Well, I have already put one piece of art up, but I think I am going to do as Squinky and accept commsions from people that would like to see sketches do of their characters. I will first give you a example of one of my characters, a troll that goes by the name of Bass. I am of the school that doesn't focus on the meta part of metahumanity, instead giving a more human feel to my metas. The ones after Bass are already finished requests.

Bass
Ice- Knasser
Ice 2- Knasser
Johan- ElFenrir
Vil- ElFenrir
Night Angel- Kyoto Kid
Alistair- Fortune
Moomin- Jarl
Urban Bug Soldier- Jarl
Stian- ElFenrir
Wiggy- Knasser
Leela 2- Kyoto Kid

Hey, i really like that...i am one of those folks who does picture trolls and orks and the like more like this, rather than the fantasy-esque versions of them. It adds a grittier edge.

I have a couple of characters i wouldn't mind seeing your takes of, if i jot down descriptions of them. Theyve been drawn before but i am a one that likes seeing differing variants.

Both off the top of my head are human though, but i have one meta that i perhaps might want to see ill pick one and let you know. But again, nice work!

Nice. I'm a big fan of art from that approach.

Very nice. More! More!

Oh I like. I like very much. Has a really 3D feel to it and I've always liked the more human trolls and orcs. You say you take commissions? Does that mean I have to pay? If not, then I'm going to ask for one.

Ice: A lean and muscular elven hit-woman from Berlin. Caucasian. Late twenties, early thirties. Has synthetic muscles giving her a very defined gymnastic look. Long white-blonde hair and a perfect face. Defining features - the coldest , most heartless expression you can manage and dresses like a mercenary from a hot climate. Favours a rifle and has a penchant for gecko gloves. Very feminine features, but not a top-heavy pin-up fantasy type. A realistic professional. In my game, she is the player's nightmare, played intelligently and always shoots to kill.

If this is not what you're asking for, no problem. I just think with artwork like that and a hint of accepting requests, you're going to get flooded. Wanted to get in quickly.

Very nice, regardless. Cheers for sharing!

-K.

Yeah, ill put in my things here...tell you what, pick the one you like the most.



Johan: A Giant-metatype of troll, shaman whose mentor spirit is Odin. Young, about 25, with long, red-blonde hair, and a long, thick braided goatee(no mustache). His right eye is gone, taken out in a ritual, like Odin of the legend. Fairly handsome for a one eyed Giant(that sounds funny , in a 'metal' looking way, you could say? Fetishes around his neck(one of a small Gungnir), Odin's spear, which he uses a replica of in battle. Horns on his head are odd....they start behind his ears and curve forward, under his chin...if you can picture that. Runes and the like tattooed around his arms, and a few around his neck, also. As a giant metatype, he stands around a whopping 3 meters. Besides jacket, wears jeans, lace-up combat boots. but if it's just a head/shoulders shot, this won't matter too much.


Second:

Human Male, 'Vil'


Let's see, pretty tall, above average build, but not huge. Shoulder-length, thick brown hair(well, black and white pics of course, but habit.) Usually dresses in tanks, jeans, heavy boots, old, worn black military jacket. Looks handsome but a little on the disheviled side, like he sleeps about four hours a night. Small bit of scruff on his chin. Is always seen smoking a ciggarette and more often than not with coffee/alcohol. Weapons specialist that knows how to use almost anything that's been produced thats held in a hand, as well as fix/improve/repair it(or break it ;p) i guess somewhere on him a harness with a heavy pistol somewhere or his combat axe would work. About 30 years old. Prefers to work with small-medium firearms, combat axe, knife, unarmed. No visible chrome; his cybereyes are colored like his natural, gray.

..this is what I like to go for as well. Alas, most of my characters are human (yeah, I'm a cheapskate when it comes to BPs) so I've done very few character pics of other metatypes.

OK I'll bite

Three metas I have run (SR3) are:

Katyana Markova: Dwarf, ex New Soviet Space Command physician (Biotech: 10) and cosmonaut (Athletics - Zero G: 8 ). Slightly thinner and taller than most of her kind due to spending a good deal of her life in microgravity & low grav environments. Blonde Hared (short), Blue Eyed, personable (eg: good bedside manner Charisma of 4). Still longs to go back into space. Though she left the New Soviet because of ideological differences, she is very proud of her Russian heritage (her line goes back to the time of the Czars). Being ex-military, she is trained with assault rifles (has an Ares Alpha). She also uses a Super Squirt (Gamma S) & Dart Pistol (Narco), weapons that work well in space habitats. All of her implants (save for her induction Datajack and Smartlink Pad) are internal. She also has Aluminum Bone Lacing. Her major flaw is Agorophopbia (don't take her out to sea or the desert).

Night Angel: Elf Former member of the Seraphim ("Fallen Angel"). One hell of a looker (appears to be in her late teens - early 20s Charisma 7 natural). Groomed as an infiltration specialist and assassin, she became the group's Face/Covert Ops Specialist. Angel has a number of sensory implants. Has natural eyes with several retinal mods. Cyberears (cosmetic enhancement) with a full suite of enhancements. No other obvious implants (the rest is internal body ware and Bioware) One of her bio implants is Chemical Gland (arsenic) which she playfully refers to as her "Kiss of Death". Silvery White Hair cut in a short sassy style, Steely Grey Eyes (when not in disguise). 5' 7". Likes to wear very sexy clothing. Usually packs a Savalette Guardian and Ares Super Squirt (loaded with Gamma S). For those special missions, she uses a Walther 2100 sniper rifle. Her one major flaw is Incomplete Deprogramming - Sometimes she thinks she's the sniper, oh wait, no I'm the electronics wiz.

