Return of the fencer, part deux

[LordBob]

I'm not sure of I've said so before, but saying it twice wouldn't be too many : I'm really impressed how far you've come with only vector

Now, I'm in two minds about the face.
- Even with the goatee he looks a really young man and I'd go for an older, possibly more angular face
- Yet I'm aware that this is a difference between our styles and youth is acceptable even for the duellist

I might also go for a shinier, more polished buckle, but again it is more a difference in style.


Well, anyway this is up to you,whatever your final choice I like the portrait already.


Last but not least, some of the reference you posted earlier for the new fencer arereally nice : can't wait to see more of that portrait

[Sgt. Groovy]

Gosh, tanks! If you're interested in vector yourself, I have written some tutorials in the wiki about it. Also, I'm planning to start a vector art blog soon, I've gathered whole pile of tricks doing this image alone.

I agree about the age, he still looks too young. The problem is, I'm working on much larger size than the bitmap image, and there he doesn't look quite that young (never mind the coarse beard, I didn't intend it to look good in that size). The lines and wrinkles tend to disappear in rendering. I should probably make the face in whole more angular, maybe a bigger mouth too. I'm also going to try how making the shadows less blurry will work out.

I don't think I'm going to make the buckle shinier, but perhaps some detail will be added, engraving or somesuch.

[Sgt. Groovy]

Some subtle changes on the right one:

[Simons Mith]

Maybe making his face browner, duller, blotchier would help. His skin is very reflective and uniformly coloured, which equates to young. Reducing the apparent reflectiveness would age him even without any other changes, I reckon.

[TL]

Face is looking much better, the earlier render had some serious Uncanny Valley-ness going on. Something is bugging me about the left eye (the one shaded by the hat) though. The lid seems a little high, giving a slightly bug-eyed effect there, and come to mention it I'm not sure if it isn't just a smidge too high in general (I may still be getting thrown by the oddly wide shape though). Too much of the detail on the lids is getting swallowed by the hat's shadow also--it's not that dark. It's understandable that the fine details of the creases might not be very visible, but I'd still expect to be able to make out the contours of the eyesocket. The ear seems kind of smallish and is placed pretty far back on the head too.

All in all I'm pretty seriously impressed though; this is really coming together now. Although others have noted that the costuming and pose is a bit out of place I think it gives a lot of character to the duelist--it really distinguishes him in all the right ways, in my opinion. Nice work!

[Sgt. Groovy]

Another subtle aging treatment:

[Simons Mith]

That's nicely done. Puts him into his ... mid-20s now, I'd say.

[mameluke]

the skin needs some texture, and that's quite a hard job to do imho!
It still looks plastic

[Ranger M]

this skin behind his hair should look darker, there needs to be some kind of hard shadow where the hair is blocking the backlight (even if it's very very small)

[Light Echo]

Is it just me or does the hand seem awkward?
I tried doing it with my hand and while possible it's rather uncomfortable.

[Sgt. Groovy]

A new pose for the fencer. If there are opinions about the pose/anatomy, I'd rather hear them before I start clothing him. The exact position of the legs is not so crucial, as they are going to be covered by the hem of the tunic anyway (a looser one than in the last version).

There is something skewey about the face that I can't quite put my finger on (it is supposed to be long, though). But then, I'll probably want to redo it from scratch anyway, he looks too much like myself (that's what you get for relying for mirror for reference too much).

[thespaceinvader]

The head tilt coupled with the expression makes him look really anxious - it's almost a 'puppydog eyes' expression.

That aside, looks like a good start.

[Sgt. Groovy]

And with some clothing (new head still pending):

[vonHalenbach]

his face is okay, but what you might feel uncomftable about is imho his ear. It is to much on the back side of his head. move it forewards and feel good again.

[Sgt. Groovy]

Not true about the ear, just look compare with your own avatar.

I want a new head, and he's going to have enough hair to cover the ears anyway.