Line art for New Kalenz Portrait
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Line art for New Kalenz Portrait
I toyed with the idea of finishing up the line art on the whole body of my previous kalenz portrait, but decided against it, simply because the character is changing in my mind, and because I wanted to experiment with a number of other things, artistically.
So, I drew one from scratch - the style on this one is similar to what is done over at Konsekai Swordwaltzer (at least, in recent times - Xero seems to be a near-parallel to myself in terms of artistic growth - both of us really sucked two years ago, and have mostly grown out of that now).
One of the chief artistic things I wanted to explore was in making a "noisy" costume - costuming is not my strong suit, and up until now, even including that new li'sar pic I made recently, my costumes have been very bland. Functional, and possible in the real world, but boring to look at. Drawing pictures like this is a compromise between something looking interesting, and not bothing people by being physically impossible for some reason or another. I thought that I was leaning in the direction of the latter too heavily, almost to a fault.
Thus, in this picture I forced myself to release some mental constraints and just let things flow - add things in without a good reason for them being there, and keep it if I can make a decent reason up. Add multiple layers of clothing to the drawing, instead of one. Etc.
For an example of a drawing that just "lets things go" way too far, consider the following: tattered mess.
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Anyways, I thought I'd post this here for your amusement. C&C is of course welcome, but please be constructive; don't bother telling me "xyz is out of proportion" unless you can help me out by tracing over the body and showing where things should go (a task easily achieved with a transparent layer in the gimp, and a red color).
Of the notes I should mention to keep spurious complaints from arising:
1] His blade is facing down, onto his palm - it's supposed to be an exercise of finesse, since with a blade that sharp, he'll cut his hand if he relaxes his grip at all. The "wrappings" are a bit incorrect for this, though, and should be adjusted.
This is intended as a cultural note on the martial artistry of the elves; an equivalent thing that samurai might do during idle time is practicing the draw of their blade, over and over again. Kalenz rests his on, or more accurately, just barely above his palm.
2] The weight at the end of his blade won't fit into the scabbard, and needs to be removed. Interesting to look at, but "bad and wrong".
3] He only has one shoulderpad like that - the spikes exist to hold his cape back and keep it from slipping over his shoulder. Realistically, they'd probably shred his cape, but I can always dock the tips, which I think I'll do.
-----
And here's the picture:
Note that I'm going to need a good shot of time to ink, and then color this (unfortunately, a *lot* of time).
So, I drew one from scratch - the style on this one is similar to what is done over at Konsekai Swordwaltzer (at least, in recent times - Xero seems to be a near-parallel to myself in terms of artistic growth - both of us really sucked two years ago, and have mostly grown out of that now).
One of the chief artistic things I wanted to explore was in making a "noisy" costume - costuming is not my strong suit, and up until now, even including that new li'sar pic I made recently, my costumes have been very bland. Functional, and possible in the real world, but boring to look at. Drawing pictures like this is a compromise between something looking interesting, and not bothing people by being physically impossible for some reason or another. I thought that I was leaning in the direction of the latter too heavily, almost to a fault.
Thus, in this picture I forced myself to release some mental constraints and just let things flow - add things in without a good reason for them being there, and keep it if I can make a decent reason up. Add multiple layers of clothing to the drawing, instead of one. Etc.
For an example of a drawing that just "lets things go" way too far, consider the following: tattered mess.
---
Anyways, I thought I'd post this here for your amusement. C&C is of course welcome, but please be constructive; don't bother telling me "xyz is out of proportion" unless you can help me out by tracing over the body and showing where things should go (a task easily achieved with a transparent layer in the gimp, and a red color).
Of the notes I should mention to keep spurious complaints from arising:
1] His blade is facing down, onto his palm - it's supposed to be an exercise of finesse, since with a blade that sharp, he'll cut his hand if he relaxes his grip at all. The "wrappings" are a bit incorrect for this, though, and should be adjusted.
This is intended as a cultural note on the martial artistry of the elves; an equivalent thing that samurai might do during idle time is practicing the draw of their blade, over and over again. Kalenz rests his on, or more accurately, just barely above his palm.
2] The weight at the end of his blade won't fit into the scabbard, and needs to be removed. Interesting to look at, but "bad and wrong".
3] He only has one shoulderpad like that - the spikes exist to hold his cape back and keep it from slipping over his shoulder. Realistically, they'd probably shred his cape, but I can always dock the tips, which I think I'll do.
-----
And here's the picture:
Note that I'm going to need a good shot of time to ink, and then color this (unfortunately, a *lot* of time).
Last edited by Jetrel on August 28th, 2005, 5:11 am, edited 1 time in total.
nice drawing! I've a lot to learn 
A little C&C, which is partly a matter of taste
- his eyes are a little strange. I wouldn't mind if they were more, euh... realistic? At least his right eye (left on the picture) looks a little stretched
- the trouble of (almost) all artists, they guy's hands are too small, especially given the fact he wears gloves.
(completely off topic: If you have suggestions to get my wacom graphire working on linux... I've tried almost everything... but XInput just doesn't recieve data)
A little C&C, which is partly a matter of taste
- his eyes are a little strange. I wouldn't mind if they were more, euh... realistic?
At least his right eye (left on the picture) looks a little stretched- the trouble of (almost) all artists, they guy's hands are too small, especially given the fact he wears gloves.
(completely off topic: If you have suggestions to get my wacom graphire working on linux... I've tried almost everything... but XInput just doesn't recieve data)
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I'd love to help, but this is one of the many reasons I have a mac, rather than a custom-built PC running linux. I have no idea how to help you, sorry.squasher wrote:(completely off topic: If you have suggestions to get my wacom graphire working on linux... I've tried almost everything... but XInput just doesn't recieve data)
Someone else might, though.The graphire is a good tablet, though - I've actually got an Intuos 6x8 that I scrimped and saved to buy, and the latest graphires are nearly as good.
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Elvish_Pillager
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Very nice! The only problem is that the cape seems to be completely in the background and have no conntection with the rest of him. Oh wait, now I see it! (The problem was the dissimilarity between the foreground and background parts of the cape. Coloring should eliminate it completely.)
It's all fun and games until someone loses a lawsuit. Oh, and by the way, sending me private messages won't work. :/ If you must contact me, there's an e-mail address listed on the website in my profile.
Fully spread, his hand will cover his face. Thus, they are the correct "ideal" proportion - I paid special attention to this detail, in the hopes that I wouldn't hear complaints about it. I'm not going to break this to appease you, though.dibblethewrecker wrote:he's right - he does have baby hands
You kids need to stop reading comic books that have characters with big-o "palm-a-basketball" hands in it. Sure, some people have meathooks, but no one has hands like that, and it's distorting your sense of what is correct. "Meathooks" belong on orcs, not elves.
This is another drawing that so offends any sense of reality that I will never draw anything like it: http://www.artoki.co.uk/artwork/raesha1.jpg (Except for the sheen - shiny is good).
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Elvish_Pillager
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Quite so. At least with his left hand, he isn't wearing a glove either, as Squasher suggests --- one question though: Is he left handed, or is he correctly holding his sword in his non-dominant hand?
It's all fun and games until someone loses a lawsuit. Oh, and by the way, sending me private messages won't work. :/ If you must contact me, there's an e-mail address listed on the website in my profile.
LOL! baby hands is much of an overstatement. I compared his hands with his elbows, next compared my hands with my elbows and i had the idea my hands are actually bigger than my elbows. Of course, i'm not a decent measurement, especially not when it is about elves.Jetryl wrote:Fully spread, his hand will cover his face. Thus, they are the correct "ideal" proportion - I paid special attention to this detail, in the hopes that I wouldn't hear complaints about it. I'm not going to break this to appease you, though.dibblethewrecker wrote:he's right - he does have baby hands
You kids need to stop reading comic books that have characters with big-o "palm-a-basketball" hands in it. Sure, some people have meathooks, but no one has hands like that, and it's distorting your sense of what is correct. "Meathooks" belong on orcs, not elves.
This is another drawing that so offends any sense of reality that I will never draw anything like it: http://www.artoki.co.uk/artwork/raesha1.jpg (Except for the sheen - shiny is good).
If it was not Kalenz, but squasher on that picture, his hand would be too small, compared to his elbows. Or better yet, his elbows (and arms) too big compared to his hands, I'm just a thiny guy.
Therefore I'm not sure. I'm not common with strong ppl
LOL at link by the way. Looks like she was too close to the camera
EDIT: Thanks EP for pointing out he 's not wearing gloves. How are these things he wears called anyway? (sometimes i lack vocabulary and usually i'm too lazy to get myself a dutch-english dictionary
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His left cape fastener looks smaller and not in the same place. 
Seriously though, I can't wait to see it in color.
Seriously though, I can't wait to see it in color.
Hope springs eternal.
Wesnoth acronym guide.
Wesnoth acronym guide.
They're called Vambraces i believe... and i don't see anything wrong with the hands...squasher wrote: EDIT: Thanks EP for pointing out he 's not wearing gloves. How are these things he wears called anyway? (sometimes i lack vocabulary and usually i'm too lazy to get myself a dutch-english dictionary
This portrait is awesome. Even if you don't end up using it for Kalenz in HttT, some other campaign will want it.
The only thing I find strange about the portrait is his sword. It looks like no other I've ever seen. But, I think that's because its supposed to look like an 'elven' sword, like the ones in LotR, so its OK.
The only thing I find strange about the portrait is his sword. It looks like no other I've ever seen. But, I think that's because its supposed to look like an 'elven' sword, like the ones in LotR, so its OK.
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