16 replies to this topic

[Raiha]

In the hopes that there will someday be more for me to post, this will be my corner for art-things, I suppose.

Original on right, edited portrait on left.

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Found the original piece on a website someone had made around their pen-and-paper campaign, but it is actually the property of James Adams whose website is here. But anyway...not releasing the three-size version of this because I *may* use her for a mod, but I'm not sure.

I haven't played this particular character much yet, but she is going to be a Fey'ri Lawful/Neutral Evil Fighter named Eris.

Any constructive criticism would be nice because I'm not completely happy with this just yet.

Edited by Raiha, 06 February 2011 - 12:39 PM.

[Raiha]

These four are all from the work of Jonathon E. Bowser. There are a lot of BG portraits made from his work out there, but the problem is that they are painted on canvas and people tend to just cut them to size and leave them...I wasn't happy with the ones I saw so I made some of my own. All I've done is altered the colours to better suit BG2, and done some painting over the pictures to smooth them out and get rid of the random textures and artifacts. The zip files are underneath each picture if anyone wants them. Personally the first one's my favourite.


Download


Download


Download


Download

[Mike1072]

Not sure who is responsible for the original piece - I found it on a D&D fansite because someone was using it for their character, but I doubt that person actually made the piece. I can't read the signature on the bottom, which is a shame. But anyway...not releasing the three-size version of this because I *may* use her for a mod, but I'm not sure.

This portrait was to be used in the Tiefling Sisters project at G3, now inactive. The original images came from http://www.sporeboy.com/.

[Raiha]

This portrait was to be used in the Tiefling Sisters project at G3, now inactive. The original images came from http://www.sporeboy.com/.

Thanks! I'll edit the first post giving credit.

[Raiha]

Despite the overwhelming amount of constructive criticism and comments on the last two posts, I guess I'll post another...this is my first attempt at actually painting a portrait from scratch. Well, I sketched it first and scanned it in, but mostly from scratch. This is an OC of mine that I might make into a mod someday...I think he'd be fairly amusing as a Bhaalspawn's sidekick.



It's not done, there's lots of things about it I'd like to fix, so please; if anyone has any help for me, that'd be great.

[Choo Choo]

Hee - it's nice! I like the background. I like the angles in his face, too; some people seem to think that if you just smack on a pair of pointy ears, it automatically makes a person or character look like an elf.

As for constructive criticism, I'm limited to stick figures and can't really give any other comment than this. I like it.

Edited by Choo Choo, 30 August 2009 - 10:47 AM.

[Cykuta]

Actually i find him looking rather gremlin-ish, but i'm completely Tolkien when it comes to elves And i think it could also pass for a small-breasted female (do they even exist any more in games?).
I like the eyes far apart, but they are somewhat reminiscent of Aerie and thus of the avariel in general. Not that it's a bad thing, and only my impression anyway, but maybe you'd like to know. The overall composition is very good and in line with all other BG portraits - those that show a figure differently, a whole person or their back or something bug me in game. (especially luis-royo-ish ShiningButts ™, come on, people, a portrait is supposed to show the face )
And the way he's looking up gives the impression of a short person, but ad&d elves are supposed to be smaller than humans, so again, it's all right.

Edited by Cykuta, 31 August 2009 - 02:24 AM.

[Shae]

Oho, he looks fairly interesting.

Constructive criticism:
-I think his chin needs to be longer. By this I don't mean the gap between mouth and chin, but how far the chin goes down his neck (if that makes sense). Looking at it, I think you could achieve chin-lengthening by moving his chin and mouth down so that you have a larger gap between mouth and nose as there doesn't seem to be much distance at all there.
-I think perhaps the eye on our left could move in towards the centre a little bit.
-The bridge of his nose bugs me, so straight. I feel as if it should tilt or taper a bit rather than going straight up and down. Also on that note his nose may be a little long for his face (this might be because of the bridge being so straight though.
-And over all... I think you need to strengthen the contrast/darken the shadows a bit.
-A side note: Ears are usually in line with the nose at the base, and the eye at the top. Up to you if you want to alter the position of his ears or not.
-Minor notes: I can't really see any upper eyelid, unless this was intentional. His lips may be a little too thin.

