Invasion of Arendia Artwork

[Jetrel]

His gradient on the cape makes no sense. It might look slightly better because it is darker, but it's not a good direction to be going in.

Your shading on that "face-practice" was fairly good.

[Ranger M]

His gradient on the cape makes no sense. It might look slightly better because it is darker, but it's not a good direction to be going in.

the cape wasn't done by me, but was part of XJaPaN's edit, my version of the portrait (without his improved shading) looks like this (see below)

and yeah, a darker cape would probably be the way to go.

Your shading on that "face-practice" was fairly good.

thanks, although it's degraded on my latest practice (I hate it when I forget how I did things)

[Ranger M]

Well, I stopped doing these for a while (other things came up), but while doing a portrait for GalaxyMage, it occurred to me that it looked a lot like something that I needed here (with a change or two) and so I went ahead and adjusted the line art (the only bit I had made at the time) and came up with this.

It's not entirely finished (I don't know how to arm him), but it's probably either Matt or Tom's portrait (although it could become Reths or Reoeds portrait too). There are of course some less than perfect areas (hair and Boots), but I'm pleased with the result.

So, I'd like some C&C before I declare it finished.

[JW]

All of the feet you draw look the same.

[Ranger M]

All of the feet you draw look the same.

Yes, shoes (not feet, I have half a book on doing them) are my downfall, I just can't seem to get them right, and only one type really works for me.

[Ranger M]

I would also be interested to know how close people think that it is to the Wesnoth portrait style. It's shaded differently obviously (more gradientation on shadows) but apart from that (and ignoring that hair and shoes) what do people think?

It can be put next to the Konrad portrait without looking too out of place, but only just (they are done differently), but not next to many of the mainline portraits.

I'm mainly interested because I might want to help with the mainline portraits (once I've finished a bunch of other stuff), and doing them this way, it is easy to get them to this standard, this one took me a four to five days of working inbetween classes (although there are many areas that could and will be improved with some work). Of course, I'd have to work on my way of doing hair and boots.

[irrevenant]

So, I'd like some C&C before I declare it finished.

He looks unusually squat to me. Unfortunately, I don't know enough about proportions to translate that into specific issues.

His far arm also looks a bit small to me.

[Ranger M]

So, I'd like some C&C before I declare it finished.

He looks unusually squat to me. Unfortunately, I don't know enough about proportions to translate that into specific issues.

His far arm also looks a bit small to me.

I don't really know what you mean by squat, unless you mean short, which he is supposed to be.

as for the left arm, I was going for it being further away, I suppose that I over did it.

[Jetrel]

I would suggest, at your level, going for a purely cell-shaded style, rather than the "airbrush to death" style which is often used by neophytes, and was notably used here at wesnoth in some of our earliest portrait art.

This means hard edges to the regions of light and dark:
The process for this is generally to have your line art in a layer above the colors. The colors are done by filling in an area with one solid tone, and then, in a sublayer (in a layer linked to use the layer below as it's mask), you drop in another tone of about 20-30% darker tone (of the same color). Look at those portraits by Jason Lutes - they use only this, and yet they look very, very professional.


Also, knowing how to do that is an absolute prerequisite to doing softer-edged styles - the only change is that proper "softer-edged" styles take into account the times where a shadow edge would be blurred - but the position of that edge is the same, and if you don't get that position right, the shading will suck either way. I'm only good at the soft-edged styles now, because I'm also good at the hard-edged styles, now.

Both of those are two manifestations of the same core skill - knowing which areas are in shadow, and which are in light. Simplifying the world like that is not strictly accurate, but it's the best "first-order" approximation - the most simple and accurate approximation to make as a first step.

[Jetrel]

For instance, look at what happens when I apply some creative use of photoshop's threshold tool to JW's avatar.

This is just black, and two colors! That's it!!!! Yet, there he is, quite recognizably, and that took me all of five minutes!


Study pictures of real people, and possibly with the help of a threshold filter applied to "pictures of real people" (which are easy to download off the net*), you can see what patterns the shadows leave on real people. Then, imitate those patterns, and memorize them.



* though be sure to figure out what the lighting is in the pictures - don't use pics with very unnatural lighting, such as heavy camera flash in a dark room - this one was outdoor, overcast lighting from above, which is very natural and ideal.

[Ranger M]

I would suggest, at your level, going for a purely cell-shaded style, rather than the "airbrush to death" style which is often used by neophytes, and was notably used here at wesnoth in some of our earliest portrait art.

*goes to GIMP and uses airbrush tool*

yep, that seems similar to what I did (although it isn't), I used a normal paintbrush, at transparencies varying between 2% and 10% to create those shadows. But they seem the same.

This means hard edges to the regions of light and dark:
The process for this is generally to have your line art in a layer above the colors. The colors are done by filling in an area with one solid tone, and then, in a sublayer (in a layer linked to use the layer below as it's mask), you drop in another tone of about 20-30% darker tone (of the same color). Look at those portraits by Jason Lutes - they use only this, and yet they look very, very professional.

I always have the lineart above anyway, although just to check, the sublayer just means a layer in between the line art and the colouring behind it, right?

Also, knowing how to do that is an absolute prerequisite to doing softer-edged styles - the only change is that proper "softer-edged" styles take into account the times where a shadow edge would be blurred - but the position of that edge is the same, and if you don't get that position right, the shading will suck either way. I'm only good at the soft-edged styles now, because I'm also good at the hard-edged styles, now.

Softer edge? (sorry, I just don't quite understand this)

Both of those are two manifestations of the same core skill - knowing which areas are in shadow, and which are in light. Simplifying the world like that is not strictly accurate, but it's the best "first-order" approximation - the most simple and accurate approximation to make as a first step.

I was trying this with that portrait, I had thought that I'd done reasonably well.

meh, O well.



*looks at lower post*

I could have sworn...

Man, I really need to pay more attention to where I am shading.

[irrevenant]

He looks unusually squat to me. Unfortunately, I don't know enough about proportions to translate that into specific issues.
His far arm also looks a bit small to me.

I don't really know what you mean by squat, unless you mean short, which he is supposed to be. as for the left arm, I was going for it being further away, I suppose that I over did it.

"Squat" basically means short and stout; like a dwarf (though not necessarily that extreme). He's well within range of the human norm, so if you intended that to be his build, there's no problem.

The arm is out of proportion though, I'm afraid.

[Ranger M]

New ranger line for Reth's advancement (amongst other things)

comments and critiques welcome.

[irrevenant]

They look quite pixelated to me. A play with the smudge tool looks like it'd help anti-alias them a bit. eg.

[Ranger M]

They look quite pixelated to me. A play with the smudge tool looks like it'd help anti-alias them a bit. eg.

I was having a go at doing the whole thing with the pencil tool, and then improving it afterwards, so basically what you did is on my todo list, I just haven't done it yet.