kitty's elvish portraits

[kitty]

nope - quick photo of me in a similar (but not entirely identical) position (holding a brush...). can you see how much the rearward hand has to bend?

[Iris]

Commited in revisions 29254 (trunk) and 29256 (maintenance branch).

[kitty]

thank you once again, my trusty assistant!

you know that your services will be rewarded....

[kitty]

first rough for the sylph. i mainly hope for jetryl's feedback if she 's close enough to his vision for the new sprite etc.

[esr]

Very nice, except that I don't like that she's blindfolded. Gives it a look that's creepy and inhuman in what I think is the wrong way for an elf.

I didn't like that effect in the Sister Theta portrait either, actually.

[Update: I'm told this was Jetryl's request, not a Kitty feature. I'm sure he's got a reason and I respect his judgment too much to scrap with him about it...but I can't say I like it.]

[Iris]

Her left hand's finger placement confuses me a bit.

I kind of expected the wings to be more pointy and less round, based on the sprite, but the rest is coming up nice (even if the staff's top differs a lot from the sprite).

I know I know, it doesn't need to match the sprite that closely, etc. Good work.

[Jetrel]

first rough for the sylph. i mainly hope for jetryl's feedback if she 's close enough to his vision for the new sprite etc.

Yey.

More or less perfect. The only possible/optional costume change would be a metal visor/circlet type thing covering her eyes, instead of cloth (all the current "dangling finery" above her eyes could more or less be salvaged as gilding).

I like that you've given her armor and such, that was entirely the intent. I also like the expression.


[Update: response to esr]

Very nice, except that I don't like that she's blindfolded. Gives it a look that's creepy and inhuman in what I think is the wrong way for an elf.

I didn't like that effect in the Sister Theta portrait either, actually.

[Update: I'm told this was Jetryl's request, not a Kitty feature. I'm sure he's got a reason and I respect his judgment too much to scrap with him about it...but I can't say I like it.]

Thanks. The intent is to do exactly that - make her look "creepy and otherworldly". If you want a friendly, cuddly, down-to-earth elf, young ones like the fighter/archer/shaman qualify. But this unit is meant to be more oracular and unnerving. This isn't a carefree teenage girl, this is a dangerous and powerful sorceress. Like the Erlking, or the various portrayals in LotR of the old, wise, and sorcerously powerful elves (like elrond, gil-galad, or galadriel).

It's a (major) motif of faerie/elven stuff that often gets overshadowed by the "childlike/innocent/sprite-ish" portrayals - hand in hand, faerie things were also supposed to seem scary, supernatural, and dangerous. People have nerfed that portrayal again and again because it's uncomfortable. But it's precisely what makes them what they are. It's like bitterness in coffee; unpleasant in isolation, but necessary for the gestalt. Nerf it too much, and you turn a scary ghost into Casper; you basically reverse something's essential nature.


(Also, shadow-master brought up a canon argument against elves using iron. I like that - but IMO it can be assumed that for their (more or less) royalty, they have access to certain metals that don't harm them, like silver or mithril. These should be assumed to be really hard to get, though.)

[Boucman]

I love it, but I read here pose as a military salute.... I'm not sure what the original intent was, but it looks strange to me.

[thespaceinvader]

I think it's meant to be pstandard psychic pstance. It might be easier to read as such with just the first two fingers extended, and the rest loosely clenched.

[kitty]

thanks for all your replies! and yes it's supposed to be a pstandard psychic pstance (didn't knew that term before - thanks tsi!), but the hand has a lot of issues atm and will get completely redrawn. i'll spice up the wings a bit and try adding a visor thingie to her blindfold.

regarding the intrinsic dangerous nature of faerie - i'd love to emphasise that in this portrait, but as soon as i add any kind of wings she looks cute and flower-faerie like to me. without the wings she embodies it, but after adding them most of it is gone. i'll see how much of it i can salvage.

i hope i'll have some time to work on her later today, so expect an update on her today or tomorrow.

[Boucman]

could you try to make the wings less "tranluscent butterfly" and more "metaphoricall" trying to have a wing shaped aura rather than actual wings ?

[kitty]

little update: lines and flats. shading tomorrow.



boucman: i toyed a bit with your metaphorical wings idea but the wings on the sprite are just to important to leave only a translucent aura of them, they need to be real wings and the new more jagged and less round ones work well enough for me.

[Thrawn]

that looks amazing.

Those wings fit really well, imvho

[Iris]

That's exactly what I meant by pointy!

[Sgt. Groovy]

The only thing that bothers me is the weird crumbling of her right sleeve. One would expect it to behave like the left one, so the mouth of the sleeve should go like redlined below: