The Hammer of Thursagan portrait repaints

[DUHH]

I tried a lot of things, including adding more colored shading from "the ground", adding the reflection of the shield, adding bumps and scratches, etc, etc, and had to throw most of it away, so I think this is about as good as I´m gonna get it.

I do think there something that makes it look a bit Speedball 2/Bloodbowl like. Probably something to do both with my attempt at shading metal, and with the shape of the helmet. I don´t think I can do much about the shading without some really spesific hints or paintovers. The helmet... No ones had any problems with it so far, except me, so I really don´t want to redo it.

Anyhow... [censored] aside, I think I´m very satisfied.

Hope it´s good enough to commit.

Will be back tomorrow to see if there´s anything that needs changing. G´night...

[scienceguy8]

Now that is a crest! Great job! Looks like I'll have to play tHoT again. Never got around to finishing it the first time. As to the rest of the portrait, it looks great. The shield looks thick to me, but it could just be me.

[Rocket Slug]

I think the issue is that DUHH is a little excessive with his counter-reflections (LordBob's tutorial, step 4); almost to the point of pillow shading. This is particularly evident in version 6.

Also, I think most of the "off-ness" of the metal is the inconsistency of the lighting. Overall shading is wonderful (I love the shadows on his right pauldrons), but the highlights are incorrectly placed. The helmet reflects a lightsource from straight above, and slightly towards us (Groovy mentioned this, already), but the pauldrons' lighting is more from the back (yes, you said there was a secondary light source there, but it's secondary) And lastly, I think you're being a little schizophrenic about the shading on the breastplate. Flat(ish) metal does not produce circular highlights (though you fixed most of it in the latest revision). In fact, they tend to follow the shape of what they're reflecting off of. My guess is that you were copying LordBob's tutorial a little too closely. His speculars were circular because his surface was a sphere. If you look at his other loyalist portraits, he follows the shape of the surface (most tellingly both marshalls' torsos and the top of the pikeman's helmet).

As for the "plastic" look, I really can't tell. Your gold and silver inlays are wonderfully shaded, so I'm not sure why this is. Maybe it's because your shadows are too deep? I mean, look at the silver inlay and the axe head. They're much more metallic (IMHO) and they're more conservative with their use of the dark tones (though his gauntlet looks fine). Perhaps it's the contrast of bright speculars and deep shadows? Or maybe it's because I detect a hint of a blue overlay on the gauntlet that's not seen on the pauldrons and breastplate?

[Thrawn]

If I may hazard a guess, the red looks plasticy because of the real lack of difference between the highlights and shadows. It's blended really smoothly, and comes across as unnatural, and plasticy...?

I dunno--what material is it supposed to be? painted wood, leather, ?

[thespaceinvader]

One thing that's lacking throughout is edge shadows and counter-reflections on the metal. His beard should have a shadow underneath, and the colour of it should reflect onto the metal near it. The edge of his shield should cast a shadow on the face of the shield. The part in under the point of his jaw should probably be in shadow. The edge of the raised detailing on his chest plate too.

That's the nitpicks out of the way. beyond those very minor fixes, this is looking awesome. I particularly like the heraldry, it looks awesome. And the patterning around the edges of stuff - again, it's different enough from mainline to give unique character, but similar enough to look like it comes from the same cultural background. Great job =)

[JW]

The breastplate should not be nearly so brightly lit (comparing to helmet and shoulders).

The chainmail looks great though. And of course the seal too! - although the reflections there may be a little off as well. The design is fantastic though!

[Sgt. Groovy]

It's a bit lacking still on the cast shadow department. The bright speculars suggest a fairly hard lighting, and this should follow with sharp-edged and clear shadows. On the beard (cast by the helmet), under the edge of the breastplate, on the fist, etc. Also, the chainmail could also use some more contrast in shading, brighter speculars in specific.

The beard could be less saturated, it's now on the same level with the gold, but hair really has very little actual colour.

Still you need to be careful with metal relflections on shadowed areas, there is a really bright spot on the golden collar near the back of his neck, but this area is completely overshadowed by the helmet.

[LordBob]

I'll try a paintover tonight for the metal parts.

[DUHH]

Thanks a lot everyone!

Scienceguy8: I´m on the last mission of theHoT right now, and regularly getting my butt handed to me. On easy. But I´m not particularly good at strategy games. Actually I rather suck at them.

RocketSlug: I´m not actually sitting painting after LordBobs tutorial, and I consulted it mostly for the contrast and strokeweight he uses, not the highligh shapes.
Looking at different medieval plate-mails I found that the breast-plates often were quite roundish in their shape. So that was the thought behind them. Obviously there´s some way off between how I thought it should work and how it turned out to work in the art.
I do think you´re right in most of your critisism though, and will try to incorporate them in the next version.

Thrawn: Personally I don´t see a problem with the shading on the shield, even if it does look plasticy. I´m assuming it´s painted or laquered wood or metal, and yeah, that can look plastic. It´s the steel/iron armor that´s the point of debate here.

TSI: I´m not sure I agree that the edge of the shield would cast a shadow on the shield. It´s not supposed to be very elevated. The other points are very valid though.

Sgt. Groovy: The bright spot on the neck of the armor should be in shade, but actually I did put them in shade and it looked far worse. Don´t know why. And unless my monitor is off, there´s a pretty big difference between the hue and saturation of the beard and the golden parts.
The other points however are very good. Seems I´ve been so busy with the surface of things that I´ve forgotten my shading 101.

LordBob: That would be awesome.

[Wintermute]

I like it a lot.

[esr]

You asked if the Northern Alliance has a symbol.

It does now, I just invented it. Two gauntleted hands clasping, but fingers pointing up rather than down - like the way you start an arm wrestle. Pose like http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl= ... n%26sa%3DG, only the elements should be armored gauntlets.

The compass with heavy north arrow used in SoTBE is also acceptable. Ideally, combine the two.

[DUHH]

I was thinking for his shield, but I already filled that in. But I´ll put it on some of the other characters, or perhaps on the belt-buckle.

Almost finished the campaign, by the way. Enjoying it. Good work!

[Sgt. Groovy]

Something like this then, only the hands are clasping and not holding swords.

[LordBob]

As promised, paintover of the dwarf using a single lightsource (I took the one of the helmet as reference)
I added a light pattern on the shield in order to tone down its plasticness
Some of my lightings can still be improved, especially the pauldrons

[DUHH]

Fantastic! Thanks a lot! I´ll try my hand at it tomorrow.

How have you done the texture-like stuff on the shield? That looks just awesome.