Delfador's Memoirs portraits

[kitty]

hmm, I think the blue you are using now is rather plastic than etheral looking, I'd try some less saturated ones with more glowing effects surrounding the whole thing.

Other than that I look forward to seeing where you'll take this one.

[JustinOperable]

Yea thats what I was thinking. i honestly feel somewhat uncomfortable using such saturated colors but thats specifically what ESR said he wanted and the pictures of Cerenkov Radiation which I sampled directly from are pretty saturated. I'll try some thing and see what happens.

[esr]

By tweaking the history timeline just a bit, I've managed to make a separate portrait for Garard I unnecessary. I have edited the top posting accordingly.

[esr]

Yea thats what I was thinking. i honestly feel somewhat uncomfortable using such saturated colors but thats specifically what ESR said he wanted and the pictures of Cerenkov Radiation which I sampled directly from are pretty saturated. I'll try some thing and see what happens.

We've miscommunicated. I was actually after the sky-blue tint that shows up near the radiation sources, not the deeper blue in the water.

[JustinOperable]

Alright, so here's a change of the rendering of the portrait. I don't know if I can get it too much higher value than this without losing most of the form. But let me know what you think. Also, since noone called dibs on it yet, I sketched a quick possible portrait for Lionel, it doesn't look too much like the place holder, but if you like it I'll continue working on that one as well.

[esr]

Alright, so here's a change of the rendering of the portrait. I don't know if I can get it too much higher value than this without losing most of the form. But let me know what you think. Also, since noone called dibs on it yet, I sketched a quick possible portrait for Lionel, it doesn't look too much like the place holder, but if you like it I'll continue working on that one as well.

What do you mean by higher value? More towards white?

Lionel is a good psychological portrait, IMO, but the armor looks primitive compared to other Wesnothian generals in mainline -- think 14th-century full plate for these guys. I'd use this portrait in a nanosecond for a Northern Alliance war-leader., though, or for a character in the Saurians campaign I'm storyboarding.

[thespaceinvader]

The lionel one looks like a good start, but his head's not centred on his body, and look a little small - i'd suggest expanding it by maybe 10% and moving it to the (stage) right a little, that should fix it.

[JustinOperable]

Alright, so here's some more versions of each portrait. By higher value yes, I do mean an overall lighter value. Sorry, I use art terms because when people say lighter sometimes they mean higher saturation, and its useful to separate what one is referring to, lightness or brightness. Let me know what you think of both.

[esr]

Alright, so here's some more versions of each portrait. By higher value yes, I do mean an overall lighter value. Sorry, I use art terms because when people say lighter sometimes they mean higher saturation, and its useful to separate what one is referring to, lightness or brightness. Let me know what you think of both.

No apology necessary - precise technical language is valuable and it is definitely my responsibility to learn the language artists use in order to communicate with them. In fact, I welcome the opportunity, so feel free to correct my usage or ask questions to clarify my intentions if I appear to be speaking imprecisely.

The Tomb Guardian is definitely heading in a good direction; this is the first version I've seen that I'd be willing to take and use. Well done getting more of a Semitic/hieroglyphic effect on the sigils. And I like the halo effect around the face - that's exactly the sort of thing I had in mind. Some suggestions for further refinement (and I think we're no more than two versions or so from something final):

1. Halo the ioun stones?

2. We're in the right hue range, but I think the deepest blue on the mask is still a touch too dark to look really electric. Try compressing the value range towards the light end as much as you can without making the image look flat.

As for Lionel - good portrait, but the armor still doesn't say "Wesnothian" to me - actually, it says "Northern Alliance". It's close enough to use, I suppose, but I might ask DUHH or one of the other artists who are really good at the gothic plate-armor effect to replace Lionel later and shift this one sideways into either Son of The Black Eye or my unwritten Saurians campaign.

Oh, and I think thespaceinvader is right about the head being out of proportion.

[thespaceinvader]

If you want advice on wesnothian gothic armour, you need to talk to LordBob, he's the man who's basically set the loyalist look in his portraits...

[LordBob]

As for Lionel - good portrait, but the armor still doesn't say "Wesnothian" to me - actually, it says "Northern Alliance". It's close enough to use, I suppose, but I might ask DUHH or one of the other artists who are really good at the gothic plate-armor effect to replace Lionel later and shift this one sideways into either Son of The Black Eye or my unwritten Saurians campaign.

While I like the Tomb Guardian portrait, I'm really glad to read this last comment. Considering the amount of time and effort that has been dedicated to the loyalist series, I would really appreciate that mainline campaign portraits remain coherent with the generic series. One word for this: reference: I basically built the loyalist series based on this gallery I'm linking (and on the actual museum, since I live in the same city).

I don't mind providing lineart for the portrait of Lionel, but shading would have to wait until I'm done with the riders.

[esr]

Considering the amount of time and effort that has been dedicated to the loyalist series, I would really appreciate that mainline campaign portraits remain coherent with the generic series.

LordBob, for both visual and continuity reasons you have my enthusiastic support on this point. As a historical-weapons-and-armor geek with pretty good knowledge of the field, I think it's important for factions to have look that is technologically consistent and makes intelligent use of historical models; I applaud what you're trying to do. Er, and my applause matters a bit because I'm our current lead on the history and timeline stuff.

I don't mind providing lineart for the portrait of Lionel, but shading would have to wait until I'm done with the riders.

Timeframe?

[JustinOperable]

Alright, I'll humbly withdraw my portrait and leave it to lordbob. If you are are confident enough at least with my ability to render, I could perhaps do the shading for the lineart with a little guidance from Lord Bob, and repurpose or trash my Lionel portrait wip. Or otherwise I could stay out of it all together.

Here's a tomb guardian with more glows for the stones and a bit lighter value overall. It doesn't feel finished but it's starting to look more usable.

[esr]

Here's a tomb guardian with more glows for the stones and a bit lighter value overall. It doesn't feel finished but it's starting to look more usable.

OK, we have now passed a threshold. Make that background transparent and I'd use it without hesitation. Do what you need to make it feel finished; I think I'll be happy with the result.

[JustinOperable]

Did some new linework, somehow the lines I started with had gotten pixelated and blurry, I also tried to work on the rendering a bit. Let me know what you think. I'm still willing to work on it if anyone thinks it can be approved, but I think this more or less works for what you wanted Eric.