Lyraina

6 hours ago, Darkness Ascendant said:

*coughs and revives

*cough cough* And I thought everyone forgot about his old and abandoned project

Samaldin: Good point. Could definitely make a nice mural or something.

Kurkistan: How could I have missed that! Thanks!

Hi everyone!

First of all, I hope this is the right sub-forum…

I am currently visualizing the environments of The Emperor’s Soul, as a base for my next portfolio project. More specifically, I am starting with Shai’s Room(s), Shai’s Wing of the Palace, and the Emperor’s quarters/wing (more to come!). Also vases/urns and other artifacts that are mentioned in the novella.

Here’s my problem. I found a visual style to work with (heavily inspired by Asian architecture of course), but the details are giving me problems. I am working of descriptions like these:

Quote

"[…] Imperial Wing of the palace.The stonework here was marvelous, after the ancient Lamio style, with tall pillars of marble inlaid with reliefs. Those large urns between the pillars had been created to mimic Lamio pottery from long ago."

I have pretty good references what reliefs and inlays in Temples/Palaces can look like (see attachments), but I do not want to just take images of Chinese patterns, dragon reliefs and folklore and put them on the hallways and urns for TES. I would really like the designs to fit the world. But I am also at a loss what kind of imagery would be used in the Rose Empire (except for a phoenix headbord bed), as the novella doesn’t mention too many (visual) things other than the main plotline.

So that’s where I would really appreciate your help! It has been a long time since I read Elantris, but if I understand it correctly, Elantris and Rose Empire don’t really share much other than being on the same world. Would the Anchient Lamio / Rose Empire people integrate Aons in their art and designs?
There are hills in the city, and (I think) mountains nearby. That’s a starting point for what people might base their decorations on. But it’s also not really unique to Sanderson’s worlds.

 I’m a bit at a loss here, and if I can find nothing else, I’ll make up something myself to make it look more than a real world mashup of Chinese Architecture. But if you can help me brainstorm something that would fit the Cosmere, I would appreciate it a lot.

What do you imagine the reliefs, inlays, and artifacts/urns and other decorations would depict in the setting of TES?

Lyraina, that is THE. BEST. KALADIN. that I have seen thus far. His brands looks horrifying, the darkness, Syl's contrasting light, his expression.....just WOW. Wow. That's storming incredible!

 

 

Syl is much better too, though I still feel like I shouldn't be able to see her feet. Or maybe just that she's bigger than my mental image. Not sure. (Sorry if this is unhelpful).

 

But that Kaladin....just wow.

Wow, thanks so much! I don't really want to get rid of her feet, because in my mind it makes sense for her to have them even if she's zipping around and not walking - she gives herself a face and hair etc without needing them, so why not feet, too?

Oh yeah, Kaladin is spot on. He looks angry - which may or may not be the intent, but I think that's the idea. I am mildly concerned he doesn't look his age, but that's not something I am going to allow myself be bothered by.

 

Syl... I don't understand what my issue with her is. After some good 10 minutes of pondering and Googling (at work, because that's the most productive time!) I've come up with two possible causes:

1. Most of the times we see Syl, she is in motion, zipping around (or at least that's how I imagine her moving) - so seeing her relatively stationary, apparently moving slowly, feels odd to me. I wanted to say I think of her as Tinkerbell, but Tink doesn't move like I imagine Syl would. Once again, frustratingly, I can't remember where the reference in my head comes from... 
2. When I think of Syl, I think of something pixieish, flimsy. The one on the painting looks... solid.

I don't know, I can't put it in words. She is a little off. Maybe it's because imaginary characters all look different in our heads, and Syl is the next best thing to an imaginary's character imaginary character...

An imaginary's character imaginary character, haha Your post actually gave me the idea to add a bit of motion blur. Not too much though, while that would look cool, it gets a bit too blurry and distracting for my liking.

I'm loving your Kaladin. Very similar to my mental picture. In fact I feel as though I can envision him much better after seeing it.

Your chasm blew my mind. I had a hard time imagining their size and scope, but as with your Kaladin, it has supplemented and enhanced my own mentak imagery. My eventually reread will be enhanced due to your amazing paintings. Thank you

Thank you. I'm glad if I can actually match someone's mental picture 'cause that is reaaally hard and doesn't happen too often.

That Kaladin is great! He's a bit different than I pictured, but very good! The brands are amazing. Syl definitely looks a lot better to me too!

Thank you!

I think I'll wrap this one up now, unless I'll find something else to change last minute.

On a side note, does anyone have a good source where I could find descriptions of Roshar's geographical areas? The wikipedia's I've checked are not really helpful nor is my memory, but I'm not sure if that is because I didn't find the right source, or if there is just not very much explanation in the books yet, aside from areas our main characters have visited more frequently.

