Portrait sketches

[woodmouse]

Wow, I love it.
But something bothers me in the "ears". I'm not sure why, but they seem to be unshaded...
Anyway, I love it.

[thespaceinvader]

The naga looks good, but I'm highly disturbed by its left arm. I think I understand the posture you're aiming for (and I like it a lot), but the result feels like a painful distorsion of the entire arm. What troubles me the most is the angle of the left hand and sword : I'm not even certain you can achieve such a posture without breaking your wrist.

Fortunately, the rest of the drawing works perfectly, so you can modify the arm without worrying for the body. Thus what I'd propose is, keep everything as it is now except for the left arm. Grab a pair of swords, pose, take a picture for reference and start over: I truly believe the picture would benefit immensely from a new arm.


Also, eventhough I haven't commented yet, I really like how the orc portraits are developping : I'd gladly ink one of them myself should you need a hand.

The posing seems possibly to me - it's not entirely comfortable, but certainly it doesn't need any limb-breaks as far as I can tell. I'm happy to handwave it as a naga having greater flexibility - it's a snake, we can kmind of expect that of it We'll see what Kitty reckons to it, and if i can get away with being lazy

It needs a few more fixes anyway, so i'll wait on doing anything to it til she's seen it.

[Girgistian]

Lookin good, not much I can crit anymore except for the sword

[vonHalenbach]

I think the contrast boost is too extreme.

[thespaceinvader]

Did you make sure to click to see the correct version, instead of the forum-scaled broken one?

[LordBob]

These orcish type studies really caught my eye, so I couldn't resist picking up one and giving it a try. It's still in progress so please bear with the poor image quality and complete lack of line. There might also have been some misreading of Girgistian's lines in the belt region

A question to TSI & Girgistian : grunts and warlords usually have capes. Which colour should I pick in order to remain coherent with your future grunt portraits ?

[thespaceinvader]

Red, probably.

I'd suggest also that the bight coloured metal isn't quite right. Possibly painting it would be good, a dirty green or brown. I'm a great fan of the colour scheme from Woo's orc portraits, and I think Kitty wants to maintain it to some extent.

Looking great, though =D

/me hopes he can match it when he comes to do some orcs.

[Girgistian]

Wohoa, great work!

*insert dancing and clapping*

I was kind of thinking some sort of desaturated red/brown for the padded armor, but you'll make the decisions as the current artist. If the padded armor would have been of the planned colour, I myself would have gone with a dull green cape. Being this yellow, though, I'm not sure - blue would be a good contrast, but in addition to being a team colour, it's a very calm colour for an orc.

I'm not also sure if the light blue extra light source fits the overall thing... But it's obviously up to you and kitty to decide. Something with a very slight orange or red tint might work better, imho. Here's some reference for the belt: http://www.jelldragon.com/images/rt_viking_belt.jpg

As it is now, the sword could also be larger. Now that the sudden boost of admiration is clearing out, I'm starting to feel rather envious. Hell, I spent a year with these guys and didn't even finish the shading on any of them (I tried every one of them, just didn't bother posting them anymore). Anyways, I'm proud that a design of mine was honed to this. Awesome work so far.

EDIT: Since things turned out as they did, I won't work on the flyswatted orc unless provoked.

[Kestenvarn]

I'd suggest also that the bight coloured metal isn't quite right. Possibly painting it would be good, a dirty green or brown. I'm a great fan of the colour scheme from Woo's orc portraits, and I think Kitty wants to maintain it to some extent.

IIRC Wesnoth orcs "put great stock in martial skill", so you wouldn't see them in rusted armor if that's what you meant... maybe blackened or bronze armor instead?

there's always the old combo of red cloth \ black leather \ bronze armor

[thespaceinvader]

No, i don't mean rusty, i mean painted, probably a bit chipped and battered - they put great stock in martial skill, but not much into appearances. I think they'd go for dulled or camouflaged (i.e. green or brown, not actually camo-pattern) rather than bright shiny armour plates, and would repair them only enough to keep them in working order, not to keep them looking good - they'd look well-used where the loys or dwarves look shiny and perfect.

[TheJM]

I agree with tsi here, I don't think orcs would have really shiny armor. I'd picture it being fairly beat up, as they are always at war (or so it would seem). Basically, they use their armor a lot, and would tend to care less how it looks and more if it works. Humans go for shiny, orcs go for good but not necessarily shiny. Besides, we have to have some differences between the humans and orcs, right? (*cough* nevermind the facial differences here.. )

At the very least, it should be blackened or something. Depending on how you color the leather part (I noticed Girgistian was thinking red/brownish, which I think would look good, but the tan isn't too bad), you could have a dark green cape, or something to that effect. I'm not exactly sure.


Disclaimer: These are my opinions. Take them are leave them. I am in no way ordering you to do my suggestions, you're the artist, not me.

[Girgistian]

Interruption time! Re-drew the skeleton sketch, since the previous one looked rather embarrassing.

[zookeeper]

Good job on the pose and perspective. The hands should be a bit bigger, I think.

[Skizzaltix]

Nice work--I love the face.
Though... The way he's holding that huge axe one-handed feels a little uncomfortable--The way the perspective is working makes it look like he's holding it pretty close to the bottom of the haft. Maybe if you were to move the axe head a little closer to his hand? Or possibly show the bottom of the haft sticking out behind his back, although that would kill the nice perspective you've got going...
Also, I'm reading his spinal cord as being off-center. I think it's that the distance from his neck to the edge of his pauldron is the same (Or very nearly so) on both sides, where because of the perspective, it should be a littler farther on the side closer to the camera
Anyway, great job! This is looking good already

[kitty]

so much stuff going on here coinstantaneously! the orcs, the naga and a skeleton, too!


the latest orc sketch is nice! he has got a lot of expression! i think his ear is a tad too high. and the obvious problems with his arms and the foreshortening have been mentioned already.

the naga. nice! but i don't think that we can talk the problems with his rear arm away... i'm not really a fan of the way his other hand holds the sword, too. it looks somehow weak, as if he would drop it in the next second. you don't have to fix that, but i think the pic would benefit from some more tension. the way his tongue overlaps the little spike at his chin is disadvantageous, just let it stick out further. my biggest concern is the way you rendered his plates/scales. they look like plastic. make them wether wet and slimey or give them texture or whatever. and your darks are really, really dark, i'd lighten them up a bit. but i really like the head design!

lordbob's orc painting. good stuff! now i want to see more! he looks a little to clean and tidy atm, everything could be a lot more used. and painted metal would be a great differentiator.

the skeleton warrior sketch is nice! good pose and costumeing. now he only needs more realistic anatomy (yeah, anatomical errors are just too easy to spot on skeletons...).