Santharian Development

Hey all!


This one has been long in the making, but I finally have been able to make progress, and come to a near finished version. It still needs some more detail, like the hen'di ornaments on her handsm and maybe some patterns on the clothing. The shirt probably is all wrong as well... Anyway - all comments and requests are welcome, especially from the famous compendium writer herself! Talia, what do you think?

Oh, and I have no idea how the Great Library (steps) look like, hope they have some giant bull statues up there somewhere ;)

P.s. this is a scaled down version, for the viewing, the original is about 3x this size.

Absolutely stunning, Faugar. That bull looks so powerful. It puts me in mind of the Minoan carvings. The texture of the stonework is very well realised, I think.

If there are no such statues on the steps of the Compendium, then I vote we have some installed immediately!

I cannot comment on the accuracy of ther appearance of the girl or her clothes, other than to say they look pretty damn good to me!

I'm wondering, though, just what is she thinking about while she sits there twirling her hair?

Prolly how dashing that northern Remusian is. :buck:


Anyhoo, this is a great Pic. :thumbup:  I figure the statue is a stylized version of a Kyrattin Cattle specimen.  I agree with the green guy; if the LIbrary has no such statues, somebody call in the sculptors.

Oh, an Aura point for the hard work.

Faugar! My poor heart! It was jumping. What a surprise in the morning, under such a neutral heading!
 :heart: :heart: :heart:
I send you another parcel with cheese  :grin:  Is your address still valid?

The picture:

Talia:

 - The face is nearly how I imagined myself , comes as close as is it possibly possible without drawing a mental image from my brain.  

 - Maybe darken the hair a bit, especially in the shadow, no need to show my first grey streaks ;) The hand playing with it is exactly what I (ermm, Talia) would do, when thinking about something.

- Talia's eyes are grey, but I don't know, if this shows on that scale..

- The clothes: They are not like the description of the entry (the trousers should be longer and closed with fillets around the ankle), but as this is Talia in New Santhala, it is ok and I like it as it is. The tunic I never imagined with such a collar, but it makes sense, just add some lists(?) to it, so that it could be closed at the throat (if a sandstorm arises).

The rest:

The stairs look very good and the bull looks just splendid. I need to invent some relation for Talia to it...
My idea would be, that around the library could be the statues of religious symbols of many tribes, as a sign, that in there you can find the wealth (of knowledge) of the whole of Caelereth. Then this would be the Lorfurno (http://www.santharia.com/religions/lorfurno.htm), the great bull of the Kanapans. It is a black bull, but as it is a statue, it could have a different colour (the one of the stone) as well. I don't know, if it should be this brown though. Out of which stone will we build the library? Granite, sandstone?
Or could you give this bull a more blackish colour? The Kyrattin Cattle is a good idea also, as a kind of representation of a Santharia tribe, but Talia has no relation to it, as oposed to a religious symbol.  - Oh, there is my relation! :)

What do you have in mind for the background, Faugar? The library is, at least partly, surrounded by a kind of park. (Maybe not at the front). Would be green a god addition to your picture?

Oh, now my coffee is cold.. ;)

Thank you, Faugar ! :hug:

Edit: The book - could there be a kind of religious symbol on it? What do we have for the Twelvern? I need to look in this thread..  Or maybe the symbol we have now as an icon above the menus?

 :) You're most welcome Talia, I'm really happy you like it! No need to send me presents, your reaction is reward enough :)
I have started to work on the changes, but have a few questions.
- The collar: do you mean something like this: http://media.photobucket.com/image/lists%20tunic%20collar/drago_x/SW%20Stuff/InnerTunic001.jpg (http://media.photobucket.com/image/lists%20tunic%20collar/drago_x/SW%20Stuff/InnerTunic001.jpg)?
- The background - I actually haven't planned anything, but I'll experiment with some green/trees, to fill it a bit, thanks for the idea.
- The symbol / title on the book : a symbol would be great, I just need a link to the description or a picture if you have it.

If there are other requests or ideas, let me know as well!

