IOW #27 - Royal Portrait

[Aksel Ludvigsen]

Illustration of the Week #27: Royal Portrait

This is a one week topic. This weeks topic was suggested by Rob Powell.

Topic
This weeks topic is Royal Portrait.
It is often that royalty will commission portraits of themselves to hang around their castle and living quarters.
Guests in the castle may gaze upon these portraits even long after that figure's death, so that they are reminded of his/her rule of the throne at his/her time.
Imagine that you're the artist that was commissioned to do one of these portraits of this figure of royalty.
Who/Whatever this figure actually is, is up to you. It may be of any genre, including fantasy, sci-fi, or modern.
Can be human, orc, alien, whatever. But be sure to keep it as a portrait showing at most the bust of this figure, meaning the head and shoulders, and their royal position must be obvious in the portrait.
~Rob Powell

Deadline
The deadline is Sunday 10th of June, 23:59 GMT

[Pixie Trick]

(Move to IOW...)

[Andrew Sonea]

(Move to IOW...)

Done! (Aksel you posted this in TC )

[MasterTroglodyte]

first WIP
Something in the not-so-happy future.

[Quinn Simoes]

Cool topic!

Always wanted to give IOW a shot

MasterTroglodyte Nice work so far!

[Rob Powell]

cool start guys!

Gonna try something less sci-fi/fantasy. Started sketching and came up with this dude. He is very important looking....

[messioddt]

Here is the WIP of my queen. I still need to work on a lot of it. I hope to be able to finish this in time.

[warburton]

MasterTroglodyte Cool start! I like her facial expression.

Quinn Simoes Beautiful as always man, looking forward to seeing it pushed further!

Rob Powell This dude looks like he picks up all da bitches, cool sketch btw, i wanna see it rendered further!

messioddt Nice start, with great colours. Just watch out for your values and lighting and its all good. Checkin out some master painting portraits and studying them might help, thats what i'm doing anyways

game of thrones fan art? kinda? A dragon queen anyways.....=S

[penciltipred]

MasterTroglodyte
cant wait to see how that scepter turns out
Quinn Simoes
very nice start cant to see how it looks when u flesh it out
Rob Powell
he looks like a bad ass hee seems as if hed be Sergent Hartman from full metal jacket
messioddt
like how its going like the iguana thing
warburton
nice twist on things i imagine everyone going for a elegant Victorian type portrait or military

[IDP]

Thought I'd try and do a portrait of probably the most universally recognised King of all - the King of Hearts (and the only king card that doesn't wear a moustache which I never realised before).

Will try and do some crits and comments later if I can find the time.

[Aspectabund]

Ooh, I like this topic a lot! And I really like the horns on the queen lady you've got there Quinn - like a genetically passed-down crown, 's a neat idea.

Thought I'd go traditional fantasy king with mine, though I tried to stay away from red and gold. Hard urge to resist! Inadvertently tempted the Photoshop gods as well, since I saved for the first time just before posting. Oops.

[Rob Powell]

MasterTroglodyte: Looking good so far, I'm liking her evil-ish expression

Quinn: Very cool start so far, and interesting concept. Very interested to see how this'll look once completed.

messioddt: there's some potential here, with the lizard and everything. Try to work on the side planes to build the forms a bit more.

warburton: Nice start so far. I'd recommend using more contrasty colours, and values, for the character and the background, so they show just a tad more clearly.

penciltipred: Not getting a 'royal' vibe from this initially. I do get a sense that this person is of some importance, but not necessarily of royalty. We'll see how this turns out with some progress. Not much else to add other than the chin looks a little large.

IDP: Be cool to see how this'll look when finished.

Aspectabund: Looking good, getting a bit of a viking vibe from this guy. Also liking the cartoonish style as well. Some of the best looking portraits I find are those with more of a cartoony look, but rendered to almost a realistic look. Not sure if that's what your going fro but will be interesting to see this taken further nonetheless.

My important looking guy, is being fleshed out, need to work a bit more on his attire however, to make him look a bit more kingly.

[Aspectabund]

Rob Powell: You got it dude. I ain't sat down and done a clean rendering in ages though, been getting a bit lazy and leaving things half-done lately. Also, might I suggest you try a bit more colour variety, especially in your guy's skin colour? Skin's got loads of yellows and oranges and blues and stuff on it, much more interesting than light/dark of one shade. 'Course, I don't know your process, maybe you do that later haha. Looking good so far, regardless!

penciltipred Gotta say I agree with Rob here - his clothes remind me more of a jester than a prince or king.

warburton Gettin' a Dany vibe off of her for sure, haha. That dragon's head pauldron better end up looking as cool as I think it will C;


For my part, I've been plopping in colours in between Facebooking and tumblring. It doesn't look particularly cohesive at the moment though, I should zoom out more, eh... I'll leave it as it is for now and fix 'im up on the morrow. He'll still have jewels on his crown btw, just haven't done 'em yet. Thinkin' black diamonds...

[penciltipred]

thank you rob and aspecta for your points i see watchu mean so i desided to make what he has more designed and fancy but i thinks its the afro thats throwing it off

[MasterTroglodyte]

penciltipred - You have an interesting color palette, but your image feels squashed along the vertical axis. I don't think having an afro throws the image off. There are other ways to indicate royalty.

Can't comment more right now... sleepy....

WIPPY...

[Quinn Simoes]

Did some more work on mine tonight, slowly getting there.

Everyone's portraits are coming along great!

[Abrodos]

here's my wip!

[Rovina]

Hello.
Aah it's been so long since I've done one of these

Queen of hearts/evil queen..of some sort...

