Musing on character portraits

Guest · Post by **Guest** » March 27th, 2004, 7:14 pm

And then the Elvish Archer. I just came to the stunning realization that this guy doesn't have ears, unless they're conveniently hidden under his hair.

I'm a tool. But this is a preliminary sketch. I'm not so happy about this one, but here it is anyways.

This leaves, as far as I can count, only the elvish gryphon rider and Scout/Outrider. (for the elves)

I'm going to hold off on doing the gryphon rider, but I think I'll do the Scout sometime soon.

Post by **turin** » March 27th, 2004, 7:36 pm

i have already done a portrait for the human leutenant/general, as those who play my campaign should know, if it has been working.

i don't think that all units should have portraits, only the important ones should, or else it is hard to tell who is important and who is not when they are speaking.

the portrait you made looks good for a heavy infantry, but now for most of the other units, it is too heavily armored. also, i don't think you want the portraits to be doing an action, such as the elvish archer drawing a bow, it looks strange.

you are no-where near done- what about the dwarves, and orcs, and undead?

Circon · Post by **Circon** » March 27th, 2004, 8:56 pm

Ooh! The lieutenant looks great! And the elvish archer looks pretty cheeky. Doesn't quite fit ingame, but great drawing!

miyo · Post by **miyo** » March 28th, 2004, 12:17 am

Anonymous wrote:And then the Elvish Archer.

Why does the elf have one eye closed? Is (s)he novice or something?

- Miyo

Post by **turin** » March 28th, 2004, 12:22 am

miyo wrote:
Anonymous wrote:And then the Elvish Archer.
Why does the elf have one eye closed? Is (s)he novice or something?

- Miyo

well, (s)he definitely is not holding the bow correctly, at all. i don't think (s)he should be shooting the bow at all, just holding it at her/his side. this would fit more with the other portraits.

miyo · Post by **miyo** » March 28th, 2004, 12:27 am

And don't get me wrong... your portraits are getting better =)

- Miyo

Jetryl's Severed Head · March 28th, 2004, 4:49 am

the undead, dwarves, orcs, rat people, and everybody else will come in due time (fairly soon, if my homework doesn't molest me when I get back to school. Being a Math/Physics double major seriously blows, and right now I'm a tad behind on my homework. Spring break has been a blessed chance to catch up.).

What I basically intend to do is provide one image for each character class (per se - it gets a bit messy when multiple classes converge or otherwise. I'm not sure it will be so bad for the elves/orcs, but the humans may be a bit tricky insofar as what I should choose to draw).

The undead will be a bit tough to draw - I think I will be doing a good deal of study on my old collection of conan comics for those guys.

These are just 1.0 pictures here, they easily can get replaced by something better.

One of the other things is this: I don't really want to nail down how these get used. So far as I can see, these could either be used for any characters that have dialogue (like the druid and elvish commander on level 1), OR, they could be used for everyone.

Who knows - it's certainly not my call.

Anyhow, I desperately need drawing skill to make my own videogames, and working on this one will let you guys beat me into shape. If I can just make sure I do at least an average of a few solid sketches a day, I'll gradually get better (one would hope). In case it's not painfully obvious, my drawing style for this is quite in flux, as my usual style is not appropriate.

One site that has been quite an aid to me is the online comic "Alpha Shade", if only for their consistent (and very stereotypically anime) style and their wonderful use of color.

To me, they seem to be what fmunoz was aspiring to when he did his drawings.

On the other hand, Ian McConville of http://www.machall.com was recently doing character portrait desktops of games he's played (usually MMORPG's).

Jetryl's Severed Head · March 28th, 2004, 4:55 am

for the curious, this is one of the better examples of my "usual style" (the picture I attempted to first do of Li'sar was one of the worse examples).

All this sketchwork will help me with my usual style as well, since it would always take me forever to get things shaped right.

Icekiss · Post by **Icekiss** » March 28th, 2004, 8:15 pm

I, for one, would really, really enjoy having always a nice picture beside the unit descriptions instead of the small sprite, like it is now. Would make the units feel more real to me, more "alive". And Jetryl, you get better with every sketch you make.
So, I think this could turn into a really good addition to Wesnoth, it Jetryl shows enough persistence in this task.
Just thought I would give my thumbs up

Post by **Jetrel** » March 29th, 2004, 2:33 am

Finally back at college. Yeesh - anyhow, here is another sketch of li'sar.

Christophe33 · Post by **Christophe33** » March 29th, 2004, 8:32 am

This last sketch of Li'sar is really quite good. It should look great when you finish it. By the way, Konrad is human, not elf so he doesn't need pointy ears.

miyo · Post by **miyo** » March 29th, 2004, 9:09 am

Jetryl wrote:Finally back at college. Yeesh - anyhow, here is another sketch of li'sar.

Definately getting better.

- Miyo

Post by **Jetrel** » March 30th, 2004, 9:43 am

In game portrait; take 2

Post by **Jetrel** » March 30th, 2004, 9:51 am

And the PNG.

poop on this

Jesus, I really don't want to have to whip out Illustrator on this stuff (mostly on account of how I suck at using Illustrator).

It's just...

something lacking. The sketch looked fine ... ugh.

what the hell do I care, at this time in the morning?

Until some time quite later this week, ciao. I have some serious studying to do. I'll take another swing at this later.

Post by **Jetrel** » March 30th, 2004, 11:53 pm