kitty's elvish portraits

[kitty]

EDIT: Instead of the original first post you can see the finished portraits for the elves here. Feel free to comment at the end of the thread!

Still missing:


(* sylph)

[turin]

The style is different from the one preferred for mainline, but it's quite well done. I predict that fairly soon a UMC author will come into this thread and ask for portraits.

My only quibble would be that the way the light reflects off the metal of the sword doesn't look right - perhaps you can find some reference pics on google for that. That's really a minor concern, though.

[thespaceinvader]

There's real potential there. I like the choice of leather armour, it fits the elves better than steel.

The face strikes me as kind of oriental, though. I like my elves with tall, narrow features, high cheekbones. A narrower nose/face, and higher cheekbones would be good IMHO.

That aside, technically this is good quality. You've got an eye for the shapes of things, particularly the armour and sword. His collar's a little shapeless, though. And i'd prefer a sabre-type sword rather than a straight blade, myself.

You need to be a bit careful about your colouring, though, there's a few places where you've gone over the lines. And the metal colouring needs work - the blade looks totally flat at the moment, when it should be broader at the back of the blade, and thin to an edge at the front. It also strikes me that the handle's at slightly the wrong angle compared to the blade.

But this is great work. With a few refinements, i think that it could be mainline quality, although obviously my opinion has little bearing there. As for UMC, I don't really know what campaigns need artwork, but your best bet is probably just to keep an eye on the forum section, and see which threads are active. Most if not all of them will be on the lookout for artists. Shadow Master's Invasion from the Unknown strikes me as one which would probably be a good bet, as does JW's Era of Myths, particularly if you can turn your hand to spriting.

[Boucman]

kitty, this is a great portrait and actually quite close to the wesnoth style, even if it's not exactly the same style...

so let me warn you.


You will get a lot of critics about your art.


On our forums, that's actually agood sign, it means that people consider your portraits good enough to be improved into mainline quality.


remember : the number of critics is proportional to the quality of your art...

[Clonkinator]

Imo that portrait looks really nice!
I'm pretty sure some UMC-creator will have good use for it.

[mameluke]

Somehow I like that the face is not that typical elvish.
It gives him some character.
Good use for some guy that is different from the mainstream-units.

[Federalist marshal]

It looks quite nice! Really the biggest problem here is the Asian look his face has. As much as I hate to admit it, but I don't think Wesnothian humans are as racially diverse as in real life, much less elves.

[Blueblaze]

Correct, all of Wesnoth's humans and elves are pure anglos. No other races allowed.

[Sgt. Groovy]

I actually don't mind the vaguely Asian look, I think it creates an interesting contrast with the blond hair.

What bugs me more is the juvenile look, created by the roundishness of the features and relatively large size of the head.

Also, to fit with the mailine style, the linework should not be black, but darker shade of the surrounding colour.

As for the shading of the blade, the upper part should be reflecting the colour of the face, and the darkest part should probably be lower, presuming he's in an light environment where light is coming from the upper half (sky) and the lower half (ground) is dark. Remember that the light metal is reflecting is coming from it's surroundings, and the polished sword blade is pretty close to a flat mirror.

[kitty]

thank you for all the replies! so much input is great!

@turin: thanks! i changed the sword's reflection. could you explain what exactly makes it not mainline like?

@thespaceinvader: thank you for the indepth critique! is this face more to your liking?

@federalist marshall / blueblaze: i didn't know about wesnoth' racial politics... i just thought it would be a possibility to differentiate them from the humans.

@ sgt groovy: i tried to make him less young (but not to old because elves should be ageless) and changed the linecolour

I changed a lot about the face and tried to keep it close to kalenz' portrait in httt. what do you think? is it better now? (the shirt is obviously unfinished)


and one general question - all this talk about lute's style. was he part of this project once? or do you just immitate him?

[thespaceinvader]

It is indeed. i prefer the lighter colour palette, too. But it strikes me that the mouth is just slightly wonky - it needs, i think, to come down slightly on our right. And the sword hilt still doesn't seem to line up with the blade - the crossguard should be parallel with the line of the blade from the back to the edge IYSWIM, and yours seems slightly twisted in relation to it.

I prefer the bigger ear, too.

New issues: the linework around the green bits ought to be dark green, not brown if you want to match the standard for generic portraits. The irises of the eyes lack any discernible colour, and don't have pupils.

But yeah, it's a distinct improvement IMHO - i like that facial shape. And i know it's not changed at all, but i'm a real fan of that shoulder armour =)

EDIT: and Lutes was part of the project once. He's the artist of the vast majority of the Human generic portraits.

[kitty]

thank you for the quick reply spaceinvader!

changed the shirt's linecolour and the mouth (a bit). i'm not so sure about your sword hilt point - see redline.

the eyes have no pupils an purpose that's what kalenz looks like. with elves i generally fear that they just look like fair haired humans with deformed ears. i think they need something special like (for example) the eyes.

[mameluke]

The leather-armor looks kind of separate from the green dress. But I don't know what to do against it.


Off Topic:

Correct, all of Wesnoth's humans and elves are pure anglos. No other races allowed.

I don't want to start another discussion. But I think you can't speak of races when you talk about "anglos" (caucasian) versus "mongoloid" (asian) or "negroid". I think it's no problem when you talk about races when you aim for Elves, Orks, Trolls, Goblins, Bats, etc
(I don't have a problem if the wesnothians have only white skin, I think thats just an art and story issue)
I don't want to blame you. It just noticed it because I had a discussion about the same issue this morning. Hope you agree and there is no problem with that.

[kitty]

hello marmeluke.

english isn't my native language - thus my use of the word "race" may have been inappropriate. sorry. but the first one who brought "race" in the discussion was blueblaze not me.

the shirt will change - it isnt finished. perhaps the armour will fit better then.

[mameluke]

He, don't wanted to blame you nor blueblaze. Just thought it's worth a quote. As long I can't draw like you guys, I'd better shut up anyways
My english isn't native either, I think we are not alone with this