Suzette the Pirate

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jkuhl
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Joined: Wed Oct 15, 2008 9:05 am

Suzette the Pirate

Postby jkuhl » Tue Oct 11, 2011 1:02 am

Image

Spent a lot of time making this.

I'm hoping for feedback.

She is a pirate and a rogue, a blood elf from the warcraft series. I used a reference image and am hoping to wean myself off references a bit more.
http://jkuhl.deviantart.com/
http://jkuhlvectors.blogspot.com/

There is no mastery of a subject, a true master is always training himself to be greater.

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brynn
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Re: Suzette the Pirate

Postby brynn » Tue Oct 11, 2011 2:08 pm

Oh, very nice work!

I'm not familiar with the warcraft characters, so I'm not sure if these comments would be relevant. What I'm seeing might be part of the warcraft style. And if so, please just disregard my comments :D

To me, all the clothing seems too smooth. In my mind, pirates are dirty and scruffy, and the clothes are worn, at least, if not tattered and torn. Plus I have the impression that these warcraft characters are rather dark (in nature, not necessarily color). So I would expect some creases in the pants, and maybe some dirt and/or worn areas, if not rips or holes. I love the pant style, btw, with the open sides and the bands across the open part. Really nice!

But back to the smooth issue, the boots look a little like slippers, for example, rather than boots. And again, I have no idea if the original warcraft artist even intended such an appearance. Perhaps the smoothness is part and parcel (intended).

My guess would be the feminine characters' body and skin are supposed to be smooth. And I think it would make a nice contrast to have the scruffier clothing with the smooth body and skin.

The puffy sleeves (reminds my of the Seinfeld pirate shirt/"low talker" episode :mrgreen: ) don't quite work for me. While a smoother appearance of a blouse would be expected, I think the folds need to be deeper, to make the sleeves appear bigger and more billowy. And I say that knowing how hard it is to depict fabric and folds in fabric :P But you asked for comments.

And where the shirt is laced up with string or sinew or something, I'm thinking it would be nice to see some excess string/sinew dangling and scraggly (like the pirate version of a ribbon, lol).

And finally, maybe a little more of a snarl around the mouth/cigar?

I love the earrings (assuming those are ears) and think they would be a great opportunity to increase the detail and overall interest of the image. I would think jewelry must be one of the fun part of drawing these characters.

Yeah, I'm all about the details. Now if only I could draw them :D

Anyway, again I know nothing of the warcraft stuff (except for all the forum spam I delete :P ). I hope my comments are helpful, but if not, please just disregard them if they're not appropriate.

PS - Oh, I just noticed the patch on the pants, so I guess you have done some scruffy stuff already :D

jkuhl
Posts: 24
Joined: Wed Oct 15, 2008 9:05 am

Re: Suzette the Pirate

Postby jkuhl » Wed Oct 12, 2011 7:42 am

Perhaps I should have added more detail. But at the same time her clothing is based on gear that can be acquired in game, so I wanted something fellow players would recognize. But I do agree I could have added more detail and less smoothness to the clothing without ruining the familiarity. I think I need to go to FreeStock or something and just grab some stock photos to vectorize to try to learn more about cloth before I go back and update this picture. I wasn't terribly happy with her sleeves myself but didn't know how to continue.

And to the ears . . . reading "assuming those are ears" makes me sad lol. I realized long after I posted this on DeviantArt that I had forgotten to add detail to the ears (the inner folds and whatnot) Perhaps I will go back and fix that.

Still I think I learned a lot about using clip and blur to achieve shading effects. The outline view is a mess of green clip lines now heh.
http://jkuhl.deviantart.com/
http://jkuhlvectors.blogspot.com/

There is no mastery of a subject, a true master is always training himself to be greater.

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brynn
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Re: Suzette the Pirate

Postby brynn » Sun Oct 23, 2011 10:23 am

Oh gosh, I'm sorry I missed your reply.
When I was asking about the ears, it wasn't so much based on your image. I had done a search for "blood elf", to help guide my comments. In the other images I found, it wasn't always clear if they were ears or not. So that was not so much about your image. Except the earrings on yours gave me the clue :D

I hope I didn't bring you down too much. Usually I only comment on drawings which I really like, or in which I see potential. And in yours, it's both. You really have made appropriate and effective use of clipping and blur! I wouldn't worry about the outline view. I've seen the most outrageous outline views on some of the best Inkscape work I've ever seen!

Anyway, I still think it's very nice work!


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