Kitty's Merfolk: Finished

[SouthernOracle]

I love the Atlantic/Roman feel of these fighters. No complaints.

[Max]

the warrior looks great - he's got a quite distinctive look (in terms of facial features / expression), it's neither elvish nor human. is it the mouth that makes the difference? or am i fooled by the color? the hoplite's face looks more human though to me...

[Ardent]

The hoplite looks very nice, but what he is wielding is a pilum. Pilum is a throwing weapon meant for piercing armor with the prolonged tip, which should farther stick in the armor or shield, to render it useless. It is also meant to bend or break, so the enemy can't throw it back. It is almost no use in a close combat.
If he is a hoplite meant to fight in a formation (as his name suggest) he should have a long spear which could look something like this one. Eventually he could be using a sarissa.
If he is meant as an individual fighter, he could have something like this roman spear.

[thespaceinvader]

The hoplite looks very nice, but what he is wielding is a pilum. Pilum is a throwing weapon meant for piercing armor with the prolonged tip, which should farther stick in the armor or shield, to render it useless. It is also meant to bend or break, so the enemy can't throw it back. It is almost no use in a close combat.
If he is a hoplite meant to fight in a formation (as his name suggest) he should have a long spear which could look something like this one. Eventually he could be using a sarissa.
If he is meant as an individual fighter, he could have something like this roman spear.

QFT. Particularly the final suggestion - the spear in the sprite looks to be a Hasta to me, in terms of length and style. I'd also say that he also looks perhaps just a little too skinny - I can tell, I think, that you're going for the mermen being a relatively slender people, but I feel like his head's a little too large for his body at the moment. And perhaps his hand as a little small, too.

Overall look of the unit, thoguh, looks great =)

EDIT: The other thing I'd like to say is that the use of Lobster-tail pot helmets is a great touch =D

[LordBob]

The fighter looks great!

As to the hoplite, I like the overall portrait but do agree with the general comment that his weapon would befit the spearman rather than a close-combat unit.
In addition to what's already been said, the shell-plate on his shield looks slightly off-centre : moving it towards the upper right ought to correct. Plus, his breastplate seems a little tight-fitting compared to his large, muscled arms. Enlarging it would likely improve the "skinny" build TSI mentionned.

[thespaceinvader]

Committed the fighter to Trunk.

[kitty]

Thanks for all your comments and input!
I made various changes to make him a tad less skinny, but I want to keep the merfolk lean in general and won't to fantasy muscle bodybuilder bodytypes for them. And he got a new spear. Shading will probably have to wait till monday.

[Vendanna]

Bodybuilders body shouldn't be used I agree, but the muscles from olympics swimmers could be useful (after all bulky mass of muscles would reduce your speed in water)

this portrait composition seems to be one of the most I like from you, I don't know why but the facial gesture is awesome.

[beetlenaut]

Would you consider lengthening the center spine on his tail? Right now it looks like it doesn't have enough area to propel a creature of his size. These are awesome portraits!

[cretin]

... now i realize whats been bothering me about his face, it reminds me of obama.

amazing portraits as usual kitty

[thespaceinvader]

... now i realize whats been bothering me about his face, it reminds me of obama.

amazing portraits as usual kitty

... That's it! Is that on purpose o_O

[kitty]

Update, near to fin I think. Only some detail polishing left to do.


beetlenaut: I've scaled up his tail a tad - not enough to be really realistic but more would hurt the composition too much, i think - but since the concept of mermen is rather riddiculous anyways...

cretin/spaceinvader: Oh my, I didn't see that before you mentioned it! I think it is the flat nose I'm giving the mermen that could be interpreted as somehow resembling african ethnicity. But I think it's not that bad after shading anymore...


------
Edit Some quick hem fix per melinath's advise

[melinath]

It does look less like Obama now. But with the shading, the helm looks like it's cocked at a jaunty angle. It's not sitting straight on his head.

[kitty]

Thanks for noticing that!

I did a quick fix and attatched it to my last post - hope it works better now.

[melinath]

I think it's better... though I can't compare. New thing bothering me, though: the plume seems to be pointing in a different direction than the rest of the helm.

Also, maybe it's just because it's an alphabet I'm not used to, but the writing on the right edge of the shield looks kind of like it's coming out of the surface.

As usual, looks generally great. I like use of the script.... I think I'll go try to figure out what it says...