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A trio of elves I designed for a potential game of D&D. Doesn't look like I'll be getting to play it now, but I thought I did a good enough job to show them off.

Done with a pen outline and colored pencil. Unfortunately I used too much black on the right character. Made her clothes turn out a bit too dark.

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-- You're Gonna Carry That Weight --

The designs aren't bad, though, at the very least, I would say some blending wouldn't be uncalled for here and there (y'know, where the pencil strokes are really visible). Beyond that, I'm not necessarily any more qualified than you to give advise on the matter : / .

What kind o' color pencils did you use (Prismacolors, etc.), btw?

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Console RPG Cliches

The brand is called RoseArt. Something I picked up at a Wal-Mart ages ago. Can't say I'd recommend.

I don't know about blending techniques with colored pencil. Perhaps I just need to apply a bit more pressure. But as far as color mixtures I'd say every color there is a mixture of at least two colors. Except for some of the black and some of the areas of light skin that is not shaded.

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-- You're Gonna Carry That Weight --

I like the designs here, actually. There's some vague anatomical incorrectness, but really, that matters little as the core designs are still there and look really nifty and very creative. I think you did some good work and hope to see more of it. Nice job on the colouring, too! Some nice shading was done, though, look into highlighting techniques as well. Understandably, that may be difficult with pencil crayons, but you can likely find some good online tutorials for such things. Keep at it!

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Games on the Go
Final Fantasy VII
Final Fantasy: Four Warriors of Light
Baldur's Gate

Too much to play, so little time!

Greg

Quote (Rujuken @ 17th June 2009 07:55)

The brand is called RoseArt. Something I picked up at a Wal-Mart ages ago. Can't say I'd recommend.

That's what I thought. More pressure with those'll probably just make the scratchy lines more apparent. Honestly, less pressure with those would probably help more.

Or you could get something like Prismacolor color pencils! They're softer, smoother, and easier to blend than the cheap Crayola-type stuff. Of course, they're also roughly $1 a pencil. Not necessarily within everyone's budget .

All things considered, though, I think you did just about as well as you could with what you have : / .

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Console RPG Cliches

To be quite honest, I have zero qualifications for any sort of critique. I don't draw well, I'm not in the art or animation biz, nothing, nada, zip, zero. Take my words with a grain of salt as thusly. I mill through anime styled art a lot as a hobby and this comes very close though, so perhaps since I'm such an opinionated individual, I'll try to give my rather long winded advice anyway.

My initial impression of the work is that it was very, very good, almost professionally done and very strongly designed. They look like they could easily be inserted into a video game or show as a trio with a mildly chaotic nature. However, like several of the others here I found something a tad off. Taking a closer look, what I've noticed is that you've gone for a more realistic nose than the typical anime styled picture, which is normally not much more than a line. Typically this would bug me in and of itself, however for whatever reason I actually find it quite stylistically fitting and very much think it a feature to be kept. However, I think you've let the width of the nose effect the placement of the eyes just a little too much.

The oddly spaced apart eyes reminds me vaguely of Serial Experiments Lain, a show that thoroughly bugged me in every regard; plot, characterization and art. The first two are irrelevant here though, so I'll skip straight ahead to what I feel is. I have a theory, that with the eyes much further than 1.5 eye lengths apart, you effect the roundness of the head to give them space on the side and thus throw off the horizontal proportions of pretty much the entire character by hairline widths. This can make the proportions more realistic but compromises the style slightly as a result. The gap between where the eyes would be can also be somewhat awkward. It's a very mild and vague difference, though fixing it may require redrawing the whole thing to tuck in the centers of some body parts, something you'll probably consider anyway if you want to recolor it with better supplies as I presume was suggested earlier. I'm not exactly sure you'll want to pull in the eyes quite that much but a slight tuck in and flattening of the head might be advisable. As an alternative to the girl on the left, although she's already the tallest of the three, you might want to make her even taller to give her more stature, as I believe it would fit her stoic demeanor.

My other thought is that some parts of the picture are very round and others, quite too flat in comparison. This diminishes the dynamics quite a bit. I'd err more on the side of being more dimensional than less and perhaps try to add more angular dimensionality, especially since they're elves, who're traditionally more pointy than the average character, though it's also apparent in strokes, particularly the guy's tatoos which look rather pasted on because their outline doesn't match his body curvature around his abdomen. They should tuck in slightly around the indentation of the muscles. There are other things of this nature but I'm sure you get the general point.

Moving on, I've noticed some vague similarites in this group to characters I'm already familiar with which are probably unintentional, but I'll simply boil over if I don't mention them nevertheless. The girl on the right reminds me of Naga from the Slayers with her black and purple theme, oversized bust and not quite as revealing clothes, the guy's spikey hair is a common style that reminds me of many similarly built individuals though at the moment Ichigo Kurosaki stands at the forefront of my mind and finally to the left the hairstyle and predominantly red armor reminds me somewhat of Terra Branford of Final Fantasy VI fame, except orange and ninja style.

