Plaintive Ocarina Player - portrait in progress

[jkwchui]

Hello all! I discovered Wesnoth about a month ago, and admire the idea of open-sourced development. With practice I may be able to contribute a few portraits to WTactics or user-made campaigns. Here's a first try at a portrait of a sad warrior playing an ocarina. I'd like to solicit some feedback before moving on... Is this generally in line with what portraits ought to look? The eqp is kept pretty generic - are there particular faction/themes that this would fit?

The "IP" part of "WIP"

steps1-3_withbackdrop.png (125.25 KiB) Viewed 508 times

Plaintive ocarina player - WIP

And then, there is something generally wrong with the form, and I think it has to do with the facial features in perspective (far eye, lips), but I can't name it/fix it. The hands will need some reference to get right (and it's at an angle that I need a camera to get a reference for).

[Midnight_Carnival]

Well, granted that it isn't finished, and I never pretended to be an expert, but I think that so far that looks great!
-far better than anything I have churned out so far.

I especially like the way you're handling the armor.

Why's he playing the ocarina though? (no, seriously...)

[Telaron]

The only thing i can say, given the time I have right now, is that the armor on his right shoulder is pillowed.

[jkwchui]

He's a watchman and he's slacking off

Or he could be mourning the passing of a friend? I incline towards the latter.

What does 'pillowed' means?

[artisticdude]

I'm no portrait artist, but this is very nice. The one thing I will say is that if you hadn't said it, I'd still be wondering what that thing in his mouth is... at first I thought he was blowing up a balloon.

the armor on his right shoulder is pillowed

It's not pillowed exactly, but the light on the shoulder plate seems to be coming from a different direction than the rest of the portrait... although I might just be seeing that might be because the portrait isn't finished yet.

Pillow shading is where the object is brightest at the center, and grows darker towards the edges.

[eyerouge]

Sorry for the time it took to get something together for this piece, have been struggling with the wiki Here are my intial thoughts. Please take not that I don't consider myself an artist and that I don't draw nor paint anything myself, and that whatever I write is from a amateur layman's perspective. As such it may be valuable, since I believe that what I perceive could possible be seen by others as well. I also beg you to not pay attention to whatever I write that may seem very crazy - it probably is - I have never worked as an art critic (well, studied modern film a little & also aetsthetics at the dep. of philosophy, but that doesn't help much in here) and also lack knowledge about anatomy, lighting etc.

So, here goes nothing:

0. Nice piece! Although ocarina is pretty exotic instrument and could only be identified by people that already know what one is, I still believe it is very crystal clear what instrument it is if one was acquainted with it's existence beforehand. At the same time: Since most people are not aware of it, yes, it would make more sense to draw a common flute or something more along those lines in order to avoid confusion and reactions on that detail. This is however, nothing I personally care about much when it comes to WTactics, and I think you should go with whatever makes you happy: It's your baby - create it as you envision it and feel like.

1. This part is probably slightly oversized. What more, it's too much faced forward against us. Compare the angle of it with the angle of 2 & 3 and it looks like his arm is strangely rotated. Hrm.. or does it? I think it needs to be rotated the way I tried to show with the arrow.

4. A cleared "line" needs to mark out and differentiate the throat/neck from his cheek. As it is now it melts together, but I think you're perfectly aware of it already and that it would probably be mended when colouring.

5. Hand has some foonky finger positions. I understand this is because it is a frame of the guy that is in motion: He's playing, and you freeze a moment. But still, as it looks now I associate the finger positions and their "strange"/uncommon (for us) angles and placement combined with some of them being slightly "chunky" with mental disorders/handicaps since I have seen many individuals in such conditions use/keep their hands in very similar ways as you depict the right hand on the picture. As for WT, I have no problems with displaying handicapped people in the game. Things is however that I don't think it's our intention to give the viewer that idea in the first place.

8. But shield logo/graphics on a layer of it's own., so it can be easily shut off/replaced if needed.

9. The way his eyebrown is wiggly makes him look a little more "evil" probably. Also, this is/could very well be seen as his intensity and him being into the music. How would we react is he had raised eyebrowns instead? When is he in harmony with the instrument? Those questions need answering, along with if he's playing calm or aggressive music (ocarina suggests calm though, I think)

[Dragonchampion]

Aren't ocarinas exclusive to Legend of Zelda?

[artisticdude]

Aren't ocarinas exclusive to Legend of Zelda?

Nope.

[Valkier]

I...

What...

Who...

Uh...

Ok, the portrait has a lot of expression and mood going for it, which is very good so far. At the moment, I'd say his chest is looking very flat where it should probably be coming out a tiny bit due to pectoral muscles. He does seem to be missing a neck and his head seems just a tiny bit big at the moment however.

All in all, good job. Keep it up.

P.S. Werewolves are exclusive to Twilight.