11 replies to this topic

[Agashi]

1. Are you looking for original art, photoshopped art or a portrait edit?
Original or photoshopped art is fine, as is a portrait edit, although I can't offer a starting point for that.

2. Male or female? What race, age and character class, possibly alignment?
She's a female elf of sylvan-looking descent. She appears to be somewhere in her 20s by human standards and is a Swashbuckler thief.

3. Describe the character's features (face, eyes, hair, clothing, etc.)
Her face is mature, slender, and about what you'd expect from an elf. High cheekbones, slightly slanted eyes, and a bow-shaped mouth. She has a thin scar going down her left cheek, and her hair is arranged into two tightly woven braids that meet at the back of her head and continue in a single thick braid down her back or over her shoulder if the hood is up.

4. What color preferences do you have (skin, eyes, hair, armor, clothing, etc.)
Her skin should be deeply tanned, and her hair dark brown/almost black. Her eyes are also dark and her clothing consists of your standard black leather and a somewhat faded, green, hooded tunic. The hood is not necessary, but would be a nice touch if possible.

5. Would you like a weapon, a spell effect or an item to be shown in the portrait? If so, what kind?
Nah. No need.

6. What kind of a background would you like?
Since her person is going to be pretty dark overall, a lighter colored background would probably be best. Maybe a light mauve? If the design could be made in the same style as Bioware's original backgrounds - kind of nondescript and swirly - that would be ideal.

7. What kind of an expression would you like the character to have? Dangerous, happy, serene, mysterious, playful, sad, etc etc.?
An intense expression, like here's someone determined to get the job done. Not grim, but more driven. Jaheira's BG1 portrait could be used as a base, since the expression I'm picturing is kind of like that.

8. Do you have a portrait you would like to be used as a model/reference picture (for pose, expression, looks, colors, etc...)? Post it here if you have!
The more I think about it, the more I could see Jaheira's BG1 portrait being used as a reference. The expression is just about right.

9. Should the artist post the portrait here, or PM or email it to you?
Email would be perfect, if possible. If not, PM is also fine. My address is warm_winters@yahoo.com and I check it every day.

10. Any deadlines?
None. Take as long as you need.

11. What game and what mod is this for?
It's going to be for the extremely obscure, and heretofore unknown, Khetis NPC mod by yours truly for BG2, TOB-only.

12. Anything else you'd like to mention?
Thanks in advance! Post or PM if you have any other questions.

Edited by Agashi, 17 February 2012 - 12:22 AM.

[Agashi]

Edited the first post to include more detail, and hopefully make it easier for a potential artist to get a picture of her.

Any takers? Please?

[MiLeah]

If I can make a suggestion, and this, hopefully, will go for anyone who chooses to make future request for portraits, but adding up pictures of what you have in mind for your character really does help. Being descriptive is great, but if I told you: "Hey! I want my character to have blue eyes!"
It's kinda like: "What the heck? You know how many shades of blue there is?!" Now you'd have to guess which shade of blue I want. Even if I said dark blue, you know how many shades of dark blue there is? What if I wanted the blue to be so dark, it looked black?

Unfortunately, this has happen to me several times in leaving me to guess and assume what the requester wanted, only to have them go "No, no, no. This is not at all how I pictured the person to be!! Here, change the nose to make it look more long and stubby, and the eyes should be more orange-ish/purple ." Which means another round of me guessing and assuming what needs to be changed. And in my opinion, this goes on waaaay to long.

If people wish to be picky and precise in what they want in their portraits, that's fine. I have no problem with that. My problem is when these people are picky and precise but give you no real direction in where to go.
A lot of people will get a vision in their head of what they want. Though, it keeps changing, they somehow want the artist to just 'get it' and know exactly what they're thinking based on the description and their ever changing image of the portrait. Put that way, yes, it's crazy and tiresome trying to help that person obtain what they're asking for.

Like, for example, you say "Her face is mature, slender". What's slender? Your slender may be different from my version of slender. So to keep down on the confusion, finding a picture of someone with the slenderness you have in mind would really help the artist out.

But this just doesn't go for the face shape, I'm talking about everything; From her hair color, to her hair style, to her the highness of her cheek bones, to how much you want her eyes tilted, to her skin tone. Everything.

Anyway, hope that helps!

