Arts and CraftsThe place to talk about stick figure avatars, graphic design, fan art, or any application of the visual arts and creative writing--or just to show off your latest masterwork!
The loopies are pretty much the only durable pattern for hair bangles at this scale, consisting of two lines twisted around each other and squished together at the top and the ribbon.
Meiling's actual bangles would have four parts by my estimate:two form a loop that the other two go through, alternate, rinse and repeat. Unless there's another way to create the beaded look? Not really a hair expert.
It's alive? So yeah, main figurines are now officially on 'Erratic' schedule . Just can't seem to find the time to work on one at the moment. I do have the core of the body done though.
Also going to keep going with the Challenge, as it is a lot less time-intensive.
Speaking of which(theme:Fight):
Spoiler
Only 3 hobgoblins? I likes them odds.
Open Tournaments, Pros: Excellent prizes Cons: minotaurs get to participate. Better be good at dodging.
And a gladitorial match. A lineup of the participants:
The one on the right is a nod to Voldo from the Soul series. I've only played Soul Edge, though it appears that costume design went down the drain as the series went on . Soul Blade was one of my favorite games on PS1. As infuriating as Edge Master mode could be, it was an excellent tool for developing patience. /nostalgic ramblings
At again 7 uniques, that covers this weeks challenge.
Also something from the next main figurine:
Guess i was wrong on the braids then, thanks for the link .
Though it'll probably end up too thick at the scale i currently use, what with the materials minimum thickness. And upscaling would mean more materials/fig, which i'm hesitant to do before i can get faces right.
Well, if face is still your main concern, maybe you should try to copy it wholesale from another figurine?
Don't get it wrong, copying is one of the best way to learn. Find a figurine with the style that you like, and try to copy its face style as best as you could
I'm gonna be against the flow here and say outlined.
What? Everyone else are against the flow too, okay?
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Glyphstone
In the grim statistics of the far future, there is only math.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kneenibble
Most Hilarious Murderer in the Playground. Both his episodes of hysterically ending my life left me chuckling even hours later when I thought about them.
An officer with a power fist from generic futuristic military:
Refined Troll is still Troll:
A masked swordsman:
Yeah, he's about to become a snack:
A half-troll pit fighter:
A Cheetaur (from Quest for Glory 1, which was my introduction to both fantasy games and the english language. "Search the body" was the first phrase of english i knew, ominously enough ):
Well, faces are the main concern on account of being highly visible and the most in need of improvement, unless there's a conspiracy to never mention an even worse shortcoming .
But yeah, it tops the list because nothing else has been brought up to challenge it. A need for better polish has been noted, but that's something to focus on once everything else is fine.
Using another figurine as reference is a good idea, just need to find one with all angles covered.
It'll have to wait for at least a week or two though, too busy to focus on it properly.
Hm, y'know what this needs? Better lighting. You're using a pretty dark material, which makes it difficult to properly check it out under the current conditions. >_>
An officer with a power fist from generic futuristic military:
Refined Troll is still Troll:
A masked swordsman:
Yeah, he's about to become a snack:
A half-troll pit fighter:
A Cheetaur (from Quest for Glory 1, which was my introduction to both fantasy games and the english language. "Search the body" was the first phrase of english i knew, ominously enough ):
Well, faces are the main concern on account of being highly visible and the most in need of improvement, unless there's a conspiracy to never mention an even worse shortcoming .
But yeah, it tops the list because nothing else has been brought up to challenge it. A need for better polish has been noted, but that's something to focus on once everything else is fine.
Using another figurine as reference is a good idea, just need to find one with all angles covered.
It'll have to wait for at least a week or two though, too busy to focus on it properly.
I'm gonna be against the flow here and say outlined.
What? Everyone else are against the flow too, okay?
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Glyphstone
In the grim statistics of the far future, there is only math.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kneenibble
Most Hilarious Murderer in the Playground. Both his episodes of hysterically ending my life left me chuckling even hours later when I thought about them.
And Challenge update of the week (theme: architecture) going up:
Spoiler
A tiny tiny tomb.
...yeah, let's take a different portal this time.
My kind of a mobile home. There are worse places to build a fortress, right?
Having run out of feasible ideas for the theme, a Mech.
Two pics with different lighting, which one works better?
An orc berserker.
And a thiefling swordsman.
Sort-of feeling like i shot myself in the foot with the theme pick as coming up with workable in-theme ideas was rather tough.
I tried to vary the lighting a bit to see if it works better. Can't go much brighter without excessive reflections though, as the material is quite prone to shinyness.
Hoping to get back to the main fig on next week, maybe even get it finished.
