u/bluishsketch

I got around to finishing up this character illustration of a player’s gunslinger character. Since my last post, I touched up a few details on the full body, and added the portrait, which is something I usually include in all my full body pieces.

For her portrait, I decided to try something a little different, and I went with more of an action shot. A portrait is usually useful in showing more detail of the character’s face, but I felt that seeing this character in action would really suit her overall vibe, as we can see her face relatively clearly in the full body depiction anyway. Even though her face is covered, I felt it would say more about her than a typical close up shot would.

I am very pleased with the personality and movement I feel I’ve achieved in this piece, and to be more specific, I’m really proud of the hands. Hands are difficult to draw, at least for me, however they carry just as much weight as the face and facial expressions. I have made an effort lately to focus more on the hands and what they’re doing, even if they’re not doing much.

I really enjoyed painting this piece. I look forward to doing many more and I hope to improve more as I go.

Below is the description I received:

I don’t really have anything set in stone, just vibes mostly lol. But she is a tempest cleric, if you care about classes.

She will be a Zariel Tiefling. I like the idea of her appearance reflecting Zariel’s infernal blood. So I imagine her having the pale, almost white or ashy grey skin, black lips, and the glowing orange/yellow eyes. I’m torn on what style of horns, so if you’re down, I’d love to play with that a bit later on. And finally, I imagine her having thick, long, jet black hair with maybe a few braids and beads here and there.

I imagine her for sure wearing a cloak and chain mail armor. She’ll have a shield, a war hammer, and a spear on her person. Her goddess is Umberlee, so her color palette will be deep sea colors like blues, sea green, maybe some purple. I imagine the chain mail itself being dark, almost black with some gilding here and there. She’s also a sailor and is going to be in extremely cold climate. If you’re able to find a way to incorporate those elements, that would be awesome!

I was recently requested to paint someone’s character, an Orc with a farmer aesthetic. Before I got into doing art for this game and its players, I expected to draw a lot of swords and armor, and don’t get me wrong, I’ve been asked to draw plenty of that. But what I appreciate is the variety of looks that everyone’s characters have, and opportunities to draw very different looking characters than I had originally expected. Something like this is a very fun challenge for me, trying to make a medieval looking farmer interesting and cool. Aside from him being of the Orc persuasion, his drab attire could be regarded as lifeless and boring, but there is a subtlety to the way I render that I try and achieve when approaching this kind of subject matter. Metallic armor, helmets, swords and bows, they’re all fun and interesting no matter what. But folds and drapery is an exciting little playground for me to try and depict interesting shapes and appealing forms. Overall I am very pleased with how this character turned out, as my goal is to make someone’s character that has only been a blurry image in the minds of players during a campaign, look and feel like a real person. I love doing these, as well as this game and its players.