how to draw units

Elvish Orc Slayer · Post by **Elvish Orc Slayer** » June 14th, 2006, 9:59 am

hey im having trouble drawing units. i meen, if i take an existing unit, and edit it, it will look awsome, but making a new unit from scratch is hard for me. it looks like a 5 year old drawing.

also how do you make really cool looking portraits??

i have a mac and i use Photoshop CS for my unit making

thanks for your help!!

The Elvish Orc Slayer

Post by **freim** » June 14th, 2006, 10:22 am

How about you start with looking at the information in the wiki?

http://www.wesnoth.org/wiki/Create_Art

There isn't any magical answer here, you need to practice.. a lot.

toms · Post by **toms** » June 14th, 2006, 11:35 am

For sprite art, you can get a feeling by looking at the wesnoth unit art. You will learn the tricks with exercise.

For portraits, you should 1) draw a good, detailed and correct portrait on paper (this is not easy), scan it and 2) 'ink' it (give it better visible outlines) and 3) color it, add shading and textures. This just covers it, but if you manage all 3 steps well, you should have a good portrait. You can get some deeper knowledge at the turtorials freim linked to.

PS: IMO it is easier to draw sprites than portraits, but you at least should try both.
I think almost everyone of the active users has at least tried to contribute art.

Post by **Sgt. Groovy** » June 14th, 2006, 12:23 pm

also how do you make really cool looking portraits?

If you find out the answer, I'd be happy to hear it too (I mean, if it's something else than "by practicing hard").

toms · Post by **toms** » June 14th, 2006, 2:57 pm

DidnÃ‚Â´t I say it? If you need more details, check the art turtorials.

Post by **Eternal** » June 14th, 2006, 3:24 pm

Elvish Orc Slayer wrote:hey im having trouble drawing units. i meen, if i take an existing unit, and edit it, it will look awsome, but making a new unit from scratch is hard for me. it looks like a 5 year old drawing.

Can we see these units you have made? (both cool and 5-year-old ones?)

Post by **torangan** » June 14th, 2006, 5:08 pm

You really should post your failed attempts as well. People with the right skills might be able to tell you what exactly you need to study to improve.

jg · Post by jg » June 14th, 2006, 5:59 pm

torangan wrote:You really should post your failed attempts as well. People with the right skills might be able to tell you what exactly you need to study to improve.

Though be careful of some evil comments you might get...

Though there are some mercifull people which might be willing to help...

jg

Flametrooper · Post by **Flametrooper** » June 14th, 2006, 8:30 pm

Take the evil comments in your stride. People are just trying to help. No one here has yet insulted someone's art just to insult it, without meaning any help for criticism, at least not that I've seen.
For sprites, start with the head. Use the Photoshop/GIMP brush Circle(11), with pencil, black, and then the eraser with Circle(9), inside it, and you have a empty circle that's the right head size. Outline the body from there. Legs are hardest to do right; but keep practicing.

Post by **Jetrel** » June 14th, 2006, 9:40 pm

These should help, in fact I wrote some of them:

http://www.wesnoth.org/wiki/Create_Art
http://www.wesnoth.org/wiki/External_Tutorials

Elvish Orc Slayer · Post by **Elvish Orc Slayer** » June 15th, 2006, 6:09 pm

Hey, thanks for the edvise. I was actually doing this art for a campaign i wana make about a new race. anyway, there are 2 folders in the archive.

1: is called "5 year old" and has a bad pic for the new race

2: is called "good" and as the art for a character i made called the Elvish Hermit.

here you go

The Elvish Orc Slayer

Post by **Jetrel** » June 16th, 2006, 2:48 am

Another bit of advice:

When you're posting art for review (rather than pre-approved art for inclusion, which usually gets approved by a round of review directly beforehand), post it as a viewable image, not as a zip file.

Downloading and expanding the zip file takes time, which is rather inconvenient for us people doing the C&C.

jg · Post by jg » June 16th, 2006, 5:15 am

I just got an idea; for people who are practicing there art, couldn't there just be one thread (sticky or not is up to you), where people can freely post there art, and some good artists give there critics.

jg

toms · Post by **toms** » June 16th, 2006, 7:39 am

jg wrote:I just got an idea; for people who are practicing there art, couldn't there just be one thread (sticky or not is up to you), where people can freely post there art, and some good artists give there critics.

jg

There is a thread in Off topic called "Once more with pencils" where you can post pencil art and it will be criticized.
But IMO it is ok in that way.

jg · Post by jg » June 16th, 2006, 11:59 am

I am aware of that, I was rather thinking that all kinds of arts, not only with pencil; also sprite art and co.

BTW, not to go too much offtopic: EOS, your pictures are put into the right folders (IMO)...

What you might also try, is making the unit's body move when it attacks.

jg

P.S: toms, OK with what; my idea or there is the thread in Off Topic?