[Agashi]

I'm really sorry to sound so vague, and I totally understand your frustrations, especially since I know you have lots of experience working with portraits. (Still love my Chris-Anomen, by the way )

The reason I haven't been too descriptive is actually because I don't have a clear, exact picture in my mind of what she looks like physically, and I'm open to different artist's interpretations. Her looks aren't an especially important aspect of her character, and as long as she looks like a member of her race - Sylvan Elf - I'm fine with whatever anyone can cook up. The extra tidbits I added to the description were an attempt on my part to allay precisely these concerns, but unfortunately I'm no artist, and I had no idea of all the guesswork that goes into making a portrait.

At this point, I just want a portrait so that when I go public with the NPC, people will be able to put a face to a name. The face itself is pretty fluid to me.

Your words have not fallen on deaf ears, however! After combing through google over the past few days searching through actresses and specific facial features, I came across this:



Now aside from the fact that her coloring is obviously not that of the character, her expression and facial features are in line with what I sort of see Khetis looking like. I don't know if anything can be done with this, since it's not the right format, but I'll keep looking and see if I can find anything better.

I appreciate the response, MiLeah.

[Elrin]

Yup,

With this kind of physical ?

Edited by Elrin, 17 February 2012 - 03:34 PM.

[MiLeah]

I hope you don't feel like I was fussing at you or anything, because reading over my post, I could see how one could come to that conclusion. If so, then I'm sorry.

I understand if most people don't even think about this kind of thing, or why pictures and detailed descriptions are so important. Heck, if I hadn't been through what I've went through, I still wouldn't have known either.
So the post was made to bring people into the light about portrait request, not to fuss.

Also, I want to clear something up: The reason I can be so sympathetic towards people who are precise about their portraits is because I place myself in their shoes in saying 'Well, if I wanted someone to draw out Jessica, I wouldn't want them to make her look like Megan Fox *Shudders*.'
Though, if I gave folk a basic description of Jessica, I could see how one would come to that conclusion (minus the pouty lips) of why she would look like that. Which would make me very mad and I'd end up asking them to redo the portrait.
There are specific things about my character I want to keep and don't want changed. I feel like this could be the same for someone else who wanted their character drawn out as well. And I want to respect those certain features they wish to keep. So, basically, it could be setup like this:

1. Specific Folk: For those folk who are very picky and specific in what they want should provide tons and gobs of pictures for reference for the artist to use.

2. General Folk: For those folk who just want a portrait done should just give out a basic guideline of what they want, but leave it all up to the artist to do as they please with the portrait. (This doesn't mean they can't ask for changes. But just not as much since they didn't give any reference of what they wanted)

Having said all of that, I totally understand that it is hard finding what you want. One place I like to use is IMDb and their user list. I like this because you get to see the people and scroll through them. If you click on the picture then the celeb might have a photo stock. And even if that photo stock isn't so great, you can then at least Google the person for a better picture selection.

[Ignore the name of the list...It's still pretty decent] http://www.imdb.com/list/cXlMsN6GQ30/

So, yea, take as much time as you need in your search. When you've found some good references, then hopefully by then I'll have some free time to take up your request.

[Agashi]

Brilliant edit! Her 'bow-shaped mouth' especially is spot-on! Really digging the coloring, and how well you conveyed maturity in her facial features.

The only thing I would suggest for a tweak is maybe her eyebrows are a bit too thin. Hate to nitpick considering the above posts, but the brows make her look just a tad severe.

Thank you so much. Do you have it in a larger size? Is there more to the bust? I'm so damn excited!

Edit: Oops, I think I just missed your second post, MiLeah. Don't worry about it, I've spoken with you in the past and I know you wouldn't try to fuss directly at me or make me feel bad. Like I said, I defintely get why its important to be specific with this kind of request, and I appreciate your directness.

I may take you up on your offer later on after I've looked through the lovely IMDB user list you provided, but since I know you have your own projects going on right now, I won't hold you to it. You're a doll, MiLeah.

Edited by Agashi, 17 February 2012 - 04:22 PM.

[Elrin]

If you don't like with horns:

Edited by Elrin, 18 February 2012 - 10:50 AM.

[Agashi]

I really liked what you did with the first edit; the eyebrows were the only thing I could critique. Sorry, I meant the 110 x 170 when I asked about the larger size.

The bottom one is just lovely, but it seems more suited to a ranger, and her coloring is a little off. It wouldn't matter, but since her appearance does get mentioned in dialogue, it might seem jarring for players to see that as her portrait.

[Elrin]

So you want the first edit or the last with black hair?
Because you asked for woman with black hair in your description.

Edited by Elrin, 18 February 2012 - 11:05 AM.

[Agashi]

This last one here is my favorite, she's got the best mix of features. Thank you so much for doing this!

[Elrin]

Pleased to see that you like it.
Good luck for the remaining work!