thespaceinvader's portraits - Ancient Wose

[LordBob]

Quick comment of the Lord, whose composition can improve (or so I feel).

He does have a lordly attitude, I'm not questioning that.
What troubles me is that, in a square picture, you stuck him in the bottom corner. I think this is only a matter of framing, but right now the picture feels empty because of this huge blank space on the left. It dwarfs (haha ) your Lord, making him look impossibly small when everything about him screams "bulky warrior". I'm not sure what to suggest. Reframe ? Restart ? Experiment with other poses ?

[thespaceinvader]

I'll reframe him to be more in the middle, and maybe bring the cropping in a little bit. But i want to keep him mostly in the bottom of the frame to emphasise the fact that he's short. And it's worth remembering that the final version will be flipped horizontally, too. Not that it makes much difference... Also that when he appears in game, the frame won't appear.

Committed the D'guard. One line of dwarves, done.

[Captain Swing]

First, Hiya.

Second, I've been watching the art in Wesnoth develop over time with great interest, and its amazing to see this community effectively create a relatively seamless, and enormous amount of art development as a volunteer collaboration.

Looking at these Dwarf portraits though I just had to add a bit, specifically while the texture and inking on them is great, far beyond anything I could even approach, the basic anatomy (especially on the first gunman and axeman) seems a bit off. This led me to thinking about the larger issue of fantastical anatomy in general and 'dwarves' in specific.

The ones here have mostly human proportions, though the neck area looks off on several of them, and seem to be simply bearded men, little indicates there nature as a cave dwelling, species of non-humans with inordinate strength and tenacity.

I'm gonna throw out a potential doodle for dwarf anatomy that might make these fellows look different from being guys with beards:

By captainswing

I'm not sure this captures exactly what I mean, it's profoundly lacking in quality, unfinished and overemphasizes muscle but I'm hopeful it gets the idea across.

-Swing

[thespaceinvader]

That's pretty much where I am with them, except less exaggerated, and with arms more in proportion with the body. I will admit, though, that this is at least in part due to it being much easier to use photographic reference, made more awkward by the fact that my own proportions are about as un-dwarvish as you can get in a person =D

Thanks for the input, though =)

[Captain Swing]

That's pretty much where I am with them, except less exaggerated, and with arms more in proportion with the body. I will admit, though, that this is at least in part due to it being much easier to use photographic reference, made more awkward by the fact that my own proportions are about as un-dwarvish as you can get in a person =D

Thanks for the input, though =)

Now let me know if this isn't helpful, I am confident that I can sort of scribble, but I can't use GIMP worth a damn - my layers get confused, opacity baffles me. Give me some gauche and or acrylics and I may have a chance, but I profoundly lack the computer illustration skills you seem to be developing. Hopefully though within my limitations I can provide some assistance.


By captainswing

Here's a stocky (and yes, overmuscled again, but once he's got some clothes on that should be less an issue, and the muscles help make him look inhuman I think -- which is my argument re dwarves in a nutshell) version of the pose for your axeman. It's got some issues on the forward shoulder I think, but maybe you will find it useful. If so I can dress him up and give him some facial hair. One could go more apey I think with less focus on pectoral musculature and more in the shoulders, neck - but I'm not sure. Monkeys of the mountains might not be the most glamorous title for these fellows.

-Swing

[thespaceinvader]

I really like the image, great work. If you're willing to provide some sketches for others to ink, that would be great for the future - I've been gradually trying to work up a 'comics-style' workflow with a few people who can do sketches but not inks and colours so well, with one success so far in mainline and another whole campaign. Some more sketch/pencils contributors would be cool.

But for that particular image, the proportions look more troll than dwarf (albeit a short troll... though with some refinement, he could make a great Troll Hero or Troll Warrior) particularly due to the sizes of the hands and the shape of the face, not to mention the sheer beefiness. We're definitely not looking for the dwarves to be monkey-like - though something along those lines for generic orcs might also be cool. We have a thread going for discussions into that avenue. Your style looks great, though. I can only advise you to persevere with GIMP. It takes a lot of practice, but you can do useful stuff with it in the end.

