Character Portrait

[Acherontia]

Okay, so this took hours and hours and it STILL didn't come out very good. I didn't use WoW armor, but rather went for a midieval sort of hunter outfit. This is my character Acherontia and her spirit beast wolf "Shiver."

And the sig to go with:

Her arms are still wonky (I can never get those right), and her pose is a bit weird; it is meant to be sort of the sighting-a-possible-target thing, but almost looks like a bad taking-a-shot pose. Her boobs are a bit too prominent and the wolf's lineart wasn't smoothed enough on his body--but other than that I'm fairly happy with it.

Been out here camping TLPD for days now, so this was my boredom relief

Comments & suggestions welcome!


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UPDATED version, again, comments/suggestions & crits welcome! This one may be smaller, as Petopia won't allow me to upload it (fair enough) and Photobucket has a tendency to resize >.>

[Mozag]

I LOVE the face. Love, love, love it. She looks really sexy!

As for the rest, I think it's a great picture, particularly Shiver looks amazing. I like that you haven't tried to "skinny-fy" (not a word, I know), and that she keeps that whole Orcish buxomness. My only quibble is with her upper thighs. I am not quite sure what it is, not being an artist myself, but I think that it might be the lighter colouring on her trousers. It seems as if something is bulging there in an unsightly manner.

Still, I really like this!

[Acherontia]

Ahahaha

Which part exactly? I can probably go back in and nitpick all the things I find that bother me and that other people note, and try to clean them up in one go. Time to amass a list!

Thank you btw!

[Mozag]

Ok, this is absolutely terrible. Can you tell from my shaky "circles" that I can't do squat when it comes to paint?

Basically, the lighter areas of the material on the shorts, make it look a little bulky, sort of as if she were wearing some body-stocking tights that are squeezing her in all the wrong bits! Her left thigh doesn't look so bad, but the right one has a slightly awkward line, that may also be causing the trouble.

[Saturo]

Yep, I think it's the bottom part of the clothing causing the problem. I'd also say that I think the bow is a little small, it looks almost like she's smiling over the fact that she beat a gnome up and stole his bow, it seems kinda' undersized. I think you'd be better off with something similar to the below in terms of size.

[Acherontia]

Excellent, thank you both!

[Kamalia]

Looks good! Her overall proportions, muscles and balance looks right to me. Shiver looks great! The only thing I could suggest is that her right arm (The one pulling back the bowstring) looks a bit awkward. The elbow's just a tiny bit sharp looking and, if she is pulling back the bowstring, her hand is in the wrong position. The arrow shaft should be held between the index finger and the middle finger. You can kind of see what I mean in the picture Saturo posted.

'Course, take my advice with a grain of salt. I'm still only a beginner when it comes to art.

[Cialbi]

Well, I think I can see where the problem with the pose is. If she's pulling back the arrow like that to get a feel for where it will land, she'd be raising it towards her face. Hence, if the right arm was a bit higher and her elbow almost in-line with her shoulders, I think that would clean up her pose a lot. Also, the limbs of the bow would be noticeably bending by this point, judging by how far back the string is drawn. When fully drawn, a recurve bow will start to vaguely resemble a semicircle. Finally, I tend to straighten my left arm (holding the bow) into the position I want it, before I start actually drawing the string,

I am thinking of two options with the archery pose, either way involving the left arm being straightened. First would be to keep the bow roughly where it is, raise the right elbow so that it is in-line with the shoulders, and bend the limbs of the bow into more of an arc (the tips of the bow will retain much of their original shape). Second option would be to have the bow, arrow, and left arm all pointing at an angle towards the ground, with her right arm just barely beginning to pull on the string and no noticeable bending of the limbs on the bow. This would give the appearance of her drawing the bow (the bow being raised to point at the target and the string being drawn simultaneously in one fluid motion). Either way, keep the pose on her body and expression on her face; she has a great appearance of focusing on a distant target, with her body perfectly still except her arms.

Other than that, I love the artwork. Keep at it!

