Like I mentioned, I think the problem comes from how prominent her chin is. It sort of... eats up a lot of her face space.

Figure I might as well offer my own take while we were doing this. Maybe come up with a composite.
As I said earlier, I tended to more prominently play the sunken features. Her mouth is much more narrow, as if used so used to pursing her lips that it's been permanently shrunken. For that matter, a lot of her features are smaller in my head. Despite her sunken features, she never quite has the harsh-boned quality that Keeper imparted on her.
She has a very narrow neck, and more an air of haunted features rather than actually being .... and I have just very embarrassingly realized that I essentially picture a scarred and skinny Tatiana Maslany for Beryl, though her hair is different there and here.

Yeah, I dig Zhiran a lot. You hit basically the right level of features, even from memory, though I think if I had to tweak anything, I'd say the nose should be just a little larger, but it's big enough in every way that matters.
The detail that I think would need the most work is the mustache actually since I always pictured it as a very long mustache that sort of overhangs the corners of his mouth and goes directly into his beard.

Well, if this helps at all, there is this link:
http://archive.wizards.com/Magic/magazi ... /daily/mc5

Well, the biggest factor with the limbs is I feel like you ended up making them way too thick for how long they are.
Similarly, I think the neck went a little too long, but I think the solution, in part to both of these is to take a look at the Lorwyn Elves:
http://archive.wizards.com/magic/magazi ... eature/423


I'll have to make an individual post with notes about each of them.

So, before I get into the meat of what I'm going to say, I am going to say this:

Fisco can't grow facial hair to save his life. It always come in patchy and thin. Any mustache he wore would be wispy and slick. This, of course, never actually comes up (and probably never will again) so I haven't thought to mention it - but there you have it. A little look into how the Shark grooms himself.

...Actually, meeting Fisco's barber would be an interesting story... hm. I'm going to have to think on that one. I am relatively certain, however, that he probably keeps his appearance in check mostly through magic, otherwise it would become too tedious for him to bother with on a daily basis.

Now, for the task at hand...

@Jakkard Creatures: These all look very good. The rattler is very impressive to me, and I appreciate the concept art of the different outfits. I am especially enamored with the guns. O_O So pretty.

@Moonfolk: Reminds me of Twilek from Star Wars. I like the direction they are going.

@Beryl: Not a ton to say about her, other than I always picture her with her hair pulled back into a pony tail post-To Walk on Fire. That's just the visual I got - the top image definitely expresses her, uh, regrettable state when we first met her, however.

@Aloise: The third one to the right, in the middle, is my favorite. I also love the bottom one. If I have one criticism, its the bangs - I can't say I'm a fan of that look, and I'm attempting to visualize Aloise more completely... Actually, it's not the bangs that are bothering me - its the the hair-tie. I always picture her with jaw length hair that sort of curls inward. Granted, she probably ties it while she works, so you're depiction is far from innacurate...

Suffice it to say that I enjoy these!

@Syl and Chardis: Gorgeous. I love the second image of Syl. Very sinister.

@Zhiran: I haven't had a mental image of Zhiran before, but I sure do now! You have a talent for drawing lips, I've noticed.

@Lukas: You know, for some reason, looking at him I thought it was going to be Denner. I have no diea why other than the little mustache, other than the fourth image, which reminds me so much of the face I often picture Denner making when he's talking to Syl. At first, I laughed, and then I realized I had woefully misinterpreted what I was seeing, so I must apologize. O_O

@Kurt Cobaine: Ahaha. Interesting, my favorite part of this is the hand at the bottom. I'm awful at hands, and the half-image seems like it could be card art, given some time and color...

@Keeper: Yeah, these are all awesome. Thanks for posting, my friend. This makes me sort of want to pick up my pencils again. If I had a mind to, would it be alright to post a few sketches of mine in this thread for perusal? Assuming, of course, I can find them... O_o

Again, thanks!

I think a number of the Jakkard studies could probably go in as-is, yeah.

I think I might be able to do a more complete drawing of some of these characters based off of these sketches actually. I mean, how do you folks feel about character illustrations being in black and white rather than fully painted?

I've noticed that you tend to write in a very dialogue-heavy way. It's always interesting to me because dialogue is something I balk at but I can rattle on descriptions for page after page.

I think Larasa and Morgan, and maybe Illarion, have enough descriptive detail to work with. Although, I basically invented Lukas from whole cloth. There's NO description of him besides I think a mention of hair blowing in his face in The Fallen Pharaoh So, it wouldn't be the first time I just ran totally blind into a character design.

I'm fine with it. It sort of offers an amount of conceptual depth, something that fits what you would find in a journal, that really resonates for me.
You and me both.

The character of mine that I'd probably be most eager to see, ironically, doesn't even have a bloody story yet! Just a bunch of half started works.
Though Maral would be fun too.

I am admittedly horrible with physical descriptions. I mean, I don't think I'm bad at them, I just rarely do it, especially with my main characters. Unless I feel it's pertinent to the moment, I usually just skip it.

Despite the fact that I do a lot of internal monologue and POV world-view stuff, I consider myself a pretty "cinematic" writer, which is likely where this flaw comes from. I can visualize my characters pretty clearly, and I think my mind just sort of assumes my readers can "see" them...

