Story Image for Santi

Disto · Post by **Disto** » August 19th, 2005, 1:42 pm

Well Santi asked me to do a story image for him ages ago and i accepted, but of course as i'm self trained through doing little pixel sprites i've had virtually no experience at it. I tried to follow Jormungandr's method, but i failed when i forgot to do part 4. But i got this far, this is only 1 character of the image btw. So can i have any advice and no i don't really know where the light comes off but i think for a first try it is fairly good. And yes i did draw it free hand and that is why it is slightly out of proportion.

Disto · Post by **Disto** » August 19th, 2005, 3:02 pm

Cmon, comment people.

Tomsik · Post by **Tomsik** » August 19th, 2005, 3:07 pm

im sorry to say that, but at least IMO it looks ugly.

Disto · Post by **Disto** » August 19th, 2005, 3:28 pm

tomsik wrote:im sorry to say that, but at least IMO it looks ugly.

How?

XJaPaN · Post by **XJaPaN** » August 19th, 2005, 3:30 pm

Just look at the picture, looks like drawn from a 10 year old guy... sorry.

Disto · Post by **Disto** » August 19th, 2005, 3:40 pm

XJaPaN wrote:Just look at the picture, looks like drawn from a 10 year old guy... sorry.

That says a lot about me. And your 4 years off sorry, but with my drawings it'd be impossible to get it right.

Ok more importantly what about the colouring. etc.

martenzo · Post by **martenzo** » August 19th, 2005, 4:44 pm

IMO It needs a better face, better shadowing, smoother edges, better weapons, but the body is in proportion (good).

Tomsik · Post by **Tomsik** » August 19th, 2005, 5:41 pm

hand(and all arm) dont have good proportions

Shadow · Post by **Shadow** » August 19th, 2005, 5:59 pm

XJaPaN wrote:Just look at the picture, looks like drawn from a 10 year old guy... sorry.

Sounds a little bit tough doesn't it? I draw myself mostly pencil sketches and not on a computer too much work.

As I can see the biggest problem is the pose the face and the hand.
The hand is to small the profile of the face is a little bit off.
Their is an easy trick to solve some smaller problems. If you can't draw special parts of the body cover it with a cape well this solution is cheap but it works until you can do it better ( I also do it with some of my pixel art). The shading is practice as my little edit shows.

Nothing more to say. Some others wth more practise like Pickslide Fmunoz Jetryl, Jormungandr, etc point p p could help more.

Disto · Post by **Disto** » August 19th, 2005, 7:54 pm

Shadow wrote:
XJaPaN wrote:Just look at the picture, looks like drawn from a 10 year old guy... sorry.
Sounds a little bit tough doesn't it? I draw myself mostly pencil sketches and not on a computer too much work.

As I can see the biggest problem is the pose the face and the hand.
The hand is to small the profile of the face is a little bit off.
Their is an easy trick to solve some smaller problems. If you can't draw special parts of the body cover it with a cape well this solution is cheap but it works until you can do it better ( I also do it with some of my pixel art). The shading is practice as my little edit shows.

Nothing more to say. Some others wth more practise like Pickslide Fmunoz Jetryl, Jormungandr, etc point p p could help more.

Wow, that shading is awesome, i wish i could shade like that, and you say that is a quick edit. well does someone else want to do the story image for Santi. I'm sure if you pm him he can tell you what he wants.

Post by **Jetrel** » August 20th, 2005, 7:19 am

I'd try and say some things, but a certain fellow by the last name of Loomis said them better, and I think you'd all rather I drew wesnoth stuff, like more variations of those new villages.

http://www.saveloomis.org is a place where you can download his works.

Look for "Figure drawing for all it's worth", and read it. Tolerate the download, even if you're on a crappy connection - it is worth it.

Remember, I, too, am self-trained. I'm a physics student, not an art student.

Francisco is also self trained, I think - I believe his college education centered on math and statistics.

Neo, of course, was not trained by anyone, including himself - for in the age of myth and legend, the great Hephaestus thrust his spear into the rib of Zeus, and neoriceisgood did spring forth, fully formed and talented. It looked something like this.

xtifr · Post by **xtifr** » August 20th, 2005, 5:48 pm

I agree that the general proportions of the body are funky. I'd also like to point out a technical issue. The scabbard is on the wrong side of the body. Imagine trying to draw the sword out of the scabbard with it like that. You'd have to twiist your arm around very uncomfortably, if you could draw it at all. The scabbard should be on the opposite side from the sword hand, so you can draw it out smoothly across your body. Try it (with an imaginary sword) and you'll immediately see what I mean.

(All those years my parents forced me to go to silly medieval re-creation events do come in handy once in a rare while.

)

Ardonik · Post by **Ardonik** » August 20th, 2005, 8:49 pm

Jetryl wrote:Neo, of course, was not trained by anyone, including himself - for in the age of myth and legend, the great Hephaestus thrust his spear into the rib of Zeus, and neoriceisgood did spring forth, fully formed and talented. It looked something like this.

Indeed.

"The sprites and pixeled art lay hid in night: God said 'Neorice is Good!' and all was light."

(Apologies to Alexander Pope.)

Post by **Jetrel** » August 20th, 2005, 9:26 pm

Ardonik wrote:Indeed.

"The sprites and pixeled art lay hid in night: God said 'Neorice is Good!' and all was light."

(Apologies to Alexander Pope.)

Yeah - by now, if that monkey has been reading this, his ego should be big enough for the coast guard to track on radar. =)

charlieg · Post by **charlieg** » August 21st, 2005, 11:29 pm

Significant problems:

Neck->Jaw transition all wrong
Jaw is far too tiny
Forearms and hands far too small comparsed to rest of image; where's the elbow?
Pose looks awkward
Feet/boots make it look like he has two right feet
Legs look too short or at least disproportioned; possibly due to there being no visible knee

Tips:

Google for pictures of people, use their stances as bases for the stances of your characters - good for getting correct form and posture
Note the proportions of the various parts of the human body. Keep your characters to similar proportions, only adjusting things like muscle and hand size if it's really relevant (e.g. trying to make the character look strong or masculine).
Study the pictures drawn by the better Wesnothian artists. Note the features that they emphasise, the structure they give to their characters.
Joints, dude, joints. The human body is all about joints. Muscles connect between joints, not over them. Elbows, knees, shoulders, ankles, hell even hips, it should all be discernable.
For the faces, you need to try doing some real portaits to understand just how naff the face in your picture looks. Really, it and the feet and the hands are the bits of this picture that make it look childish rather than amateurish. When you try to draw your dad, and compare either your portrait of him to him and see the disparity (or if your portrait of him is good, the portrait to this image) you will see what's wrong. A bit of context can really help introspectively.

Remember, we might be bastards, but practice makes perfect. Keep at it and you'll become good.