Character sketches of Ivory and a female centaur *breast nudity warning*

[Nightfable]

Hey guys, it's time for some more C&C - I can handle it!! 

Here's Ivory again (my main emo/angst character). I thought I would use some stock reference pics this time and attempt to keep my proportions accurate...

On the left, she's dressed casual like any teenager girl of our time, I was thinking of incorporating a sad/despaired side to her since the game will be starting with her writing her suicide note in class. Grim, I know. But don't worry - things will not turn out as planned. I'm quite satisfied with it. Do you think I should still add the pink hair?

On the right, her features are hidden beneath a cloak and she's holding a dagger in self-defense. This time, she's in the other dimension... she can cast magic spells (I would LOVE to make it similar to Kyrandia) and humans are practically extinct and hunted.



Here's my female warrior centaur I drew yesterday.

She looks odd I find...  Is it because she looks way too manly or because she kept her human legs? lol!

[Nikolas]

Hi

Proportions look ok to me (remember the graphics ignorant guy... )

the centaur looks, indeed, weird and I blame the 2 human legs in front. It really looks bizare... try horse legs and see if it looks better.

[Nightfable]

Haha, thanks Nikolas I'll try that! 

[Ghost]

The Ivory sketches are very, very good. I consider it a strength to put such a lot of character into a silhouette pose. Top stuff. I wouldn't go for pink hair though; while it would match the "mundane" Ivory it would look pretty strange on the hooded, more mature version... Some dark, reddish-brown though should work nicely.

[Dualnames]

I like that you like Kyrandia. Haven't played it a long time now.

EDIT: By the way your sketches ain't bad. Except that centaur thing..

[mouthuvmine]

First, I've always loved your sketches. I'm a verg big, but very silent, fan.

What I think would be something to try, if you're comfortable with it, would be to give her human-ish legs, but with a very horse-legged shape. I like the expressiveness of the first two sketches though.

[EDIT] Funny that we've been thinking it's human legs making her look weird, when there really a giant horse's ass on her.

[Stupot]

She does look a bit wierd, I suppose it's just that dirty great horse's arse sticking out the back of the knickers.  Other than that though, she's hot.

[Evil]

Reminds me of the early Greek centaur.

Hairline sits really far back on the right (our right) side of her head. Makes her face look like it sits out in front of her hair. Thighs are a but manly, and the left (our left) thigh looks weird at the knee. The thickness of the thighs is good, makes her look more horse like, I guess, but could be shaped differently.

When it comes to the "horse" aspect of it, there are a few things.

The horse "body" length is really short. The hair that lies over the back makes the back look arched, which if changes would make the back longer, but then you have another problem. The problem the Greeks had is the front legs weren't of the same proportions of the back leg, then you have to ask the question "How does it run?" Really, the only way to fix this is to change the front legs.

Also, the crotch is way high for the horse body, which again if lowered makes the legs out of proportion and it still can't run.

The pose is good. I might turn the head towards the camera and flesh out the neck. The shoulder looks stuck out with out a definite left line of the neck. The spear sits right in front of the legs which kind of ruins it. You could move it to show more legs, but I think you'd lose a lot of good depth you already have.

Your other character is alright. Nothing that really stands out and made me look at it twice. I'm kind of shocked that the same person drew both of these. The girl is hiding her hands, neck and arms. All of the things that are hard to draw. It reminds me a of the girlys that draw really flat, 2D anime. It's not impressive. But the centaur is the opposite. It's interesting, has a lot of depth, character, obvious story. I can guess the story of the centaur, but the girl I'd have no idea. You tell me all of this stuff, but I'm not getting any of it from the character.


Edit: Eh, so I was kind of right and kind of wrong. It was the Aegean culture, which I guess technically are ancient Greeks. Here's the piece I was thinking about.

Edit 2: Link should work now.

[Nightfable]

I'm kind of shocked that the same person drew both of these. The girl is hiding her hands, neck and arms. All of the things that are hard to draw. It reminds me a of the girlys that draw really flat, 2D anime.

Yep , that's me alright, lol! See I'm hiding the hands again in this picture I drew of Sailor Moon characters!



Thanks for your detailed post, I'll try fixing those mistakes asap. Maybe my main character isn't as impressive because I didn't detail her facial traits yet? I definitely need to work on drawing better hands... thanks for being so frank.

The link doesn't work for me, btw. I'll try googling it. 

Some dark, reddish-brown though should work nicely.

Sounds great, I'll try that!! 

I suppose it's just that dirty great horse's arse sticking out the back of the knickers.  Other than that though, she's hot.

Hahaha, I almost died laughing! My husband asked me last night where the hell would her female parts be.

First, I've always loved your sketches. I'm a verg big, but very silent, fan.

Thanks, I'm humbled!!

I like that you like Kyrandia. Haven't played it a long time now.

Kyrandia is tha shiz, yo! 

[frission]

The problem with the centaur is that with human legs in the front, it looks like she just incidentally has a horse butt attached to her rearâ€"like it is some sort of horse costume gone wrong. That's a little odd and certainly not what people think of when they think of centaurs.

[vertigoaddict]

You probably did it to be a little more original. How bout you make all four legs human?, in fact don't make it a horse's rear, make it an ass!

[WarpZone]

I hope you were kidding.  I've seen that before on the internet, and it's Uncanny Valley territory.

[n3tgraph]

makes me wonder where her female part is 

[Sparky]

I tend to like main characters with indistinct facial features, like Rose in The Winter Rose for example. I also like characters with simple, easy to "read" clothing. I feel this is almost a must in low resolution sprites. What resolution are you drawing the final characters at? I'd be a little worried that the clothing of the cloaked version of Ivory wouldn't work at 320x240- the details might be a little unclear and noisy.

About the centaur: I'm all for creatively rearranging body parts. What about front legs that are mid-way between horse and human? Maybe they could have several unfused toes, like prehistoric horses or something. It always seemed silly to me that there are fantasy animal conventions- stock animals like unicorns, orcs, elves, etc., all with a "right" way to draw them.

P.S.- there's a thread on the Polycount board about a centaur here, but the creator took it in the opposite direction- more horse, less human. This thread is neat in contrast.