kitty's elvish portraits

[Jetrel]

I like the body on this, but I'd strongly encourage completely redoing the face from scratch. The face you did on the elven female archer was wonderful; I'm not suggesting aping that, per se, but something more along those lines might be nice.

Also, I'd probably bring the hairline forward a bit.

[Federalist marshal]

I'm no professional, and so perhaps my opinion falls under the category of "peanut gallery", but I think that the shaman's face is a bit Native American in appearance.

d) An idea for the her facial expression - it might look better if she wasn't staring at the magical vines, but rather at either her hand, the staff, or more towards the viewer. I would think she's seen herself perform magic enough to not be so entranced by it. But this is just a suggestion, and feel free to disregard it - there's nothing wrong, per se, with her current eye direction.

Good point, certainly deserves some attention.

[IndieTrannie]

Another excellent piece, yay.

Right now the forehead is too long and it's throwing me off on the rest of the face. A forehead is about 4 finger width tall, and according to her hands, you've got a spare finger width or two in there. Just bring the hair down at the crest so that the hairline is more straight and it should fix that right up. Also the tip of the right ear is higher than the tip of her left ear while the head is straight, so you may need to bring that down a bit.

Just noticed as I was about to post, the lips seem to be low on the face as compared to say the warrior for instance... I don't know if moving them up would help or make them look too close to the nose though, so just something to be aware of.

I'm actually a big fan of all the stylistic choices in this one, and think you should leave the rest.

P.S.
That is not a nNative American face. The cheekbones are too low, the nose is too thin, the face is too long, and the complexion is too light for it to be native american.

[Sgt. Groovy]

The shaman, I think, falls short of the standard set by your earlier work.

First, I really dont't think the far side ear should be visible. Presuming elven ears are positioned like humean ears, only elongated and pointed, from this angle the far side ear should be completely occluded bu the head. The image below features (crassly formalised) head as seen from above, with ears. The line represent a line-of-sight and the grey area the occluded volume. The red shows how the ear should be positioned to reach the visible volume. (This is a really prevalent mistake with elven ears, dog knows why.)

Also, the far side ear is clearly higher, even though the head is not tilted in any way, than the near side one, as pointed out in the inset (though this point is kinda moot, since it shouldn't show at all).

The clothing, while well rendered, are awfully plain in style. This is an Elf, not an Amish or a Puritan, so how about some decorations, puffy sleeves, embroidery or jewelry? One would think that the elves would have an eye for aesthetics (though you could claim that the shaman outfit is like the nun habit).

The hand holding the log... I mean the staff looks smaller than the other and the upper arm shorter.

I'm definitely not of the school that thinks all fantasy women should be buxom bombs, but her flat figure, together with the largeish head (the groin should be three "heads" down from the chin, hers is hardly two) makes her look like a teenager.

[irrevenant]

People, for now at least, keep critiques solely to flaws in the picture, such as anatomy, radical differences from the sprite (hats do not count ). Giving your personal opinion of something that aren't the way you like them will be ignored/deleted.

P.S. Read me.

[irrevenant]

My thoughts and subjective observations. Make of them what you will:

(1) Her right arm seems awkward to me. My impression is that the forearm (& upper arm?) are not foreshortened enough for the position the hand is in. It appears to me that the wrist would have to be bent nearly 90 degrees backwards to pull off that pose.

(2) In my opinion, her entire left hand shouldn't be visible in front of the staff, but I suspect from the sketchiness that that's just a placeholder anyway.

(3) Unless you're deliberately going for an androgynous look, I propose narrowing the waist slightly to indicate femininity.

(4) Something looks odd about the neck to me but I can't put my finger on it. (OTOH, necks sometimes look wrong to me even when they're anatomically correct, so it could be me).

[Thumper]

I'm no professional, and so perhaps my opinion falls under the category of "peanut gallery"

The perfect example, really. For much of the thread.

- Chris

[JW]

i would really like to hear your comments on this shaman. she is not finished - only lines and flat colours...

Again it looks good, but I get the impression that her midsection is too short.

Also, not to go too far back but:

This is a great portrait, as usual, but the eye on the right side of the screen seems angled upwards while the one on the left side of the screen does not. They should probably be angled symmetrically.

I'm attaching a screenshot this time to help illustrate my point using blue lines to show the angles I'm talking about.

[kitty]

yay! loads of constructive criticism! thank you all!

I think my newest edit considers most of them:
- yes, the face was too young and not elvish enough. changed completely.
- looking at her hand now instead of the leaves
- hourglassed her figure to mature her a bit
- staff is smaller now. (this time i was too near at the sprite - she has an enormous club there)

i won't have time to shade her or do other changes until friday, i think.


and thank you for the peanut gallery explanation - that's a really cute expression!



@ groovy: thank you for the ear-analysis! about the decoration thing: i already planned to put a few embroideries on her and she has a medallion now. but i don't want to get too excessive as i think of her her as a field medic first of all.

@ irreneant: mmh, thank you for your thoughts, but i have a picture of me posing in this position quite comfortably....

@ jw: i didn't want to ignore your last post, i overlooked it. i can see what you mean but i have changed the fighter nine times now and have no intentions to do it again, if it isn't utterly necessary. sorry. and generally don't forget that stuff on the head isn't aligned on staight lines but on circles.

[JW]

@ jw: i didn't want to ignore your last post, i overlooked it. i can see what you mean but i have changed the fighter nine times now and have no intentions to do it again, if it isn't utterly necessary. sorry. and generally don't forget that stuff on the head isn't aligned on staight lines but on circles.

I understand completely.

The new shaman is freaking beautiful by the way.

[db0]

Amazing work once again

[ulissesroc]

How could a loyalist kills such a beauty shaman???

Great!

[anakayub]

I'm compelled to post. Wow. Is she single? Kitty, your work is really good throughout.

[Zhukov]

Whoa. That new version leaves the old one for dead. Especially the face.

Also, for some reason, I really like the belt pouches.

[Kestenvarn]

That is fantastic.

Right sleeve should hang loose near the elbow unless something is added to hold it in place.
The curved staff give the impression of a bow instead, would look better crooked.
May want to have the pendant hang a little lower, looks a bit tight.
Hand could use some work, also tapering would help fingers.

Face, hair, hood and spell are perfect, no changes needed there.