Wolf Rider portrait

[cretin]

hmm, prefer the first wolf. if i imagine orc's riding wolves, i see them agressive wolves. second wolf looks... best put, looks like a stupid wolf. (not the drawing the facial expression)

[Girgistian]

Half-intentional. That's just the 1st level unit after all.

[Sangel]

As others have indicated, the portrait looks good - you clearly have talent.

The question is going to be the matter of style - ie, how close you are to the standard style that Wesnoth is adopting for portraiture. Unfortunately, the only person well placed to answer this question is Jetryl. Hopefully he'll make some comment shortly.

[kitty]

First of all: bravo! both wolf rider show (again) that you can paint digitally! in fact i like the first version even better - it's a pitty that it isnt useable as a portrait!
i like how much detail you put in them! the costumeing is really fine.

some things that bug me about the second rider in generell and a few thoughts to make it more matching the required style:

- the wolf's neck looks really strange! is it too long?
- the wolf is cross eyed - his right eye is too low and small
- the riders arm and especially the hand is too small - in human anatomy the hand is as big as the face! of course your goblin can fiffer, but that's too much
- the head and neck are a tad too big, too.
- i wouldn't expect gold on a goblin's helmet - they are very low in orc society...
(- not important: why has the wolf a saddle but no bridle?)
- his sword isn't very visible and crowds the portrait unecessary - perhaps leave it in the sheath? (furthermore the unit doesn't have a sword!)
- it needs a bit of black space on the left - the cropping is too near to the wolf's head
(personal opinion: the ears look *very* silly! could you do another variant?)

- your outlines are way too thin - you need to ink it!
- do you use dodge/burn for painting? your highlights look very yellow and saturated. really paint with the brush tool instead of dodgeing and burning? it just doesn't look painterly enough.
- remember that the portrait has to be useable in all kind of situations! you have to ask yourself if this guy could bring his warlord as well news of great victory...

(and perhaps post bigger versions for critiqueing)

keep on!

[turin]

It's well done, overall, but the face on that goblin still strikes me as way too cartoony. There's no way an actual face could be shaped like that - it's facial features are really exaggerated.

[torangan]

First of all: bravo! both wolf rider show (again) that you can paint digitally! in fact i like the first version even better - it's a pitty that it isnt useable as a portrait!

Well, if the final portrait is in the same style then this one could be provided as an alternative for fitting dialogue situations...

[Girgistian]

Raaargh... Another seven hours wasted well I'll have another remake sooner or (most likely) later.
-Yes, the neck is too long
-Yes, I did use dodge and burn tools for the shading. It was a mistake, but it would probably take a few hours to shade the wolf's hair (and the goblin's cloak) with just painting it so I got a bit lazy there
-I actually lowered the right eye from its original position because it looked even weirder that way
-The head and neck are a bit exaggereted just to make him look small in general. Went too far apparently
-There's no bridle because the original rider doesn't have one. It wouldn't fit into a wolf's mouth anyway, I think
-The sword is just a product of artistic freedom, which I believe is encouraged. It seemed reasonable that he'd carry at least some kind of a blade with him even though the game uses the wolf as the general attacker. The truth is that a wolf couldn't fight with full power if someone sat on its back. I could have the blade sheathed though, which would probably be a better solution
-The yellowy part isn't supposed to be gold, more like brass or something like that. Didn't succeed so well at that
-Yeah, maybe the goblin's expression could be slightly less grumpy. Then again if they're the worst treated members of the orc society (as thespaceinvader pointed out) then they have a reason to look sort of bitter
-The fact that the face looks cartoony is because it's not a human. I remember Jetryl saying something that non-humans could be slightly exaggereted

EDIT: Image removed as unnessessary

[thespaceinvader]

I seem to remember Jetryl saying that as long as the attack type does not differ, it's OK to vary the gear a little bit - so the goblin carrying a long knife or short sword is OK (as the unit's attack is Blade), but a spear or hammer would not be.

[kitty]

please don't see these hours as wasted! every drawing/painting is an exercise and will make you better. and i'm sorry if i didn't make it clear enough - you are on a very good way!

[Girgistian]

No offence taken, so no need to feel sorry about it. Here's the base for the new one. This time:
-the face isn't so exaggereted
-the hand is about natural sized
-the wolf's neck's shorter and the facial expression less idiotic
-the goblin doesn't express strong emotions
-the blade is sheathed
-the wolf isn't cross-eyed (yet)
-ears have been fixed.
This will of course be very time consuming to paint if it is accepted, and I probably won't have time until weekend.

[Girgistian]

Apparently I had time after all.

[lastdragon]

rockin photo

[Ratha Shadar]

That... leaves me speechless!

Of course, it doesn't actually take much to do that to me, but please, take it as a compliment.

[torangan]

Nice picture, but take a look at a larger dog to get a feeling for how wolves teeth look like. They're the only thing bothering me here.

[Mirion147]

I would have to consider that AWSOME!!!! Nice job!!