Deathblade+Lich portrait sketches

[Girgistian]

Here we are. If anyone would like to have a [censored] load of colouring, they can try these since I can't shade well enough at the moment.

[Rocket Slug]

Sooo cool. I love how he looks half-crazed, even though he's just a skeleton. I also applaud your interpretation of his weapons. Broken halberd FTW!

[turin]

The weapons kind of bug me, actually... they really don't follow the sprite at all. The Deathblade is wielding a special kind of axe - it doesn't have any point on the end of the shaft, it has a really long blade running almost the length of the shaft, and that blade is bound to the shaft at two places. It almost looks like an odd kind of sword. It's definitely not a run-of-the-mill axe.

...It would actually probably look something like this, minus one of the blades, and somewhat elongated and thinned:


Of course normally it wouldn't be a problem if you deviated somewhat from the sprite, but the Deathblade's weapons are IMO one of his most distinguishing characteristics, and it really breaks the feel of the unit to change his weapons to run-of-the-mill axes/halberds. It's almost as bad as if a portrait of a sword-wielding unit showed an axe.

[mameluke]

We talk about this, right?



Hmmmm... don't know if I should agree to turin's statement. It's probably true, but not shure if the death-blade has this "blades" by design or by accident.

[turin]

We talk about this, right?

Precisely.

The reason he has that kind of weapon rather than a traditional axe, btw, is that he is supposed to be really quick on the attack (as evidenced by his having five strikes); a normal axe isn't nearly as nimble as an axe that is almost a scimitar.

[Girgistian]

And I'd note that the speed of a sword comes very much from the balancing. I was thinking of making the blades more sword-ish, and I could try that as well. I first of all thought that a rugged look would fit a skeleton more, and top-end weapons really contradict the condition of his armor.

[mameluke]

I first of all thought that a rugged look would fit a skeleton more, and top-end weapons really contradict the condition of his armor.

You could argue, that the death-blade is a very quick fighter.
Heavy armor just makes him slow.
Since he doesn't fear blade and pierce he don't ned much armor. He comes like he is, out from the grave and wields his fast axes.
His advantage is his speed.

On the other side, the Revenant has a strong armor and a heavy axe:


IMHO, he could use some old rusty armor and old big axe.

Just a try from me to give some logical "real world" structure/explanation into this.
No idea if it's usable

[JW]

I really like the concept.

Once the wepons are changed I imagine it will be very good.

[Girgistian]

You could argue, that the death-blade is a very quick fighter.
Heavy armor just makes him slow.
Since he doesn't fear blade and pierce he don't ned much armor. He comes like he is, out from the grave and wields his fast axes.
His advantage is his speed.
Just a try from me to give some logical "real world" structure/explanation into this.
No idea if it's usable

No one ever mentioned anything about heavy armor.
And they're still axes, the fact that they have a longer blade doesn't make them faster, it makes them slower, because there's more steel. If they had a hilt for balancing, then they'd be faster.
Here's the one with the bigger blades anyway.

[Neoskel]

No, they're faster cuz they're better balanced than bunch-of-mass-sticking-out-one-side regular axes. I.e. faster recovery. They aren't just longer, they also jut out less. The mass is the same or less.

[mameluke]

No one ever mentioned anything about heavy armor.

Sorry, I think I understood you wrong since I'm not a native english-speaker (like a lot of guys and girls here )

Anyways, this "death-blade" looks really deadly to me. Very cool imho!
Big improvement to the first picture.

Some other critique: Maybe the backbone/spine or how you call it and also the neck are not detailed enough. The rips are now much better detailed then in your first "Skeleton Warrior portrait", very huge improvement I think!

Just my 2 pence as always... I'm lacy at work
Ps: Thank you for putting so much energy and effort in the portraits of the undead. They are really something I miss in the game.

[Girgistian]

Tampered with the cervical spine (the "neck"). Just edited the picture above.

[mameluke]

When I look at the picture here http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/d ... MK1888.png I think that the pelvis could be too small.
It's maybe o.k. like this, because it feels a little dynamic. (like the pelvis is in background of the perspective).
Unluckily with a more wide pelvis, the legs have to be adjusted a little (as far I can see).
Can someone more grave give his vote for this?

I also think that the vertebra are to small on the picture, as you can see here: http://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?tit ... 0123193047.
They also have a lack of details. The lower vertebra should have some short rips, haven't found a better pic then here atm: http://rtbern.ch/rtb/images/wirbelsaeule.jpg

Please note, that I'm not an artist. But since I see how the artists now pay attention to a "realistic" shape of bodies, I think this could be an issue if finally some artist decide if the picture can go mainline or not.
If you don't agree with what I say first wait for other, more grave replies! thx

[Girgistian]

Enlargened the pelvis and fixed the spine.

[megane]

The new Deathblade sprite's wearing a sort of torn-up scarf thing; you might want to include that.