I like to think I am somewhere on the other side of "cinematic".
On the one hand, I OBVIOUSLY have a handle on action and the like, but I take a great deal of effort to establish characters as set pieces too.

Okay, so the breakdown I promised.
To start with, I'll be taking these piece by piece, but let me prelude it by saying that the Red guns... honestly don't resonate with me mostly. Or to more accurately express myself, they don't feel red. They feel like they could swing either green or more powerfully Black, but I'll break that down as I examine them:

Sounds beautiful to me. As far as I'm concerned, *anything* you do is pure gravy.



I have a similar issue. My connection to characters tends to be very auditory rather than visual. I hear them talking more than anything else, and, to the extent I visualize them, it's mainly in terms of one or two key features. Beryl, for example, I visualize in terms of her scar and her single green eye. Jackie, similarly, I picture primarily as a set of red eyes and a gold toothed-grin. Beyond that, they tend to have fuzzy outlines in my mind.

Usually, if I'm giving much more of a physical description than that, it's a sign that I'm in trouble - that I don't really have a handle on a character, and I'm grasping for something to hold on to.

Keeper, I'd like you to know that despite this thread's best efforts to break my iPad's Chorme app, I managed to look at all the images in that first post at least. I recognize a lot of those Jakkard creature arts from long ago, but OhMyGog that rattler is so totally excellent (I really need to find some descriptors that aren't from Bill & Ted). I'd like to try putting to paper what I've basically been envisioning the noggles as since day 1, because I've got a much more cartoonish look for them, with a spindly neck and thin body while still having an oversized head.

I love the moonfolk, though I can't really say why I do.

As for the walkers, you've sufficiently broken multiple perceptions I've had of several characters (not in a bad way, mind you). A lot of them, especially Syl and Chardis, I've had a very anime-style form in mind that I hadn't really been aware of until I saw your portrait of them. Being able to see an actual drawing of any of these characters is greet, though, no matter how I was imagining them before.

Thanks for sharing all of these and maybe I'll come back later and read other people's comments as well.

Thank you

Also, why would you ever need descriptors that aren't from Bill and Ted?

Party on, dude!

So really, I want to discuss more of what you have here, but at the same time, I'm not sure how much more I can say.

... Actually I do want to say that if I could have just one thing for you to do for a style guide, I'd want you to draw the Bjørn Ridder from the Ice World.

I need to go back over your comments on the guns again, actually. Think about them a bit more and maybe whip up some other drawings.

I also need to look at Ice World again to get their description.

...Wow and I need to read a bunch of posts that somehow I totally missed??? Uh??? Hrm.

We call that a ghost post. The ghost post I get the most is about toast.

I can offer more notes if you want! Just hit me up on a message bro.

It's not finished really, but I think it might be close enough as to not matter for a vote. It's really only the foxes that I know of that need to be finished, and even then, they have a vague shape that just needs the definition of the others.
... actually, now that I sit and think about it, the Ice World is actually a sort of fascinating contrast to Jakkard, while hitting a lot of the same notes.

Haaaa. I know that feeling.

I would be honored to color and dimensionalize these in Photoscape....it should be easy to give them a polished edge while retaining all of the original line work that you represented....

I think you have a knack for doing faces an costumes.... expressions are top-notch.

Your figure work is very manneristic and elegant!

Keeper these are really fun to look at. I have no critiques really because I am not an artist. The only specific comment I have is I love how the demon evokes folk stories of the Devil appearing as a handsome man.

The only character I had my own visualization of was Zhiran. I had pictured him as a blue guy with a narrow face, calm expression, very long droopy mustache blending into his enormously long beard, a ponytail, and the kind of ears that Kamigawan Soratami have.

Thanks!

You're free to give it a try, though I don't know how well suited these are to being colorized unless fully repainted (which honestly would probably end up looking best anyway in my opinion)

And I'd love to see some costume designs for Jakkard if you happen to get the urge to do some

@Arcades:

Thanks!

Yeah, Barinellos put the kibosh on Kamigawa Soratami ears he hates them for some reason.

I have to admit that I kind of love the Buddha ears idea though.

Aw I like them long floppy ribbony ears.

Because they are fundamentally tied to a specific cultural take on beings associated with the moon.

It'd be the equivalent of all elves having the lorwyn horns.

I don't hate them on the soratami, I just feel that the moonfolk have to disentangle from that cultural tie if we hope to see them used well outside a japanese themed set. Though moonfolk apparently could still have the rabbit ears in either a hindu or aztec based set.

hmmm.... well i could use a hard medium instead if you really want them "painted", i was just thinking about time and demand- loading them into photoscape would just be a short-cut and completely bypass the hand painted look you crave.

i really like the convenience of digital mediums o finish a work, but i've been thinking that it would go a lot further if i used some prismacolors first and then photoscape. That way it will increase the dynamic of the palette in the proper way before i add effects.

I know how much you like hand painting, but if you don't have time....?

I dont have much time for freelance hand paintings either, but i will propose that certain designs which are more refines may deserve it regardless. Your rattler, for instance. Other things that are more sketchy would do fine with some colored pencils i think, which can then be better blended or textured by 10101010100101010101001010101' s.

whatcha think?