Elf Portrait art thread: Archer by Ranger M

Post by **Thrawn** » May 5th, 2006, 9:53 pm

turin wrote:Although it is slightly hard to tell, since the drawing itself is larger than most drawings when viewed on my monitor, the guy's head is freakishly small...

not frakishly, but I can make that bigger in GIMP. Thanks though, until you mentioned it, I never noticed. (my first draft of him had it right, but I beuffed him up too much after...)

Anyways, GIMPed archer--I'll be trying our quiver straps.

xtifr · Post by **xtifr** » May 6th, 2006, 3:25 am

The quiver strap should be going the other way than it was in the earlier portraits; it should be parallel to the quiver, not perpendicular to it. The strap attaches to the top and bottom of the quiver. Attaching both ends of the strap to the middle of the quiver (as it would have to be the way you drew it before) would make the quiver unstable and prone to twist around and dump out its contents.

Post by **Zhukov** » May 6th, 2006, 4:10 am

Yeah, that's what I tried to tell him.
Xtifr has worded the problem much better then I could.

Post by **zookeeper** » May 6th, 2006, 7:01 am

The archer is looking quite good, except that...IMHO, it looks definitely more like a fighter. All that's missing would be shoulder pads of some kind and maybe a shield. Personally I think this would be better as a fighter portrait, since an archer should look somewhat less sturdy than this fellow. And BTW, I'd slim the armour down on the left side (his right) just a bit, like in the attached image.

xtifr · Post by **xtifr** » May 6th, 2006, 9:17 am

I think I disagree with zookeeper--he doesn't seem too sturdy-looking to me. I suppose--since he's an elf--he could be a little more slender, but I'm not convinved he needs to be.

Back to the quiver again for a moment, though. The quiver is also too high up on his back (but the arrows aren't). Also, it seems to be pointed somewhat backward, i.e. away from him. Both of these will make it more difficult to get the arrows out of the quiver. There should be noticably more arrow-shaft showing, and the lip of the quiver should be curved the other way--you should almost, but not quite, be able to see into the quiver from that angle.

Post by **deserter** » May 6th, 2006, 9:48 am

About sturdyness... I think that this fellow has a bit too big arms and jaw. (Actually this seems to have been an issue with every thrawn's draving.) Strong jaw might be fitting somewhere, but IMO elven men are beautiful men with more feminine features than humans.

The arms are IMO oversized and a bit dull. I mean that they should be thinner and have more features like muscles and sinews. For women arms the lack of features isn't that bad, but if you have man-arms this thick they should be muscular as well.

I don't think that elves should be very muscular though.
We can use very small percentage of our muscles capacity. This is due to inability of nervous system to use that capacity. Of course the strength can be gained by improving the nerves for example by doing strength-training in our minds. I think that elves shouldn't be so muscular because they make better use of the capacity of their muscles.

I trailed of a bit here...

Otherwise... good work!

Post by **Thrawn** » May 9th, 2006, 11:40 am

I've been horribly busy, and it seems no end in sight (pretty much booked 'til september already...

, but I'll continue working on this stuff in myu free time ( from May 26-June 9 ish)

About the quiver...The reason it is facing away is becasue if it was attached the way it was (really loosly hanging), it would go back that way, and rest on the guys back. With the quiver with the strap, I'd have to change that, and for major art reasons, that means redrawing the thing.. which may not be a bad thing)

About his buffness: I don't think he is too strong looking, with the possible exception of the neck and shoulders--becasue the arm widths are based on mine, and I am really not buff...and the jaw is not really a problem in my mind.

I agree about the armour though, it makes him look less fat

I'll see what I can do

Post by **Thrawn** » May 17th, 2006, 7:30 pm

again, I come to the problem where I sketch in school, and then have noi time to work on other things.

I like the new archer I made better, except his neck comes out too far.

Thge penciled in shoulder pad is where it should be, I realized after inking (grr) that it was too low, and so the mutant-ish arm.

comments please!!!

Ranger M · Post by **Ranger M** » May 17th, 2006, 7:35 pm

Thrawn wrote:again, I come to the problem where I sketch in school, and then have noi time to work on other things.

I like the new archer I made better, except his neck comes out too far.

Thge penciled in shoulder pad is where it should be, I realized after inking (grr) that it was too low, and so the mutant-ish arm.

comments please!!!

Do you mind if I colour the elvish archer? I just like the concept.

By the way, do you ever colour these, or just churn our sketchs? Because I haven't seen a coloured one from you in a while.

