Druid portrait

[Redeth]

Hello there! Who said I was dead?

Nope, I'm alive and kicking... just taking a break from the 'animation scene'... and THIS is what I've been working on... my first attempt at drawing a Wesnoth portrait. Actually, my first attempt at making a portrait ever, period.

So please do critize, but have a little mercy

[JW]

I notice three things right away, other than the style which is much different than any curent Wesnoth styles - which is not a bad thing.

1) The eyes look too dark (from all the shadow)
2) her hairline is too close to her eyes
3) her ear is too close to her eyes.

Another minor thing is that her upper lip line appears to be slightly misdrawn. It should dip in the middle some. Oh, I didn't even mention that her eyes are huge.

I understand that this is your first attempt at portraits, so I hope you don't think I'm being rough. These are all the things I noticed on my first (and second) looks. It's not a bad start and the fact that you already have it colored, etc, means that feedback you will be getting will probably be more specific towards a finished product. So prepare.

Anyway, as I typed that last paragraph I realized that the 2nd and 3rd things I noticed would probably be fixed if you made her eyes smaller.

Good luck!

[torangan]

First impression: hair looks good, face unatural especially the skin and the ears could be horns...

[Redeth]

Fixed hairline, darkness of the eyes, mouth, and most noticeably the ear... thanks JW and Torangan.

The eyes are still huge but that's deliberate... I'm not going for a photo-realistic look. The big eyes are the 'anime-ish' touch I want it to have.

[Stilgar]

How about making the lips a more natural color, right now it looks like she's wearing lipstick which I don't think is appropriate to an elvish druid...

[irrevenant]

I've mangled the forehead and unfortunately don't have time to fix it right now, but it demonstrates where the hairline should naturally fall.

Note that I've also added in the second ear. I'm not 100% happy with the positioning, but she should definitely have one.

I also darkened her eyes, but in both the original and my tweak they look 'painted on'. I'm not sure what to do about that.

[Elvish_Pillager]

The heavy blackness cuts them off from the rest of the picture, that's why.

[Redeth]

I've redone the eyes and mouth, and added a visible left ear (thanks irrevenant, although those of yours did look like horns)

I raised her hairline once again too, and did a few other minor tweaks...

[Dragon Master]

Time to talk!
1) I'm serious when I say the hair looks too hairy. It looks so real it seems like you cut and paste hair from a photograph onto the picture, but kudos on doing such a great job with it. The way you made it "fuzz out" when it reaches her cheeks looks unnatural, it should be smoother
2) If you giving it an "anime-ish" feel, give the eyes some light reflection, like the white spots you see on anime eyes. This will also make the eyes seem less painted on.
3) I concur, change the lip color to a more nautral tone
4)Why are there dark spots around her eyes? That shading should be on the upper portion of her eyes and not on the lower half.
5) her eyebrows are a different color than her hair
6) That left ear really needs to be repositioned. The tip of it should be showing from behind her head just around the center of the picture.
7) If i just saw this picture, I wouldn't know it's a druid. Where's the leaves in her hair and her staff?
The ears are to round, make them flatter like human ears

I also need to get this of my chest BUT WHY IS EVERYONE DOING FRICKEN ELF PORTRAITS?!?!? I'VE HARDLY SEEN ANY OTHERS(not aimed at you specifically)

[Redeth]

ok, first of all, I don't know if you're talking about my third version or the second/irreventant-tweaked one...

Time to talk!
1) I'm serious when I say the hair looks too hairy. It looks so real it seems like you cut and paste hair from a photograph onto the picture, but kudos on doing such a great job with it.

Thanks, but I'm not really proud of it... it was the easiest thing to do, just a bunch of burning, lightening and smudging in the proper directions, with differing sizes of the brush to nullify uniformity. Now if you ask me about her nose... THAT was hell to make it look good (and nobody complained about it so far).

2) If you giving it an "anime-ish" feel, give the eyes some light reflection, like the white spots you see on anime eyes. This will also make the eyes seem less painted on.

I think I managed to make them look much more 'live' and less painted on in my last edit, while keeping their original concept. By "anime-ish" I meant they should remind you in a very subtle way to that particular style, but they're not supposed to be anime eyes (which would be incompatible with the rest of the portrait style anyway).

3) I concur, change the lip color to a more nautral tone

Done, I believe.

4)Why are there dark spots around her eyes? That shading should be on the upper portion of her eyes and not on the lower half.

I might look into that...

5) her eyebrows are a different color than her hair

And this too.

6) That left ear really needs to be repositioned. The tip of it should be showing from behind her head just around the center of the picture.

I think I got it right in version 3.

7) If i just saw this picture, I wouldn't know it's a druid. Where's the leaves in her hair and her staff?

Indeed. Leaves will arrive once I get the main thing done right, though.

The ears are to round, make them flatter like human ears

Maybe. We don't really know how elfish ears should look like, so this is extremely subjective.

I also need to get this of my chest BUT WHY IS EVERYONE DOING FRICKEN ELF PORTRAITS?!?!? I'VE HARDLY SEEN ANY OTHERS(not aimed at you specifically)

Because elves rule?

[irrevenant]

First of all, the eyes look a lot fuller now - much more 3d. Nice work.

I've redone the eyes and mouth, and added a visible left ear (thanks irrevenant, although those of yours did look like horns)

The first one you drew, and the second one I copy-pasted from the one you drew.

I raised her hairline once again too, and did a few other minor tweaks...

Seriously, trust me on the hairline thing; it's a loooong way up. What you're probably thinking of is that women's hair is often just above their eyes, but that comes of having a long fringe. The actual hairline is a lot closer to the crown.

Your elf appears to have a hairstyle much like the below picture; the hair flows around the shape of her face with no significant fringe. As such, you should be able to see a lot more of her forehead.

The ears are to round, make them flatter like human ears

Maybe. We don't really know how elfish ears should look like, so this is extremely subjective.

Yeh, we do. They should look like this:

7) If i just saw this picture, I wouldn't know it's a druid. Where's the leaves in her hair and her staff?

I agree with this. Personally, though I think you've got a good start on an Elvish Lady portrait. (Is that unit still in use?)

[Redeth]

Druidic enough?

[zookeeper]

She looks scary. Probably because she looks unnatural in some certain kind of twisted sense.

[Dragon Master]

Upon further reflection, I think the major problems are...
1) Her head is too wide and flat on the top, looks square
2) She's too fuzzy, sharpen up the lines a bit and maybe she'll look more realistic

[Disto]

I think she looks like a doll...