[X] My Assistant

[knasser]

[Trigger]

Thank you Knasser, I am so very happy that my work goes towards the suffering of players somewhere in the UK :D Thank you for the praise, she was very fun to draw the second time and I am glad that she came out to your liking.

[Kyoto Kid]

[knasser]

[Butterblume]

[Kyoto Kid]

[Fortune]

Well alright ... I wouldn't mind tossing an elf into the ring ... at least this one is male. :D

Alistair O’Shea is short for an Elf, standing barely over 6 feet in height, although he does have the typical lean, wiry elven frame. He keeps his black hair cut in a short and trendy style, and his piercing lavender eyes are sometimes mistaken for cyber at first glance.

A tattoo of a stylized dragon formed into the shape of a letter 'Q' adorns his right shoulder, an identical copy of the engraved jade ring that adorns his right hand. A single small amethyst earring pierces the lobe of his left ear.

Alistair strives to appear well-groomed at all times, and his clothing usually takes the form of one of the latest street-chic club trends. His eye for fashion and ability to magically alter his clothing almost at will means that Alistair always seems to be dressed appropriately for any given situation.

Obviously, Alistair is a mage. He doesn't usually carry any weapons, apart from a stun baton on a hidden arm slide (and even that only rarely).

Umm ... he's 31, and very much enjoys the good things in life that money can buy. He despises what he considers menial tasks like cooking, cleaning, and the like, preferring to either use his magic to accomplish what needs to be done, or to leave it entirely in the hands of someone more experienced, and indeed more suited to that level of work.

Deep down, Alistair is a racist, elitist snob living a the high life as a permanent student with a large (and ill-gotten) trust fund. I love this guy. :D

I have absolutely no artistic talent, and as such have no clue what, if any, additional detail you might require. :oops:

[Kyoto Kid]

[ElFenrir]

[Trigger]

Thanks for the comments guys. I can't wait to get started on some of the other requests you guys have lined up for, especially Fortune's....he sounds like an elitist snob...and I love drawing elitist snobs, oh the hard lines. :D

[Trigger]

Alright Fortune, your elf drew my attention, so I had to draw it right away. So I present to you, Alistair O'Shea

[Fortune]

Too cool! I love him. Thanks muchly. :)

[Draug]

Hey! What happened to Moomin!? I feel ignored!!one!1!

EDIT: Anyway, comments/critiques:

- Ice 2 is excellent. Could maybe do with a little more shadow on the face, but nah, that just depends on the light, I guess. She's hot, and well-drawn.
- Johan is awesome. I really like this guy's look, and you've added a lot of nice details that make him unique. I also like his facial expression.
- Vil's eyes strike me as a bit big and doll-like. I guess I should have made that comment on Bass too. Aside from that, it's great.
- Night Angel's got the right look in the eyes, but her chin and neck lines make her seems...pudgy. Make her chin straighter, and move the front of her neck a little back, and curve the rear of her neck the other way, I think. It also needs some shadows.
- Alistair is nice, but his looks strike me as a little too young and goofy for an arrogant 30-something elf. His chin seems to be pulled down toward his throat, sort of as if surprised.

[knasser]

Actually I strongly disagree with Jarl on one point - NightAngel's "pudginess". She looks like a real woman (albeit elven) and I think it looks good. I think the contrast with Ice, another elven woman, shows that you can manage a variety of different facial types. Whilst Ice has the slim, elegant look, NightAngel's rounder face makes her a lot more sexual (to me), which is what KK asked for. I think slimming her face down would impact on that.

My personal opinions, but wanted to share my counterpoint.

[Squinky]

I personally am enjoying this thread muchly. I appreciate your style a lot and see some things in it that I am jealous of. You seem to be more portrait oriented and have a lot more ability to show facial expressions/variety than I can. I think a lot of that comes from my background as an avid comic book collector.

Anyways, good stuff man, and try not to get discouraged when the requests pile up high on ya.

[Trigger]

Jarl- Moomin is on his way, I was just inspired to do Alistair first. Don't worry though, you will get your fat hacker from finland.

Also, on Alistair, Fortune said he was 31, which for elf means he looks like he is in his late teens, early twenties at the most. Elves bodies mature a lot slower than humans. If he had said it was troll at 31, then there would be age lines and wrinkles and signs of aging as equivalent to a 60 year old human....just me explaining the younger features of Alistair.

