Anyone looking for a proffesional fantasy artist?

[Githyanki]

My chosen proffesion in life is fantasy art.I am heading for a job in fantasy book covers.I know im not exactly a Todd Lockwood and a long way off from seeing my illustration on an R.A Salvatore novel.But I hoped some of the developers in Wesnoth would post here if they like the drawing I attached.Tell me also if It didnt work.I'm also interested in starting up some unit art and know quite a bit of the fantasy lore.In fact to be a true artist you need to be a nerd for whatever genre you pick.Me, Im a Fantasy nerd (warcraft,forgotten realms,ebberon,d&d) pretty much everything.And I hope to add Wesnoth to that list..so if you can help me,a PM or post would be great.Game On!

[vonHalenbach]

Hi. I had expected more after this headline. Your skills are probably better than my skills, but to make this a profession, you have to learn more.

So making art for BfW is a good opportunity to do exactly this, even when your first drawing won't be used in a mainline campaign.

The Orcish guy in the lower right corner looks most interesting to me. Maybe you can single him out and make a nice portrait from him? His fingers are in my opinion too long.

[ael193]

there eyes are too big and shoulkdn't be spherical

[zookeeper]

I know there are a lot of small things that could need fixing in that image, but this bugs me the most: the dwarf is floating in the air. He looks like he'd float around in that position on even ground with his toes barely touching the surface.

I'd have him more clearly jump or leap forwards, if he's going to smash that orc with his hammer which to me looks like what he's intending to do. A sketch of where the legs would go approximately attached. It'd also look a bit more convincing if he was actually ready to strike with that hammer (now he's just holding it against himself, which isn't a great position to strike with using a big hammer).

[Sgt. Groovy]

Your work shows promise, but it also shows lots of typical shortcomings of self-taught artists. You give plenty of room for detail, but you're lacking in expression of basic forms. The best thing I could recommend you right now is starting croquis classes. It means sketching live models in very short (2-10 min) poses, and it really helps to build the sense of human form, and develop the eye to hand coordination in general. There's usually no teaching, you just go there and draw. You can check your local art schools, galleries and artists' clubs, some of them most likely hold weekly classes.

While there is no professional training for fantasy artists, the style and technique used in book cover art is pretty classical stuff, so any traditionally oriented art school should give you what you need.

Obviously, making art for Wesnoth is a good way to sharpen you claws. Study the existing art carefully to get a good sense of what is expected (the portraits require stricter following of style while story art gives you freer hands).

[Jetrel]

The best thing I could recommend you right now is starting croquis classes. It means sketching live models in very short (2-10 min) poses, and it really helps to build the sense of human form, and develop the eye to hand coordination in general. There's usually no teaching, you just go there and draw. You can check your local art schools, galleries and artists' clubs, some of them most likely hold weekly classes.

An alternative, actually a good step to take before/after croquis classes, is drawing from photographs. I should note that this is absolutely not tracing from photographs, you have to have the disconnect of trying to freehand something that you're only looking at.

The major technical advantage, and also disadvantage, is that the problem of projecting the object onto a 2d plane is done for you, which solves the screamingly difficult issue of either your head or the subject moving around. As I said, though, this is not without drawbacks, because you do lose all of the information about the thing's 3d shape; information that in a croquis session, you would get by looking at the thing from a different angle.

So, ideally, you take a photograph of a object that's also accessible to you in the real world.




General stuff you could work on:
- Shape of facial features when foreshortened/seen from different angles. Things on the face have a transformative change in how they're shaped depending on where you view them from - the eye changes from a near-oval seen from the front, to a "pie wedge" when seen from the side.

- This is especially prevalent with mouths, like the mouth of that goblin on the lower right; right now it just looks like an oval drawn onto a flat surface of the face; and it looks totally wrong because of it.

- This same problem gets you with the nose on both that guy and several others - noses have radically different shapes from different angles, and you can't see the nostrils from a good half of them (also, in most of them, you can only see one). Some leeway can be given for non-human creatures; for example, this looks almost intentional on the orc, but it looks like a clear misdraw on the goblin.

- Hands arch, hands are not flat. When you set a hand on a table, it will curve like an open baseball glove does (albeit at a much smaller angle). The fingers are all different lengths, and also the segments are all different lengths, meaning that this "curvature" manifests itself in almost any configuration of the hands - typically, the middle finger will be the peak of the ridge, the most bulged out/away, with the other fingers lower than it.

