Feature 06 - Razor, leader of the Blades (Fallout fan-art)

[skw]

okay, so here we go again. I’d kind of neglected the thread before, but it’s up and running again. all in all, I’m done with my paid job for now.

as you remember, the original ’95 conceptual sketch was this:

Click!

yep, it’s quite badly-made, just unbelievable those guys made it into Fallout, a cornerstone of computer role playing gaming. . . right? but after all, this is how early concepts are; we can just take no notice of its little shortcomings – it’s a good starting point anyway, innit?

in Fallout, Razor is depicted as “a very beautiful woman with a sad look in her eyes” and says “Razor’s the name. I’m the closest thing we have for a leader.” when she introduces herself to the player. what we have here is an example of quite an important character with a strong personality. with some help of our game hero and the Blades gang, she defeats Regulators, the so-called “police force” of a post-nuclear Los Angeles.

whichever the story may be, however, I’ve changed my approach completely. a complete turn around. too early to take big formats. it’s also a bit useless since we rely on more complex painting methods when it comes to SVGA graphics and hi-res VGA modes. forget it. now I’m trying to focus on face anatomy, let it then be the object and the result of my studies so far from now on. the piece no longer portrays a complete pose, we have (just) a talking head instead. BTW, do you know those?

http://fallout.gram.pl/index.php?act=pokaz&id=16

and the one most interesting for us here:

Click!

so. . . my previous work (no longer continued but I may get back to it some day and then utilize the critique given before):



and the current progress (320*256px, 32 colors):


http://www.pixeljoint.com/pixelart/33198.htm

C&C *highly* appreciated! fanx! fanx! fanx!

[Sherman Gill]

It's like every critique I make on here this week I have to remake . (My critique was a post that got nuked yesterday or whenever)

Anyway,
arms are too short, base of the wrists line up with the crotch when arms are dangley.
Chest and neck area is shaded weird. Mostly the weird splotches of light below the (our) right breast and the breasts themselves don't really have shape. The collar bone or whatever it is is way too defined and makes the girl look more manly.
The belly also looks like an indent rather than... a belly. You need to make it so that less shadow from the jacket hits it then the surrounding parts rather then more.

The head is coolio though.

[Ben2theEdge]

I think the reason she doesn't look very feminine is the pose. I don't know if you know about "action lines" but here is an example:



You've got her standing mostly straight and then bending forward at the top, with her arms bowed out. This is a very masculine pose; even "tough girls" don't stand like this. God in His grace and wisdom made ladies very curvy and it shows in the way they stand; they seldom slouch forward, tend not to spread their legs so much, and never ever bow out their arms like a gorilla unless they're trying to be funny; even the toughest female athletes will never be seen assuming this position. Note the line of action from feet to head tends to take an S-shape. Maybe it's more of an animator thing but I usually literally draw my action line when I sketch out the initial pose, it helps keep everything balanced and holds the whole thing together.

Hope this helps!

[skw]

okay, I’m now into a commercial project that’s absorbing all my creative energy, so this one must wait a while. . .

thanks a lot guys for the words of critique, now I see what I’ve done wrong. . . she looks like a chimpanzee, really.  that’s an interesting and yes, helpful remark, Ben2theEdge! frankly, I knew little about those ‘action lines’; this explains much! (now it looks like I know nothing about girls and girlish shapes, argh! ). the pose needs then more work deffo, if not a complete rearrangement.

the plan is: 24 colors for Razor and other 8 for some background; I’ve switched to gradient-scale to make the work easier (it’s pretty hard with, like, 20 colors to keep the overall consistency on the right track). palette tweaking later.

CU!

[skw]

look at the main post above!

[Helm]

Excellent construction, i see no problems thus far. Go ahead and do more!

[miscdude]

Aside from some of the rather sharp edges in places like the nose and the lower right(her left) cheek, I think that theres too much mirroring going on here. Most notably on the eyes and the chin line. However, I see no anatomical errors, and it looks pretty nice. Can't wait to see the finished version.

[skw]

that's enough for now:



thank you, Helm, that's really stimulating!

miscdude: thanks! what about mirroring, you know, now it's just a sketch: I rather turn a blind eye to the details at this stage.

thanks also to Ar, for helping me out at the beginning.

[Helm]

Be sure to model the neck with the same degree of SCIENCE, as necks are pretty interesting and difficult in volumes.

[skw]

right on! but the head first:



playing with planes. 5 colors in total.

CnC freely!