Portraits for Northern Rebirth

Post by **Sgt. Groovy** » November 22nd, 2006, 9:47 pm

The helmet could a bit deeper (so that one could actually imagine it holding in place) and a noseguard/earguards might add a nice touch.

The axe blade would be better viewed at an angle, that is, one of the blades is pointing a bit into the picture, and the other toward the viewer. It now has a bit of the "in the block" problem.

battlesquid · Post by **battlesquid** » November 24th, 2006, 10:01 pm

I've made the helmet somewhat more voluminous, but I'll have to leave the "in the block" issue on this picture.

Hamel in full armor.

The gloves/gauntlets are made out of leather, and I've tried to make them look that way by using compression wrinkles.

The things I can see for myself that should be corrected is his right hand (the one holding onto the top of the axe) because it wasn't enlarged after putting gloves on the hand. Another is his left arm, which should probably sway more out from his body.

The plate mail is separate; arms, torso and skirt are unattached, therefore the torso has smaller plates.

Hope to get some comments before I go ahead and ink it.

Post by **Taurus** » November 26th, 2006, 1:16 am

Hey Battlesquid,

He is comming along great

I myself am probobally not very quilified to comment on it, but don't you think his sholders need to be a bit wider? But I do like the plate armor, and that axe looks pretty good too.

Post by **Sgt. Groovy** » November 26th, 2006, 9:34 am

The biggest problem is with the (character POV) left hand. The elbow is supposed to be far back, but the perspective doesn't support this well enough. You have made the apparent height of the scales smaller, which is right, but they don't follow the contours of the arm, which is quite close to a cylinder. The picture below illustrates this: on the right is a cylinder viewd from side, with the lines on the side circling it like the rows of the scales on the arm. On the right it is seen from and angle, and in the upper picture shows how the lines should be going, and the lower shows how they go in your picture.

The gloves have problems too, the other extends beyong elbow, while the other doesn't. If the darker areas are supposed to illustrate the wrinkles and folds of the material, they don't work well, it rather looks like the gloves are made of spotted leather. If they are supposed to be made of spotted leather, then you need more wrinkles. Look for some reference material to get it right.

battlesquid · Post by **battlesquid** » November 26th, 2006, 11:16 pm

Taurus:
I also think he needs to be wider. I'll keep the axe as it is and the style of the armor, glad you like it.

Sgt. Groovy:
The gloves are not made out of spotted leather, I'm trying to make them look like this leather boot here (thick leather, giving compression wrinkles). I'm using the book Dynamic Wrinkles and Drapery by Burne Hogarth as reference, though I think it's hard to get it looking exactly the way I want them to, like wrinkled leather gloves.

I'll work on the scalemail as you commented and also on the angle of his left arm, a new sketch coming soon.

Post by **Jetrel** » November 26th, 2006, 11:58 pm

battlesquid wrote:Sgt. Groovy:
The gloves are not made out of spotted leather, I'm trying to make them look like this leather boot here (thick leather, giving compression wrinkles). I'm using the book Dynamic Wrinkles and Drapery by Burne Hogarth as reference, though I think it's hard to get it looking exactly the way I want them to, like wrinkled leather gloves.

That's a great book to follow.

Your problem here is that you're doing a visual imitation, and you're not following the logic behind what he describes.

All you have is a bunch of dark shapes splatted onto the surface. To move in the right direction, you have to note that:

1] The shapes will tend to be more like diamonds.
2] Each row, stacking vertically, will "interleave" with the row below, like teeth.
3] As they near the sides of the round object, they will become less wide (because of foreshortening), and there you will also need to take into account the 3d shape of the leather, the fact that the light areas are wrinkles that stick out considerably.

Xandar86 · Post by **Xandar86** » November 27th, 2006, 9:57 am

Lich

now it is in JPG but i will try to send it on smaller png

Xandar86 · Post by **Xandar86** » November 27th, 2006, 9:58 am

Sister Theta

Xandar86 · Post by **Xandar86** » November 27th, 2006, 9:59 am

Rakshas

Xandar86 · Post by **Xandar86** » November 27th, 2006, 10:00 am

Tallin

Xandar86 · Post by **Xandar86** » November 27th, 2006, 10:01 am

evil Tallin

Post by **Sgt. Groovy** » November 27th, 2006, 10:41 am

The gloves are not made out of spotted leather, I'm trying to make them look like this leather boot here (thick leather, giving compression wrinkles)

OK, Jetryl already gave you good advice, to which I would add the following:

As the wrinkles are indeed three-dimensional, lighting will be important in creating their shape. You need to think of them as ridges and valleys to get them righ.
One reason why your wrinkles don't look right is that they are uniformily distributed, while real wrinkles only form where the glove needs to bend. Therefore the sleeve doesn't have any wrinkles, as it's probably made of thicker leather than the rest, to offer more protection. There are many around the wrist, and around the finger joints.

battlesquid · Post by **battlesquid** » November 28th, 2006, 7:10 pm

Thank you for you comments and pointers!

I realize that I should wait with the leather wrinkles, for two reasons; firstly I have a more urgent things to learn (body related) and second I like to work with one aspect at a time, that way I really do learn the lesson.

So, back to the body.

I 've been using pictures that my girlfriend has helped me posing for (yes that really is a vacuum cleaner pole!) as a reference, because I see now that I shouldn't base the body on where the axe is. No matter how nice it was, I've drawn it twice can easily do it again. Therefore I'm going to redraw the entire body using the photo as reference, and hopefully this time I'll get it right

I have included three images this time:

The reference photo with some reference lines that I have used (forgive me, but I never went to art school so I'm figuring this out by myself). Please let me know if this is the wrong approach, I'd love to learn how this should be done.
The new sketch with reference lines
The current sketch (I'm waiting for your comments before continuing, so that I don't have to redraw any more than necessary )

Whether this is working the way I intended is not up to me to say, but I have used my pair of compasses, protractor and finally I've got myself a mechanical pencil.

Post by **Taurus** » November 28th, 2006, 7:18 pm

Damn Xandar! You are one heck of an artist! Thank you for doing these!

JW · Post by JW » November 28th, 2006, 11:09 pm

Taurus wrote:Damn Xandar! You are one heck of an artist!

Agreed.