AuthorTopic: GR#186 - Betrayer - Sprite Process  (Read 20964 times)

Offline Fizzick

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Re: Betrayer (sci fi portrait)

Reply #10 on: March 26, 2014, 07:22:03 pm
At first I was enjoying the progress. Now I'm eagerly awaiting it! Everything looks pretty dead-on but the hands. I would get some specific references for those, but the direction you're headed in now is great.

Offline big brother

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Re: Betrayer (sci fi portrait)

Reply #11 on: March 26, 2014, 10:17:50 pm
Don't forget to raise the hip on the right side of the image to achieve contrapposto.

Offline wolfenoctis

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Re: Betrayer (sci fi portrait)

Reply #12 on: March 27, 2014, 06:07:36 am
How about playing with the perspective a bit, a rough edit to illustrate:

Offline cels

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Re: Betrayer (sci fi portrait)

Reply #13 on: March 29, 2014, 11:20:24 pm
@wolfenoctis: That's a great edit and I appreciate you taking the time to do that. Unfortunately, it seems I wasn't clear enough in my response to Manupix, when he suggested a similar perspective. It's not what I'm going for with this piece, although I do realize my pose and perspective is probably a bit boring compared to yours. I like what you did though. Particularly making a very passive pose look intimidating by perspective.
Oh, and I stole your idea of holding the axe higher up on the hilt, because that's a sure sign of being a badass.

@Fizzick: Thanks, tried to work a bit on the worst of the two hands now.

@ bigbrother: Never even heard of contrapposto until now. Great advice, thank you! I'm not sure if I got it right here, I was worried I'd take it too far.

« Last Edit: March 30, 2014, 10:44:05 am by cels »

Offline Fizzick

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Re: Betrayer (sci fi portrait)

Reply #14 on: March 30, 2014, 01:55:44 pm
Why not put the chain axe in his right hand, and have him swinging or dangling the giant ball and chain in his left?

BTW you've coaxed me into drawing a plague knight. Hope that isn't macking your jive too much

Offline Fizzick

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Re: Betrayer (sci fi portrait)

Reply #15 on: March 30, 2014, 03:15:47 pm
\

ideas 4u

skull thing because the piece seriously lacks skulls, fucked with the hand a little bit, added more spikes, increased the size of the knee things and put a screaming skully thing on the left one. also put some hella crease marks where the chain might have been.

Offline cels

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Re: Betrayer (sci fi portrait)

Reply #16 on: March 31, 2014, 10:05:36 pm
Latest update:



First off, thanks for your interest and thanks for doing the edit! Now, to answer your comments:

Lacking skulls and spikes:
This is still at a very early stage, which is why the shoulderpad is so clean, for example. There's a lot of stuff I haven't added yet. I prefer to draw in layers, so I'll draw most of the armour and then draw over it with decoration, skulls, spikes, dents, bullet holes etc, in time.

Re: Why not put the axe in the other hand?
Well, one of the interesting features of Khârn is the fact that he's mysteriously ripped off the left shoulderpad and arm off his power armour and is carrying a huge fricking chain-axe (!) called Gorechild in the same hand. As far as I know, there's no official explanation why. Maybe he wanted to strip his armour of his Legion markings, as an expression to his loyalty to Khorne above all else. He is the betrayer, after all. Regardless, there's a nice contrast between the barbaric element of his naked arm and the futuristic weapon he's holding. It's quite iconic, I think.

You'll also note that I left his right hand empty, instead of having him hold his trademark Giger-esque master-crafted plasma pistol, because I wanted to copy the pose in the reference I posted above, showing a Chaos Space Marine with a power fist and a chain sword. I do think that the original artwork  by Mark Gibbons is better and more intimidating, because the Marine is looking right at the viewer, whereas I have Khârn looking slightly to the left. BUT... I feel like swapping the chain axe to the right hand makes the whole portrait a bit unbalanced, because he's looking to the right, the weapon is in his right hand, he's got a huge shoulder pad on the right side, while his left side would be naked with a small ball and chain. I could put the plasma pistol in his left hand, with some glowing light and smoke to add interest to the right side of the portrait, but... I'll have to think about it.  ;D

There is one thing I liked immensely about your edit was the green tassle fluttering in the wind. Because nothing says badass like a statuesque pose in turbulent surroundings, standing still while there's a raging storm or battle going on in the background. I did consider adding a ripped cloth, flag or banner in his clenched fist, fluttering in the wind, but I played around with it and couldn't make it look good. For now, I will at least make the tassles a bit more dynamic. At least that's something :)

I very much looking forward to seeing your Plaguemarine (?), there's so much stuff a creative person can do with them.

If anyone has the time or desire to help me further, I would especially appreciate technical feedback regarding what I have so far. Does anything look wrong, is anything out of proportion, is the pose wrong, should I change the colours, is my pixelling technique off, have I pixelled the metal realistically, does the axe look a bit weird... those sorts of things. At this late-ish stage, I'm not primarily looking for ideas like changing the equipment or pose, because... well, I've already put some time into this and I'm more worried about fixing mistakes or improving major flaws right now.
« Last Edit: March 31, 2014, 10:10:57 pm by cels »

Offline Manupix

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Re: Betrayer (sci fi portrait)

Reply #17 on: March 31, 2014, 11:11:10 pm
Looking better :) (see, I'm not grumping)

Either the head is too small, or his left arm too big, or more likely both.
The arm has issues: the shoulder is way too far out from the neck, even without referring to the head size.

The size difference in hands isn't strongly supported by extreme perspective elsewhere.

I just had a vision that one foot should be raised and supported by some killed enemy, crushed skull etc.

Offline Fizzick

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Re: Betrayer (sci fi portrait)

Reply #18 on: April 01, 2014, 04:07:25 am
My last major complaint is that his right hand feels quite shoddily done compared to the rest of the body. While the rest looks very painterly and has nice clean brushwork, the front most extremity seems quite off! Give that another look. Also, the shading on the red of his right Paulson is a little boring- but it only stands out after scouring, so it would be fine left like that.

I'll maybe try a bit of palette fuckery when I get home. I don't think it needs a lot, but I'll see if I can provide more input.

Offline cels

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Re: Betrayer (sci fi portrait)

Reply #19 on: April 01, 2014, 04:42:38 pm


@Manupix: Much appreciated!  ;D You're spot on about the hand, I guess it wasn't close enough to warrant that size difference. I've tried to fix that.

I will play around with the head, maybe make it a bit bigger and move it a couple of pixels higher, to make the shoulders less of a problem. But the width of the shoulders and size of the head is a major problem for Space Marines as seen in the Warhammer 40,000 universe. If you do human proportions, it makes the armour look very wrong compared to the official artwork. So I'm not sure what I'll end up doing, I just have to pick my poison.




I may also look at raising one leg, if I can get away with doing it without drawing it again from scratch :)

@Fizzick: Thanks, but again, please note that there's plenty of stuff that isn't finished. It's not shoddy, it's just that I've worked more on some parts than others. The backpack, for example. If something looks very sloppy and there's not much progression between each update, it's because I'm not done yet ;) If something looks polished, but wrong, that means I messed up.

PS: The skull hanging on a chain blows, I know. Just testing out the colours, will probably draw it from scratch. And make it a bit bigger :)

EDIT: Made head bigger and some other minor stuff. I really don't know how to give the skin depth with these colours, without making it look like it's made of gold.

« Last Edit: April 02, 2014, 01:38:35 pm by cels »