Tag: Portrait Painting series 1

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Portrait Painting 13 – Shimoko

A little extra to this series. To break into drawing again after a bit of a summer break I choose to do another one of these for a backup character I still have on the bench.

Shimoko is a Master Archer and trained Diplomat of the Winter court of the Fey. Being drafted into a war her life took a turn when she died and was resurrected by a powerful wizard. Now severed from her court and only slowly remembering who she used to be, she is not quite sure yet what to make of her situation.

This one took about 4h… I initially left out the wings but then added them because well… character design. I think they clutter the background a bit too much for the portrait.

hooray for wings
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Portrait Painting 12 – Gen and Okuri

The final piece to the set.

Here we have Gen, my Divine Soul Sorcerer, and his familiar, Okuri. Both designed with a Genet in mind.
For a multitude of reasons this one took me closer to 5 hours compared to the usual 3 but I think the whole “fear of finishing something and having to move on”-dilemma carries the biggest blame here.

I really liked how it turned out, which doesn’t stop me from seeing all the little things that are not quite right… cast shadows, over stylized lighting, Gen’s nose looking too normal…
But those are things to fix in the next one… whatever that will be.

This was quite the satisfying journey, both in terms of the art that came out of it and the things I practised and learned through it.

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Portrait Painting 11 – Ciccerek

This one felt like magic and I needed a good couple days to figure out why it took me less than 2 hours but I think I found the secret:
There’s no humanoid face on here. No noses, no symmetry for eyes or ears or really anything at all because everything is in profile either way.

And though I had dreaded the whole figuring out feather textures thing, that one turned out to come quite naturally to me… So here he is: Aaracokra Druid Ciccerek, turned Ruby Dragon by virtue of… getting adopted.

That leaves only my very own Character, Gen, to go… and I am mildly horrified both by the dice having made him the final picture I make and… the prospect of being done with the project.
I’ve streamed the first bit of the drawing process last Wednesday and will likely finish the rest tomorrow so… if you’d like to see come step by on twitch!

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Portrait Painting 10 – Fen and Edward

The next instalment of my portrait painting journey, featuring Celestial Warlock Fen and her Fenec Familiar, Edward.

Her Bangs might stand out a bit, because they were what gave me the most trouble, as I seem to increase the level of detail in these with every picture. This one also almost took me 4 hours in the end… But extra fluffy Ed was well worth that! ^^
Somewhere in the making of this, the utter mess of layers I needed to get the face right has a version where she just looks deformed and beat up and it still haunt my nightmares so I will spare you the sight.

Two more to go from here!

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Portrait Painting 9 – Illya and Raiji

Verden Campaigns very own Divination Wizzard, Illya and her dearest companion Nariraijin, or Raiji for short. Illya doesn’t look half as annoyed as she’d need to, but I think if she did it would break the calm vibes too much anyway so… she can have a moment of peace for now.

Challenge time! Feathers.
I do like how they turned out and I would like to get everything else into a bit more of a loose style like them again tbh. I finished Illya on Stream yesterday and started working on Fen until trying to get her eyes in the right places started feeling like a futile effort…

If I don’t finish it on my own time that what next Wednesday’s Stream will be about.

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Portrait Painting 8 – Erazil and Shadow

The only other finished picture of the set for the time being: Changeling Human Rogue Erazil, hidden behind his jester mask and his eight eyes raven familiar.

I’m going to have to get better at birds before I have to eventually tackle our Aarakocra Druid… but… lets cross that bridge when I get there. For now the sausage raven will have to do, because it was not the only thing that gave me trouble in this picture… I actually started this one before I did Mio, and I only finished it when I already had the basic sketch for Part 9 of the set down. Let me show you the version I first considered the final result until a friend unknowingly pointed out to me what was so off about it:

If you’re looking at this and are like… ‘well, I can’t see s***’ then you are thinking basically the same thing my friend told me. So, I stared at this for a while and then went at it with an adjustment layer for the values and tweaked and tried until I have the result I actually put up as the finished piece.

On top of that even just getting the shapes to look right on the mask was a whole process… so yeah… Erazil being a troublemaker in and out of campaign. I think that sums it up pretty well.

