LordBob's commissionned work

[Sapient]

Interesting experiment but in my opinion the orc arm makes it look too un-lichly. The first version was better.

Of course it is going to look a little off because it is abnormal. So comments about that are not surprising. The more relevant question is does it look abnormal and yet believable at the same time? As for me it's a little hard for me to answer that at this stage but possibly beyond my artistic experience level to offer any tips on how one should achieve it.

[Valkier]

Interesting experiment but in my opinion the orc arm makes it look too un-lichly. The first version was better.

Of course it is going to look a little off because it is abnormal. So comments about that are not surprising. The more relevant question is does it look abnormal and yet believable at the same time? As for me it's a little hard for me to answer that at this stage but possibly beyond my artistic experience level to offer any tips on how one should achieve it.

As it is, I don't think it's a good fit with the rest of the theme going on with the lich. If you want to give him an orc arm, you might consider making the rest of him a bit more bulky to balance out. It does beg the question as to why a lich needs muscle, but maybe that's just his personality and preference.

The alternative is make clawed, brown, and hairy like an orc arm; but shrivel it up a bit. It's probably lost some fluids anyhow seeing as it most likely wasn't volunteered willingly.

[zookeeper]

Ideally this kind of mirroring would happen only when two characters are talking to each other: there's not much sense in having Konrad on the right side when he's thinking to himself. But then, it sounds painful to edit each and every dialog in order to introduce indiviual switching of the display side.

Anyway, here are the resized portraits.

Yeah, as I said I don't really know in what way I want to do it. We'll see...

I probably won't be committing the new set immediately, since we just changed the version control system and I haven't got the new one fully set up yet.

[LordBob]

No need to rush anyway: I still owe you the defeated Asheviere portrait.

@Valk: we completely agree; interesting though it may be, a muscular lich doesn't sound very generic and will likely cause confusion in lack of a proper background. In the end, I've decided to discard the bulky arm and try the alternate you're suggesting. I'd like to recycle the concept later for warrior-type undeads, though: there's a lot of fun to have with customized undead bodies.

[homunculus]

About the portrait left or right in dialog, there are a few places where it has been used, but the effect is minor in my opinion.
I did try a few scenarios recently with the new Konrad portraits, and I am bit concerned about something else entirely, even though that is somewhat off-topic here: Konrad had a different extreme emotion for every one-liner he said, and I got a very strong impression that this Konrad guy has serious issues with mental stability.

[...] The eye is immediately drawn to the outer arms, then you notice this weird thing that turns out to be two smaller arms.

Exactly what I also thought, but there seem to be some possible reasons for that, other than the proportions of the arm.
The extra right arm has much higher contrast and is a lot more detailed than its original right arm, and in addition to that it is outlined by the background. The different color scheme could perhaps work for it or against it, but right now the original right arm just blends in with the body (in relation to the extra arm, I mean, not by itself).

The nails or pins might not be immediately understood as a means of attaching the extra arm. With the risk of messing up the extra arm interpretation altogether, what about imagining that the lich broke its right arm with all those melee drain attacks, and that there would not be an extra right arm but a replacement arm half-way along the arm? Might enable a more reasonable and durable looking connection than just some pins. And if more freaky is desired, perhaps the right arm could have an extra joint (like two consecutive elbows)?

[LordBob]

These spikes aren't necessarily what holds together the arms: maybe they're part of some ritual, maybe they act as control rods, maybe they're just for show, ... whichever. With more time on my hands I'd study some acupuncture basics and make sure they're placed on actual meridians, but in truth, they're really meant to give it an interesting figure and this is what matters the most. The actual connection between the main body and the extra arms is taking place where we can't see it, so I'll leave its details up to the rule of cool.

As to wether or not the arms read correctly, the raised question should be "what technique do I use to make sure they stand out?". Ditching the whole idea just because a minute sketch fails to convey it properly would feel like I'm giving up too fast.

[homunculus]

[...] Ditching the whole idea just because a minute sketch fails to convey it properly would feel like I'm giving up too fast.

To clarify: my last post was not intended as fallback from the extra arms because of the accidental contrast in the sketch, but a possible development that I thought had not been suggested yet.

[Valkier]

As to wether or not the arms read correctly, the raised question should be "what technique do I use to make sure they stand out?"

I don't know that making them stand out is even really the best choice. When it comes to these sorts of intentionally eerie looking figures, I've always felt hiding these sorts of details works best. Now, I had said before it might be cool to show where/how the extra arms are connected. If the viewer goes looking for it, I do believe those details should be available or at least hinted at. What I mean by hiding the extra arms and such as possible have them blend in with his costume in some way. Have the "normal" arms holding the staff or tracing the magic circle in the air, but have the extra arms lowered to the sides holding incense burners or tiny fetishes. It's those sorts of details that make me raise my eyebrows and and give my "oh damn!" face, because for some reason making me hunt for it just makes it all the more fascinating and creepy at the same time.

Of course this is usually done with an environment around the character. Pulling it off on the Wesnoth transparent backgrounds would be a trick and a half.

[LordBob]

Those are some great ideas! I very much like the notion of having the extra arms do menial tasks that get them noticed only on a second look. It's a shame I did not read about it earlier though, because I went for the exact opposite.

Here's the WIP for now.

[vultraz]

The other arms ended up being exactly as Valk said, not noticeable at first. Nice job One little thing that strikes me: he looks like a female middle-eastern belly dancer.

[Astoria]

I really like the clothing on this lich!

[LordBob]

The lich is almost done (except for the background of course, though this does not really matter for Wesnoth). Only thing I see that might need some fixing is the position of its left foot.

[Astoria]

I love it!

[Adamant14]

I love it too.
Especially the nails.

[Sleepwalker]

Gotta say I was sceptical of the extra orc arms until you draped some cloth over the shoulder(s). It makes it look much better. Another great portrait.