Ordinary Heroes (Updated 1/27/2004)

[Lunatique]

I've always wanted to do a classic group portrait of fantasy characters--sort of going back to childhood inspirations of fantasy novels and D&D. I used Painter 7 and Photoshop 7 for this.

Special thanks to Steven Stahlberg for a great crit in the form of a paintover. I gotta say, it's super cool to be sitting next to each other everyday at work, where we could just turn to the other person and go, "Hey, should I make this blue or yellow?" We've been painting over each other's stuff and giving each other crits ever since we met online, and it's wonderful to carry that tradition over to real life. (We've got a collaboration piece going on, and it should be finished soon. Keep an eye out for it.)

This is also the piece I'm concentrating on for the D'Artiste book. I'll be detailing every step of the creation process in the book. You can find out more about it here: http://www.ballisticpublishing.com/call_for_entries/dartiste/

http://www.ethereality.info/ethereality_website/paintings_drawings/new/ordinary_heroes/ordinary_heroes.jpg

Some close-ups:

http://www.ethereality.info/ethereality_website/paintings_drawings/new/ordinary_heroes/blademaster.jpg

http://www.ethereality.info/ethereality_website/paintings_drawings/new/ordinary_heroes/swordsman.jpg

http://www.ethereality.info/ethereality_website/paintings_drawings/new/ordinary_heroes/assassin.jpg

http://www.ethereality.info/ethereality_website/paintings_drawings/new/ordinary_heroes/witch.jpg

http://www.ethereality.info/ethereality_website/paintings_drawings/new/ordinary_heroes/archer.jpg

http://www.ethereality.info/ethereality_website/paintings_drawings/new/ordinary_heroes/closeup-1.jpg

http://www.ethereality.info/ethereality_website/paintings_drawings/new/ordinary_heroes/closeup-2.jpg

http://www.ethereality.info/ethereality_website/paintings_drawings/new/ordinary_heroes/closeup-3.jpg

http://www.ethereality.info/ethereality_website/paintings_drawings/new/ordinary_heroes/closeup-4.jpg

http://www.ethereality.info/ethereality_website/paintings_drawings/new/ordinary_heroes/closeup-5.jpg

[Hazart]

All right!

Pretty darn nice! I love the character with bow. Nice simple pose works well. You seem to know what you're doing!

Way to go!

[bRyaN]

Robert, the man responsible for indirectly pointing me to CA.org...

Love the textures on this piece especially the leather...
Everything as always is top notch..

Congrats on the move to Malaysia...you and Steve will be kicking much ass over there...

[jca]

it's not very unified to me. a lot of things are wrong.

[kimchee]

Originally posted by jca
it's not very unified to me. a lot of things are wrong.

That was a pointless post. If you feel "a lot of things are wrong", maybe you could point out what you see those things as being.

[Spacey]

This looks really good. Two things I couldn't get over were in the same area:

http://wootmonkey.homestead.com/files/ordinary_heroespointer.jpg

The first part is just kinda confusing. It looks like the foot strap has thickness to it because of the bow string.

In the second part, the bow string is over the guys arm. I'm not an archer myself, but wouldn't the bow string go over the shoulder and UNDER the arm?

[Loga4]

I like it,I think that you did
awesom work!
Cheers!

[jca]

Originally posted by kimchee


That was a pointless post. If you feel "a lot of things are wrong", maybe you could point out what you see those things as being.

shadows, lighting, proportions - the guy in front looks like he has girly boobs - the bow string- sorry, that's what i meant by "things". :(

[Lunatique]

Spacey- Doh! yeah, I can't believe that one slipped past me. I'll fix it when I have time.

jca-- oh man, I better fix his bitch-tits before he kicks my ass. :D Can you elaborate more on the shadows, lighting, proportions? I'd like to know what appears strange/wrong to you, so maybe I can fix them.

Everyone else-- Thanks for the comments!

[dusty imp]

Depth.
This image doesn't seem to have any depth to it.
All shapes are so softened that they loose the illusion of being 3-dimensional. If you encrease contrast and add harder shadows thats should take care of it. Very nice piece otherwise.

[DanSTC]

Yes, this image definately needs more depth, as Yutani has said. In addition to more contrast and harder shadows, adding some points of interest to the faces of the characters, such as brighter highlight points to the eyes, would also help to give them more personality and not seem so lifeless.

Also, you're wondering why your faces and figure look a bit strange, it's because they're a bit too symmetrical for their own good. Nothing in nature is perfectly symmetrical, not even human faces. This imperfection is also something that is keyed into our brains to "read" which is why when we see mirrored sides of a persons head, it looks really odd. In the future, try to add some slight variance in the features on each side of the characters heads...imperfection = personality, after all. Otherwise we'd all be machines.
Drawing from pictures and life models will help you to understand this better...the vibe I'm getting from this piece is that you're more book-learned than life-drawing.

Also, please note that I'm actually rather inexperienced myself, but these are concepts that have been drilled into me by more experienced artists. :P