Great picture at any rate so far, Faugar! :thumbup: Not only the portrait itself seems pretty accurate methinks, but also the bull is also very effective the way you positioned it - so let's hope you can handle the still requested details properly, and then we'll have another great illustration of a compendiumist!

Very cool work so far, and nice to see you around lately also with getting some Santhworld drawings done, which will all make great additions in the upcoming game! Here, have another aura +1!

Yes, exactly, something with which you could close the tunic to make it a little sandtight .

The symbol - just go to the main page and look at the icon for religions.

:)

All right! :) Here is the new version, I tried to address all the points. What do you think?

I was stunned by the original picture, and I'm even more stunned by this version.

Wow, Talia! You're quite a looker, y'know  ;)

I'm not suprised you needed a sit down, though. After climbing all those steps anyone would be exhausted!

AURA +1 from me, Faugar.

yes very well done.  :thumbup:  I wish I could watch you work, I would learn alot.

Great picture! Its such a soft and subtle picture. The girl is quite pretty and lost in thought. And adding the background was a magnificent touch as it doesn't take away attention from the girl or the bull.  :thumbup:

"girl"???  *raises eyebrow*

Faugar, I'm happy with it, maybe soften out her right cheek a bit. Don't know, if the background, though very nice, fits to the library in New Santhala..

What do other say?

 :clap:

Faugar, maybe make my the skin tone of my face a little darker, after all I'm from the desert, or have I spent to much time in the library?


The hendi ornaments on the hands are not as bright as they were, you couldmale them blue also, if it looks nicer - thought about to change the colour anyway when I'm back next time in my home lands ;)

Could the face be a bit more oval and not as round?  - But do only any changes if that is not too much work! I could change the description of the entry as well.

I added the hendi ornaments (hope it looks like something you expected, if not let me know!) and darkened the skin a bit and also made some changes to the face. What do you think? Do not hesitate to make any other requests :)

About the background - what did you think would be more appropriate?

Talia, looking at the Map of Manthria it appears that this background could work.  Of course Faugar could have chosen mountains or even a city background, but I see no reason why the natural scene will not work.  All depends on where the Library sits in the city.

I can do Mountains or cityscape, no problem. should I?

Btw: thanks all for the comments!   :)

I'll think about the background, Faugar, will look at the map, consider the sun/shade.
I like the look so far, maybe you can do some minor changes . If we leave so much green (or a lot), this will have an impact on the future look of New Santhala also, so we need to be cautious here.

I made an updated version over the weekend: added some vague distant mountains and some city buildings. I couln't find a description of New Santhala, so it could be all wrong of course :) How about this?

Well done, Faugar. Those mountains, although barely visible, make a great addition to the image as a whole. They seem to add a sense of scale that I hadn't noticed was missing before.

Top work, my friend!

Just a bump.   This looks ready to be uploaded to me.  But perhaps Talia could be the one to blarrow it.

Yeah, forgot about this one and the background!

I assume this means: Yes, ready for upload, so I've blarrowed it!  :thumbup:

No, not yet...

I hadn't realised, that Faugar had adjusted already the background, but if we leave this this way, then The Great Library would be outside of New Santhala, do we want this?

The mountains are fine, if we assume, the Library is on the slopes of the Mithral Mountains, where this single house is.

@Faugar:

Sorry for not looking earlier, Faugar - I lost the overview.

The tattoo is nice, thanks, and I like the face also, though I have to get accustomed to this look yet. But I think you got it right, the face represents  my stubbornness well  :grin: I will identify myself with it soon.

Can I do a crop for my avatar from it?

To the city:

The few houses in the back are not enough, I fear, they look a bit too meagre for the worlds most splendid city (Nybelmarians, go away).

I add a rough sketch, the orange lines should represent the city. The blue ones should show the rise of the mountains, but that is not so important, if you don't have an extra layer.

To the kind of building:

If we leave the greenery along the river (which would be the Thaehelvil), which looks nice, it will give New Santhala a great feeling and emphasise its greatness, for medieval cities had normally not much green it is, I think.

