Avatars by Sialia

trying again.

Somebody swiped me bird before I could get it up.

here's the big version of the phoneix, just for those who want to see the details

Wow. Channelling some serious Ketih Haring 80's nostalgia on this trip. La la la la la la walk like an Egyptian . . .

Sialia said:

Truly sorry to hear about your family problems. I hope everything works out for you.

It's not that this one is too hard--it's that it's a lot of fun and I just can't seem to give it a rest.

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I thought you were frustrated, glad to hear you were having fun with it. They both look so good. It was a hard choice.

As for the family thing, I was trying to reconcile with my father. I'm a little bit sad and a lot wiser. I am happy for the closure.

Thanks for the lovely pair of avatars. Now off to the user cp to put up my genuine Sialia!

* This post has self-destructed. It would look more impressive. but we ran out of budget here at Mission: Impossible. *

Re: Re: Who wants an Avatar?

Barendd Nobeard said:

If you want another challenge, I need a beardless dwarf. The one I currently use is a very crude cut-and-paste of the half-orc chin from the PHB pasted on the PHB dwarf's face.

I've been watching this thread, and enjoying your art work!

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Ok, so, I haven't forgotten your request. I just got distracted for a while with Madriel's tattoo.

Now, the problems here, as I see it , are that

1. Beardless Dwarves are an obscenity. Which is ok, I'm cool with that, but I just thought I'd mention it. It's an inherently kinky idea, of which I'm not sure Eric's Grandma would approve.

2. Beardless Dwarves, at 64x64 are going to look a lot like little fat men, easily confused with smurfs, gnomes, halflings and little fat men. I'm not quite certain how to make it clear that it's a Dwarf.

3. (and this is probably the real sticking point) Your current avatar is a better sketch than I'm going to be capable of doing at any size, just so you're prepared--I'm not going to be able to do that kind of detail or personality or delicate line. That shot was done by an artist that was a whole lot better at that sort of thing than I am. Which is not to say that I won't try, but don't expect what I do to be better, just different.

Ok?

If you think of anything you'd like that isn't a face shot, I'd be much happier giving that a try--haraldry, iconography, concept . . it's much easier for me to do that sort of thing. Ashy's for example--I didn't try to literally show a tiefling, but I chose the "A" for "Ashy", gave it horns and a red and gold treatment that I thought looked nicely demonic (or is that devilish--I never can keep those lower plane folks straight. All look alike t'me.), and replaced part of the A with a quill pen for Ashy's dramatic writing flair. It works, captures the essence of the thing, and reads easily at small size.

Faces . . . faces are really difficult for me.

But I'll see what I can do.

As you can see with Madriel's, sometimes it takes me a couple of tries to find just the right thing.

Barendd, something like this?

or this

Sorry for requesting the obscene, but I gotta be me.

As for what you did, Wow.

I love the shiny chin.

I think I like the second one better. The first one looks more "in shadow" (which is cool), but maybe your eyes are playing tricks on you in the shadow and you can't see his beard..... But with the second one, there's plenty of "light" and no doubt about it.

The only tweak I could possibly think of (and I am no artist, so feel free to disregard) is the nose. Could it be less round/bulbous and more pointy/"normal"/crooked/pug/whatever? The round/bulbous nose says to me "gnome" whereas any other style could be more dwarven. At least in my little mind.

If you wanted to do something more abstract (and not involving a face!), he worships Obad Hai, wields a large silvered scythe named "Reaper's Foe," and hates undead with passion. So a silvered scythe is always an option (don't think 64x64 is enough room to show it cleaving a zombie, unfortunately).

Again, Wow. And thanks! You've done stuff a zilllion times better than I ever could.

I'll see what I can do about the nose. Tell me though, what kind of expression should be on the face?

I need to know something about the personality to really put this across.

And I think I have an idea about that scythe.

Thanks for the tip.

Also, any preferences about color scheme? All colors are negotiable in Photoshop.