[Draug]

A right. I forgot that because I hate the age differences between metas doesn't mean that they aren't there...

Also, ok on Night Angel. I still think there is something a bit wonky with her throat though...

[Ophis]

Trigger - Elves don't mature that slowly! they hit full maturity at about 20 (twoish years behind humans). At 26 they stop ageing physically so look like they're in their early twenties for god knows how long.

[Draug]

Okay, but that still justifies him looking 20-something, so I'm cool with it.

Not that it was my character request anyway...

[ElFenrir]

Yeah, all these drawings are turning out to be lookers. :)


The only race i know for sure that ages alot quicker are orks....orks hit maturity at 15 i believe. Trolls have livespans of almost 60...so they do ok....a 30 year old troll wouldnt look that much older. And ever notice that in most drawings in the SR books, most dwarves tend to look older, even though they have lifespans of....pretty long, couple hundred years i believe? You dont see too many pics of young dwarves or older elves(there have been descriptions of elves that look like a middle aged human) in book material.

Of course, im 29 and still get carded to go to bars...in Finland where the drinkng age is 18. So age can do funny things sometimes. :grinbig:

[Butterblume]

Thanks to Trigger and this thread he started, I just sketched my first portrait in years ;).

Using a HB 0,7 mm mechanical pen and squared paper, it turned out surprisingly well, even if I say so myself (far from perfect, of course).

I guess I'll buy a proper B pencil tomorrow and steal some of the printer paper :D.

If Trigger doesn't object, I'll post some of my better tries here (when I figure out where to scan them).

[Trigger]

Butterblume- Yeah, no problem. That is just fine with me.

And Jarl- Sorry about the wait for Moomin, but work has been crazy. I will finish him either tonight or tomorrow.

[Butterblume]

So, this is my first try. I actually photographed my sketch with an old, defect digital camera I remembered having 8).

First Try

[Kyoto Kid]

...hopefully this is not a double post.

just had the tab close on me while replying (& having written quite a bit) I hope I can remember it all. For some reason the history menu opened the original window as it was before I started entering the reply.

...Using a digital camera is a neat trick though there is of course loss of image quality (similar to recording your stereo through a microphone rather than using the "line in" input)

There are several works that can be of big help (check your local library or used bookstore). By far the best of these are the Byrne Hogarth Dynamic series. There are four books, Dynamic Anatomy, Dynamic Figure Drawing, Drawing the Human Head, and Drawing Dynamic Hands (this last one is indispensable as the hands can be the most expressive yet the most difficult part of the body to draw). Another book, though somewhat stylised and self promoting, is Stan Lee's and Jack Kirby's How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way. It actually has a lot of useful tips and shortcuts which help make a figure appear that it can actually move (all too often I see very "stilted" poses). It also builds on (and references) the Hogarth material.

Now to the Critique:

When I do a portrait I usually begin with outlining the shape of the head as a three dimensional object and sketching the "key lines", one down the centre of the face, one for the eye level, and one for the mouth level (this is from the Hogarth method). This keeps the facial features from developing unnatural angles in relation to each other. The basic curve for the ears should begin at the back of the jawbone and go up to the eye line.

In your work it appears that the eyes are somewhat three quarter view while the nose and mouth are almost frontal view. The mouth should have more shape instead of be a straight line (again the books I recommended deal with this) for she looks pretty "dour". The basic proportions of the character's head (face to cranium relation) are pretty good.

Drawing in a totally photographic manner is not always a good thing especially when you want to inject personality. The eyes are almost "too natural" looking and therefore expressionless (think of the old cliche, "the eyes are the mirror of the soul"). Take a little artistic liberty, a bit of exaggeration (such as making the eyes a bit more almond shaped and giving them a focal point) can go a long way.

For noses, I usually "suggest" (a term my drawing professor in college used) the bottom and the upper part of the bridge. This keeps it from becoming too prominent.

I also include the subject's shoulders in most portraits I do to give more of a basis for the head and the face (go on line and look at head shots of media stars, almost all include the shoulders if not the full bust).

Hope this helps.

[Ophis]

Way better than anything I could manage with out tracing (and better than most of those).

Only thing I would say is that you have the eyes to far up the face. Eyes sit halfway up the head. I'm sure if you look on the web you'll find more detailed guides to proportion, which may help your work. Though I've seen this mistake with several other would be artists.