Hm, both the mech pics have pretty decent lighting, but it hink i prefer the right version, as the material itself appears a lot brighter. Thiefling swordsman is good too.
(The tiny tomb and orc berserker on the other hand... >_> )
The architecture ones are very nice - the material seems to lend itself well to non-organic structures
The Tower Turtle is especially awesome!
Re. the lightning, I prefer the right Mech. The tiefling is fine, too, but a bit too bright (or blurry).
I agree with Domo that the tomb is too dark. A shame, 'cause it looks really cool from what I can see.
Right, i had hoped to finish the main fig before posting the Challenge update.
Still not finished with sculpting it, had a bad case of lazybones.
Ah well, Challenge pics here:
Spoiler
Magitech Powerarmor. Admittedly, there are only a few details to tell it apart from scifi PA.
Deathworld assault trooper. Influences from both Fallout:NV and WH 40k Imperial Guard.
Tankbusting in style. A nod to L4D.
A gun-toting highwayman.
IgorExpress, the affordable overland travel service for customers wishing to avoid fatal sunburn.
And a cyborg-assassin of some sort to conclude the batch.
I'll keep them around for a few days, so if there are any presentational issues (angle, lighting, etc.) i can get new pics of them.
Edit: A work-in-progress pic:
Spoiler
So now i still need to get the head done and clean it up a bit, then painting. Which is going to be a hassle. No wonder many pictures decipt her as wearing a plain green dress.
Rin Kaenbyou from Touhou, as was already linked. Took a few liberties, specifically:
1.) The tails. She doesn't have them in official artwork, but ~50-60% of fanart adds them, and i think she looks better with them. I'm not sure if i should add a ribbon at the base to set them apart a bit from the dress.
Ribbons are like dakka for Touhou, always need moar .
2.) The patterns on the dress. I concluded that i had pretty much nno chance of successfully painting the official patterns, so i went with blue symbols and green vines to evoke a similar feel to it.
As always, feedback and suggestions are welcome .
Also, in case someone reads this thread but not the Challenge thread, the option to declare the weekly theme is open to everyone from tuesday 12:00 GMT onwards each week if the theme has not been declared yet by then.
A glorious opportunity to pester the participants with odd ideas, so what are you waiting for ?
Mhm, pretty good, although she probably could have stood to have less wide shoulders.
Face related:
The important bit is to have a good chunk of forehead visible and to curve the bridge of the nose inwards. Also don't forget to make indentations for the eyes, especially from the bridge. Plus, define the area below the chin stronger. This needs a tad more angles.
The shoulders of the dress are supposed to be a bit poofy, though some folds would have made it more clear. The actual right shoulder under the dress would be at where the braid touches the dress in the first pic. Or would that still be too wide?
I think i'll make another disembodied head to fiddle with until i can get the look right. I just don't have the feel for sculpting faces yet, so catching the mistakes is tough. There's also the overfixing from the overtly prominent noses to far too rounded faces .
I'll try to have the first draft for it up sometime tomorrow.
I'm gonna be against the flow here and say outlined.
What? Everyone else are against the flow too, okay?
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Glyphstone
In the grim statistics of the far future, there is only math.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kneenibble
Most Hilarious Murderer in the Playground. Both his episodes of hysterically ending my life left me chuckling even hours later when I thought about them.
I mostly use it for the detailwork and cleanup. I do most of the work by hand, for example the guard patrol had no toolwork on them. I'd say one good tool is enough, the massive arrays of tools google coughs up seem to have quite a bit of redundancy in them. A blade, a straight edge and a rounded edge covers most things, with a pen for poking holes for things like visors/gun barrels.
Though i didn't use a tool at all before i started making the Touhou figurines, so there is a bit of a disparity between my skill with tool and by hand, so how applicable the advice is i don't know.
Face ahoy:
Spoiler
This visibility issue is a bit baffling though. I see them quite clearly, but then again i know what i'm looking at in the pics. Can't really improve much on the lighting as it runs into the reflections issue. I could grab some lighter colour sketch materials the next time i restock.
Would also allow some larger scale sketches without tying up all the materials, hm...
On the tanks, i made them tiny mostly since i can skip some detail that way . Machinery has a lot fiddly bits that are a pain to sculpt but would look odd if omitted. I'll see about more detailed ones for the next Challenge update.
Hm, the general issue i see with this is that you need to shift the "weight" of the whole thing upwards, adding more mass to the forehead and less to the chin.
Move the forehead back a good bit, so you can move the nose as well, adding a good indent curve while still having a small nose. The mouth area is more in the "front" than the forehead and the nose bridge bends stronger inwards. The eye indentations are pretty ok so far.
