Loyalist Portrait Series

[LordBob]

Finished the Woodsman's shading, there will also be a final Javelineer tonight.

Also, I did no say so before but thanks Captain Swing for your support. This Loyalist series is to me an unprecedented oppotunity to train my computer skills, I'm glad to hear that hard work pays. Looking at the earlier Loyalist portraits, I find myself thinking that they will definitely deserve a revision once the series is over...

[thespaceinvader]

The woodsman doesn't seem to have much in the way of an adam's apple o_O

The rest looks a lot better now, though =)

If you're willing to rework the earlier loys, that would be awesome =)

The peasant and spearman are great, but the later ones came on a lot even from that high station, and those two in particular are in a slightly different style. It would be awesome to have them match it.

[LordBob]

Posting a revised javelineer. I've tried texturing his armour, as many of you thought it looked like painted iron instead of leather.
Depending on the general feeling, I'll keep it or not.

[Darker_Dreams]

You might want to carry more onto the shoulder guard on his right (our left). That should has seemed a tad bit too shiny/something for a while- I have a hard time matching its material with the rest of the leather. It's obviously not the same metal as the helm, but it still reads (to me) as more polished/metallic than anything else.

[Girgistian]

Both the poacher's and the javelineer's eyes look somewhat surprised. The lack of line between the eye and the upper lid is probably what causes this.

Nothing further to crit, really generally these are too good.

[TheJM]

Honestly, the woodsman's right arm position looks painful. I actually tried posing like that, and my arm isn't close to that sharp of an angle. his elbow is almost a 90 degree angle, while my arm was fairly straight when reaching down that far. Do you have an reference pictures for that pose? I think he needs a little loosening up.


I really like the green tinted armor on the javelineer.

[zookeeper]

Honestly, the woodsman's right arm position looks painful. I actually tried posing like that, and my arm isn't close to that sharp of an angle. his elbow is almost a 90 degree angle, while my arm was fairly straight when reaching down that far.

Well, try it with your elbow at 90 degrees. That's a perfectly natural position at least for my arm. I could imagine that if you have some sort of a joint problem in your shoulder it might indeed get painful, but otherwise not really.

[JW]

Honestly, the woodsman's right arm position looks painful. I actually tried posing like that, and my arm isn't close to that sharp of an angle. his elbow is almost a 90 degree angle, while my arm was fairly straight when reaching down that far.

Well, try it with your elbow at 90 degrees. That's a perfectly natural position at least for my arm. I could imagine that if you have some sort of a joint problem in your shoulder it might indeed get painful, but otherwise not really.

Actually, I can see what he's saying. Either position can be achieved easily without pain, but if he's drawing an arrow (a movement he would probably do with great repetition) wouldn't he take the easiest path for his arm? Sticking your elbow out that far in this case is not the easiest way to draw: pulling the elbow straight backwards would seem the easiest and most natural way to draw the arrow.

As for whether this is a matter that LordBob thinks this is significant enough to require a change, that is another matter. As I mentioned, either arm positioning can be done easily and without pain.

[LordBob]

but if he's drawing an arrow (a movement he would probably do with great repetition) wouldn't he take the easiest path for his arm? Sticking your elbow out that far in this case is not the easiest way to draw: pulling the elbow straight backwards would seem the easiest and most natural way to draw the arrow.

I must admit you've got your fingers on this portrait's tough case. I did'nt practice enough archery in my life to know how it feels, but still I tried a few repetitions in front of a mirror before I drew. While the "straight backwards" position is easier at the beginning, I think it gets really uncomfortable when drawing a 2 feet-long arrow.

Nevertheless, the position I drew isn't good either: I think your feeling of uncomfort has to do with the angle of his forearm, which my shading shows bending backwards. I'll fiddle tonight with the forearm, but I'll restrain from a complete arm redo.

[TL]

I'm afraid you can't win Bob--honestly, the javelineer's new leather texture reminds me more of pitted and corroded metal than it does leather.

That could just be me though. You're in an uphill battle here anyhow, since smooth hardened leather (i.e. the kind that gets used for armor) tends to look fairly metallic to begin with. For what it's worth I do think the previous version works better, but I'm really not an expert here.

[thespaceinvader]

I agree. Possibly more minor texturing would be better - some more scratches and cuts would make it a bit clearer what the material is. And possibly, a colour change - green is not a colour most people would associate with leather, i don't think. A brown might make it easier to read.

[TheJM]

but if he's drawing an arrow (a movement he would probably do with great repetition) wouldn't he take the easiest path for his arm? Sticking your elbow out that far in this case is not the easiest way to draw: pulling the elbow straight backwards would seem the easiest and most natural way to draw the arrow.

I must admit you've got your fingers on this portrait's tough case. I did'nt practice enough archery in my life to know how it feels, but still I tried a few repetitions in front of a mirror before I drew. While the "straight backwards" position is easier at the beginning, I think it gets really uncomfortable when drawing a 2 feet-long arrow.

Nevertheless, the position I drew isn't good either: I think your feeling of uncomfort has to do with the angle of his forearm, which my shading shows bending backwards. I'll fiddle tonight with the forearm, but I'll restrain from a complete arm redo.

Yeah, I think that's why I thought it looked uncomfortable. I thought I said that, but looking at my post, I obviously didn't. Changing the shading will probably fix what I'm seeing (er, lets hope it does. )

@JW - yeah, that's what I was getting at. I'm not known for clearly communicating what I mean.

[Mefisto]

My concern with the woodsman is that this guy looks too weak for someone who is playing with recurved compound bow. The shading suggest to me that he has flat chest and bad posture (shoulders forward) so probably he has weak back muscles. And he has beer belly :/
Also the neck muscles (sternocleidomastoid muscles) seem to narrow and too broadly set.

I like the javelineer portrait, especially the armour texture. Now it looks slightly like crocodile hide but that's good.

[Neoskel]

My concern with the woodsman is that this guy looks too weak for someone who is playing with recurved compound bow. The shading suggest to me that he has flat chest and bad posture (shoulders forward) so probably he has weak back muscles. And he has beer belly :/
Also the neck muscles (sternocleidomastoid muscles) seem to narrow and too broadly set.

Well he is a lvl 0. Also, i think that's just a plain old short bow, not a recurve bow.

[LordBob]

Javelineer: to be honest I'm glad most of you don't like the new leather, because I don't either. Fortunately, I kept a spare copy of the earlier texture, so switching back to it and toying with texture/hue/saturation shouldn't be much of a problem (shame, I like that green, but TSI might be onto something).

Woodsman: point taken about the 'flat-chested' bit, it think it has to do with my the contrast between his pectorals and the neck/upper chest region. There's also something about the bow - which I did intend as a short bow. The combination of its curve next to the hand and the angle of the string does resemble a recurve bow.
Other than that, I'm with Neoskel: being lvl.0 he doesn't have to be strong and can afford a beer belly of sorts.


EDIT: final javelineer, with much more convincing leather I think. Unless someone comes up with something really big that has been ignored until, I say commit this one.