A rough life - portraits

[bera]

Allright, worked on face, cleared contour lines and defined darker shadows, saturated down his robe so that he's not so glowy. I call it finished then

[Jacques_Fol]

Yes, well improved, so I call it gladly adopted.

[bera]

Semi flats (linearts to be improved) for young and determined Jacques (lvl2 one). Decided to make him a redhead so that I can have better chances of duplicating his facial features Actually I didn't even really work on faces at this point - that I'll do while shading.

[Jacques_Fol]

Whoa! I like where this is going.

I don't have much to offer in terms of comments, but here are assorted details:

- perhaps, in the first portrait, you could tighten the vest a little towards the hip area - I think the torso should be getting narrower downwards to give the impression of the physique, kind of like in the second portrait;

- the first portrait is seen as if with a sword; the thief is equipped only with a knife (Jacques only gets the sword from you-know-who),

- in the second portrait, the bow seems much larger than when seen with Gronar (Gronar's portrait is more zoomed-in, and yet the bow looks smaller, with Jacques it looks big and tremendously long),

- otherwise, I like where you're going with the facial features, I would just suggest that the faces shouldn't end up looking too boyish; Jacques should look about 20 in the first incarnation, 23 in the second and 26 in the third (to sort of convey the changes he experiences and where he ends up as a commander others gladly follow).

Great job! I look forward to seeing how he turns out.

[bera]

Sure. I was hoping to finish the both portraits these days before I leave for 2 months, but couldn't. So.. Will be back for them once I conclude a stupid mandatory military service. Till then

[Jacques_Fol]

Of course this is perfectly understood, although I understand why you might find it a little redundant to do the service if you get little joy out of it. At least it only seems to take two months.

So, we'll be around, and you will have the Jacques portraits waiting for you once you return. Hope you still have as good a time as possible and look forward to seeing the final versions upon your return!

[X-Site]

Hmmm is Jacques left or right Handed?
A sword is drawn from the opposed side while a bow is usually in the weaker Hand to be spanned by the stronger one or am I wrong.

[solsword]

Sword is definitely dominant hand, but bow depends on which of your eyes is dominant, which doesn't necessarily correspond with hand dominance.

[thespaceinvader]

To the best of my knowledge most bowmen draw with their dominant hand, since that hand is usually the stronger. Bout you should also bear in midn that the sword is scabbarded on the side of the weaker hand, since you draw across the body.

[bera]

Hello, I am finally back, with a shading update on young Jacques. So far looks good to me, though I will take into account any c&cs for the final version.

[Jacques_Fol]

Welcome back, bera! It seems we were in sync - me checking the forum just as a new post by yourself is up. I trust the military service has successfully been dealt with and you're off the hook now?

As far as I'm concerned, I think the portrait is excellent except for one detail that I already mentioned before: the picture is shown as if with a sword, whereas Jacques at first only has a knife (and acquires a sword later on after you-know-who gets rid of you-know-who). I think this detail is important enough that it would warrant replacing the sword with a knife (even if it is a long hunting knife). Other than that, great and much obliged! Can't wait to see more!

[bera]

Yes, I am back on track Jacques. Now I have the revised version of young Jacques, and a shading update on his second incarnation.

Revision for the young Jacques: I tried to convert his sword to a knife. Taking his current pose into account, the only trick for such I could come up with was to shrink the hand guard of the hilt. I can only hope this will work at this stage and will call it done if you agree.

For the older version you will see some changes on the linework, like making his bow smaller. I should say it still has some work to do on details, and I will likely post the final version for it tomorrow. Oh and I am thinking to furbish this one with a sword as a different portrait for a representation of the eldest Jacques, would that be acceptable for you?

[Jacques_Fol]

Very good work, bera. I am particularly impressed with the clothing of the second portrait, wonderfully done, almost too good for his second incarnation and fit for the third.

As for the first one, I think the sword/knife detail will be quite acceptable - perhaps the only other detail which could help would be to also cut some of the guard of the hilt (it adds to the appearance of a sword as is, and if it was much smaller, one would immediately think it might be a knife).

As for the second one, like I said, mightily impressed. The face is not very detailed, but that's not an issue that would concern me. Like I said above, perhaps the clothes are almost too nice for the sand trapper.

If I could make any wish regarding the final transformation, it would be this: to make some further distinction in clothing splendour between the second and the third portrait, and - if at all possible - to portray the third portrait with both the sword and the bow. (But, perhaps with the bow strapped to his back and the sword in his hand.)

Really well done on the whole, though, and I can say nothing but thank you.

[bera]

Yes you are right. His attire seems to be more suited to court then the desert, so I will think of the intermediate Jacques then, which will be next portrait.

Meanwhile I gave the second one a blade, promoting him to the commanding Jacques, the final incarnation. I know you wish to see the bow strapped over his back but that is too late to arrange at this stage. Cut down the guard of the sword more for the first one as well:

If you allow I will call both of them finished.

[Jacques_Fol]

I will gladly accept them, thanks! The only(!) remaining detail that gives me some pause is the sword. When I compare the two, I see that it is the same as in the portrait of Lieutenant Popper, but it looks somewhat smaller (and narrower) on the portrait of Jacques. If it were possible to "beef it up" just a little to make it even more clearly the same, that would be great, but either way I am one most happy camper. Also, can't wait to see what interesting attire you come up with for Jacques as a sand trapper/ranger.