But like I said, I'm not looking to exaggerate quite that much. A happy medium between that level of exaggeration, and human proportion is what I'm shooting for - the arms, armour and style as much as anything else will distinguish them. TO summarise (I tend to get a bit long-winded) the pencils are wicked, but perhaps not so useful for this particular portrait series. I'm certain your contributions would be extremely helpful in other areas, though =D

On which note, the Lord gets some lines and flats. I will be embellishing the armour a LOT more, maybe after some consultation with LordBob on colouring techniques, and adding lots of runes and decoration. but for now, he needs some basic crit.

[tsr]

I'm sorry to say, but I don't think you can shade away the bent axe. It is just a bit bent, but it is bent, I think shortening the left (his left) side by just as little as 2-5% might be enough.

Other than that, I'm sorry to say but my eyes froze on the axe, so fix that and I'll give you another free comment from the peanut gallery

/tsr

[LordBob]

I like the overall colour scheme.

Yet, I'd say you've been lazy with the lower body: the upper and lower body seem to be part of different drawings. The golden plate in the front feels awkward. I think this might be because it isn't in line with the golden chest stripe. It could either be narrowed, or moved to the right so that we see the iron of his left legplate. Same goes for the bucle of his belt

I like the beard and the helm, but the horns are drawn on different levels (the one on the left seems a little higher) and may benefit from a light enlargement.

Last but not least, the cape is shaping up real good, but I'd almost regret that we see so few of it. If you move its line to the right, your lord will seem thicker and we get to see more cape. Weepee !
Maybe you could also toy with folds in order to add cape surface on the left. This would improve the composition, as right now the main lines of your drawing (the border of the cape catches the eye) are slightly bent toward the left, which can give a feeling that he's not standing upright

[thespaceinvader]

All noted, I'll see what i can work out.

On another note, a rework of the Fighter's lines. Hopefully, this is a little clearer. I've also simplified it, removing the shield, which I felt didn't add much and looked awkward, with the overall effect of seriously reducing the number of extraneous straps which were cluttering the middle up no end. And I changed the pauldrons to look a lot more realistic, and to tie in with the Lord's ones. I'd be open to losing the helm to distinguish the two a bit more, though.

EDIT: i don't think his head it quite in the middle, on reflection. I'll fix that.

[hyperactivething]

About the fighter, a couple of things. I think the cutoff on HIS right shoulder is rather sudden, and his shoulders are rather narrow, in my opinion, for a fighter.

And, if you intend to make that a nasal helm (which seems to be the case), the middle bit has to be a bit longer. I wouldn't worry about it resembling too much the lord's helmet, that one has badass horns.

[thespaceinvader]

Minor update to the Fighter:

I changed the shoulders to make the armour less impressive, and the body a little bulkier. I changed the helm shape (and I like that shape, so I'll be changing the Lord's to match it). I also scaled him down a little, since he was actually a touch larger than the Lord before...

[Captain Swing]

Minor update to the Fighter:

I changed the shoulders to make the armour less impressive, and the body a little bulkier. I changed the helm shape (and I like that shape, so I'll be changing the Lord's to match it). I also scaled him down a little, since he was actually a touch larger than the Lord before...

Hey nice work, I like the new shoulders, and as always that axe is very nice, I even see where you bulked the little fellow up, but I worry there's still some proportional issues. Given my technological constraints I've tried to show you what I mean. See Below, and please don't think this is an attack on your abilities, rather I'm just trying to offer another eye on the piece.

Basically it comes down to moving his waist up and spending a bit more time thinking about where his legs might be, some more attention to the thickness of the clothes/armor he's wearing (he appears to be wearing very thin clothes under his shoulder armor, along with some optional fixes here and there. Other ten the legs though it makes me feel rather picky, so I apologize.



Otherwise you already know how I feel about bulky dwarves, so I shan't belabor the point.

-Swing

[thespaceinvader]

Not to worry. I hope that i can make some use of that crit =)

One minor clarification though: NGSE?

EDIT: also, minor update to the Lord.

[beetlenaut]

I think the bottom parts of the ax blades are not symmetrical. The back one seems to curve farther towards the shaft than the front one. Looks good though.
(I'm sure that's NOSE.)

[thespaceinvader]

So it is, good point.

I'll try to fix up the axe. It's a little awkward, though.