Can I help?

[eriugena]

Hi, I'm Eriugena. I'm from Italy.
I'm interested in doing some art work for the game, i like the idea and spirit of the project!

I'm unexperienced in pixel-art, but i like drawing (comics style).

Here is my blog, if you want to see some of my work.
http://eriugen.blogspot.com/

Eriu

[thespaceinvader]

Welcome to the forums =D

Check out the Grand Portrait List http://www.wesnoth.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=20897 and see if there's anything that you fancy drawing - portraits and portrait artists are in very short supply, and the quality of the work in your blog looks very promising, IMHO. Contributions are encouraged =)

[Jetrel]

Welcome to the forums =D

Check out the Grand Portrait List http://www.wesnoth.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=20897 and see if there's anything that you fancy drawing - portraits and portrait artists are in very short supply, and the quality of the work in your blog looks very promising, IMHO. Contributions are encouraged =)

YES, You can! You look like you're pretty good at illustration.

Do what 'thespaceinvader' suggested; though I'll preface it by mentioning that two other artists (myself and kitty) have 'called dibs' on doing the dwarves and magi, so you probably should stay away from those two groups of units.

Please do your drawings in something compatible with this style - if you have trouble with the coloring/shading style, we can help (in fact we can take care of that entirely, if you'd really like us to). Try not to overdo the usual exaggerations that manga/marvel works have, especially the size of eyes.




Also, be forewarned that we're a very open and collaborative community, and you'll need to be open to collective work on images. We openly critique/criticize the technical points of images that we're working on, and as part of this, we often suggest edits to each other - and because it's sometimes impossible to communicate certain things in mere words, we'll often suggest edits by doing paintover sketches on other people's work. That's par for the course, here, and you'll need to accept that. But keep in mind that these generally are just suggestions, not mandates; we respect your desires as the author of the image, and we're not going change your work in a way you don't like, and then add it into the game - you can veto any changes we might make.

So, pick some unit from that list that you're interested in drawing, and .. start drawing. Please post your drawings in this thread - you can attach images in this forum. Feel free to post them at any stage of completion, be it pencilwork, inking, flats, or shaded.

[eriugena]

Ok, no problem work in team, it's a pleasure!

For new, I post some exercises I've done in the meanwhile...

A "king" and a "goblin" or so ^_-

I was thinking of doing the portrait as paint art, but i see the "usual" stile is "inked draw" colored. Do you like this approach?

Note: I see in the forum that the portrait need some "gesture" of the characters, this drawing is only an exercise to see what stile is good for the future work.

[Jetrel]

I was thinking of doing the portrait as paint art, but i see the "usual" stile is "inked draw" colored. Do you like this approach?

They're gonna need to be "inked draw". They need to match, for better or worse; one of the biggest things that makes wesnoth, as it is now, look unprofessional, is the fact that we've got multiple sets of portraits that are inconsistent in style.

For new, I post some exercises I've done in the meanwhile...

A "king" and a "goblin" or so ^_-

Note: I see in the forum that the portrait need some "gesture" of the characters, this drawing is only an exercise to see what stile is good for the future work.

Yeah, they'll need to show the torso in real portraits.

Also, it's worth noting that your "goblin" is extremely close to what wesnoth depicts as a troll.

[Sgt. Groovy]

One thing you should notice that in Wesnoth art, humans have fairly realistic anatomical proportions. Your "king" would clearly deviate from this with his exaggerated lower face. Non-humans, on the other hand, are a different matter, and your troll (in Wesnoth, "goblins" are basically diminutive orcs) is quite nicely proportioned.

[eriugena]

They're gonna need to be "inked draw".

Understood is my usual stile, not a problem. You prefer a "colored ink", i suppose?

Also, it's worth noting that your "goblin" is extremely close to what wesnoth depicts as a troll.

Yes, my mistake... I use as a reference an orc ^_-

In the next day I'll try with some more "correct".

An other think the pixel ratio for the portrait? The portrait need to be very close to the sprit image or there can be some "free inspiration"?

[Shadow]

You can do quite free.
Nice sketches.

[Jetrel]

They're gonna need to be "inked draw".

Understood is my usual stile, not a problem. You prefer a "colored ink", i suppose?

Yeah.

An other think the pixel ratio for the portrait?

The final size of the portraits is 205x205 pixels, although if you have clean copies at a higher size, we'd like to have those around as well.

The portrait need to be very close to the sprit image or there can be some "free inspiration"?

There can be a considerable amount of "free inspiration"; just don't create something that contradicts the nature of the unit. For example, if a unit has an axe as a weapon, don't give him a sword instead.

[eriugena]

Some skecth done in the last days...
I was little busy with work T_T

[eriugena]

they are possible gestur and some study... to know in what diretcion go wiht the drawings

[Sapient]

I really like the goblin head! Although, you would also need to show the rest of the upper torso to match existing portraits.

The mage should not be shooting fireballs in his main portrait.

As for the other sketches, mage_02.jpg looks nice. I'm not sure if it's the right mage-look that Jetryl's going for, but I like it.

[Sangel]

Eriugena, it seems to me that your composition skills are very strong; these sketches definitely suggest that. Our desired portrait style is from the waist up, though you can obviously crop from larger sketches.

The difficult part is going to be the inking and painting - specifically, inking and painting in a style that is compatible with our desired portrait style. Jetryl's posted some examples already, but I believe Kitty may be able to share some tips on how she achieves her "look". At this point, I'd suggest picking a sketch and testing out Wesnoth's inking/painting style on it.

[Jetrel]

As for the other sketches, mage_02.jpg looks nice. I'm not sure if it's the right mage-look that Jetryl's going for, but I like it.

I'm fairly open on that front. It looks cool.

I'll reiterate sapient's comment about "the mage should not be shooting a fireball in his portrait" - these portraits have to work not merely for wild situations, but also for calm ones.


On the orcs - I would forewarn you that our orcs shouldn't look like the typical warcraft-style orcs. Ours have more of a "wolverine" look to them (sans his trademark hairstyle). So - pointy teeth? Good. Tusks? Bad. I'd also reduce the gap between the nose and lips that is a hallmark feature of warcraft-style orcs.

[irrevenant]

I'll reiterate sapient's comment about "the mage should not be shooting a fireball in his portrait" - these portraits have to work not merely for wild situations, but also for calm ones.

Question: If artists supply unit portraits in a few different poses does the engine have support for using them? eg. if Eriugena finished both Mage01 and Mage02, could the former be used for the help screen and passive dialogue, and the latter used for "I'm going to get you, rargh!" dialogue?