Portrait sketches

[kitty]

cool! the muzzle is so much better now!

his left wing is too far out. and something bothers me about the arms, the right one could use more of an ellbow and the left one shows the inside of the arm but the backside of the hand which shouldn't be possible...

and is there a reason why you leave the drakes' eyes blank? it's no problem, i'm just curious.

[Girgistian]

Funny, I thought I didn't even change the muzzle that much well, thanks anyways. I'll try to fix the issues soon, and the reason behind leaving the eyes blank is just thinking that the colourer figures them out. I haven't even really thought about it.

Anyways, here's a WIP of the orcish grunt, his skin is still very pale and needs colour variations, and the whole thing needs another light source. I can also post the sketch if anyone's interested, this was more of an excercise than an actual attempt to make a portrait.

EDIT: the forum screws up the lighting, so you'll have to click it :/

[Sgt. Groovy]

The orc is great otherwise, but apart from the ears, it looks practically like a human. A few suggestions to dehumanise him:

• The beard is too neatly trimmed and it grows exactly the same places than human beard. Make it messier and grow differently (different places and directions).
• Nose could be different, maybe upturned and ape-like.
• Slanted forehead and smaller cranium (smaller brain).
• Paradoxically, I think the ear is too animal-like. It should be of the basic human type, just shaped differently (bigger, pointy, maybe a bit ragged)
• Maybe a shorter neck, and the head hunched forward.
• Stronger jaw. The whole slant of the face could be tilted backwards.

[Girgistian]

Okay, I'll see to that then (and try to work on the glider as well - someday), even though I wasn't exactly aiming for an apish look - though it's kind of hard to avoid, since orcs are nevertheless humanoid. A previous orc sketch had sort of whisker-dimples, which I thought lessened the monkey-look.
Here's the topic on which we discussed about it, and Jetryl sort of came into a conclusion concerning the look of a 'basic orc'. My last draft is obviously a lot older and sort of badly drawn, but it could be a kind of a launch-pad for developing this guy. Thoughts?

EDIT: I'll bring this guy up again http://images.epilogue.net/users/beren120/goblin.jpg

EDIT II: I finished this version's shading, moving on to modifying the face (and recolouring the skin-areas)

[Eternal]

Basically what Groovy said.
Here's my vision of an orc (heavily inspired by the sketches in Girgistian's old topic).
The nose was something I didn't expect to work out but here it kinda looks good. It fits the face. A flat, cavemanish nose with nostrils tilted forward... And the neck is pretty ridiculous. But these are my opinions. I might just as well be blind to something here.

So what do you think, Girgistian and others?

[kitty]

basically what groovy and eternal said
just as a comment to eternal's sketch: i really like the look you establish here, true to girgistan's old orc sketches! but i would really like to keep the furry ears. and two other things bother me - the nose and the eyes - you don't want to give him eyelid-less eyeballs seriously? and the alas feel strange, too small and too far down. i find neanderthal noses quite interesting - or something even more animal-like like in the ink drawing girgistan linked.


girgistan, concerning the shading: it's definitely better than your previous attempts! the first problem that catches my eye is that you treat everything the same way - the skin, cloth and metal look like the same material apart from the colour. and i can't understand your lighting fully, your light comes from right top, right? why is the far arm and right side of the face illuminated? stick with one light source until you feel more secure! try to shade the whole guy only in greyscale, don't bother with colour or saturation - just get the values working!

[Sapient]

just a quick comment about the ears -- in Girgistan's portrait those cat ears look very backward-pointing. this makes it look like a cat that is cringing as if bracing itself for a hit on the head and therefore inappropriate for a confident orcish grunt. If you are going to give them furry ears then I think a dog or wolf might be more appropriate animal to evoke than a cat. Cats are cute and graceful. Orcs are neither of those.

[Sgt. Groovy]

I think eternals sketch is a step in the right direction, with few caveats:

• Smaller cranium and more slanted forehead
• Ear farther behind. Their jaws are strong, and this applies to the jaw joint as well. The ear is located behind the jaw joint.
• I would suggest following facial hair pattern for orcs: Siderburns, with long, spiky hair like Eternal's orc has, and throat beard which is softer and maybe curlier, but no hair on chin and upper lip.
• The mouth could be brought slightly forward, giving them a bit of a muzzle.
• Mouth could also be lipless, increasing non-human look.

[thespaceinvader]

My tip for the orc: make the nose shorter, and thereby, the distance from the chin to the nose bigger, and pull the mouth slightly forward, to give a slightly more animal-like appearance. If you didn't already,it would be worth going back over the various old threads - this has become markedly more humanlike (albeit, wild-looking human) than your prior orcs.

[Girgistian]

A new sketch just popped up

[Sgt. Groovy]

I like the new appearance, much more orcishlike, but the passive pose makes him look nerdy.

[doofus-01]

My 2 cents: A different pose would be better, as Sgt. Groovy said, but the body and clothes are great (I like how he has a gut). The mouth and jaw are strange though, a bit drake-like, as was pointed out in the other orc thread. Big fat lips are probably not good, but lizard mouth is probably too far in the other direction.

[shadE_]

hey I'm new, but i semi-colored your soldier with photoshop for fun because it's a great sketch
hope you like it

[thespaceinvader]

Death Knight lines. Needs some refinement, possibly different colours, definitely some weight variations. Any thoughts?

[Girgistian]

Looks pretty good so far, generally the only complaint I've got is that the axe's shaft is quite thin (yeah I know, it's so in the sketch too ). On a level of more personal preference I'd say the jaws would look better closed (and the teeth could be longer), but that's obviously up to you.

Also, if you want to give him some more "weight" and bulkiness (he's looks somewhat fragile now), put some leather under the arms' armor. There were also remnants of chain mail hanging from under the breastplate, if you want more details.