Disc World Hand-painted Project! (Critique Welcome)

WillPowell

I've been working on some hand painted work recently, and decided to base the project around one of my favourite book series, the Disc World novels by Terry Pratchett. Art style inspired by WoW (roughly).

At the moment I'm working on the coat of arms for the city of Ankh Morpork, it's pretty unique:



In one of the books, Feet of Clay, the main character comes across a courtyard that houses an owl and two hippos that, after given orders, assemble themselves like the above image, holding the shield as seen.
My idea is to take this and translate it into 3D, creating a coat of arms that's based off of a real life scene.




This is my progress so far, having got the base to a good stage I will now start work on the hippos and owl.

Any feedback would be great!

WillPowell

Started sculpting the hippo, first time I've approached a creature/ character before and I'm really enjoying it

Carabiner

Digging this so far! I read a few Discworld books when I was a teenager and really enjoyed them

prettyplease

The hippo looks really nice! Can't wait to see your progress

WillPowell

Got some more time to work on this, started adding in some form and colour to the hippo. The back feet are a bit off at the moment so will be working on sorting them out.

After that I'll refine the forms and add in some details and texture!

WillPowell

Finished painting the hippos, may come back and touch them up if I get some critique later on. 

WillPowell

Have been working on some colour adjustments, and added in the owl and some environment for the whole piece to sit on!

Want to add in a character to the scene to tie the story of the piece together

Any critique welcome!

Carla

This is looking amazing! I my jaw dropped when I  saw how good the hippo looked with the painted texture. I think it would be interesting to have their poses be less symmetric, though, as they look a bit stiff. But seriously, amazing work. It really has that magical discworld feel. 

WillPowell

Carla said:

This is looking amazing! I my jaw dropped when I  saw how good the hippo looked with the painted texture. I think it would be interesting to have their poses be less symmetric, though, as they look a bit stiff. But seriously, amazing work. It really has that magical discworld feel. 

Thank you very for the kind words man! And cheers for the feedback, I'll take a look at what I can do with the poses

WillPowell

Working on the Sculpt for the painter at the moment, it's the first time I've tackled a character so I'm learning a lot!

WillPowell

Working on painting the Painter character for the scene

JamesBrisnehan

Looking pretty good. A couple of minor things though, The folds on the painters sleeves and pants are a little blurry and could use some more definition. I think the boots could use a few more polygons to help with silhouette. Also, the eyes of both the hippos and painter are open very wide and they all look kind of surprised. I think a more relaxed eyelid position would look nice with the semi realistic eye style you have. Although I would be pretty surprised too if I saw a couple of hippos posing in my art studio. 
Anyway, keep up the good work.

WillPowell

JamesBrisnehan said:

Looking pretty good. A couple of minor things though, The folds on the painters sleeves and pants are a little blurry and could use some more definition. I think the boots could use a few more polygons to help with silhouette. Also, the eyes of both the hippos and painter are open very wide and they all look kind of surprised. I think a more relaxed eyelid position would look nice with the semi realistic eye style you have. Although I would be pretty surprised too if I saw a couple of hippos posing in my art studio. 
Anyway, keep up the good work.

Cheers for the feedback man, I get you with the eye position as it's something that has been bugging me! 

Will be working on some of the feedback next 

JamesBrisnehan

If it helps, neutral eyelid positions are typically: bottom lid sits at the edge of the iris, and top lid rests half way between iris edge and pupil edge. Since you are doing a stylized piece you could also scale up your iris and pupil texture to meet the lids.