Gracie: Dwarf Mercenary. Gracie is a former member of MET2000, the AEG's premiere Mercenary company. She is a weapons specialist skilled in firearms and melee. She has long Auburn Hair which she usually wears in a thick braid, and captivating Brown Eyes (Charisma 4). Gracie is tough as nails in combat and has the 6pt ambidexterity edge. She is very strong (rating 12 augmented) and able to stand her ground going total lead hose with her Ares Alpha. She is also surprisingly agile (Rating 8 quickness - again augmented). On a mission she usually carries her Ares Alpha, twin Guardians (Named "Stadtler & Waldorf") and dual Dikoted Cougar Fineblades (Named Rosenkrantz & Guildenstern" - yes she has knowledge of Shakespeare), Gracie also has a soft spot for orphaned kids (she was one herself) and donates part of the money she earns from jobs to local orphanages. She even has a Mother Superior contact who is head of a local Seattle children's home. Having seen a lot of action when with MET2000, she has the Flashbacks flaw (trigger seeing dead children).

hehe, yeah, since i somehow developed the flaw incompetence: art awhile back(after college animation i think i have a mental block), its always cool to see drawings. Very cool to see you guys who can draw doing this for us!

Actually, I have a second request, but it's not a character this time. I've been trying to develop my art skills and one of the things I've only recently come to appreciate is how much effort artists put into their work. Typically I've sat down, started drawing, looked at it after five minutes and decided I'm useless. Now I've started to read more and I find people saying, "Oh, it took me four days to paint this" I'm having a bit of an "Ohhhh..." moment. I'd be really interested to know how long it takes you to do these sketches. Do you bash them out in five minutes. Do you fiddle around with them for an hour? Please tell!

Well, Knasser, her is your first request, Ice...I hope it is ok for you. And as for your second request, it usually takes me between 30 minutes to up to two hours to do a sketch, this one being about 30 minutes. Although, to say the truth, it only feels like five minutes.

Ice

Sometimes I wish I had practiced my drawing for the last ten years or so instead of playing computergames, for example.
If I had, I think I could dish out some good drawings. Well, I can probably start practicing now and in a dozen years, I will be fairly competent .

I'll praise (or criticize) Triggers drawing when I have seen more of them.

Well, i talked to the GM about the horns, and he said he was cool with it(im sure that there are normal Trolls born without them now and again.) I just thought they'd look pretty cool on him.

As for height...yeah, 3.5 or so meters might be closer...when i said 3 meters i think i might have been a bit confused at the moment. I was also at work. But thanks for noticing that.

And i look forward to seeing him!

Ok, I'm going to toss in one too.

Moomin
Moomin is bald, with the pale complexion that comes from being night-active, underground, and generally a bit too chubby. His extra weight clings mostly to his torso though, and his arms and legs sort of poke out of him. Because of this, he prefers lose, baggy clothes that conceal his physical condition. As a technician, he is a great fan of cargo pants, vests with lots of pockets, and things that will easily clip on to belts, buckles, wrists, and so on. Like many nerds before him, he is also fond of guns, and has a silent but childlike fascination for firearms, which he has displays by tricking out his AK-97.

Moomin is a hacker from Finland.

EDIT: Oh, and I'll toss in a critique as well. The arms of "Ice" seem to be a little short and undefined. Especially when compared to the muscle work you've proved you can do on "Bass".

Yeah, now that I look back on Ice, I don't like the drawing....so I am going to do another version of her, because dammit I know I can do better.

Also, I feel like drawing a sketch of all of my own current characters in the games I am in on here, so be expecting those soon too, along with a new Ice, and Johan. I will get to others after the new year.

Sounds cool.

Well, I haven't been able to sleep at all tonight, so I have a lot done, though you guys won't get to see any till later, because I have to use my house mates scanner to scan these. I redid Ice, did one of Johan, one of Vil, and one of Night Angel. Yep, I have been busy and just to let knasser know, each of them took me about an hour, give a half hour, take about fifteen...so anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour and a half.

Yeah, so I will get those up later today...probably after work, and then get started on the two dwarven women ( oh yeah ) and Moomin.

And tell your friends...I want to get this thread popular and hopefully get sticky-ed like Squinky's.

Well, here is the second version of Ice for you knasser.

Ice 2

ElFenrir, here is both Johan and Vil, I hope you like them, because I liked drawing them.

Johan

Vil

And finally for today, before I have to head off to work for awhile, is Night Angel for Kyoto Kid. She is one of my favorite drawings to date and I hope she is what you were thinking. I will get started on your dwarf women later tonight or tomorrow.

Night Angel

Thank you Knasser, I am so very happy that my work goes towards the suffering of players somewhere in the UK 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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

Too cool! I love him. Thanks muchly.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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...

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.

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

Not that it was my character request anyway...

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.

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 .

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

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.

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

First Try

...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.

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.