BT attempts portraiting

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nemaara
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Re: BT attempts portraiting

Post by nemaara »

Sketches look good, the blade demons also look good (maybe a bit skinny, but whatever). The shaman and nymph look okay to me as well, I'll add them in. The sprite/fire faerie faces still bother me a bit, though. It might be the extra lines, especially around the nose and mouth. The brow area also is a bit odd looking to me, but I'm not sure which one is making it off putting for me (maybe a combination of the above?). :hmm:
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BTIsaac
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Re: BT attempts portraiting

Post by BTIsaac »

nemaara wrote: March 25th, 2019, 4:44 pm The sprite/fire faerie faces still bother me a bit, though. It might be the extra lines, especially around the nose and mouth. The brow area also is a bit odd looking to me, but I'm not sure which one is making it off putting for me (maybe a combination of the above?). :hmm:
I'll try to make further adjustments eventually. I was thinking of correcting the lighting on the forest spirit too.
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BTIsaac
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Re: BT attempts portraiting

Post by BTIsaac »

So I've been away for a long time. Here are a couple of sketches I made recently. No demons this time, but I did finish the remaining portraits for the black demon line.

I mentioned in another thread that I'd like to try my hands at creating a sprite based on the Ancient Lich portrait, but I got a different idea for the unit that sprite was meant for. Both the Lich Emperor and the Lich Regents are intended to be unique units associated with an undead faction I dubbed the Sand Empire in a theoretical campaign i'm planning, and I wanted to give them some kind of thematic consistency.
These designs, and in the case of the Emperor, much of the composition has been somewhat inspired by the works of the illustrator and independent filmmaker Seb McKinnon.
The Lich Regent has a male (right) and female (left) variant - both are based on the portraits of two side characters from SotA, at least as far as the poses are concerned.
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Sandemperor lt.jpg
Sandemperor lt.jpg (16.53 KiB) Viewed 3469 times
Lichregent lt.jpg
Kayleen lt.jpg
Kayleen lt.jpg (13.19 KiB) Viewed 3469 times
Last edited by BTIsaac on December 17th, 2019, 12:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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BTIsaac
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Re: BT attempts portraiting

Post by BTIsaac »

I recently completed the portraits for the Black demon line for Genesis. Below are the male and female variants of the Voidhunter and Reaper units.
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voidhunter.png
voidhunter.png (290.2 KiB) Viewed 3468 times
Voidhunter f.png
Voidhunter f.png (284.81 KiB) Viewed 3468 times
voidreaper.png
voidreaper.png (307.44 KiB) Viewed 3468 times
Voidreaper f.png
Voidreaper f.png (295.12 KiB) Viewed 3468 times
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BTIsaac
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Re: BT attempts portraiting

Post by BTIsaac »

I also made portraits for the male and female Voidreaver. I figured the Voidreaver and Voidwatcher look similar enough that making separate portraits for them is unnecessary.
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Voidreaver.png
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Voidreaver f.png
Voidreaver f.png (314.4 KiB) Viewed 3468 times
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BTIsaac
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Re: BT attempts portraiting

Post by BTIsaac »

...
who am I kidding? That female voidhunter looks terrible.
What was I even thinking?
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The_Gnat
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Re: BT attempts portraiting

Post by The_Gnat »

BTIsaac wrote: December 30th, 2019, 8:21 am ...
who am I kidding? That female voidhunter looks terrible.
What was I even thinking?
Hi BTIsaac! Nice to see you are still drawing portraits. They are looking even better nowadays! :D

Also that voidhunter definitely doesn't look terrible! It doesn't have the same formidableness as the male version but I can easily see what you were trying to depict! The only thing I might change is the transition from legs to ground/void under the female. For example on the male it has been better executed to look like it is seemless. :)
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BTIsaac
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Re: BT attempts portraiting

Post by BTIsaac »

The_Gnat wrote: January 5th, 2020, 9:09 am Also that voidhunter definitely doesn't look terrible! It doesn't have the same formidableness as the male version but I can easily see what you were trying to depict!
It's not about how they look, it's about the coloring the bright spots are too bright, too rough and too desaturated, while the dark spots are too black, and there are very few midtones. It's like someone just wiped the whole thing with the burn and dodge tool indiscriminately. It even looks worse on my work computer because of the different monitor settings emphasize the problems.

I wanted to give them these large blade like "feathers" to better reflect the sprites. On the male version, they blend in with the black void-stuff so you can barely make out the shape, but on the female version, they have this pure white gleem that jumps into the foreground. In addition, the mask on the female reaper looks terrible. I tried experimenting with the liquify filter to help give it shape and it just ended up looking like tinfoil.

The only thing I might change is the transition from legs to ground/void under the female. For example on the male it has been better executed to look like it is seemless. :)
That is due to the above problem. the "flames" are much brighter on the female version and the contrast on the legs is stronger. On the male version, there's less contrast and more saturation.
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BTIsaac
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Re: BT attempts portraiting

Post by BTIsaac »

These are mostly finished versions of portraits I made for a personal project, however, people may use them if they feel like it.

I am not pleased with the expressions on the Fisherman portrait, especially since he's intended to be a lvl 0 protagonist. He's got that weird simpleton expression and the shading on human skin is something I could never get right. I did experiment with the folds on the clothing. I don't think it's that good.

The Shadow Lord character I like more, but I couldn't get that grin right. I believe the eyes in particular to be the result of a compression issue. I have a bad habit of working with big resolution and STILL zooming in to work on the details - this is because I'm using a mouse instead of a graphics tablet, and my hand is just not that steady with it. I wanted to give this guy a more savage and barbaric look combined with a more thin, frame.

The Lich Emperor portrait took me the most time. The resolution I worked with was massive, and a lot of detail was lost in the process, however I did keep a higher res version, mainly because I didn't want so much work to go to waste.
Spoiler:
Unfortunately, I don't know when I will resume doing more portraits, if I even will in the near future. I'll need to get a better computer, but I just don't know when that will happen.
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Fisherman
Fisherman
Kaiden.png (149.52 KiB) Viewed 2350 times
Shadow Lord
Shadow Lord
Mizenwyn.png (165.06 KiB) Viewed 2350 times
Lich Emperor
Lich Emperor
Lich Emperor.png (276.05 KiB) Viewed 2350 times
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