IoA - Newest Portrait: Matt and Tom

[Ranger M]

Ok, unlike the last four, maybe five times that I've "returned" to finish IoA, I'm not gonna make the mistake of saying "I'm back" again, and then being dragged away by real life. But I have been making progress without reporting it here, mostly on rewrites of the dialogue/story elements, but also doing some art, for example:

I just did a Reth portrait that's about 1000 times better than any of the older versions, or pretty much any portraits that I've done before . I hadn't had time to do any work on any art for a while, and I'd been feeling particularly unmotivated, then on Wednesday evening I picked up my wacom tablet, and just started drawing, and holy crap I made this.

It's actually quite the milestone, it has much better composition and pose than my other work, it actually makes proper use of colour (as in, the colour of the light affecting the colour of the object, probably not the correct artistic use of the term, but hey), or at least it does on the left hand side. Of course it has a whole buncha problems too (the normal suspects, face, trousers, shirt, hell most of it has one problem or another), but it still looks pretty damn good for my work .

Of course, because of this it's not done, these issues need fixing, and it needs final polish and smoothing of unintentionally grainy parts (read trousers), incomplete/badly done shadows, and adding the bits I've forgotten (like that dagger I just remembered is supposed to be there). But getting some C and C now so I can fix them all at once, and fix them right, would be good.

Oh, and yes I know it's not normal Wesnoth portrait style (unless that's changed drastically since I've been away), but it's for a UMC so that doesn't matter

[Turuk]

A good start for sure, I definitely like the improvements you made in your own style. My one critique is the placement of his right arm. I can see the elbow, and I can see the fingers poking out on the other side, but the left arm that lies over top seems to be resting flat against his chest. I actually (before seeing the fingers) thought that his right arm ended at the elbow, as there is no (seemingly) space between his left arm and chest. Just my two cents.

[Neoskel]

It looks like his torso is too long. Taking out one segment of the leather armor worth of length would about fix it i think.
His face also needs work, but i bet you knew that. His legs look a tad weird too.

Otherwise, very nice. Looks almost mainline quality.

[Blarumyrran]

His eyes are too close (to each other)

[Ranger M]

A good start for sure, I definitely like the improvements you made in your own style. My one critique is the placement of his right arm. I can see the elbow, and I can see the fingers poking out on the other side, but the left arm that lies over top seems to be resting flat against his chest. I actually (before seeing the fingers) thought that his right arm ended at the elbow, as there is no (seemingly) space between his left arm and chest. Just my two cents.

I don't know what else I can do about his left arm, it already sticks out at quite a large angle, although I think that fixing his left hand might actually help?? (the angle it's at makes it look like it's grabbing a verticle right arm, not an angled one), or possibly making more of his left hand visible somehow (it can't be moved without a major re-draw, but making it more obvious could help, alot of the portrait needs it's brightnesses adjusting.

Also, I just noticed how crap it looks on a white background, so I've added a grey background in the origional post

[thespaceinvader]

You'll need the final version to be on transparent =)

It looks very good - nice work.

[Turuk]

I don't know what else I can do about his left arm, it already sticks out at quite a large angle, although I think that fixing his left hand might actually help?? (the angle it's at makes it look like it's grabbing a verticle right arm, not an angled one), or possibly making more of his left hand visible somehow (it can't be moved without a major re-draw, but making it more obvious could help, alot of the portrait needs it's brightnesses adjusting.

Hmm. I think a combination of fixing his left hand and the angle that the forearm seems to come off from the elbow. The bottom line, from the elbow heading towards the body, gives the impression almost that the arm is tucked behind his back and not across his chest. Does that make sense?

[Skizzaltix]

As I said over on dA, good work!
It just occurred to me that his trousers are awfully low down there--I think Neoskel was seeing the same thing
Just raising the belt should fix that particular problem.
Anyway, good work! I can't wait to see the finalized version--Judging by how good this is already, it'll be great

[TL]

Your painting skills are brilliant, anatomy is... less brilliant. The line of the shoulders is out of perspective with the torso and arms, but the main problem is the head and face. The head is probably too skinny to start with, and the face seems to be drawn on a nearly flat plane instead of being turned to match the head and body. The eyes are also noticeably too high on the head and maybe a little bit too close together (although that might just be an artifact of the perspective and general thinness of the head).

