shiremct's art thread

[shiremct]

Giving this leader a shield makes him too similar to my other units and I failed at drawing one in the position/angle I wanted to use to distinguish him from the others so I tried something else. I didn't want to go with a plain banner and I really like the eagle standard Turin created in his Imperial Era so I tried to do something similar. I didn't expect to really get it to work at all, and tho it's not as simple and elegant as Turin's, it came out much better than I could have hoped to achieve before starting it. Wish I could infuse some action in the little guy, but sadly I don't have the skill to do such things with an 18x12 pixel sculpture. Is it clear what it is?

The pole needs some work and I may change the material from wood, tho I don't know what to... too much bronze already... maybe a dark grey "black" shade... dunno. Guy still has no pants

[Major]

It's a LION! Run away!

(Seriously though, good work).
His ribs look concave, like someone hit him in the chest with a mallet... really hard.

[Issyl]

The symbol is excellent, very clear.

I will agree with Major on the chest - it does indeed look very concave. This is a very good unit.

[shiremct]

I too agree he looks rather concave in the chest... I think it's the slant to the middle muscled pieces... I carried the slant up from the tummy section but I'll try dropping it in the upper pieces and see if that helps remove that inverted appearance.

Edit: Reshaded his chest... I think he looks a little flat now, but that's an improvement from being concave I guess.

[shiremct]

More or less conceptually done (i think). Anything look out of place or need tweaked? I went ahead and added a fake shadow for now but it probably isn't shaped right.

[Issyl]

Alignment issues with the armor: see below.

You solved the concave problem though.

[shiremct]

Reworked the armor again. It's seems it's very easy to get that concave feeling again when reintroducing a slant, even on one side only; I've stared at it too long now to be able to tell if I removed that concave feeling or not, but I feel like I haven't. I shifted the armor pieces on the viewers left down one pixel and shifted the armors center line one pixel to the viewers right.

I also trimmed off his cloak a bit on his right side because I felt like it was creating the illusion his upper body was rotated more than intended and wasn't fitting with the stance of his lower body as well as it had before. Not sure how I feel about it... it looks kinda odd to me.

[Issyl]

I don't see any notion of the armor being concave in this one. It looks very nice, good job.

[furioso]

It's good to see you here again, shiremct! These sprites are looking very nice... perhaps I'll find the time to resurrect the Ancient Era

[shiremct]

Thanks furioso

Several small changes here and there to this guy. Little less MACHO now; bit better proportioned... I think... & some shading tweaks. He should be looking a little less flat-as-a-board now in the chest hopefully.

[Issyl]

Very nice; the changes look good (although you didn't do anything to the chest area).

I would say his sword is rather long for a typical Hellenistic sword; it's more like a medieval broadsword.

[shiremct]

First shaded version of the Zeugites unit: a level zero "citizen militia" type unit that precedes the melee infantry line. Nothing special, but hey, it's a level zero...

I'm hesitant to post this, because I'll be the first to tell you I'll probably never be able to complete it or come even close to completing it; I just work on the sprites from time to time for fun, but I do have a (much too ambitious) faction layout that I'm basing what I create on and I'll share for reference sake... just don't expect too much to come of it.

I have next to no understanding of the greek language, so I fully expect some mistakes or misinterpretations in my unit names. I gathered them up browsing the net, but still need a few filled in. If you have a suggestion or see a mistake I've made, feel free to point it out. Units are named (Mostly) in greek with a rough english description in parenthesis on the image. The javelineer line units may or may not be place-holders... I'm not sure their styling will mesh or if I may want to redo them later once (if) I get more units done, but I'll leave 'em in for now. I have enough bits and pieces and old units to fill in a good portion of the sheet with placeholder stuff actually if I wanted to.

[shiremct]

First version of the Ekdromos: a lighter armed warrior that can break formation and more effectively fight on its own. In game terms, this unit line would have less resistances, better defense, and better terrain movement, as well as gaining a sword attack among other things to differentiate it from the hoplite line.

Redrew new legs and an arm onto an existing torso and created a new shield. Does the pose look okay? His arm is intended to look just slightly bent at the elbow in a more relaxed and natural position rather than just sticking straight out but the elbow may need to bend a little more if it looks too rigid. Shield look okay? I really struggle with foreshortening so it took a lot of time to get something that felt about right. I'm trying to add a foreshortened sword hanging on his hip, but it's pretty tough to get anything that's even recognizable, let alone looking decent.

[thespaceinvader]

That shield is nice. Very nice. I may steal it for a project of my own, if you don't mind...

[shiremct]

Of course, feel free to use it as you wish.

Realized I could angle the sword the other way on his hip so I didn't have to draw the blade at all so tried that. Being able to fight with a sword would be an important distinction for this unit line and I really want to represent it graphically on the unit itself but without having a sword being brandished in hand (where to put the spear then?). Would still prefer another angle, but this may have to do... I'll keep toying around it.

Shield was also tweaked, pushing the handle area out one pixel to give it more of a vertical curve. Pretty small difference but I like it. I know I need to add more TC contrast to it too at some point.