Dakinaza Female (hunter warrior) WIP
The title of this piece “Thinking about Lunch: fresh fish implies certain things and is the pillar idea for the characters and final images. One the key things that really got this thing back on course was remembering the back story, doing some further research, and making her skin red. Was never really settled on the first pass of the charcter and everything seem to fall into place after going through an old write up, the research and making her physical in alignment with the source material. Kimara (working name) belongs to a guild or tribe of hunter/warriors in the Netherworld, known as Dakinaza, rumored in the netherworld to be one of the lost descendants of the goddess, Kali. The Dakinaza are now the appointed guardians of the Animal realm, on account of their service to the higher realms.
They’re job, to protect the Animal realm from intruders and thieves that might disturb the balance of things in the netherworld. The Animal Realm is abundant with sought after resources and energies. The Dakinaza’s Rewards for their service to the Animal realm, include enchantment, and dominion over its abundance of the netherworlds finest foods and resources that grant them long lives full of vitality and youth. “Fresh Fish” is by far and wide the most popular and favorite among this tribe of enchanted, masterful, hunters, and warriors.
Most recent screens of the Bull Dragon. I haven't really touched this in almost two weeks, but its where I last left it...
Dakinaza Female thus far...
Thoughts and feedback more than welcome!
Replies
Firstly the bull.
Overall balance is a bit off, with its back part being lower than the chest it feels more like a feline than bull like. I know you said that you want a bull/dragon thingy, but right now the design does not read either dragony or bull like. I think you should study both bulls and for example Komodo dragons to find something that could push your creature. The anatomy of the legs are also quite undefined, and the foreleg is very stiff without any organic curves to them.
It would be nice if you posted some images from other angles other than the side as well if you want feedback.
Image on a Komodo Dragon
http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/content/dam/kids/photos/animals/Reptiles/H-P/komodo-dragon-white-background.jpg
Images on Bulls
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-SAU7NjY1EzU/UTBNiF-qtaI/AAAAAAAABng/6PFtu3Czxdk/s1600/Bull+Cow+2.jpg
http://www.biographixmedia.com/veterinary/hereford-bull-anatomy.jpg
Secondly the girl.
I recommend you too look a lot more on references for her, as of right now she looks undernourished. Her calves are very thin, same with the thighs. Her rib cage is too small and that makes her stomach just taper up from the hips unnaturally. The shape of the boobs and the ass from the side look like they have a very waterballoon'ish property to them, and that is not so correct when it comes t how boobs behave in real life, once again check references. And I believe that her head is a tad to large. The armor pieces are coming along great.
Worth pointing out here is that this is all my opinion and observations. If you would like I could do a paintover tomorrow to show you some of the points. Do you have a concept that you are following or a moodboard or something similar? Any way good luck.
Anyhow the art looks great so far. Are you working from concepts? Whose?
The resolution on your female is pretty uneven, some tiny parts have a ton of detail, while other larger parts are pretty chunky (hair for example).
Is your intention to get this into a game engine, or just save still shots in Toolbag?
And wasn't this already posted in your Sketchbook?
@ Nuclear Angel
Thanks very much!
You confirmed some of my suspicions about the proportions. I don't mind a little "water balloonyness "in certain areas, but I'm definitely not going for malnourished. I did want bustier legs and fairly robust rump....
I'm working the proportions now, and will post the update without the armor. If there are still issues, yes a paintover would be much appreciated
As for the Bull Dragon, It is more or less a Big Cat, with a bullish head(meaning broad thick head and horns) and temperament. Reptile is being implied in the feet and tail. Its skin is made up of tight, coarse scales. Like shark skin so it can just rip through dense forests, and deal with enemies, and prey without taking to much damage. I'll probably end up renaming it after a mythological entity. Not perzactly, but "inspired" by some mythological entity. That way it would have its own identity. The idea wasn't to combine the feature's of a Bull and Dragon, which the name does imply. It was initially inspired by Chinese dragons, well the head anyway....
@ Eric
Yes, the Character is scheduled to be a game asset, and hirez statue render. I'm probably going to put the game asset up on Unity asset store, with a mechanim configured rig. Once all the assets are finished I'm going to create a real-time illustration in marmoset as well.
And yes, this was started in my sketchbook. But is officially a WIP now so thought I'd finish it up here.
There is no explicit concept for this.... but here are the key images I'm working from. The two Lineage 2 statues are what I'm aiming for proportionally/anatomically overall really.
And I guess you could say the initial concept was inspired by this piece by http://robekka.deviantart.com/
other related ref at this point....
Thanks again for the replies, guys!
C&C is more than welcome!
As for the jobs sections here, they're there because people wanted a place to seek each other. That's it. We're not really an employment site, and besides we don't have the manpower to moderate everything. You're on your own, really as it should be I think.
About employers not replying, have you ever been on the hiring end? It's a lot of work just finding someone capable to fill the seat and get the work done right. But there are many reasons why no replies are sent. Worth a read:
http://polycount.com/discussion/157738/game-industry-recruiter-taking-in-questions
Check out:
http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/Game_Industry
Also remember a lot of business is conducted via private messages. We used to enforce the use of PMs, since business is best conducted 1 on 1. But it was a constant tidal wave of moderation work, and no one likes being reprimanded anyhow.
Although, imo, I don't think it would be allot of work to make some further rules for the freelance posting. Its been my experience that larger Companies do reply in some manner. All I was saying was the freelance postings should at the very least be required to say at some point... "we filled the position, or its no longer available" something. Instead of having the thread live, and people inquiring for months on end into a ghost job, or illegitimate job and company.... pretty common courtesy that would take the OP about 5 minutes... log in > go to post > "the position is filled, or not available"... or you all suck, buzz off
Waist is slightly too thin but might be the art style you're going for. Try making it wider and see if the silhouette improves or not.
As for your character, except for the skin color which hurts my eyes ( personal preference ), it looks pretty good. I like the armor with all the skulls details.
The proportions might not be the only problem though, you should try to give her more curves and more weight ( also don't post orthographic views, it's better to see the character in perspective ). It's useful to analyze the refs and draw some lines to highlight the silhouette and see the differences.
I used different refs as yours but here is the idea. Keep in mind that my lines are exaggerated on purpose. Try to do that with Lineage characters, you'll see that they have extremely long legs and really small heads in comparison, a bit like Bayonetta. This is what gives them their specific look.
Using statues as refs is really useful. Sometimes it's better to use an un-posed sculpt too, and cross-referencing with photos for the details and a more accurate representation ( a sculpt, especially stylized, is only an interpretation of another artist ).
Look at dem curves !
Here is a quick paintover based on your goal for hitting the Lineage proportions. Like Texelion pointed out, much like Bayonetta, Lineage characters have very long legs and small heads. If you want to hit these proportions you will need to push your exaggeration in these areas.
If you chose something else to aim for. Find your specific reference and share it with the group so they can help you hit your target. The more clear you are with your goals the easier it will be for others to help you with useful feedback. Good luck.
If you want to have bigger boobs than the ones I painted, they should still keep a similar shape, since the bra holds up the breasts. In the sculpture references you posted the boobs have more of a push up effect than a hanging effect.
And I second the post above, you need to post a more clear vision for your goals. Which style is it? What features do you want to have on the character and so forth.
Regarding your dragon thing I think you should focus on the character first, and do the monster afterwards.