[Rhdnor]

I decided to make a monarch with a sense of humor.
I won't explain, it's pretty obvious, and just to say the dress and the crown jewels are just for the portrait, she doesn't normally dress him up that way.

[Aspectabund]

Rhdnor Ah, the ever-majestic pug. Fun idea, and lookin' good so far!

Rovina Ooh, I like this already. Can't wait to see it more fleshed-out.

Aaand another WIP. Just a bit more to do tomorrow, I think.

[monologish]

Hello everyone,

Awesome submissions so far..and some nearing completion..but I am still gonna submit my pencil sketch...have it scanned in..will now paint it...hope it comes out like I want it to...

[monologish]

Have started coloring it in..it's slow work..but I guess coz I am still new..I am taking too much time..or I haven't figured out enough shortcuts yet...

Anyways..do let me know if there is some major flaw with this one...I will be adding a background..and a light and stuff..later..this is still just a WIP...and the original lines are still over the colored bit..they will be removed..

[messioddt]

warburton- She looks more fighter than royalty right now.

Rob Powell- Love the fleshy jowls.

MasterTrogdlodte- She looks like a pissed Russian Queen.

Quinn Simoes- Love the Drow feel! I like the red flowers, maybe the background should have a green hue to it to help push her forward.

Rovina- Harliquin and Malificent mashup!!

Rhdnor - Very funny.

Aspectbund- Nice cartoon feel. I am loosing some of the gloves with no contrast. Also the top left background feels like it is in front of the king.

Monologish- The head has a nice volume, keep going.

I worked on some refinements like adding a pattern to the dress and I still have a long way to go.

[monologish]

Ok guys..have pretty much laid out most of it...the horns and some other details like the background and such remain..but I am too tired and sleepy to do it right now...brain has died...

So here is my current state of affairs...your views please...

Will give some feedback on some the work out there tomm..mentally incapable of it right now...

[MasterTroglodyte]

K I retooled the face and noodled some other items... dunno. This is usually where I get stuck.



monologish - I feel like your royal is stiff, not entirely in a physical sense (because what royal portrait is candid or endearing?) but mostly because your reds don't splash, your blues don't appear elsewhere, etc. At least the gold, if it is gleaming, should be bouncing on a wrinkle here, a fold there. Granted, I'm no color theory expert, but I've found if I think about where light strikes and reflects, I have an immediate means of adding dimension to the ensemble and rouge? to the cheeks. Perhaps a bit of red should graze the neck next to the collar, or the red of the medals' ribbons would halo a bit in that region... Dunno...

messioddt - I like the attitude and the flaming jewels, and is that a komodo dragon? I know you're "still a long ways to go" but I think before you go much farther you should consider the impact of that flaming jewelry on cast shadows and the lighting of your royal generally. Even allowing another light source up and to the left a bit I imagine that having flaming dots ringing one's head would create some unique patterns on the forehead and on down... A cool way to get reference would be to find a friend (or use yourself) and scotch tape some Christmas lights in a halo/crown around your head, neck, etc. Great concept! Very ambitious!

Rhdnor - The style of the figure is fantastic! It evokes the historical royal portrait quite nicely. I must confess, however, that I've no love for Pugs because of the way they breathe... lol. Still very humorous!

[messioddt]

MasterTroglodyte - The dragon/lizard is just one I made up. I tried to accent the lighting from the flaming jewelry. I think it works the best on the cheek.

[Aspectabund]

MasterTroglodyte I am intrigued by the mystery that is your queen lady's hat... thing, haha. Is the whole thing fur? And you might want to plop in a hued background at this point, even if you're not 100% sure what you want yet. I know I personally find that solid black or white confuses me utterly when picking colours.

monologish WHAT THE HECK haha I like it, he has like... asparagus horns? Whatever, I like it, haha. Your colours do feel a little washed-out to me though - that's a good red on his collar there, maybe try making some of the other colours pop like that against his dark shirt, saturation-wise, especially the green sash. Also I ain't too sure what those yellow danglies are over on the left side. Are they tassels? They look REALLY sharp and pokey right now, haha.

And I think you were right about my bg, messioddt C; I dinked around with that corner, feels a bit better now. I thiiink I'm going to mostly leave the gloves as they are though. Over-rendered dark material makes it look... not dark, haha. Part of the problem is probably the colour inconsistency between monitors too: the gloves look fine on my desktop, but are almost solid black on my iPhone. UGH. Ain't much I can do about it I'm afraid, there's always gonna be one screen it looks better on.

[KDillon]

Everyone has really nice entries so far. Here's my work in progress! I'm toying with the idea of a crown, but I'm not sure about it yet. I also need to figure out what to do with her hands.

[monologish]

MasterTroglodyte - Thanks a lot for the suggestion..you are right..he does look kinda washed out and bland..and if I am going to use sharp colors then they need to look more effective...I think you have the lighting well captured in your piece..she looks nice and surly..kinda like the red queen...

Aspectabund - Point noted ...am going to work on the lighting and effects on this piece a little more...also those aren't exactly tassles, more like pointy gold stuff..and yeah he does have asparagus horns, which are still fresh and growing....btw I love the style of your piece..especially the glove and the clothes...

messioddt - Your piece is coming out quite nicely..but I think your flames need some cast shadows...and maybe a touch of depth to the flames, like a bit of orange or almost red..will make it appear more voluminous..

Now I am off to fix my Asparagus King..

[monologish]

Ok guys, this is pretty much my final piece..will tweak it a little..have tried to include the light effects..and saturate the colors a little to make it look less bland...but I am still learning..so I guess I have a long way to go in terms of figuring out all the effects of the light..as well as how to color digitally...

So here goes..will put this up in finals unless you guys think there is some major flaw...:|