goblin portraits

[Turuk]

Is there a reason his eyes look so different from each other now?

[kitty]

Definite improvement!

I did a little paintover again to explain the little problems that still need to be adressed:
* The colours you use are very grey-ish (which is usually a good thing since that is more realistic than comic-gaudy colours) but here it seems too "washed out" to me. You don't need to increase the saturation on the whole little guy but only in the shadowed areas.
* The rim light on his right arm makes the arm appear flat - if you take the lightsource straight behind him into account it should be much more lit - or you simplify the light situation and abstain from lighting this side of the arm (like I did here since it was the quicker edit ), in both cases it will describe its form more accurate.
* The eye placement - like I tried to explain in my last post: eyes aren't placed on a straight line, they are placed on/in a spherical object. They don't follow a straight line but a curved one. I can't explain it any better, perhaps chaeck out Loomi's head construction if you aren't familiar with it already.
* The linework seems pretty pixelated, try too smoothen it and don't forget to colourize it.
* And I tried to push his grumpy expression a bit, moved his mouth up a tad and fixed his neck anatomy.


And since I'd like to see the impler in game - will you fix his hand?

[bera]

I was busy (playing a game) so.. ok, I'm back now

hmm, kitty, thanks a lot, I'll take those points into consideration, and actually I was bothered by pixelation&colors mixing too. Well, let's see how I'll deal with that...

But I felt like doing another sketch, back for the impaler. Reasons are, for the previous one his dressing (head gear and so on) was way too out of my imagination - for the current take I found some references (mongolian leather armor -ish). Also, I wanted to lift the relaxed posture of the previous one into something more ready to impale (uh uh).. anyways, but I'll fix the impaler's right hand + and retouch the rouser, before working on this one any further. Until then I'm open to comments of course.. lala la.

[A-Red]

It's possible that I'm seeing an optical illusion from all the B&W lines, but I think the spear head is pointing in a different direction than the shaft. For that matter, the shaft itself has a different angle between his hands than where it juts out behind his elbow.

I really like the armor.

[Turuk]

Also, I wanted to lift the relaxed posture of the previous one into something more ready to impale

The only issue with the new portrait is that these portraits are to be used for dialogue, and there is little about his stance/posture that suggest he would be talking with anyone. I can't imagine him talking to anyone while pointing a spear at them and looking towards the tip of the spear.

[Girgistian]

Isn't he looking pretty much at the "camera"?

As for critique, this looks generally really good, at least for my relatively untrained eye, but the spearhead is in a different angle than the shaft itself - I suggest that you either make it clearer that it's actually bent, or just straighten the thing. I'd go for the first one, because a bent spear would add character.

[bera]

Hmm, yes, indeed it seems somewhat bent, shouldn't have lined it in 3 stages Girgistian, your idea is interesting, but have you ever seen a bent spear?
Turuk: Ahem, with all respect if anyone can talk to a shock trooper that little goblin would be piece of cake lol.

final versions of the rouser& impaler:

Well.. For the impaler, I decided to swap his fashionable hat with a helm, just in case.

For the rouser.. Once I finished this it occurred to me that his hands+arms might be bigger than what they ought to be, goblins concerned.. If others share this feeling I suppose I'll try to scale down a bit.

[kitty]

Impaler:
I liked the old head gear, but the new helmet is certainly fine, too.

But I'm not sure what you did to the hand. It is still bent the wrong way around. Two pages ago I attatched a black and white reference photo. Look at it. Notice the direction the fingers wrap around the arm. Draw them like that.

[Turuk]

Turuk: Ahem, with all respect if anyone can talk to a shock trooper that little goblin would be piece of cake lol.

Ahem, with all respect, you completely ignored my point. The shock trooper is wearing a helmet, and only holding his weapon in his hands.

Your goblin is pointing his weapon towards the speaker in a combative posture.

[bera]

Turuk: my bad, I thought his war ready stance was bothering you - and I had a vivid imagination of shock trooper swinging his mace Anyways, I'll just say that there're a good deal of portraits which are depicted in some sort of action, some not very attentive for any casual chat, and that's why I just did him holding his pointy spear towards the camera.

Kitty: hmm.. I'll curve the fingers a bit more around the arm, allright.

Meantime I did work on the previous impaler I had. I think I need to rework on the tummy plate, but apart from that I'm open to C&C.

[Valkier]

I like how they're coming along. The attention really helping give it a nice kind of Mongolian warrior feel. Rather rare I must say.

My only complaint at the moment is don't be afraid to push the darks and lights a little bit! It's all feeling just a little flat right now because the coloring is even throughout the form.

Looking forward to what you update with.

Cheers

[Jacques_Fol]

bera, as others I remain impressed with the emerging quality of your art and the advancement you've made in the past months. It's very hard to believe that, cute as they were, it was only good three months ago that you posted the sketches in the original post of this thread. Excellent job.

Out of altruistically egotistical reasons, may I ask if you were planning to eventually revisit the rouser portrait from this post back on page 5? As stated before, it would work brilliantly for a certain goblin trader appearing in my campaign and, if you got the colouring done to the stage on the portraits on this page (especially the last impaler is already very much to my liking), it would go in without reservations. If not, I will content myself with the preferred rouser portrait once its finished.

[thespaceinvader]

Might I suggest that you make the Impaler's gloves a distinctly different colour than his skin - my first thought upon seeing him was 'why has he got straps on his wrists that aren't attached to anything?!' - it took me a few moments to connect them to being gloves.

[Bad_Dog]

I don't often have anything to say, but I can't help but to feel that the impaler and rouser have an inconsistency in the facial structure. The impaler has a *very small* jawbone, while the rouser's seems more realistic. I'm judging this only by the distance of the mouth to the chin, but IMHO it gives them a non-homogenous feel.

-Ben

[kitty]

hmm.. I'll curve the fingers a bit more around the arm, allright.

No. Not curve them more - curve them in the opposite direction - the tips of the fingers should point to the left not to the right. Argh, I don't know how to explain it better - look at the photo or at yourself in the mirror.


The new impaler:
As much as I like the mongolian inspired design you have got there, you need to watch out not to picture the goblins as small grown mongols but rather as a completely different race on their own with some mongolian elements thrown in.
I know that I certainly start to bother you - but there is something strange obout his hand positions again. Have you tried to act out the pose in front of a mirror? Try it, if that doesn't help I'll provide a sketch.
And Valkier and Bad_Dog have valid points you should adress, too: More contrast and a rework of the facial structure.


And for something completely different: Are you interested in doing portraits for the goblin, rouser and impaler only? I will start working on the goblin wolf rider line next week - if you are interested you could provide sketches for those. That could be nice to keep them consistent but if you don't want to or don't have the time I'll do my best to come up with something matching myself