wizzardz: completed.

[kitty]

the generic portraits for the human wizards are my new project, like I already stated...

i want to do the dark and the "nice" ones likewise - to keep the task interesting and varied for me and because i imagine both of them to be comparable orders with certain attributes, ornamentation and so on.


i plan to do 17 portraits:

- dark adept male
- dark adept female
- dark sorcerer/necromancer male
- dark sorcerer/necromancer female
- lich
- mage male
- mage female
- red mage male
- red mage female
- arch/great mage male
- arch/great mage female
- silver mage male
- silver mage female
- white mage male
- white mage female
- mage of light male
- mage of light female


(and like everytime the final versions of the portraits will get attatched to this post)

[kitty]

first one is my take on the female red mage...

(only flats and colours) i've got two different crops, i prefer the larger one but it shows a bit more than the average portrait and everything is thus smaller... any preferences?
or any other comments? criticism?

[Espreon]

first one is my take on the female red mage...

(only flats and colours) i've got two different crops, i prefer the larger one but it shows a bit more than the average portrait and everything is thus smaller... any preferences?
or any other comments? criticism?

Interesting... Is that orb on the staff floating or something?

When doing the Female Arch Mage please keep the fan in...

You are not planning to make a portrait of the Ancient Lich?

[shadowmaster]

The great mage's (not red magi) staff in the sprites is the only one that looks floating to me.

[Sapient]

kitty- it's looking great, although I'm surprised you would choose a rather dark tone for the robes like that. I prefer the zoomed in version, because for dialogue boxes this one will probably look better.

When doing the Female Arch Mage please keep the fan in...

As has already been stated in this forum many, many times: no! you do not need to have all the character's accessories visible in the portrait! The sprite does not have to be used as a precise guideline either (Shadow Master). Having said that, I think showing a fan might be rather cool

You are not planning to make a portrait of the Ancient Lich?

Use of the Ancient Lich is far rarer than these other units, and I imagine these units probably deserve distinctive portraits for each instance, or else the Lich portrait is a fine placeholder. Having said that, I wouldn't mind having a generic ancient lich portrait if kitty thinks it is a worthy subject.

[Espreon]

As has already been stated in this forum many, many times: no! you do not need to have all the character's accessories visible in the portrait! The sprite does not have to be used as a precise guideline either (Shadow Master). Having said that, I think showing a fan might be rather cool

It's just that she looks so beautiful when she is utilizing the fan in her attacks... I wish the Female Great Mage kept her fan or upgraded it to a bigger and more elaborate fan rather than copying the Male Great Mage and started holding that clock thingy...

[thespaceinvader]

I have to say i'm not a huge fan of this - I'm really not sure what's going on with the costuming, it looks kinda shapeless, like she's got a big spotty bedsheet wrapped round her; and the gnarly raw-wood appearance staff doesn't work for me either - it fits better for an elf who is more in tune with nature than for a red mage, who likes to burn stuff...

I can't fault this technically, but conceptually it doesn't really work to my mind. But as usual, feel free not to listen =) I think it just seems a little too different to the sprite, to me - the shape of the staff is fairly distinctive, as is the layering of the costume - she has a brown short cloak/hood thrown back over her shoulder, over a greyish tabard:

[Blarumyrran]

She's a witch! A WITCH! BURN 'ER!

anyways, nice, looks really mystical. except that it should follow the sprite more as thespaceinvader said, i suppose (staff and the gray cloth). but are you going to do a new level1 magus (as opposed to having thespaceinvader's one stay)? a new one would be a lot better for compliancy with the other upcoming magus portraits (including this one), but on the other hand its sad to see thespaceinvaders portrait go to waste (tho it might not go to total waste due to UMC usage)

[Girgistian]

I'd go for the one with less cropping. It doesn't have any specific detail (except for the red stuff, but you don't see it so clearly even on the other version) that would get wasted when the perspective is from farther away. So I vote for the one in the left.

I'd note that the cloth probably gets a bit less dark when the picture is shaded, so the grayness might not come up until then. If the current version had considerably more light than it has now, the final version could give an impression that she has somewhat white clothing.

[kitty]

thank you all for your feedback!

i overlooked the brown cloak/hood in the first draft - i added one now. hopefully she's now similar enough to the sprite ...
(still hadn't time to shade her )



@ esperon: yep - the orb is levitating, i plan to have some smoke and sparkles coming out of the staff.
the ancient lich... i don't know i just havn't much affinity to the undead. perhaps i'll do one, perhaps not. low priority.

@ spaceinvader: mmh, i see hat you mean with shapeless... i imagined the first level to wear a completely shapeless cowl, the second one (like the red mage here) has a more decorated dress, but still a cowl, kind of inbetween, and they start wearing really ceremonial costumeing not before level three.
and the shape of the staff... i don't like the sickle look, it's strange and agressive and thus i just hope to get away with this one. at least the red mage line has the tradition of levitating orbs.

@ sytax error: thank you for the critique!
concerning thespaceinvaders' portrait: i like to do things completley, thus i would like to do the line entirely. and i but if spaceinvader's mage gets commited it is fine for me. that's the reason why i didn't start with the level 1s but the 2s...

@ girgistan: i think you're right about the cropping, i'll paint the big version but crop it afterwards.

[thespaceinvader]

That adds just what it needed, i think - both the brown/red hooded cloak, which brings it more in line with the sprite, and a more shape to the costuming. Nice work. I agree to disagree about the staff, though - i don't see anything wrong with the red mage being a bit aggressive...

[Girgistian]

Looks great. Peaceful in a certain way, but I'm not sure if that contradicts the unit's nature. Which is why I too think the sickle-formed staff might be a better solution, since it brings some aggression in it. I mean they do throw fireballs around, after all. Just a personal opinion though.

[ael193]

Am I the only one who has noticed that the red mages aren't remotely RED anymore?

[Guidrion]

The "red mage" is more a concept in the heroic-fantasy conventions than an indication of how he must be.
The description that Wesnoth gives of him is that "red mage" is a nickname which refers to the kind of magic he uses.

[Sapient]

Am I the only one who has noticed that the red mages aren't remotely RED anymore?

There's a reason for that. Red is a team color, afterall. Look at the TC thread in the Art Dev forum if you want to read about the whole evolution and Jetryl's reasoning.