Kitty's random stuff: The South Guard

[LordBob]

Stunning quality once again.

The hand thing (that I do experience as well), I think, is a combination of :
- a rather unsual angle of view that we're no used to
- a positionning of fingers opposite to nature's habit : it's quite difficult for most people to close their hand while keeping their little finger extended
- too much fallback of the forefinger knuckle, which consequently reads as a little finger

Edit : and congrats for Gerrick, his armour works really well now.

[kitty]

I redrew his hand to make it non-ambiguously a right one. Thanks for your obrservation - that's the kind of thing I find really hard to notice myself, I know how the hand is supposed to be read and thus can only see it that way...

So Hylas is finished now, Ethiliel will be the next one.

[StDrake]

perhaps just one more correction to Hylas before you go on - transition between beard and skin - awfully thick, black edge, as if the beard was glued on through a black piece of paper

[kitty]

StDrake: I fear I'm going to ignore this kind of minor gripes - it doesn't bother me at all and wouldn't benefit the overall picture…

And here is a first pass at neutral Ethiliel:

EDIT: And the mad one, too:
EDIT2: Some tiny updates on her mad self

ethiliel-neutral2.png (335.72 KiB) Viewed 4593 times

ethiliel-mad4.png (328.16 KiB) Viewed 4417 times

[em3]

Something about the faces makes them look like totally different people to me. Don' know... maybe it's the nose.

[StDrake]

Nose, eyebrow size and I'd say upper lip size or vertical lip placement, cheekbone size..I thought you already had a perfect looking angry version before btw? And that earlier one seems to have looked more similar to the calm version.
Comming back to more things that make them look different..those earlier things could just be caused by different angle, but not these:
mole (or mole colour - dark on mad, light on calm?), round vs ripped upper-right wing ending..ok i think I've run out of 'spot the difference' issues

[homunculus]

Something about the faces makes them look like totally different people to me. Don' know... maybe it's the nose.

and the relative sizes of body and wings, and the slight change in hue of skin midtones.
who knows, maybe the elves are supposed to faint when irritated.

[kitty]

I made some rather small adjustments to her face based on your comments and replaced the pic in my last post. I still see a certain discrepancy but to me all the major things look the same, e.g. the mad version has certainly no lighter skin midtones than the neutral version and so on.
But I don't want to play find the differences about every tiny detail, in game the two won't be displayed next to each other ever, she mainly has to be identifiable as the same person - but of course I'm still open to valid constructive criticism (Just don't forget to say something nice from time to time as well, just nagging isn't really motivating at all. Bleh. Perhaps I'm just having a bad day.)

[wayfarer]

Something nice? I adore the foldings and the ornamental borders.
I was never good at being positive.

Well small food for thought I have some small problems with the alighnments of the shoulder lines the chest and the hip. Everything for itself looks right but as a whole something feels fishy. Not so much neutral but mad. Sorry if this comes a bit late and I might be just wrong I am rather unsure here.

[StDrake]

(Just don't forget to say something nice from time to time as well, just nagging isn't really motivating at all. Bleh. Perhaps I'm just having a bad day.)

Aw you know how we adore your work , and the skin is very good, some different shades are bound to happen when the head is turned to face the lightsource from a different angle
And since the most flattering compliment is quotation..err..i've played around with it a little, see if you like it (very minor detail about the mout side-edge, it was ending with a strange dot)
I'd experiment with lower lip placement..but I wouldn't be able to make it anywhere near your quality anyway

[em3]

Sorry about that. It's just that high quality of your portraits became the norm. It's like I mostly expect everything you make to be pretty and only chime in when we find a small detail lacking a little. I really like Ethiliel's dress and pose. We all do, I think.

So yeah. I was afraid my previous comment could be too generic and nitpicky. I guess it's easier for me to point out flaws than to compliment.

[Tet]

Everything for itself looks right but as a whole something feels fishy.

Well to try my idea of what you mean. Both poses look totally correct.
However the wings give you an idea which shoulder should be more in front. (The one with bigger wing should be more in front).
The shading of both bodies is the same. That can not be in reality.

But you will only see one picture at a time in game and not both simultanously.

So your fishy thing should be no problem at all.

It is great that the pictures are finally done. Awesome like allways.

[doofus-01]

Neutral looks great! Angry is good too, but I think I see what wayfarer getting at - I think there is something conflicting about the pose (relaxed) and face (tense). Fiddling with the mouth and eyebrows may help, but is cold anger right for the dialogue, or is she supposed to be passionate?

Any possible problems are probably not apparent outside of this forum anyway. I mostly just wanted to say I liked the "neutral" image.

[StDrake]

Well She is a rather experienced, wise kind of elf (or is she), so i guess cold anger is correct..plus it saves some work (note the pose is a copy-paste off the neutral).
Funny..but I just noticed she's squinting on the angry version?

[wayfarer]

I don't know what exactly (if it)is wrong. If I would know I would be more precise.
I tend to think a bit about the general alighnment and the visibilty of the body parts.
Something miniscule. Or my coffee was just bad. So take it with a grain of salt.