Loyalist Portrait Series

[Thanatos]

The Templars were greedy and powerhungry bankers.

I think that's quite debatable from a historians perspective.
However, such a discussion won't do any good to the problem in question.
And as I see it, Bob already made his decision.

[thespaceinvader]

Topic, please, people.

I'm glad the cunieform inspired runes are getting used =)

I'm fairly sure the ones in Kitty's image are some form of greek-key-inspired thing, but they look enough like the script i linked that we can easily run with it.

[Kestenvarn]

The cross will remain cross-shaped.

What the lineart doesn't include yet is cuneiform engraving (I'll be using that font TSI proposed) on the cross that should dissipate any association with christianism. Said engraving is planned to have an unnatural gleam that will clearly claim magic's at work. Other than that I'm not aware of a definite arcane symbolism in Wesnoth. Besides, if anything the paladin is a templar from the Crusades more than a mage (at least according to his unit profile).

Thanks for this. It looks neat and the circle in the center makes it different from a christian cross - i actually didn't notice the similarity until Groovy brought it up

[LordBob]

Final paladin lineart. I'll get back to some shading next, it's been a lot of lineart...

[Quietus]

Final paladin lineart. I'll get back to some shading next, it's been a lot of lineart...

pretty pimp ive gotta say Though something looks a little odd about the horses left ear (our right)

[Cloud]

If it's facing forward, yes it's weird, if it's facing backwards (sideways with a hint of back more than true backwards actually, now I think of it) it actually looks fine to me.

[LordBob]

You're right about that ear. I'll try and follow what Cloud think is right.

I'm also posting a preliminary Horseman shading : since I'm going for an unusual lightsource (backlighting), I'd rather have Kitty's mind on it before I'm too far into the job

[Boucman]

I love the color sheme,

hmm, I'm not good at that sort of stuff, but i think the inside of his righ hand should be lit...

[kitty]

Wow - loving the paladin!

And the horseman is looking promising, too - it's interesting to see an earlier step of your process Generally it looks pretty backlit to me, only his right shoulder concerns me - the light on horse and left shoulder indicate the light source behind and a bit to the right while the shading on the right shoulder indicates it being behind and to the left. At large I'd suggest adding a secondary weaker lightsource comming from the front to prevent too much detail getting lost in the overshadowed regions, which would include e.g. his face in your case.
And have a look at the placement of his right eye, I think it needs to be a bit closer to the nose.

[LordBob]

Kitty: thanks for the advice, will take good notice of it for the next step.

Paladin flats attached below. As you can see, he'll be mostly white and silver - this is meant to differentiate him from the knight and grand knight.

[Adri42]

The portrait looks great, but the paladin doesn't have a lance.

[zookeeper]

The portrait looks great, and the paladin does have a lance.

[Quietus]

The portrait looks great, but the paladin doesn't have a lance.

Hmm

[JW]

Lances did not have spear tips that (intentionally) broke off or bent, unlike many throwing weapons of the spear/javelin family, and were adapted for mounted combat. They were often equipped with a vamplate, a small circular plate to prevent the hand sliding up the shaft upon impact.

Granted, it says "often", but I haven't seen a single vamplate on any of the lances. On the one portrait you said it could be behind the horses head, which is possible, but on the horseman portrait if there is a vamplate it should be clearly visible. I honestly didn't know a lance without a vamplate was an option as it seems illogical, but I suppose it is a possibility.

Anyway, that is the last time I mention the subject. It's understandable if no changes to the portraits are made.

[Adri42]

Sorry for the wrong statement.

Doesn't the left ear of the horse look better in the not coloured version ?