Thank you for the feedback, guys! I agree that it is a lot more in character for Syl to look mischivous or cheerful (and also youthful), so I changed her face a bit. Since I am painting Kaladin with a quite sinister expression, I don't want to give her too big a grin though because I feel like that wouldn't fit together (she doesn't like him to be unhappy after all). I also made her more translucent (esp. the feet) and a bit more airy.

The lighting and colours are gorgeous, and I love the fairy-dust effect around her hair and hem.

 

She's definitely more solid that I imagined her, especially with the pattern on her dress (no pun intended). I always thought it was a flowy, wispy kind of dress. She also looks kinda worried and I usually imagine her more playful, but that does depend on  where in the story this is from.

 

Anyway, that's just my two cents. Hope that's helpful.

Thank you, glad you like the fairy dust. I was a bit afraid that this is too much glitter
 

I love her hair, very nice special effect on that. If you made her about fifty percent more translucent, then I think it would be better. I always imagined her face a little more delicate and playful, but I think you've captured the wiser Syl -- the one who explains the nature of the Windrunners to Kaladin and sounds a little bit different from regular Syl. Beautiful either way.

Fifty percent is a bit much I think, she would look more grey than made of light then. But I made her a bit more translucent.

Oh, that's beautiful! I love how her dress fades into mist at her knees, just how described. Personally I always imaged her with a very long dress that she would fold under her feet when she sat down... weird, I know But honestly, this is stunning!

Thank you!
 

Mandatory disclaimer: I focus on what's not working in a piece of art, and offer suggestions how I think it can be fixed. I am not hating your art, I am offering what in my head sounds like constructive criticism. I just don't know how to sound nice about it - I love the painting, but...

 

...

 

I don't know about the transparency. Maybe a little, but 50% sounds too much to me. I think she needs to be just transparent enough to reveal that there is something behind her, but not enough so that you can determine what it is.

 

Hair's good. I think her face needs to be... more girly, less womanly. I keep imagining her as younger than 20, with a face that takes off a few years when she is being particularly mischievous. The length of her dress is largely irrelevant, as it changes with her moods, but the way it transitions into wisps feels too... defined for me. It's incredibly frustrating, because I have an image in my head, but I can't remember where it is from. The closest I could find was this. 

 

Oh, also. If I recall correctly, Syl rarely "walks" - she just glides in the air (or flies freely if she is in some other form, a leaf for example). The way her leg is positioned is unlikely. 

Haha, don't worry about giving me critique! I'm really grateful for any input, both on the technical/art side as well as content wise. There's just so much in the books that I'm pretty sure I'm missing a lot of details. I'm not too fond of the heavy use of smoke brushes in the photo you posted but I agree that it does look quite like the dress would fit Syl!
"transparent enough to reveal that there is something behind her, but not enough so that you can determine what it is" actually is put very nicely. I tried to stick to that, although it's a bit hard with all the dress stuff going on, and since I want the face to be visible. It works with the arm though, I think.

Here is the current version, I want to fix some things on Kaladin and add some rain next.

Thanks again for all the comments!

GreyPilgrim: Haha, thank you - I guess not everybody would appreciate that Michael Whelan is amazing!

Mailliw73: Yeah, I think that is actually closer to how they would look. Certainly closer to how they are illustrated in the novel. I imagine them a lot less colorful though, more dark/grey/greenish and with more loose stuff lying around, not so 'clean'. Might depend on where you are and how long it's been since the last flood though.

Curiosity, thank you very much!

Chrono: Thank you! Working on it!

Here's a part of the next piece I'm working on. What do you think of Syl? Is she too ... "heavy"? I imagine her as a very tiny & fragile creature, not sure if I am conveying that yet. Maybe a bit thinner and more translucent might help...

Thanks again guys!

Regarding the chasms - I myself depict them with more stone surface, and less vegetation as well - especially lower parts that get flooded more often. I don't think the vegetation I painted would do very well with heavy flood rushing through. In the beginning when we experience them in a dark and oppressing way, I didn't imagine there to be much vegetation at all - that only happened much later when it gets described as having beauty as well.  (Trying to stay vague here because of spoilers ) If I can find the time, I would like to do a more realistic version later on, but then again, there's already some official art for that.

Leaving for vacation now, more replies when I'm back!

That’s cool! I love how you gave each of them their own attitude and really showed their character - I can very well imagine all of those in one room, bickering over politics.

I second ‚Loki as Sadeas‘ as someone suggested - but your depiction reminds me of Snape, which would be equally fitting!

Love all the details on their clothing

With all those kind words I am dearly missing a blushing smiley!

