sprites like I did with the L1 ones.* I present thee the carl instead (attacks include 10-3 blade with the axe, 5-1 blade with a thrown axe, and 5-2 impact with those bursting biceps)

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carl2.png (5.52 KiB) Viewed 3418 times

I wasn't sure if the belt is enough for the tc, so I made two versions. You can be the one to decide if he should have pink pants or not.

*one ones?

[A-Red]

I was just wondering if I'd get to see more of these soon! I love the new one, you've got the attitude and intimidation factor just right. I wonder if his head shouldn't be back (to our left) one pixel or so, or his shoulders hunched about that much forward. Also, I'm not sure if it's possible with the amount of space you have, but the beard looks like it could use a little bit more texture.

(Edit: oh, and personally I like him better with only the belt TC'ed)

[Turuk]

I would say go with the TC pants, as it does not look too flattering in pink, but when the belt and the pants match in a team color, it will fit pretty well.

I have to agree that either his right shoulder should come forward and hunch down a bit more or the head should move over possibly, as it currently seems as if his head is sitting too far over. This is emphasized by it visually appearing to face more to the right while his posture is more open towards the viewer.