Generic Orc portraits

[thespaceinvader]

Yes, another thread beginning with 'Before the crash'...

Girgistan and I were working on some portraits for generic Orcs. I'm not sure if the thread is still around, but I'll start a new one anyway.

The furthest we got with anything approaching final was the Grunt, which is attached. There was also some discussion about the general appearance of Orcs based on our work on SotBE as well as the images posted in the aforementioned thread. I'll try to re-state my views on that, so that the discussion can continue.

Jetryl stated that the orcs should categorically not have tusks in the Warhammer/Warcraft style. His suggestion was 'Wolverine-like' hair and teeth. Having been working on numerous orcs since then (and spent some time sketching whilst I was on holiday) I've come up with a possible set of ideas for the appearance of orcs:

Firstly, see the attached sketches.

Orc heads: Generally humanoid, with some more beast/ape-like elements. The forehaed slopes back quite strongly, and the brow is thick and heavy. The cheekbones are high up and strong. The nose is short and flat. The mouth protrudes forward quite a lot to give a slight muzzle-like appearance. The canine teeth are bigger and pointier - the overall appearance physically is somewhere beteen human and the recent adaptation of Planet of the Apes. The ears are long and pointed, though generally human aside from that. The facial hair is generally more sparse than a caucasian humans, tending to be stronger on the sideburns and weaker in the centre, though full beards do happen.

In colouration: the skin is generally thicker and ruddier than human skin, and doesn't come up to quite the same level of lightness, but has a broad range of tones. The hair tends towards red or brown, and desaturates rather than lightening with old age.

General physique: human, but heavily muscled - not necessarily massively toned, though. Short, bull-necks, big shoulders, long arms, but shorter, stubbier fingers. About as tall on average as humans. Overall, orcs are well-evolved for fighting and a tough life - strong brows and cheekbones protect the eyes, short, flat noses (i'd also thought about little or no cartilage in them) are less easy to break, thicker, tougher skin etc etc etc.

Minor orcs (assassins, archers, shamans) are similar, but shorter and less heavily muscled. The faces are somewhat thinner and less strongly boned.

Goblins are totally different. Their faces are much thinner and more rat-like, with pointed features. The ears tend to be bigger and more bat-like. Physically they are wiry and strong, but not big or heavily muscled. They max out at about 4'6" in height. (see attached image (i did also do a side-view, but it really didn't work), which also includes some speculation about the genetic nature of the split in the orcish species between major orc, minor orc and goblin - it seems to make sense to me... there's a term for that sort of gene, but i forget it.)

I invite discussion. IN fact, it's the main reason for posting.

[Longbow]

The portrait so far looks great but it will probably be hard matching these to the style of Kitty as orcs are so different to humans/elves and no-one really seems to know what they should look like

[miekka]

I think it's quite nice.

[Girgistian]

Hmm... How about a more canine than apish approach? If we are to stick to the wolverine-line, then I think monkeys aren't the place to start from, maybe a less intelligent and more instinct-based animal. If the goblins should have rat-like features, then maybe give the orcs some of the same characteristics (which is where the idea of a canine species comes to mind, even though rats might not be that. Not sure though)? A more snout-like nose and different kind of eyes come to mind at first. I'll post a picture or more about what I'm thinking... Later. Good that you brought it up, though, we haven't had proper planning so far.

[woodmouse]

That's cool, but... The face that has two different faces in one looks weird...

[thespaceinvader]

Rat-like was not intended to mean anything other than narrower and more pointed features - you shouldn't take it to mean anything else. But i'm interested to see what you might come up with.

I don't think we want to stray too far from a generally humanoid appearance, though, which is why I went along the ape-like route - the further away from human we go, the further we also get from the sprites...

EDIT: and it's just two different hairstyles =P

[bonehead11]

Nice...they would perfectly fit the wesnoth style...just mine opinion.

[Girgistian]

Ookay, here's almost what I meant... I was planning for a more animalistic look but couldn't seem to be able to draw it. Found something that I thought was nice though.

Edit: lots o' typos

[thespaceinvader]

The orc you've done, minus the whisker-dimples, looks about the same as my idea (minor nuanced difference on the nose, which i'm a fan of, i have to say). But then, some primates look fairly canine anyway (baboons, for instance). The goblin you linked is cool, but going a bit too far into werewolf-y territory i think.

Either design could work. in fact, both could work - they're similar enough, to my mind, to just be different shaped faces in the same species - there's MUCH more variation among humans...

[Girgistian]

I guess we could use both then. I mean if the skin colour varies between orcs that live in the same climate then I can't see anything wrong with rather differing facial features.
And yeah, the goblin is a bit over the top, but I might try to do something slightly similar to it sometime. Like a campaign character or something.
Anyways, Jetryl would probably be the best to decide about this, so I say we wait if he has anything to say before drawing too much suggestions for the mainline orcs.

[thespaceinvader]

Agreed.

[AI]

As the external ear consists almost entirely of cartilage (besides skin and fat), it would make sense to make the orcish ones smaller, rounder, crumpled or non-existent as opposed to generically pointy. This would probably be more ape-like too.

[thespaceinvader]

That's another feature which is introduced entirely from the sprites (look at the goblins...) and from the original portraits. IIRC it's on Jetryl said was to be preserved, but I could be wrong.

[doofus-01]

Maybe they could have horse or cow-like ears, instead of elf or ape ears? That would keep them beast-like, and not clash with the goblin sprite.

It could also show emotion or attitude, because if they generally have hostile eyes and angry furrowed brows they might need other indicators.

I don't have a sketch, but I can try to get one if this isn't resolved in a few days...

[Girgistian]

Maybe they could have horse or cow-like ears, instead of elf or ape ears?

I agree. I may have failed to draw my example to show that, but personally I think non-human ear-type is good.