@Kamalia: There are different ways to grip an arrow. What you describe is the most popular way to draw the string, but doesn't make for a smooth release as the string will angle off the fingertips upon release. Others will pinch the arrow shaft, with no fingers in the way of the string; takes a lot stronger of a grip, however.
_

I'm not an artist, but I do know a thing or two about archery

[Acherontia]

Yah, the pose did come out all funky

and her pose is a bit weird; it is meant to be sort of the sighting-a-possible-target thing, but almost looks like a bad taking-a-shot pose.

So like, it originally wasn't meant to be her lining up the shot or drawing the bowstring completely tight, but rather sort of idling. It came out rather wrong though I'm generally TERRIBLE with human(oid) bodies, poses and features, so every pic is a learning experience (at best).

[Cialbi]

Well, if she's not readying to fire, then there's no need to expend the energy needed to pull back the bowstring quite that far. Maybe have the bow raised up completely (left arm still extended), with her right hand holding the bowstring in front of her chin. You'll have to make the bow bigger; something close to shoulder height (recurves don't have to be quite as big as the longbow in the drawing that Saturo linked, but they can't be tiny either!).

[Acherontia]

Yah, I think I'll do that; I don't know anything about bows really, so if making it bigger solves 2 problems at once, that's what I'll do

[Bulletdance]

I love how the text matches the spirit beast.

[Kamalia]

@Kamalia: There are different ways to grip an arrow. What you describe is the most popular way to draw the string, but doesn't make for a smooth release as the string will angle off the fingertips upon release. Others will pinch the arrow shaft, with no fingers in the way of the string; takes a lot stronger of a grip, however.

Ahh, okay. My mistake. I've never had any experience with archery and that's the only way I've seen an arrow being gripped. I'll keep that in mind, now. Sorry there, Acherontia. Wrong advice isn't that helpful, is it? ;

[Azunara]

Cialbi: That explains why the bows at camp were such a pain to fire. They forced us to draw back fingers on the shaft as opposed to string, so it was a bit of a challenge.

Okay, carry on. >.>

[lilatha]

I really love this but like most HANDS ARE EVIL D: <
Thus we should all cut them off so we no longer need to draw them

I was going to 'red line' ways to help then I remembered I fail

Sooo I guess its help? like I did try to google some stock of archers but I got lazy mid way D: but I think if you wanted to improve on this just the hands would need some work and such im just going to shut up and admire your picture some more /drools

[Cialbi]

Ah, the red-line sketch in the upper-left corner is pretty darn accurate. Nicely done, Lilatha! The full-body sketches also have a nice proportion between the bow and the archer.

So, that should help you a lot, Acherontia! Meanwhile, I grabbed an arrow so as to give you some ideas as to the proportion. My target arrows are the length of my arm, from shoulder to outstretched fingertip, and they are just barely long enough for my bow.

Can't wait to see what this will look like once you get a chance to redraw this! *excited*

[Acherontia]

Yah, the red-lines are better than mine, to be fair

But again, it wasn't meant to be a proper drawing-the-bow image, it just screwed up and came out that way When you say the hands need work, I see the redraws and they're quite good, but what about mine's hands are wrong exactly? I don't really want to change her pose as such--so are they too small or?

Edit--the index finger in her right (arrow) hand for some reason got cut off when I moved layers. It's meant to be folded back under itself, so it's not nearly as short & stubby as it looks--I'll have to fix that regardless

[lilatha]

best i could think of without changing the pose (agian not perfect this is why i hide behind chibis D:) the one holding the arrow looks a lil small compared to the one on the bow

then agian we all play hunters ... how many times as the orc been bigger then the bow ... early levels :') how i miss them <3

[Acherontia]

I also realized I forgot to draw a quiver on her back--which I did intend to do. Not sure if I'll bother now, as it'd also involve a strap, but... anyway

I'm going to give it a couple days so I can see it with a fresh eye, then work on the lineart/shading on the thighs, the size of the bow, and the wolf's legs' lines (the ones I forgot to remove) among other things Thanks for the feedback dude(tte)s!

[Cialbi]

Nice work, Lilatha Very good depiction of a recurve bow in action.

@Acherontia: Just dangle the quiver from the left hip, like it's a scabbard for a sword. Yes, quivers are often worn that way, and there's already a nice empty spot for the quiver to be drawn in without having to redraw the cape or anything.