New art commission : Dunefolk

[LordBob]

Thanks for the feedback. I probably won't be touching the scimitars, because I want to keep them distinct from the heavier curvy blades of the orcs. Human weapons in Wesnoth portraits mostly stick to semi-realistic proportions and I'd like to keep it that way. Besides, actual scimitar blades can be thin (check these out, see how much shapes vary) and if bad comes to worse, we can always blame perspective since none of them has their weapon perfectly facing the camera.

Re: leg armor, if you take a close look the sprites don't have any either save for the warmaster. I agree that it doesn't completely make sense for soldiers to go to battle with such lacking protection, but it does look cool. Who knows, maybe they to keep weight low as a compromise, in order to move freely and travel long distances in the scorching desert heat.

Anyway, sneak peek at the flat colors. I've also started on roughs for the rest of both unit lines, but I'll let it cool down a bit before showing them.

[Amorphous]

I don't have anything particularly constructive to add, but it's so great to see new LordBob art, especially for the Dunefolk. As always, the depth of thought and creativity you put into these designs is so impressive. The color palette of the flats is looking great so far. Excited for more!

[doofus-01]

These are looking great, the colors add to the captain and swordsman in particular, I'm really looking forward to the shaded version.

Sorry to keep harping on this, but something still seems off on the soldier's sword arm, though it does seem better. It could just be I'm not used to seeing people wearing that sort of armor, or maybe it gets resolved with shading, but something about that arm still seems small or unbalanced. It might be that his robe is making him look like a beefier fellow than his arm indicates, could slimming that down be an option? (very minor edit, demo GIF below)

Soldier robe demo

Screenshot_20250503_.gif (31.06 KiB) Viewed 1960 times

[LordBob]

Thanks for the kind words Amorphous !

@doofus-01 : nothing to be sorry about, you're right that the slimmer hip looks better. I spend so much time looking at these portraits that after a while I can't see anymore these little mistakes; therefore an informed fresh eye is always welcome.
If anyone's curious about the process, I use reference pictures for poses and often enough the models are wearing completely different clothes. I then have to guess where body parts are before I add robes and stuff on top, and then how cloth falls and folds over said body parts, which is when errors are likely to occur.

Anyway: flat colors for the Burner line.

[Ben24626]

These are amazing

[LordBob]

Thanks !

Continuing sketches with the Spearmaster

[egallager]

Thanks !

Continuing sketches with the Spearmaster

Nice, I'm looking forward to seeing the version with color!

[LordBob]

Warmaster and Blademaster. I'm going to set aside sketches for now, and work my way through final color for the currently available set.

[LordBob]

And color flats

[Lord-Knightmare]

Woah. Nice.
Impressive work as always!

[odisseus_]

Why does the pikeman have a shield, but the swordsman have none? It should be the other way around, because the pike (actually looks more like a partisan) is definitely a two-handed weapon. One could argue that the sword is also two-handed (its size certainly suggests so), but then why does the swordsman hold it with just one hand?

[Lord-Knightmare]

These are made in accordance to their current in-game sprites.

The Dune Spearguard has a spear and shield.

Dune Swordsman has a cool looking scimitar. The portrait pose looks awesome.

Dune Captain is the leadership melee support, so it looks just like that.

[zohoja]

Thanks for the kind words Amorphous !

@doofus-01 : nothing to be sorry about, you're right that the slimmer hip looks better. I spend so much time looking at these portraits that after a while I can't see anymore these little mistakes; therefore an informed fresh eye is always welcome.
If anyone's curious about the process, I use reference pictures for poses and often enough the models are wearing completely different clothes. I then have to guess where body parts are before I add robes and stuff on top, and then how cloth falls and folds over said body parts, which is when errors are likely to occur.

Anyway: flat colors for the Burner line.

this looks dope !

[doofus-01]

The burners look like they will be really something! The "technology" is well done and progresses nicely. The level 1 looks a bit intense, which could be good, but if taken too far it might point to some berserker/kamikaze/reckless trait. Would more scowl, less bug-eyes, be a possibility?

The blademaster's dynamic pose made me wonder what would happen when you had to crop it later, but you did make very roughly similar poses work for the orcs. I'm having trouble understanding the free hand. Maybe you'll clear it up with shading, but the pointer & thumb don't seem to match the rest of the hand? I'm not sure how much this helps, but I've tried to show what I mean here:

hand example:

blademaster-hands.gif (57.75 KiB) Viewed 583 times

The warmaster has really fitting character. The only real issue I see is that the scabbard looks a bit too small for the sword. If it's due to foreshortening, the scabbard opening would need to be facing out of the page much more.

[LordBob]

You're right, that hand pose doesn't read properly. I tried to reference a few alternatives, not sure which is the best one though.
The blademaster might also improve if he looks to where his sword is pointing. I don't want to redraw the full head and shoulders though, that's a lot of work. Hopefully just moving his eyes will do the trick