thespaceinvader's portraits - Ancient Wose

[Sgt. Groovy]

There's level 2 as well? Is that in a campaign?

[thespaceinvader]

Yeah, it's used in SoF, as well as numerous UMCs. I'm not sure exactly why it's not in mainline...

[deserter]

And the welder look is intentional - I'd assume these guys are the guys who make the thundersticks and the ammunition for them. They're going to want to protect their faces. He'd probably not wear it down in combat though, given the dwarves' dislike of face covering.

I would think that they leave their working clothes home when heading for combat though.

[thespaceinvader]

We can agree to differ then. If not for the working gear (which is modified to include runes of protection etc) they'd be basically indistinguishable from Fighters - they're wearing chainmail, carrying a hammer, which the fighter has... I think that they'd be carrying their craftsman gear on the basis that they might be called upon to make emergency repairs on the battlefield. Realism takes a second string to distinctiveness here.

But tbh, justify it however you fancy, I'm not going to change the basic concept at this stage, I'm afraid.

EDIT: now with runes. Yes, some of them mean stuff. you're welcome to work out what. Some of them are of my own invention, notably the big ones seen on the belly plates. You can find out what they mean by translating the futhark beside them. I've also made an attempt at fixing the perspective on the visor. I'll try to fix up the hair to match the shape of the body at shading.

[kitty]

We can agree to differ then. If not for the working gear (which is modified to include runes of protection etc) they'd be basically indistinguishable from Fighters - they're wearing chainmail, carrying a hammer, which the fighter has... I think that they'd be carrying their craftsman gear on the basis that they might be called upon to make emergency repairs on the battlefield. Realism takes a second string to distinctiveness here.

But tbh, justify it however you fancy, I'm not going to change the basic concept at this stage, I'm afraid.

As I already told you yesterday on IRC portraying only his craftsman-side won't be enough. I do not doubt that he is a craftsman - he works his magic by engraving the runes. But he is not the ordinary welder your portrait makes him appear like atm. He has a distinguished role in dwarvish society, he is a person of special knowledge and a magician. And your portrait needs to reflect that, too. Your drawing could be a good base for that, the colour scheme you chose already points to the right direction. But the detailing looks very much like just some embellishment to me, very similar to the decorations you did on the other dwarves - that's not special enough.

The visor is still seen from more of an angle than the face, but it works well enough now. I have no idea how you plan to change the beards direction just by shading... And have a look at the size of his eyes.

Looks like you'll get the dwarves done in time

[thespaceinvader]

I hope that I will, but I probably won't have much time to work on shading this chap before the weekend unfortunately, and that release is coming due fast. I may have to leave this one guy out for the 1.6 release. Ah well, it's not like he's used all that often...

[AI]

Fear! The BAN HAMMER HIT! (could you post a higher res version? the smaller runes are too small to make out)

And a random idea for more decoration: the sprite seems to be wearing a crown-like thing, so decorating the headband that holds his visor might be an idea.

[thespaceinvader]

I knew i'd forgotten something...

And you ask, i shall deliver =)

I might add a little more embellishment to the headband too - some sort of emblem maybe. As long as it wouldn't get in the way of the visor.

[AI]

Point, pie, sh, blade, impact, runes. Is there anything I've missed?

[thespaceinvader]

nope.

The pie becomes pierce, and the sh, shield - it's meant to be protection runes on his belly plates - protecting from each of the physical damage types.

The runes would extend to 'runes for dummies' if we could see the whole title =D

[LordBob]

Just a quick post to point a problem on his left side : the lower and upper body feel like they belong to different persons. The lower body has a huge belly, whereas the beard seems to be lying on a flat chest. I think the drawing would be easier to read if you either curve the beard or put the lower body on diet

If you keep him big-bellied, I think it'd help a lot to have the embellishment of his clothing follow the curves of the body : because of their many vertical lines, it currently feels as if the belt and other embellishment are drawn each one on a different plane

[thespaceinvader]

Kitty's asked me to add some more curve to the beard, actually. I'd hoped i could get away with fixing it with shading, but i don't think i will in the end.

Attempted fixes to the above issues, begun chainmail (ignore the missing bits, i started it last night before I made the changes. The gold stripes are intended to become decorative patterns of different coloured rings in the mail. Also, decided that some of the runes will be explicitly magical, and glow blue.

[LordBob]

Still not happy with his silouhette. I think you should take care of it before you're too far into shading, since it involves heavy fixes.

Did a quick paintover of two possible figures for him, the blue one acounting for his lower body and the red one accounting for his upper boddy.
My favorite is the blue figure, it makes him more bulky and still has a belly.

[thespaceinvader]

I'll go with the blue, or something like it. It still needs something.

[thespaceinvader]

Updated.