On a final note, the body art and clothing gives the two on the right the rather cultured look of coming from the same tribe or working class but the darkness of the girl on the left makes her stand out. If I were to venture out a guess, she's probably the predominant magic caster and the other two are physical or mixed fighters, though she could be of an entirely different culture or class of nobility judging from her distinctly different sense of style. I don't play D&D or anything of the sort but I would like to ask, do you have any prepwork like character sheets or bios to help give me deeper insight on their character? Also, I must say I'm quite sorry for blathering on so much, I just find this work particularly worth it for some reason. It looks promising.

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Role reversal at its finest.

Heh. I think you might have put more effort into your analysis than I did drawing these, Tonepoet. Joking aside its a very nice critique.

Don't worry about "qualifications". If you have an opinion about it that makes you qualified to comment on it.

Good observation about the nose and eyes. I'll try to keep that in mind. I won't be messing with this picture anymore because I can't. Pen and colored pencil doesn't come off. But it will help me down the road.

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I'll give some info on the characters since you seem interested.

Tall girl on the left is named Tulia. A combat oriented rogue. She is a half elf, which I tried to make more apparent with her height, darker skin, and slightly smaller ears. Her breed caused her to be singled out in the elf society she grew up in, which resulted in her being a trouble maker once she got older.

Male in the center is Tallith. He is a scholar and cleric of the sun. I emphasized that by giving him warm colored clothing and such. Hence all the orange and red. And he has droopy ears because he is the character I would be playing and I think they are cute. He is also directly related to Tulia being something akin to an uncle in the large family. He was charged with taking care of Tulia by the family house, due to complications, when she was still a toddler. Being only half elf Tulia grew up much more quickly and eventually became taller than Tallith. Something she teases him about frequently. Tallith is very structured and organized in comparison to Tulia's rebellious trouble making nature and that is a constant reason for squabbling between them.

Elf on the right is Elela-zara. Elela for short. She is a rogue more focused on stealth and thieving. I did the worst job on her. Proportion and coloring are not great. I used to much black on her so a lot of her clothes came out too dark. She is from another family house but is related to Tulia and Tallith through marriage. She lacks a lot of self confidence and tended to be a tag along for Tallith until Tulia began to grow up. Elela was drawn to Tulia's outgoing demeanor and began hanging around, and thus getting into trouble, with her.

Tulia and Elela continued like this and grew away from Tallith after a while despite his chastising of their behavior. Increasingly taking cues from Tulia, Elela became rebellious and eventually turned into a problem even for Tulia. Elela commits a heavy crime and is imprisoned. Tulia seeks Tallith's help and together they are able to free Elela but now they are more or less on the lamb and outcasts.
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-- You're Gonna Carry That Weight --

Oh wow, a familial relationship I may not've guessed. On the other hand, it's far more interesting and realistic than the standard fare where the characters look like the same person reaccented and reaccessorized. That can be situationally okay but it really is all too common these days.

Anyway, it seems I was right on track in thinking that Tallith's primarily yellow coloring signified something, like perhaps a user of electricity, though I suppose I didn't give much thought to the red other than as a warm complimentary color. It's a very logical color scheme in retrospect though. He also does look the most responsible of the three, the glasses, book and particularly his disapproving facial expression are all nice touches in that regard. Having ceremonial styled clothes doesn't hurt in this regard either.

Elela doesn't look too shabby in terms of color, though it could stand to look richer. It becomes apparent around her knees, that there may've been scanner fading, as they appear to blend into her cape despite the attempt at detail. If something was to be outright lightened, it would probably be boot, especially around the laces, to give it a soft pale tone. I'd suggest that if there's a way to make her dress appear more velvety that you do so also. These changes would enhance her high class aesthetic and accentuate her fair skin tone. Granted it's atypical for a rouge to wear nicer clothes over more practical ones, due to the nature of their lifestyles. On the other hand, it designates at least a decent amount of success and self-respect, or perhaps at a stretch it could be an overcompensation for her insecurities. I think it's worth mentioning that as of current, the texturing of her clothes make them look as if they're of a fabric of a low thread count. I doubt that was the intent, due to the fluffy trim and jewelry. Is this due to the Rose Art pencils as mentioned earlier?

As for Tulia, I'd actually say she looks less "human" for her darker skin, as it's of an orangey sort of hue hue. It does definitely give her the look of being of a different elven sub-race though. A more tan tone may make her appear more human but I'd actually advise against such an alteration, if not only because I'm of the opinion that the orange really does best suit her.

Also, thanks for sharing the info, it gives me a lot to play around with in my mind. As you've already probably guessed, I love analysis. Artistic analysis is nice but character analysis is of my favorite sort, except for the sort of situational analyzing you do in video games. It gives my mind something to do and helps to fuel my imagination. On that note, I'd imagine the jailbreak must've been a fairly contentious scene, I can almost see it now…

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Role reversal at its finest.