These are fantastic. I also loved "Brother and Sister" 

Thanks a lot! That piece was an experiment, but I liked how it turned out

Eh, don't mind me. Since most Alethi look ethnically persian, I always imagined them similar to the skin tone that Aladdin has (the Disney version). However, the dark skin certainly looks great! To be honest, I always imagined Rock as black, but when Shallan, who is pale, was described as looking like a Horneater, I had to quickly change my internal description. 

 

As for the hair, I believe that it's mentioned somewhere that she has straight hair, but that she curls it. The quote up there says that "if left unbound, it would be as long as Shallan's hair", which implies that her hair is styled in the curly manner.

 

Either way, your portraits are beautiful. Especially that Shallan one. Wowza! You've captured her perfectly, in my mind. So, don't mind the criticism. You've done an excellent job here!

Hmm persian, now that's a keyword I didn't use when looking up references. I was using a mix of asian, hawaiian, and east-india from ...bits and pieces of Brandon interviews I think, but in the end I was like "okay whatever, she's tan, so lets not make her too light" As for Rock - I am still working on my conception of his people eating hornets because of a stupid misreading I did at the beginning

About the hair, I really missed the part that she curls it - I read that as "she pins it up, but if she wouldn't, then it would fall down as long as Shallan's". My bad!

These are amazing! I'm thrilled to see them again on 17S =) If possible, really hope to see your take on some male characters!

Thanks so much The next character is indeed male. I hope I won't disappoint because I'm very bad at paintings guys!

Both are amazing, I didn't mean to discourage you in any way and I hope I didn't! I just have a strong mental image of Shallan (unlike other characters) and in the first few seconds my mind wandered toward Alyssa Sutherland (I recently watched Vikings, so that might be part of the reason), who's absolutely gorgeous by the way, so please take it as the compliment it was intended to be. I'm looking forward to your next Stormlight Archive drawings and I hope you'll share them here.

Don't worry, I'm not discouraged, I'm happy to hear all the different opinions on my depictions I think it's really interesting to talk about that, although it makes it kind of terrifying posting the images here! (Will still do so!)

I guess I need to add my voice to the "Jasnah is a little too dark" choir - she looks more African than Persian. But hey, artistic freedom* and all that. And there is something about Shallan's face that creeps me out a little bit, but I don't know enough about face geometry to pinpoint it. Regardless, this style of drawing (painting?) appeals to me verily muchly, and those are things I easily overlook. The dresses are absolutely gorgeous too.

 

 * I've been spelling this word as "freedome" for the past few weeks, and I have to correct it. I am broken =\

I see what you mean with the creepyness, I think it is because of the comparably broad smile, which doesn't really reach her eyes because then it didn't look asian anymore, or she started looking too old because of the wrinkles. I repainted those parts several times until I decided to move on, but I agree that she does look somewhat creepy (and not as pretty as I would like her to be).

Your art is amazing. I found your website, and you are extremely talented. Keep up the fantastic work, I can't wait to see what else you've got.

Thank you very much!

Wow, thanks for all the feedback guys!

Argent: Alright, will post some if I have more.

Aleksiel: Yeah, that is always a big issue, and a reason why I was a bit hesitant/nervous to even post here, because everybody pictures characters in very different ways. This is especially true as I myself most of the time don't even have a clear picture of the figures in my head, but I 'feel' the characters.

Swimmingly: Thank you, not grouchy at all! I appreciate the feedback, have been practicing arms lately.. need to do more, they just have so many curves that one can get wrong!

Chrono: Thanks - I was really unsure about what is usually referred to as "tan" skin. I was thinking of a naturally darker shade because I thought it is more than just "sun tanned" - might have overdone it a little out of fear of making her to pale! I'll try to do better with future Alethi portraits. The hair thing confuses me though, you're the second one to mention that - I was so sure that she is described with curls that I didn't even look up more than one description. In my notes, it says this: "She wore part of it up, wrapped around a small, scroll-shaped golden ornament with two long hairpins holding it in place. The rest tumbled down behind her neck in small, tight curls. Even twisted and curled as it was, it came down to Jasnah’s shoulders—if left unbound, it would be as long as Shallan’s hair, reaching past the middle of her back."
Does she have a hair straightening fabrial maybe? But well, at least that gives me an excuse to do another portrait of her later on

Delightful: Thanks a lot

Chaos: Thank you, feel free to feature it, I feel very honored!

Atilium: Yeah, it looks like I messed up the hair. I would actually have preferred to give her straight hair. Next time! Glad you like the soulcaster

MozytheHealer: Very happy that you like the face structure - I'm not too good with freehanding those kind of things, but really wanted to get the "squarish face and discriminating pale violet eyes" across. Oooh cosplay .. I remember seeing your images over at deviantart! You have very beautiful black Jasnah hair

Zea mays: Thank you!