If I remember right, we agreed on a general look and feeling for New Santhala like Rome has it (now), or had it. This kind of buildings you would find there. Maybe a not so close look over Istanbul would come near also. Or the Vienna two or three centuries back. Not the tight middle European look of cities. The buildings you have already are fine for also, they could show an older part of the city, or just another part.

I don't know, if this applies still though.

Any objections?

Excellent, thank you!

The portrait crop - of course, I'll take care of it.

The background - the information is most useful. The river is actually supposed to be a lane/road in a park, but I can make it a river also, by making the banks less straight and orderly :) The buildings - I will add them as noted.

As soon as I will have an updated version I'll post it again, hopefully this weekend :)

Oh Faugar, you are so good to have!  :)  :hug:

I can do the crop myself, Faugar, actually I did it already, just did not post it yet...

They only thing where you could help me with: I did two crops, and the one where more can be seen is very nice, but the hand looks awkward. Have you done your layers in a way, that you could remove it for the avatar? Just a question, if not, no problem.

I add the both, so that you can see the problem.

So you mean to have the first picture (the zoomed out one) and without the hand showing at all? That shouldn't be a problem :)

Thanks :)   :heart:

Ok, here it is - the lane changed into a river, mountains adjusted, new hills and the city filling in the gaps. The library seems to be build very high though, but I cannot change that without completely changing the background, so I hope it's ok.
Also - here is a crop of the head and shoulders without the hand, from the full resolution picture, so you can crop, resize and use "unsharp mask" filter on it, as you see fit :)
I'd experiment with cropping it slightly first, then resizing - sometimes a few pixels can change the way the face in a small sized image will look, due to very low resolution of the forum portrait. If you'd like some assistance with resizing, let me know!

I realize you alread got some kudos for this pic but I will give you one more +1 because I simply learn from you each time you post a picture.  You make it look so effortless and your people look so ,  well so much like people  :grin:.  Well done.

Thank you! I've been studying more lately, that is training by sketching from screengrabs from tv. I think it helps, and would recommend the excersise to anyone wanting to get better at drawing. Try keeping every sketch under 1,5 hour or so, maybe less to force yourself to see what matters and what can be sketched.

A beautiful composition, an intriguing statue, an evocative portrait, a heart-opening view over New Santhala - it's such a wonderful picture. I wish I could walk those steps and study in that library.

I've added my aura point, and given Talia one, too, for her detailed and thought-through comments.

Thanks Faugar!  :heart:

It is no problem , that the library is situated so high, we will write around it!

I'll try to do the avatar, if I do not succeed, I'll ask for help :)


That's a big problem!

Ready to go! :)

I look pretty sweet, I think!  :grin:

Agreed.  Which is why I'm wondering why you want it for your avatar.

*runs as fast as his stubby little legs will take him*

*looks with raised eyebrows after Altario*

Jealous, aren't you? You are lucky, that Seeker travels so far up in the North, no wonder no other artists have been seen up there. No civilisation, no decency, nothing than snow and ice.

Faugar, I did experiment with two softwares and many filters, but the original, just slightly cropped and resized to 60x60 pixels, looked quite fine already. But I know, there are often problems, my current avatar did not resize well. I hope 72kB are not too big.

I did a closer crop as well, but didn't like it as much as the other one.

I attach three, but would like to have the second (Talia_ava_3.png) framed with silver, please :) I don't have it on an extra layer. If this is too big, the jpeg please.

:)

Wihtout any working with it, just croping and resizing
(http://www.stuff.santharia.com/talia/Bilder/Talia_ava_2.png)

With some fiddling around

(http://www.stuff.santharia.com/talia/Bilder/Talia_ava_3.png)

I do not see any attachments though...  :huh:

I had them removed shortly, for I don't understand, why they look so much less sharp than on my comp.

I have generally the problem with the size of pics. If I look in my finder, it tells me, they have about 70kB, graphicConverter says, ca 15 kB, my upload program again ca 10kB  :speechless:

I'm just about to upload them from the webspace to see, if they look differently.