[Ranger M]

It looks like his torso is too long. Taking out one segment of the leather armor worth of length would about fix it i think.
His face also needs work, but i bet you knew that. His legs look a tad weird too.

torso length wise, you could be right, although one leather section would probably be a bit much, on closer inspection the upper legs are probably too short, which probably skews perception of the torso too, and as sklzzaltix said the belt probably needs raising too.

His eyes are too close (to each other)

yes, the classic sign of a murderer.... , seriously though your half right, they are too close, if they are on a flat plane facing us (which is how they're, badly, drawn), but if you put them at an angle, well actually they could probably use being shifted a pixel or two right anyway, but they're closer to being right dammit.

You'll need the final version to be on transparent =)

yeah, the first version I uploaded was, but the forums gave it a white background, on which it looked utterly crap, so I added a grey background for viewing purposes (in game it will be on a grey background that I think is darker than this one anyway).

Hmm. I think a combination of fixing his left hand and the angle that the forearm seems to come off from the elbow. The bottom line, from the elbow heading towards the body, gives the impression almost that the arm is tucked behind his back and not across his chest. Does that make sense?

I wouldn't go so far as to say behind his back, maybe through his gut though, I think that that angle needs to be shifted down (and another finger added), and the leather bit along the bottom of his forearm needs to be redrawn so that it doesn't make it look like the arm is going further back into his body than it is (it actually does look like his arm is angled into his stomach)

@Sklzzaltix: Thanks

Your painting skills are brilliant,

thanks

anatomy is... less brilliant. The line of the shoulders is out of perspective with the torso and arms, but the main problem is the head and face. The head is probably too skinny to start with, and the face seems to be drawn on a nearly flat plane instead of being turned to match the head and body. The eyes are also noticeably too high on the head and maybe a little bit too close together (although that might just be an artifact of the perspective and general thinness of the head).

yeah, faces.... yeah

I always have major problems with faces (believe it or not, this is on of the better ones that I've drawn ), I'm gonna have to go back and redraw it, and I'll take what you've said into account.

as for the shoulders, could you explain it better? I'm not sure I understand what you mean

[TL]

The shoulders/upper torso appear to be turned more towards the viewer than the abdomen is. We can clearly see that his midsection is turned towards the left, since that's where his leather breastplate is pointing. However we can still somehow see most of the front of both shoulders, even though the further one (his right) should be tilted back and partially obscured by his chest.

[Ranger M]

The shoulders/upper torso appear to be turned more towards the viewer than the abdomen is. We can clearly see that his midsection is turned towards the left, since that's where his leather breastplate is pointing. However we can still somehow see most of the front of both shoulders, even though the further one (his right) should be tilted back and partially obscured by his chest.

ah, that's on purpose, he's supposed to be turned to look out of the portrait from his current standing position, the reason I turned his body a bit instead of just his head is that it makes him seem more, wary, possibly slightly shift and untrusting (which fits his character, or will once I finish the rewrites), like his keeping an eye on you incase you do anything.

obviously I need to do this better, the cloth of his shirt down his left side could be creased at an angle to make this twist more obvious.

another thing that needs doing is shifting his left leg, it needs to be rotated a bit so that his knee is facing more to our left, and it needs to be unbent (atm his upper body is, if not relaxed, at least slightly nonchalant, but his lower body seems croutched, although this might just be a product of the short legs creating the illusion of his left leg being angled towards us, and his right leg angled away.

[Turuk]

I wouldn't go so far as to say behind his back, maybe through his gut though, I think that that angle needs to be shifted down (and another finger added), and the leather bit along the bottom of his forearm needs to be redrawn so that it doesn't make it look like the arm is going further back into his body than it is (it actually does look like his arm is angled into his stomach)

True, I may have been a wee bit extreme. If you draw the bottom of the forearm, if it's line is parallel to the line of the left arm, you should not have a problem. Even though one is in front of the other, since the arms are just being held and not crossed over each other, the lines for each forearm would be very similar.

[turin]

Awesome painting job.

Apart from the issues with the face and anatomy other people have mentioned, I have a problem with his left hand (the one we can actually see most of) - basically, that's just not what his hand would look like if he were in that pose. Try it yourself. The palm of his hand should face down, not up.

BTW, Wesnoth portrait style has changed drastically while you were away - download 1.5.9 to see just how much so. Basically, it's a million times better.

[JW]

Duuuuude! Long time no see! I remember helping you out with something with the Arendians a looooooong time ago in a galaxy much like the one we're in today. (something like putting their stats on the wiki or something)

I'm definitely liking the paint job and am hoping you keep improving!