- Anatomy! Buy a book on it; Chris Hart has a few good ones, as does Burne Hogarth; these are only some $20 a piece. Basically, to make a drawing look good, you have to go a step or two beyond just "biceps and triceps" - there are a number of other muscle sets that need to be correctly defined to make something look professional.

- Your costume design is fairly good, keep practicing it and get even better. (This was always one of my weaknesses, which I don't want other people to have).

- Lighting/Shading You're doing none of it, all you have right now is edges. This, and this alone, is what will make things like that spell being cast look like self-illuminated magic, rather than a strange floating worm.

- Perspective, and the placement of actors in it. This has already been covered by someone else, but it's why that dwarf seems to be floating.



That said, I think you've got a good shot of talent, and could really go places. I think that with a little work, a lot of campaign authors around here would be happy to have your work.

[Githyanki]

Sorry for the typo on the topic.Im actually training for proffesional fantasy bookcovers and really only have a few posters and such in minor gaming stores at the time.Im thankful for all of the critique I have recieved due to the fact I am 14 years old and have my life ahead of me to improve my downfalls.You all nailed it though.I mostly have practice in detail and am just started up into moving human/humanoid forms...and the comment on the long fingers..that was the only off critique of them all. I forgive that because most of you probably dont play Dungeons and Dragons and would not know of the proportions of a Longtooth orc from the Northeren reaches of Eberron.Thank you very much for all the tips.I will put them into action ASAP. And if anyones interested I will be putting up some rough portrait sketches soon for more opinions. TY all!

[Taurus]

Hi Githyanki

If you would like to give something a try, then there are a few slots that I need filling in my campaigns Northern Rebirth and Son of the Black Eye.

For Northern Rebirth, I could use a portrat for an ancient-king-turned-wraith named Abhai. Also, if you would like to do some storyline images, such as your sample scetch here, those would be great too. Perhaps a horde of orcs attacking a group of Dwarves who are making a desperate defence, or a well camofloged group of elves ambushing a much larger, but unaware group of orcs. Better yet, if you are thinking of doing soryline images - just play the campaign, and draw whatever images come to mind.

For SotBE, I could use (for starters) portraits for Kapou'e - an orcish leader and main character of the campaign - or Gruu - his enthuastic but not to bright Troll sidekick. Once again, storyline images are welcome.

As far as quality goes, just try your best. As I am sure you can see by now, the pro artists here generally provide you with a lot of constructive criticizm, so if you stick to it and follow their advice then I am sure your images will be useable. I have seen it before here where an artist who is not particualry good can create a fine piece of work with the help of these guys.

[Githyanki]

I have accepted the request from tuarus and will certainly consider any requests put here. PS: Jetryl, if you see this post I have a few questions to ask you considering the art of Wesnoth.Please PM or post me if you see this.

[Sgt. Groovy]

Another thing that needs improvement in your work is composition. Your picture is pretty static even though it's supposed to depict a dynamic battle scene. That's mostly because the characters are set in pretty much the same angle and there is little variation in poses as well. Many similar things leads to stability and tranquil, while difference increases dynamism. Even if the orcs are supposed to be attacked from behind, their directions and poses should be more different to those of their attackers, and they should imply their state of mind better (neither suprise nor pain makes people stiff, but rather jerk, crouch and twist).

Story art is not only snapshots of the events, but they should contain parts of the story condensed. The major narrative tool is composition, and it should work also on subtle symbolic level. To learn more about it, you'd do well to study the classical artists' work. Many of them depicted bible stories, myths and folk stories, and in that sense they were "fantasy artists", and their composition was full of symbolism. You don't need to be as tied to narrative conventions as they were, but it's good to learn how much thought they put into building their scenes.

[Sgt. Groovy]

To further illustrate my point, three paintings from different eras, cultural traditions and contexts. You should examine what is common to these images, and lacking in yours.

[Githyanki]

Yes thank you for your input sgt.groovy..I plan to gradually work on all the suggestions ive been given.It will take me a while though,as i said im new to actions arts. I am a master of detailed portraits but have much to learn in story art.But,now that I have the detail down all I need to do is put my illustrations in the right angles and concentrate more on the muscle proportions...My uncle told me before that if he thought of something he wanted to draw he would study the proportions of himself in a picture he would take doing the same action as the character he was creating.