Tool-wise... i think having something bigger and round, like a table tennis ball or somesuch could help make good indentations in general.
Maybe make the nose thinner and the forehead straighter up. (Right now it has a bit too much of a backwards curve) Also make the chin-line either rounder or more pointy. (if the bottom is square-ish then it looks male)
It's a sketch so won't be painting it. Phase 2 would be making a mini-version so i have a 1:1 reference for future figurines. Also need to figure out the best base shape to make it from. Previously i had started from a sphere, this one was more angular.
Shikieiki Yamaxanadu is the character in question.
My yellow paint has horrible coverage, so painting the black patterns on it was pretty much a one-chance-get-it-right sort of thing. Had to improvise the pauldron patterns, as i can't really tell what they are from the pic.
Also came to the conclusion that it's harder to 'read' white than black, which hampered my face sculpting a bit. It's fine to know what i'm aiming for, but would be even better if i could see whether i got it right or not .
So what should i focus on improving on?
Edit: A small request: i'd like to get an overall opinion on the fig, so mind clicking on the first pic and rating it there? I'd appreciate it .
Edit2: Internet went b0rked on tuesday , an actual response along with the Challenge update when it starts to behave itself, Monday at latest. So not dropping out but might be late due to technical difficulties.
HUGE improvements on the face! The colours are very nice, too (still need more shading, though - I'll keep saying it until you acknowledge or actively dismiss it )
There's something strange about the legs. I think they're too far apart?
If I may suggest something, try playing with poses and dynamics. It seems like you did this more in the beginning, but it kinda slowed down.
Just an idea, though. I'm perfectly fine with you getting the basics down before making stuff difficult for yourself
Oh yeah, and hi again. Hope you had a nice holiday and a great new years!
The legs are a bit off, yes. Had a lenghty break on that, since Orin's frame was done sometime in early december i think. So wireframe was off -> legs off to the sides.
I did cut back a bit on the poses and painting, since i felt that going all out on them only to fall short on the face would be bit of a waste. For the same reason i haven't made certain characters yet, as i have an idea and i want to get it right. It's not like i'll run out of characters to make anytime soon anyway.
On the shading, i acknowledge my painting is rather basic. It's mostly from Warhammer, where it matters a lot less if it looks good up close given that there are quite a few miniatures on the table.
It's basically about highlighting raised surfaces and using darker colours in the recesses, right? It would require a bit more texture on clothes to apply, something i intend to work on.
Painting still remains a second in priority to the actual sculpting, since even an Epic paintjob can't salvage a botched sculpt.
Now, first the Challenge update:
Spoiler
For the theme, a boxing kangaroo, a lab monkey and a lunatic turtle in restraints.
And a party of explorers runs into trouble:
That covers it. A bit crowded, sure, and i can get individual pics of them if you guys want any of that in moar detail.
But i also have the next figurine here, Inubashiri Momiji:
Spoiler
Yep, i still hate that type of hat , horrible thing to sculpt. At least it's a bit closer to the mark than the earlier communist pyramid was. I think the shield is slightly too small, and the sword definitely is. But the sword had to be made early so that it would have set by the time the hand would have to be done. It's not like swords see much actual use in Gensokyo anyway .
Momiji is a minor character, so she has no official portrait to go by for the clothing's design and such, so i mixed and matched from various fanartinterpretationsof her.
Figured i'd be that or that you were still busy. Perfectly understandable, so no worries . It's not like i'm entitled to be all "Oi! Where be me free stuff? It be late! " about it .
On Momiji, when you say that the mouth is too far down do you mean mouth <-> nose, mouth <-> tip of chin, or both?
And onwards to the Challenge update (theme: mecha):
Spoiler
Needs moar Dakka.
A smaller 'scout' mech. Minituarization like this is rather good practice for making the finer detail on figurines, like fingers.
"[Boundary]: Border of Mecha and Power Armour"
An urban assault team.
And an officer from the same battlegroup.
Decided to have multiple angles this time, since the first two mecha needed them to be clearly displayed. Gives a better idea of the figu, but can lead to screenstretcher images. So yay or nay?
RSS Feeds: 
Re: Statuary Gardens (Figurines)
. Just can't seem to find the time to work on one at the moment. I do have the core of the body done though.
. Soul Blade was one of my favorite games on PS1. As infuriating as Edge Master mode could be, it was an excellent tool for developing patience. /nostalgic ramblings
. 
. Machinery has a lot fiddly bits that are a pain to sculpt but would look odd if omitted. I'll see about more detailed ones for the next Challenge update.
" about it 
