TAM artwork

[bera]

Hello all. Going to be posting the portraits for Bob The Mighty&jb's to be yet in the production campaign The Altaz Mariners here. For the moment some of the main characters:

Largo: (Thug) Headstrong, sarcastic and aggressive - but not dumb.
Hugo: (Poacher) More cautious and cunning than Largo, but no less grisled.
Marco: (Footpad) The elder brother who betrayed Largo and Hugo. I guess he will look older and somewhat ravaged. Bearded?

So far I have the linework for Hugo and Marco:

[thespaceinvader]

Both their faces are very tall and thin - I suspect you need to shrink the face area, whilst keeping the top of the head the same. Otherwise they look very good =)

[Fog]

I agree. But if your going for that look, you've pulled it off well.

[bera]

Okay. Agreed TSI&Fog, though the angle of the head for the second one should explain for that. However I developed some problems on Largo portrait: Arms+hands were funny, also wanted to match a more realistic style as to the Hugo portrait. So a second try for the linework for Largo:

While I'm at it let me also put the flats for Hugo as I'll start shading it.

As I post this I notice a possible perspective problem on the club btw.

[bera]

Hugo shaded...

[jb]

Cool.

[bera]

I was still not so happy for Largo. Wanted to change him again ><. I like this one far better, as the previous one had a way too much of an fashionable hair

Plus some minor tweak on Hugo portrait.

[thespaceinvader]

Largo's head is way too big for his body. It makes him look very young, like 14. Shrinking the head by maybe 10% shoudl fix this. Otherwise he looks good.

The issue I see with the Hugo portrait is that the designs on the fabric don't conform to the shape of the underlying material much, if at all.

But nice work overall =)

[Fog]

I was still not so happy for Largo. Wanted to change him again ><. I like this one far better, as the previous one had a way too much of an fashionable hair

Wha?! Whats wrong with that, lol? Largo looked like me if I chopped off a good length of my hair!

More seriously, I do prefer the second Largo. He has a dynamic pose and has expression, which the third one lacks. Also the third one looks... Bloated. It's the combination of the squinted eyes, the collar, and his chubby face. I think that this Largo, if you plan to use it, could use a better sculpted face.

[Bob_The_Mighty]

Possibly a bit late, but I still like the expression of the first Largo. His clothes seem more fitting too.

As for Hugo, his hair looks a bit monkish to me. Maybe he could have stubble, or bit of a scar down that cheek to make him seem a bit rougher.

Otherwise, impressive.

[johndh]

I think the issue with Hugo's hair is that it looks rather neat, as if it's been recently cut. Maybe making it a bit shaggier, and giving it some length in the back would help, assuming we're going for the unkempt outlaw look. One, two. (The irony is how much time that man must spend on his hair to make it look like he doesn't care for it. )

Edit: I just realized that this suggestion would make it look almost exactly like Largo's haircut. Amazing how I didn't notice that before.

[Fog]

Ironically, I recently got a haircut and I now look like Largo! But yeah, Largo and my haircuts are not mean looking.

[bera]

Thank you for the response guys.

TSI: Yup, yup, I was hoping no one would notice but yes, the patterns don't match with the geometry of the clothes indeed. Well, it was my first try at decorating something with a brush pattern, so I guess I was just too excited to notice it at that moment... Btw, let me ask a technical question: I'm using GIMP and as far as I can tell, the only way to rotate a brush is to put in a separate layer and rotate the layer instead, which feels.. so not practical - anyone knows a better way to do this??

Bob: As a matter of fact I fancied him with a *monkish* hair. I don't know anything about his background, I guess for a smart (educated?) person at that times such a style seemed fitting to me. Of course, I do agree on something like a scar that could nicely contrast with his boyish look, would do him nice though.

So these said, I'm going to give Hugo portrait another haul up taking your comments into consideration.

On the other hand, as I was so fond of the last Largo portrait I spent some time shading it. I resized the head, and tried to
get rid of his bloated (which I so liked) features, swapping them with sharpish features.

edit: i'll tighten the belt, and also will work on the shadows on his chest a bit, now thinking about it.

[jb]

Hey Bear, I just want to chime in with some thoughts. That last Largo looks great. That shading really turned out well. The earring is a nice touch. But he doesn't look like a grown man. He looks like a teenage lord. We have a young nobleman that it would be perfect for and I'd love to still use it for that role.

But for Largo, he is both a gruffy man and a criminal. Both the heroes are criminals, who have done hard time in a cold cell. I imagine some tattoos and unshaved facial hair.

Anyway, as I've said a million times, I'm not very good with art, so maybe Bob can chime in with some more specific direction.

cheers

[bera]

Hey jb. Aye, I completely agree with you there, and I added a beard (this so reminds me the episode evil bender from futurama btw ), some hair on arms, and a tiny scar to his face. I'm contend that these gave him more a gruffly character, but it's yours to decide. (As I have mentioned in game, I don't think such an attire will fit to a lordling, whether he's a rebel or not, that's why I'm trying to salvage this one for our Largo. )

Also I reshaded the Hugo portrait, giving him a stubble of beard and tried to arrange the clothing patterns on his tunic to match the geometry as best as I can.