Working on the Ruffian.

[kitty]

no, really i didn't want to say anything like that, it was candid genuine confusion!

[MDG]

no, really i didn't want to say anything like that, it was candid genuine confusion!

Sorry!

[AlexNixon]

Kitty, it's 248x3something.

I started anew and I'm learning a [censored]-ton. Like I said, I'm getting used to creating this entirely on the program, I don't think it will be hard once I've got the technicalities down. I'm going to reread your dated instructions on portraits, I guess I missed the starting size. I'm not new to painting, but I'm sub-par digital obviously. I think I'll even scrap this one again and start all over for the second time just so I can nail it.

[AlexNixon]

Yeah... what should the pixels be to start? It doesn't say in the tut

[thespaceinvader]

Generally it's good advice to work at least double the final scale. That needs to be 400x400 (for the upcoming GUI changes), so work at least 800x800. The bigger the better, beyond that, up to what your computer will be able to comfortably handle without melting too much. I generally work between 800 and 1500 px square, i believe Kitty works more like 2000 to 2500.

[AlexNixon]

I just upped it to 1000... That makes a huuuge difference. I'm going 2000 now for clarity. My curve is getting smaller

[AlexNixon]

I re-did the ruffian two times as I was getting used to working with Gimp. Increasing the amount of pixels made this significantly easier. Starting at a high pixel rate should be included in the tutorial. Here is the base image (READ: NOT DETAILED, NOT SHADED, NOT HIGHLIGHTED, GENERALLY... NOT DONE). I'm on the step where I change my outlines to suit the piece. I created some definition for myself to have a point of reference, but I'm not on that "stage" yet. Just checking to see if this is on the right track stylistically. I didn't include the eyes in the outline because I wanted to create them independently of the outline. I think I'm going to do that with a few things. I'm not a fan of a lot of outlines.

[AlexNixon]

And here it is!

[AlexNixon]

Worked on the face, neck, shirt, hair, and his right hand (barely). His left eye is squinty because it's wounded. Click on the pic to see it better. Still haven't added highlights or blacks. When I shrink it down it gets TOO dark, so I'll have to lighten up the main copy.

[Turuk]

I have been following your progress in this thread, and I'm impressed with your work. Given that, as you can look to the right to see, any comments I make can be ignored or disregarded as I am not one of those with artistic inclinations.

That said, I still think the hands are a bit large. I know that you shrunk them from your original portrait, and that the left hand in particular is coming out towards the viewer, but it still appears to be a bit larger than what would be natural.

Also, the fingers on the left hand are sitting oddly. I know all hands are different, but if I curl my fingers like that to flip a coin (as he is doing, I know the coin is not there), my fingers do not overlap like that. I can see how you have staggered the line of the knuckles to indicate the middle finger is the biggest and therefore might tend to stick out a bit more, but the shading underneath the fingers makes it seem as if the top finger sticks out the most, and then they all go back in from there, when really they are more or less even.

Just a few thoughts on my part.

[thespaceinvader]

The proportions still don't look realistic enough to match up to the canon style. Particularly the shape of the chin, and the size of the hair. The face would also need some definite line art to define it to match up. The features look good, though. nice work.

[kitty]

that's comming along nicely and you already got a bunch of replies.
i'd like to add that the new colour of the shirt is a lot better! but don't feel bound to red - teamcolour bits aren't important for portraits in general.
i think most what looks a bit strange about this portrait stems from the angle you chose, it looks like kind of a worms-eye perspective, straight from the front would be clearer. the hands are a bit on the big side but not much, i have more problems with their anatomy - i can't see how they are connected to the arms and the ellbows are pretty unclear, too. furthermore something bothers me about his hips, the way the legs meet the torso looks strange.
i look forward to see the next steps!

[AlexNixon]

I gotchya on the left hand... more than anything, it's a place holder at the moment. I haven't worked on it yet, and I've only worked on the right hand a little. I changed the shape of the right hand and started defining the fingers, but what you can't see is that there is going to be some more club showing between the fingers and when the top of the knucks are defined you'll see that the size of the hand is actually going to be a thin sliver of wrist that's showing. I haven't worked on the hips and pants yet, I was just creating some concept of there being legs in the pants for when I go back and redo them. I'll put the linework in the face last, I didn't like the original linework and decided to work light to dark on them. I think when I add darks to the hair it will look more proportionate because it will push the hairs near the top more towards the background giving his head some roll. The ruffian looked like he had spikey hair so that's what I was shooting for, but it looks like someone from Dragon Ball at the moment. I agree that the chin line is way too definite, but I haven't done anything to the chin-line except change the color to grey because the dark brown was irking the [censored] out of me. Good call on the forearm anatomy, I need to do that soon, and I'll figure out the elbows near the end, but mentally I'm having trouble with them and might need some assistance on perspective when I get to that point. I like the red, that's the only reason I was holding onto it. I didn't plan to synchronize colors across the board for the advancements.

I've got a great concept of the character progressions, but executing them is going to take time without a scanner. I'm not only going to show the progression in rank but age too. I was trying to make the ruffian look closer to a kid. The thug will be slightly older larger, meaner. The Highway man will look awesome... the oldest... and significantly more dignified in his "profession." My mouse skills suck when it comes to creating characters in line. If anyone wants to send me a free tablet I'll gladly send them an email that says, "Thanks for the free tablet, love Alex."
Thanks all of you for the comments, it's really helping with the piece.

[thespaceinvader]

You're doing this all sans tablet? Add a level of impressed to my comments =D I think that he hair on the sprite is aimed to be scruffy more than anything. Its size and spikiness is exaggerated heavily thanks to the proportion deformation of the sprites.

[AlexNixon]

Dude, if I had a tablet, I'd probably have finished 8 characters by now. I don't even have a mouse pad. I'm using a stack of papers from my work... how pathetic is that. I'm thinking about investing in a tablet now, but I don't know if I'd use it outside of this project frequently enough for it to be worth whatever it costs. I'll keep my eyes open for a deal.