Kitty's Character portraits - criticism encouraged!

[WarKitty]

Ok so this thread has a 2-fold purpose. First, I love creating detailed pictures of my characters. Or other people's characters, for that matter. So the two purposes:

(1) Any and all criticisms, critiques, etc. are welcome. I'd love to learn how to do more.

(2) If anyone wants a character given a portrait, feel free to post here or PM me! I will say these are very labor-intensive pictures (i.e. one portrait=6h of work), so don't expect it *too* quickly.

The characters:


http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/tt79/Jese_Cabron/kiaranew.jpg

This is Kiara, NG Sorcerer4/Cleric3, with her familiar Selena and a horse called Not-Dragon-Food-Yet. She is a courtesan, born into a wealthy noble family and dropped at the temple of Freya at 15 in the aftermath of a civil war. She is 18 in this portrait.

An older version of her:
http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/tt79/Jese_Cabron/kiaracopy.jpg




Not as good of a picture, but I think the lighting effects are pretty cool.
http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/tt79/Jese_Cabron/druidcopy.jpg

Kellen, NE Druid3/Fighter1 and Blackguard wannabe. He is half-elf, his elf side being half-drow. Raised in the wild by his Ranger mother, he is convinced that civilization ought to fall to make room for the wilderness.

http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/tt79/Jese_Cabron/temple.jpg
Temple to the fey deity Bertusk, who Kellen worships.

[WarKitty]

Update on the second set:

http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/tt79/Jese_Cabron/kellennew.jpg
Update on my druid, including the fire sword and dagger of icy burst being dual-wielded.

[Glass Mouse]

I really like the idea of these images, and you definitely know your colours! Especially the whiteish/blue colour theme of the first picture :smallsmile:

You need to focus a bit more on perspective, though. Especially in the first Kiara picture, the horse is way too small compared to her (my apologies if it's meant to be a baby pony or equivalent). I'm not sure if the cat is on purpose, but it's pretty big.
Fundamental rule: Things placed close to the camera seem larger, while things far away seem smaller. But I guess you already know this. It's just a matter of applying it.

Also, lights. This one is difficult with this kind of pictures, but it can make such a difference. Decide on one direction for your light, and stick to it. You do it in the Kellen picture (I agree, the redish feel is really cool), but fx the fey temple picture lacks.
A trick, in the same vein, to make copy/pasted things seem more integrated is to throw in shadows. When everything else but the character has a shadow, it seems, well... not integrated. A low-opacity brush or the burn tool is your friend here (not sure what program you use, though).

To smooth out the rough edges of something you've cut out, try going over the edge with a low-hardness eraser. Like, make the outer four pixels transparent. This takes a lot of time, though.

I hope this is not too much criticism. I'm just trying to make this post useful :smallsmile:

To make up for it, a few good points:
I love the druid's flame sword! Did you draw it yourself, or did you copy/paste it in? If the latter, then I can't see the edges. Nice.
I also like how your characters correspond with the backgrounds. They fit well together (especially the druid and the cave behind him - I like how the cave's, his, and the wolf's darkness kinda flows together).

Where do you get your pictures? Google, image hosting services, or are they your own? Some of them are really good.

[GrlumpTheElder]

I recognise the back ground for the second one, it's Framlingham Castle!

These look good, and the only criticism I have is perspective, and that's already been mentioned.

I'm curious, what would my character look like...

Would you like to have a go at Grlump the Elder, a Lvl 5 Gnome barbarian with a penchent for food? (Basically my normal avatar).