Post by **Thrawn** » May 17th, 2006, 7:39 pm

Ranger M wrote:
Thrawn wrote:again, I come to the problem where I sketch in school, and then have noi time to work on other things.

I like the new archer I made better, except his neck comes out too far.

Thge penciled in shoulder pad is where it should be, I realized after inking (grr) that it was too low, and so the mutant-ish arm.

comments please!!!
Do you mind if I colour the elvish archer? I just like the concept.

By the way, do you ever colour these, or just churn our sketchs? Because I haven't seen a coloured one from you in a while.

I sketch a bunch, scan and upload at school (wher I post them in bulk, like now). I then download at home, pick one, and try to color. But frankly, I suck at it... it took me how long to A-A properly, and that was much simpler, IMO. It also takes long to re-ink in a new layer on computer, because my mouse drawing skills suck as well. I'm hoping to get a tablet for graduation soon.

EDIT: of course you can--I don't care what happens with my work, just inform me, like you just did.

also, I'm seeing bad face on the archer, but I can fix that part later, the head is not full enough on the female.

Ranger M · Post by **Ranger M** » May 17th, 2006, 7:46 pm

Thrawn wrote:I sketch a bunch, scan and upload at school (wher I post them in bulk, like now). I then download at home, pick one, and try to color. But frankly, I suck at it... it took me how long to A-A properly, and that was much simpler, IMO. It also takes long to re-ink in a new layer on computer, because my mouse drawing skills suck as well. I'm hoping to get a tablet for graduation soon.

EDIT: of course you can--I don't care what happens with my work, just inform me, like you just did.

also, I'm seeing bad face on the archer, but I can fix that part later, the head is not full enough on the female.

Line art is easy, once you have the right tools.

just use vectors if you really struggle with it, they make the lines smooth for you. (for an example, see my latest portrait in the IoA art thread, the line art in that was done in vectors, completely, as a test, because I had just discovered the vector tool in GIMP)

As for colouring, I can understand it being harder, but give it a go more often, I often sit and look at something thinking, 'I can't do this' and then I just try it, undoing bits I don't like, and it comes out surprisingly well after a few trys.

Post by **Thrawn** » May 17th, 2006, 7:51 pm

Ranger M wrote: Line art is easy, once you have the right tools.

just use vectors if you really struggle with it, they make the lines smooth for you. (for an example, see my latest portrait in the IoA art thread, the line art in that was done in vectors, completely, as a test, because I had just discovered the vector tool in GIMP)

As for colouring, I can understand it being harder, but give it a go more often, I often sit and look at something thinking, 'I can't do this' and then I just try it, undoing bits I don't like, and it comes out surprisingly well after a few trys.

how does on use vectors. You mean the GIMP line tool, becasue that doen't get curved lines, and I don't know of any GIMP feature to do vectors, I have a somewhat older version, but...

re: coloring--I do try often, I just don't post the results, and it takes too long, and switching between several computers over the course of the day.

Completely OT-ish: would it be okay for me to make custum sprites for the cool peopel in the Conference in tRoW? They wouldn't need animations, wouldn't need TC, would look cool, and give me a chance to draw from some sort of guidelines.

Post by **Jetrel** » May 17th, 2006, 10:16 pm

Thrawn wrote:Completely OT-ish: would it be okay for me to make custum sprites for the cool peopel in the Conference in tRoW? They wouldn't need animations, wouldn't need TC, would look cool, and give me a chance to draw from some sort of guidelines.

Sure, yeah.

I'm sorry I'm not giving more critiques, here, but it's finals week right now. After next monday, I'll be in the clear.

Post by **irrevenant** » May 17th, 2006, 10:46 pm

Thrawn wrote:how does on use vectors. You mean the GIMP line tool, becasue that doen't get curved lines, and I don't know of any GIMP feature to do vectors, I have a somewhat older version, but...

In GIMP it's called the "create and edit paths" tool.

Ranger M · Post by **Ranger M** » May 17th, 2006, 11:31 pm

irrevenant wrote:
Thrawn wrote:how does on use vectors. You mean the GIMP line tool, becasue that doen't get curved lines, and I don't know of any GIMP feature to do vectors, I have a somewhat older version, but...
In GIMP it is called the "create and edit paths" tool.

yep, and if it isn't making curved lines (adjustable handles should appear when you click somewhere) they you have the polygonal checkbox ticked, un tick it and try it again.