... Actually I can show you better than I can tell you, so here:



On the left is your portrait (obviously), I just quickly (and sloppily) outlined his features. On the right I applied the above changes that I mentioned, also added in areas where you could have stronger, more clearly defined shadows.

Hope this helps at least a bit

[Raiha]

Shae -- wow. That's a lot: but I've been working on it for the past two hours or so using your sketch as a guide and I think it's helped a lot. I was pretty tempted to scrap the whole thing and just use your sketch, but that would make me some kind of plagiarizing, lying, cheating drongo, so i just used it as a ref pic.

Still not done, but it's late and I've got class in the morning...I thought seeing as you put in all the effort to help me that I should at the very least show what you're helping me to do. =]



EDIT:

worked on it more tonight, nearly done now I think, looking for last comments/critiques?

Edited by Raiha, 03 September 2009 - 05:38 PM.

[Lurker of the north]

Just gotta love these fora, man... gotta love'em.
All this artistic 'evolution', t'is great.

(edit; spelling+addon)

Edited by Lurker of the north, 03 September 2009 - 01:49 AM.

[Raiha]

I'm doing a run-through of BG2 with myself as CHARNAME...even ran myself through a giantly long quiz that told you what you would be if you were in a PnP campaign, turns out I'm a Lv 1. True Neutral Elven Bard/Wizard. That sounded about right, but unfortunately BG isn't letting me dual-class my Bard, so just a straight-up Bard it is. Anyway, I had to find a picture that looked like me because I /certainly/ didn't want to start painting another portrait from scratch...found this one, but it needed work.

edited on left, original on right.

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obviously there was extensive work to be done...colours fixed, a haircut and some serious skin-lightening to name a few, plus a deletion of that huge sword handle in the background. There's a picture of me in the Cameras, Please! thread if anyone would like to compare whether it looks like me or not, but it's close enough for me.

Obviously I won't be posting the zip of the three sizes because, honestly -- who needs portraits of me in their game besides me?

Edited by Raiha, 04 September 2009 - 10:11 AM.

[Shae]

Sorry it's taken me so long to reply (I went and got sick )

Anyway, it may seem like a lot, but it really isn't when you compare it to how much you got right Such as his lovely hair, skin, jacket, eyes etc.

He's looking great, the only thing I can see now is to perhaps add a little darker shadow where his eyebrow goes under the hair. I hope that you do end up making a mod of him one day~

[Raiha]

Good to hear you're feeling better though. <3

and thank you. It always seems like there are things I am so, so happy with in a piece, but they're generally right beside things I can't get right.

This is probably the last copy of him because I'm not going to be able to improve it much more beyond this without starting over, haha. Added the shadow like you suggested, fixed a few things, smoothed out the background a bit and added a little bit of atmospheric lighting.



I've started doing some very basic outlines for an NPC mod of him, we'll see how that goes.

[Cykuta]

Oo, nice! Lost the gremlin-look and got definetely male, too. I like it very much. What class are you planning for him? Looks like a bard to me

[Raiha]

click to go to fullsize version.

My elven sorceress Corinne Silversong and Xan, shortly after learning 'the big news' in BGI. She's not usually so melancholy... I'd have to guess that he's a bad influence.



A WIP of one my my favourite NPC's... really, really wish I knew enough about modding/had a better grasp of his character so that I could write a mod bringing him back in BGII or adding a romance in BGI.

[Ipsissimus]

Nice! I love the second one with Monty and Xzar You did a great job capturing his insanity, and I love the dancing skeletons. So very Xzar... Only thing I'd say is that in the Corinne/Xan pic, their faces are a tad too wide. I think. Love your coloring on...most of these, actually.

[Silinde Ar-Feiniel]

OMG! Dancing skeletons? I like! lol Trully, I like very much the WIP, It is very detailed and it really captures Xzar's personality, as Ipsissimus stated. Btw, see many interesting thingys on the lab! lol Also love Silversong surname (it sounds awesome! ) and the tattoo on her face!

Edited by Silinde Ar-Feiniel, 01 May 2010 - 02:59 PM.