Orc Portrait Series

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LordBob
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Re: Orc Portrait Series

Post by LordBob »

Blarumyrran : consider how the Lord of the Rings orcs craft their swords. Provided that they aren't all masterpieces, I believe furbishing an entire population with poorly-crafted, crude swords is easy enough. The way I see it, it's more a cultural thing than simply a matter of "affording". In orcish culture, everyone has to be armed no matter how badly, whereas the wesnothian human culture trades the art & gears of war as a mark of those priviledged.
Still, I can't say I wouldn't have liked an orc with some huge mix of a cleaver and axe 8)

Anyway, more debate when I have ime on my hands. For now, here comes the final 4th grunt lineart and the raw scan for his new kinsman.
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orc_grunt_4.png
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orc_grunt_5.png
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thespaceinvader
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Re: Orc Portrait Series

Post by thespaceinvader »

Ooh, mohawk. Nice.

Nobody says the orcs' swords are good quality, but them being able to get hold of decent weaponry fits with their warrior culture. The rest of their gear is of poor but functional quality, and they don't really have a lot to spend their money on (if they use money at all, rather than stealing the things, or scratchbuilding them) other than wargear.

The human thing against swords is partly cultural, at a guess. They're ingrained as weapons for nobility, therefore they're usually good quality, therefore they're expensive. If they were ingrained as a weapon for the common man, they'd come in a wide range of qualities and be relatively cheaper. You use, if anything, more metal in making a big war axe.

Though a lochaber style axe would be a very nice, and very orcish, weapon, possibly for an alternate.
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StDrake
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Re: Orc Portrait Series

Post by StDrake »

Agreed up there, kudos on the mohawk, makes him look less of an ape and more barbaric and aggressive
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Re: Orc Portrait Series

Post by Jetrel »

Blarumyrran wrote:This is getting way offtopic considering the final answer will have to be the distinctive kind of huge fantasy sword he has on the sprite anyway; but i have never understood why are wesnoths orcish grunts so advanced. On sprites they look far better armed than eg the civilized spearmen. They are fully covered in ostensibly heavy armor
Nominally, the orcish grunt has a leather cuirass in the sprite, not a full metal breastplate and pauldron. I could see someone mistaking it for a bronzeish version of the latter, but it's not. This has absolutely no bearing on the portraits - I'm fine with whatever lordbob puts in them, as long as it looks decently abused.
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LordBob
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Re: Orc Portrait Series

Post by LordBob »

Jet : the armour material I've planned for the portraits is mostly leather, with the exception of bronze pauldrons and helmet. The thing I'm pondering now is, how to visually upgrade the warrior into a clear warlord without having gold inlay, richer cloth and the like ? Do you think it would be acceptable for the warlord to have full bronze (or whatever metal orcs craft) scale armour ? Other than that, I'm contemplating tribal markings such as maybe body paint, crude amulets, bits of coloured string...

Anyway, more grunt line madness !
- Final lineart & flats for grunt #4
- Cleaned lineart for grunt #5, the "mohawk grunt"
- New lineart for grunt #6

I have two more grunt line portraits planned before I get to the other unit lines. I haven't decided yet which ones will be the default portraits for each level : we'll have plenty of time to discuss that later.
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orc_grunt_4.png
orc_grunt_4.png (146.78 KiB) Viewed 6850 times
orc_grunt_5.png
orc_grunt_5.png (85.15 KiB) Viewed 6850 times
orc_grunt_6.png
orc_grunt_6.png (73.98 KiB) Viewed 6850 times
Last edited by LordBob on September 6th, 2009, 8:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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StDrake
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Re: Orc Portrait Series

Post by StDrake »

wee another monkey..sorry they really look ape'ish to me, i assume that's actually intended
can has flaws on the blades back? kthxbai
the chipped blades of their weapons did look more orcish to my taste, but i don't see it anymore on the newest sketch
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Vendanna
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Re: Orc Portrait Series

Post by Vendanna »

First impression when looking at grunt 6 was:

Sepukku! (aka ritual suicide)

Probably for the angle of the sword.

I know, the idea is that the unit is "removing" the sword from the "scabberd?" while talking, tought that motion isn't "neutral" enough, it looks more like an "alternate" for a hero unit for "specific" dialog rather than a generic portrait.

Apart of that, I like the design and the face.
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Re: Orc Portrait Series

Post by thespaceinvader »

Grunt 6: the aggressive draw is a good concept, but the sword is at entirely the wrong angle. The blade should point in more or less the same direction as the point of the first knuckle on his fingers. Simply tilting the sword so it's held at the right angle should avert the awkwardness here, and the seppuku image can be avoided by having the sword slightly inside the scabbard, and the scabbard obviously held up - when drawing the sword in that manner, holding the scabbard is useful =)

Looking forward to seeing progress on these. Orc portraits will be awesome =D
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lostnumber
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Re: Orc Portrait Series

Post by lostnumber »

As others have mentioned, the 6th one looks like he is about to impale himself.

I also did prefer the chips on the swords as I thought it fit well with the theme and feel of the orcs you are making.

These look excellent overall. Is there a reason you are doing three separate portraits for the grunt though?
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Re: Orc Portrait Series

Post by A-Red »

If I'm interpreting the line of the belly correctly, he has a huge beer gut. Maybe that's what you're going for though--it's not inconceivable. Otherwise, looks great--I like the hair.
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Re: Orc Portrait Series

Post by LordBob »

The dents aren't gone for good : I forgot to put them back after I vectorized the blades for cleaner lines.
#6 will get his sword partly sheathed and yes, he has a beer belly for a change. With all this struggle for life going on, it's not unlikely that some orcs at least feed themselves more than others... :mrgreen:

Lostnumber : the Grunt is probably the unit line with the most screen time in the entire Wesnoth game. As a result, there currently are five grunt portraits ; I feel it does the game justice to provide at least as many portraits as there already exist, plus I really enjoy drawing them ! 8)
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Jetrel
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Re: Orc Portrait Series

Post by Jetrel »

LordBob wrote:Jet : the armour material I've planned for the portraits is mostly leather, with the exception of bronze pauldrons and helmet. The thing I'm pondering now is, how to visually upgrade the warrior into a clear warlord without having gold inlay, richer cloth and the like ? Do you think it would be acceptable for the warlord to have full bronze (or whatever metal orcs craft) scale armour ? Other than that, I'm contemplating tribal markings such as maybe body paint, crude amulets, bits of coloured string...
All of that would be good. Higher level orcs can get more metal armor. Orc armor would be a mix of either easily worked metals that the orcs would actually have time/patience to trifle with, or plundered iron armor from humans.

The latter could actually be a good idea - high-end orc breastplates would actually be human (or elven) breastplates, except modified and redecorated by the orcs.
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Re: Orc Portrait Series

Post by LordBob »

Jetrel wrote:The latter could actually be a good idea - high-end orc breastplates would actually be human (or elven) breastplates, except modified and redecorated by the orcs.
Aye, gives me a ton of inspiration :mrgreen: Back to the sketchbook, more fun coming !
In the meantime, I finally decided I needed a short break from the Grunts and cleaned the Slayer lineart. Gave him a new scary mask that should fit orcish culture a lot more than the venitian piece he previously wore.
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Re: Orc Portrait Series

Post by thespaceinvader »

Liking the mask, but i feel like the jaw should slope forward a little more, and the neck seems rather long. The Slayer is looking great =D
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Re: Orc Portrait Series

Post by LordBob »

I'll come back to the slayer later : the revised assassin is on the line for now.

Edit : with flats
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