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Portrait Painting 7 – Ikiryou

Except for Mio, which I choose to do early to complete the Meridiem part of the set, the order by which I went through the characters was determined by the dice, in true DnD spirit.

This one is our newest Verden party member: Satyr Echo Knight Iki, loyal ambassador of the spring court. Who definitely doesn’t have a crush on our Rogue, Erazil, and is just here to keep an eye on the guy.
Iki’s design includes and is colour-wise inspired by cornflowers, so that was the new thing to figure out in this one. I’m not sure the specific kind of flower reads very well, but given that it was yet again the first time I tried doing those (as it is with many things in these) I think they look pretty enough. This one almost has that vibe of a graffiti mural you find on big empty building wally… or at least I feel it has.

It was pointed out to me that the horns are a little off, and in hindsight I agree… but I also think the (mediocerly textured) hair covers it up well enough to stay this way.

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Portrait Painting 6 – Mio and Otsu

Here comes my favourite one so far: My Meridiem Character Kalashtar Druid/Bearbarian, Mio and their ever present spirit guide Otsu.

I am really happy how this one turned out and it is probably the one I have personally stared at the most. Thus I am aware of a lot of tiny little mistakes… like how there some shadow missing at the ear and how Otsu’s ear is missing entirely. But given that this is also the one that strayed furthest from any references I had on hand I am still very happy with how it turned out.
It really has a strong narrative in there, keeping the calm mood that I want for this set, despite the bear just roaring in Mio’s face.

They have a dynamic and given the DnD nature of it I do not entirely know it myself, but for what I know, this picture portrays what I was going for quite well.
The most fun about it was Mio’s hair though. That texture was something else to deal with but once I had found the way I wanted it to look it was just a joy to draw.

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Portrait Painting 5 – Tara

Next up in the line up, heart and soul and dedicated group mom of the Verden campaign: Halfling Grave Cleric Tara.

The pose might be a little to pious to be in character but I like to think it’s her not necessarily praying to her Goddess, but praying that the rest of the party doesn’t get themselves killed.
I struggled with the profile view here quite a bit, but all in all I am happy with how it turned out, especially because the very harsh rim light going on was a totally new element to get right. I worked with a photo reference here that I do not have on hand any more.

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Portrait Painting 4 – Nikatski

Battle Master Nikatski, Axe-pert of the Verden Campaign and my failed attempt to go back into a bit more of a loose style of painting. Sadly he hasn’t been playing with us for a while so I was less motivated to spend a bunch of time on this one…

I still lack an understanding of how exactly the hair on this character works, but the beard was a lot of fun. Still, my least favourite one of the set, but I can live with that.

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Portrait Painting 3 – Ditou

Silver Dragonborn Ditou, Rune Knight of the Meridiem Party and thus the third to the set and of that Campaign to be painted. I had a lot of trouble getting the snout to look somewhat okay, did a whole shape study thing on the side to help me get it to read right but I think I got there…

The really fun part about this one was the scales though. In general I got a bit more into trying to convey different materials there, between the metal, the scales and scale mail and the fabric there was a lot to try around with.

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Portrait Painting 2 – Naryssa de l’orage

Painted one evening after Eldoris, the second party member of Meridiem was added to the set:
Tiefling Storm Sorceress, Ryssa brought a new challenge to my little project: hands. And lightning. And Freckles… The latter were when I decided to break with the only-one-brush-rule and allow myself some freedom for detailing.

A special challenge with Ryssa was to keep the values mostly conveying the light/shadow dynamics because her colour scheme builds on the contrast of stark white hair against deep purple skin my brain had a hard time not getting color contrast and light contrast mixed up.

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Portrait Painting 1 – Eldoris and Barnicle

The one that started it all: It was just an itch one evening when I was having a bit of an art block otherwise, so I gave in and did a very loose painterly attempt at a portrait.
Neither digital painting nor portraits were really things I had tried before but I really liked the result… the calm and the process so I decided I would make a whole set for all the Major Player Characters from my DnD Campaigns at the time.

Eldoris D’Angellon is our Aasimar Fathomless Warlock from the Meridiem Campaign.
Her dear flying serpent familliar Barnicle is the undoubtedly most beloved party member.

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