Kitty's Merfolk: Finished

[kitty]

Next project on my WSAS list are a couple of merpeople, the advancements of the mermaid and the hunter and fighter lines.

First is the enchantress/siren. Trying to get a feel for the species and staying true to sleepwalker's original artwork. Only lines and flats for now:

[vonHalenbach]

Looks good to me. Only her left eye brow goes a bit too much down and i would find those things on her shoulders a bit uncomphtable when swimming, but this is not the reality, it is just a portrait.

[Valkier]

Overall it's a rather pleasing design. You get the idea across that it is a merfolk even without showing the tail. I like the idea of conch shells for shoulder pads, and the seaweed bra is a fun idea as well.

I think the weakest point at the moment is the staff. It looks to be more of the same and is very uniform and straight compared to the rest of the design. I'd like to see the handle be a bit more varied in width and shape. For some reason using the shell idea in the design just doesn't seem to work for it. Maybe try having a crab holding a glowy orb of mer-power? In any case, it just seems to lack the character that the rest of the design flow has.

Looking forward to seeing this progress.

[Turuk]

Great design kitty, it's nice to see that you are following what sleepwalker did for uniformity.

For the conch shells on her shoulders, the one on our left seems to be facing a bit too much towards the viewer. Given that the one on our right sits with the curves sitting around the shoulder (which makes sense), it seems a bit odd that we can see the curves on our left as well, they seem to be sticking out in front of the shoulder.

Also, the center of the conch seems to be sitting on her collar bone for our left, while on our right it is much closer to sitting on her shoulder.

I look forward to seeing more of these.

[Girgistian]

Looks good to me. Only her left eye brow goes a bit too much down and i would find those things on her shoulders a bit uncomphtable when swimming, but this is not the reality, it is just a portrait.

I think it seems a bit unlikely that she uses her arms and the shoulder region for swimming, since she's got a huge fish-tail for moving around.

Looking good so far.

[kitty]

Aww, thanks for the quick feedback people! I changed some stuff and left other tidbits as they were, aged her a tad and started to apply basic shading - that's what she looks like right now:

[Turuk]

I changed some stuff and left other tidbits as they were, aged her a tad and started to apply basic shading - that's what she looks like right now:

I like the new shoulder, it looks militaristic and yet not overstated, which reminds us that she does do her magic in a combat environment.

[Girgistian]

Even better than before - nice
Looking at her chin and left cheek, though, isn't the specular be on the opposite side of her nose? It's nitpicking, but I can't seem to find anything else wrong with it. This makes me want to get back to portraiting business

[thespaceinvader]

The new shoulder armour's much nicer - still sea-inspired and made of shells, but much more armour-like. Great stuff. The only thing that strikes me is that the scales don't seem to go in a fish-like pattern. They seem to spiral round her... it would also be nice for her to have a slightly lighter front than back, as virtually all marine species do.

[Jetrel]

The one and only edit I'd propose, and it's purely a matter of taste, would be to have a little more of a spiral/corkscrew shape to the staff. Quite optional.

This looks awesome.

[kitty]

Ah, I'm glad you're liking the new shoulder pad!

Girgistian: Yep, you're right, the highlight is wrong. Damn.
Thespaceinvader: Hmm, I didn't think about the scale pattern, I just drew it. Somehow it doesn't bother me much - I'll decide if i'll change it when I get back to her tomorrow with fresh eyes.
Jetrel: Haha, I know that you like gnarly staffs! But you are right the upper half seems too stiff - will work on that.

[Sangel]

That's one seriously haughty facial expression. I like it.

Will you be doing further shading on her seaweed top? Currently it lacks the subtle gloss that made sleepwalker's seaweed look like it was damp/wet - it made the texture particularly effective.

[Iris]

It looks odd to me that she doesn't have a navel like the L1 Initiate in her portrait; or is it completely covered by the pearls?

Disregard this if you planned to use shading in its place.

[Cloud]

The new shoulder armour's much nicer - still sea-inspired and made of shells, but much more armour-like. Great stuff. The only thing that strikes me is that the scales don't seem to go in a fish-like pattern. They seem to spiral round her... it would also be nice for her to have a slightly lighter front than back, as virtually all marine species do.

Personally I like that look of the scales - it gives the impression of the slight optical illusion you get when things are corkscrewing both ways, which I believe happens with scales. Because of the angle I think it would appear to look like that. Just throwing in my £0.02

[kitty]

Update time! Still some details left that need polishing...