Help For A New Contributor

[zookeeper]

The second style is only used in UtBS and EI though, so it wouldn't make much sense to use that style for new core unit type portraits, but it's fine for campaign portraits

Uhm...not according to what Jetryl said...

Do whichever you like doing and can do well. We're trying to build separate, complete libraries of both kinds, since campaign authors might prefer one or the other to match their works against, and since we artists of wesnoth are a bit divided in what we ourselves prefer to see and to draw. Also since we're GPL, and these things might be useful to other free games. I've personally made both kinds.

Of course not according to what Jetryl said, because Jetryl didn't say anything about whether what "we're trying to build" makes sense or not. Therefore, what I said still doesn't contradict what he said.

Whenever I say something about something making or not making sense, making sense refers to making Wesnoth as good a game as possible, and not making sense refers to something which does less than that or something different. Just to make my priorities clear.

[Shadow]

Actual this posts do make even less sense.

Just let them post something before we finally succeed and drive them away.

[Tamur]

Tamur cautiously approaches the debating team members and waves timidly.

So, I started doing a Lutes-style portrait, came back to post it and read earlier posts about moving away from that style, went and did a full oil-based portrait, came back and found that the debate rages on, and decided to do a portrait in the style I'd do just naturally. Please excuse the rough linework and the dreadful hand --- these are all quick work, with little or no time for cleanup.

Are any of these in an acceptable style?

Cell





Oil





Rough Pastel

[Weeksy]

If I had any say, I'd accept any of those, but I am in no way part of anything that can approve or reject any of these... Just note that the first example is very much like lutes' portraits, but if you really want to be like them, you should remove most of your outlines... Look at Sgt Groovy's portrait thread for examples of how to change good artwork into good, Lutes-like artwork...

[Thrawn]

O__O{!!) Very nice

For the cell shaded one,though, I would suggest having more than one color for the outline. That way some things (like the edge of the white, and the edge of the hair) don't look so odd.

Besides that, I love the other two, but wait til Jetryl sees them.

[zookeeper]

Looks pretty good as a first try. I'm guessing you'll hear a bit about inconsistent shading though (I'm not really good enough to give exact advice on it; it just looks like the light isn't coming from any discernible direction in that one) and as was pointed out, something about the lineart might need changing. Otherwise looks like you'll be doing stuff in a "right" style in no time.

[Jetrel]

The first one (cell) is a reasonably good match for Lutes' style, good enough to be accepted. There are a few additional bits of polish/discrepancies that would be desired.

1] The line art should be colored, as you did, but its color should depend on the object the line is enclosing.

2] There are certain symbological disparities - in terms of how things like fabric folds, and facial features, are repesented. Comparing your drawing to Lutes' work, the biggest things are probably how the mouth is drawn, your lack of hashing for many shading/highlighting situations, and how a lot of shadows/highlights are shaped. It could also go for more fabric folds.

3] Good job on the eyes. Some eyes will want for a display and delineation of the upper lid, but some, like these, do not.

Reference images:
http://exong.net/wesnoth-attach/files/h ... an_328.png
http://www.wesnoth.org/wiki/Contrib:Jason_Lutes

And thanks for sticking with this - if you'd be interested in doing portraits of more of the humans, or portraits for the dwarves, that would be excellent. It'd be nice to finish those races off.

[Tamur]

Thanks for the response Jetryl & all. I'll focus on the Lutes' type work, and will work on on perfecting the style before I attempt to pass anything off for submission quality. I'll post up corrections on this image as soon as I get something done, and will get a couple more up soon. Thanks especially for the specific feedback, that is a huge help.

[Tamur]

Instead of practising style on whatever character I happen to make up, is there a list of needed human portraits I can look at and work from? Hopefully with some sort of description of title, character traits, etc, but anything would do! Thanks.

[Shadow]

Instead of practising style on whatever character I happen to make up, is there a list of needed human portraits I can look at and work from? Hopefully with some sort of description of title, character traits, etc, but anything would do! Thanks.

Well perhaps unsatisfactionable but play the game.
There are unit descriptions for every unit and if it exists the portrait.

The other way would be looking into the portrait path what is already there and the sprite itself.
I don't know where but there was also a script in the past which showed missing stuff for units.

[Jetrel]

Instead of practising style on whatever character I happen to make up, is there a list of needed human portraits I can look at and work from? Hopefully with some sort of description of title, character traits, etc, but anything would do! Thanks.

Oh! - my apologies, I'd assumed this would be self-explanatory from just looking at the game content. "Expertosis" at it's finest. So here's an answer:

First, this page lists all the game units by faction. It does not list which portraits exist, but it can give you a list of units and their relative strengths - and also most importantly, their appearance.

http://zapicm.freeshell.org/trunk/index.html


The following loyalist units could use portraits:
Cavalryman, Dragoon, Cavalier
Fencer, Duelist, Master-at-Arms
Heavy Infantryman, Shock Trooper, Iron Mauler
Sergeant, Lieutenant, General, Grand Marshal
(all mages)

The following dwarven units could use portraits:
(every single one except the fighter)

Hopefully that should give you some material to work with.

[zookeeper]

The following loyalist units could use portraits:
Cavalryman, Dragoon, Cavalier
Fencer, Duelist, Master-at-Arms
Heavy Infantryman, Shock Trooper, Iron Mauler
Sergeant, Lieutenant, General, Grand Marshal
(all mages)

The following dwarven units could use portraits:
(every single one except the fighter)

...and of these, it might be worth noting that the same portrait can be used for multiple units: for example the heavy infantryman and shock trooper are so similar that they could just as well use the same portrait (at least until someone draws another one, as I don't think you'll draw all of those), as well as units from the other listed unit lines. Just something to take into account for example when for example deciding whether to have the mace (in the case of the HI/ST) show in the portrait or not. Having a portrait that fits both units gives us a portrait for both units until someone draws a unique portrait for the other one (which might take literally years) whereas having the portrait only fit one unit can leave the other one portraitless for that same amount of time.

[Thrawn]

And the footpad, outlaw, and rogue, iirc.

[Tamur]

I had looked at the unit description box and wondered if the ones without a portrait were the ones meant, but I did want to be sure just so I'm not duplicating work. So thanks very much for the list! And zookeeper, thanks for the notes too. I had noticed that some portraits were being used multiple times, and wondered how that worked. I'll definitely keep it in mind as I work on these.

It might be a while before I get to working on them, but are there any dwarven portraits I should base from? Or can I just come up with what I think looks fine and run it by you all?

[Tamur]

I've still to shade his hair a bit and deal with the back of the neck with some leather/cloth, but how's this for a cavalry portrait? I looked at the unit images and keyed on the red shield and slightly conical helm. Comments and suggestions appreciated.

I like slightly darker and more saturated skin tones than are in the Lutes images, but I can copy them if necessary.