Edit, not much better.. what is it, that the browser does with the pics?


I'm lost. :(

The picture for the person's entry is finished!

Reply #28!

Ok then... Any special text you'd like to have attached to the picture, Talia?

Concerning the crop problems: I guess the Forum upload function converts the picture automatically in order to optimize a preview. But uploading it directly on thje Stuff subdomain as you did now should keep the quality of the picture.

BTW: I don't have a silver frame template, only golden ones and elemental ones - don't know who has a template for that, maybe Fox?

Talia + Frame
(http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/921/taliaav.png)
Frame base, in case I messed up.
(http://img693.imageshack.us/img693/3497/silverframe.png)

Thanks Valan! :) Now I can play around a bit with my portrait, maybe I find a way to get it a bit sharper.

I'll think about what text would fit under the picture, Art.

I love it, Faugar, sharp or not sharp!  :heart:

Can I just ask how the picture got turned around? Did you reflect it in GIMP/Photoshop, Talia?

Athviaro the Hopeless Digital Artist

Yes, in a similar software called GraphicConverter (http://www.lemkesoft.com/) (for Macs)

Thanks for the template, Valan, now I also have a silver frame at hand. I updated my templates accordingly, as there's slightly more needed to make the portraits look like the others we have. Note that the outer shadow of the golden border picture is quite different to your versions, plus you don't have a soft inner shadow which is visible at the edges of the golden frame pics.

@Athviaro: You've been framed now as well! :)

Likely because I sniped it away from another avatar. I think I should have just gone the less lazy route and recoloured an existing gold frame.

Well, you saved the whole square (including background), so you didn't do an actual transparent GIF... You usually need to save that in a different way, don't know if your painting program can do that, or how you do it with it...

Art, why not just write under the picture:

Talia Sturmwind on the steps of the Great Library
??

Is there a gold frame to snatch away? it might be easier to convert a gold frame into a silver one than cutting away the shadow.

Yeah, why not?

Was in a hurry yesterday, but yup: Text is fine with me as well :)

As far as the frame is concerned: I have a silver frame version now as well, constructed from Valan's posted pic, so no need to worry. If someone wishes to update the frame to this version however, I ideally need the source file of the portrait picture (60x60).

This might come out of nowhere, but what's the story behind these silver frames?

Some people don't like gold? :lol:

BTW: Your frame is also not very sharp, Jonael... If you can send me the source file (pic without frame) I could fix that.

 :grin: Oh.. haha

Aye, that'll be cause I thieved mine off one frame or another, and enslaved it with Photoshop to become my frame, haha. I'll send you a file as soon as I can Arti, while drawing the larger portrait I'm also looking at revamping the avatar. Thanks for the help, I'll definitely take you up on the offer

Art, could you post your version of the silver frame, please? The one I have seems a bit broken in the edges. I removed the shadows, but there is more missing, so I stopped working on it.

What about the size of the picture, can it have more than 8 KB if the pixel count  60x60 is ok? What if I have it on an external server to not add to the data load?

Hope you can read the PSD file and its layers, here (http://stuff.santharia.com/artimidor/template_silver.psd) you go. Just replace the Artimidor picture on the second layer with your 60x60 picture.

Concerning the size: Erm... A regular transparent GIF of that width and height won't be very large, and that's part of the point of it - that Forum portraits shouldn't be monster size pics. Besides, as far as I know if you use a Forum picture, any way you specify it, the Forum grabs the picture, converts it how it needs it and saves it on the Santharian server. If you check your profile again after you've specified an URL, you won't find that URL there anymore. And that's because this URL isn't used anymore, but the one on the Santharian server.

Thanks, Art, I can use .psd files, but something is again wrong. I'll try to fix it later.

How about this? Made it sharper as well. The second one has slightly darker skin tone - pick one you like more :)

Faugar  :hug: 

Words can't express my gratitude :)

You've most welcome! I'm truly happy you like the portrait. :pet: