Suichiro

Reference sheets need to have focus on the physical characteristics of the character, nothing more. When it comes to simply rendering the character, as an artist, I don't care about your bio at all. It has no bearing on my ability to render the look.

When you commission an artist, the bio may be added, as a way for an artist to understand the type of emotion that they should be showing within the situation commissioned. But that information should be communicated with the artist themselves, not included in the visual bible of your character itself. It simply wastes space there.

The references need to be clear, easily distinguishable and have a full turnaround so that every different part of the costume is visible. If you omit something that we can't see, then you deny us information we need to accurately draw your character. If that means having to take off the cape from your outfit top get a good shot of the underside, then so be it. If that means including alternate references for something that's not supported in-game, then so be it.

Clarity of sight is why I have such a hatred of all black outfits. They do not show up well, they have little to no contrast, thusly viewing the edges of the costume is near impossible. You can't tell where one part of the outfit starts and another part stops. With these outfits, it's up to you as the commissioner to make *extra* sure that your outfit is clear. That might mean finding a bright spot, or adjusting the image in a graphic editor later.

Then, based on the variance from commission to commission, you might need to submit examples of powers or abilities of your character. These screens would also need to be clear, if you want the artist to render them correctly. But that will be up to you and the artist and it is something that can vary greatly between commissions.

This is the minimum level of detail that I want as an artist:
http://www.arscoh.com/d/5984-1/MassacreCostume1.jpg
http://www.arscoh.com/d/5987-1/MassacreCostume2.jpg
A full body turn around and a close up turn around, both in relatively large size. I also adjusted these shots in Photoshop to tweak the contrast a bit, so it's easier to see.

(I need to update the refshots now that we have more tools to use in the tailor screen, but you get the idea.)

Pssh, do not listen to the Dragonwench. She speaks lies in an attempt to refute my awesome.

It's a fantabulous uterus expulsion day!

Forget the cake. Where's my girls wrapped as presents?

It should be a contest to dress hot babes as birthday presents. Failing that, ribbons. Lots of ribbons.

What? I R NOT KICHI! Kichi is kewl, but not as awesometastical as me. :3

Also, bad people aren't allowed to have birthdays. That's my plan to stay immortal, as I'll never age.

I can fix it the other way. Go go gadget chastity belt!

Fudgecicles chafe. Jus' sayin.

My friend drew me the first one and then I drew myself the other three. I used his base and re-drew it in Photoshop, taking into account the art style and previous avatars, like the Street Fighter ones.

No, there's no program to do it, sadly. That would be highly amusing if there were.

Some cute new stuff based on the game, Scribblenauts. My friend Turk128 and I are big fans of the game and we've been eagerly awaiting it for a while now. He started doing some Scribblenauts based avatars of other games and celebrities, when I told him that I'd love to have one myself.

Since it's my birthday, he made me one of my fairy character Melanie:



which I loved so much, I immediately modified into the evil pyromaniac version everyone is familiar with:



Once I made it, I started to have fun with it and made two other versions of it. A firebreath version:



and a rain of fire + tar patch BURN version:

I dunno, her ear looks fine in the position on her head, it's just that her eyes are so tall, it throws the proportion off on the top.

Looks like someone's seen Code Geass. I wish they did more with the outfit.

Everyone should keep fighting. Mel loves flame wars.

Mel is here to rain on your parade.

This sounds like "the Envisionaries - Test Server Branch."

Which is probably the best way to go about it, since the main reason I never played with the real Envisionaries is that it wasn't on my home server, where all my chars are.

Kat, you're ruining my plans to have an Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny! >.<

ROFL, BW, I love you sooooo much.

Funny enough, doing critiques is really draining, because it takes a lot of effort to properly pick out areas to improve while keeping in mind the skill level and willingness to adapt and continue of the original artist. That's why I don't do it much here. If pressed, I could critique any artist, no matter how good or bad, but I don't have the time or patience to do it.

When I lay a critique on someone, it's because of one of two things. Either I feel like the person is legitimately not seeing something that's causing a real problem in their art. Something that could be pretty easily fixed as long as the person is open to adjusting their technique and trying again. The second reason is that I consider the artist to be relatively full of themselves and acting like a jackass who thinks they're above everyone else. Those types usually don't even understand that their art isn't as good as they think it is, because they're permanently hyped up on their personal praise parade yes-men. I critique those types just to pull them down a notch.

"Dear Emperor, you have no clothes on."

You'll notice that I generally leave all humble artists alone. Especially ones that are willing to keep learning and understand that they're not superior to anyone else.

I have people who are always asking me to critique them or help mentor them along the artist's way, because I've gained a name for being good at it, within certain circles. But I generally hate doing it for the reasons mentioned above. So when I do engage in it on this forum, there's generally a strong motivation for me.

I'm surprised that we haven't seen CR in here yet. :3

ROFL, that was fantastic.

As a lazy artist, I wouldn't bother even trying unless it was basically a lock. I don't want to put in all that effort for nothing. Though it's not a bad way to go about it, on your end. I don't blame you for wanting to do it.

This art forum doesn't react well to competition sometimes, I can't imagine the kind of drama that would emerge when real cash is involved. *Someone* is going to get butthurt along the way and it's likely going to get ugly.

If anyone cares about reputation, they're obviously far too wound up in themselves. I love that it lets me know how certain people feel about things that they wouldn't speak up about themselves. It's no indication of the real consensus of the board, but there's truth to it being proof that opinions are pretty much all over the place.

Also, I take great pleasure in pointing out that person who commented that "You're not an icebreaker." is obviously eating their words now. People are talking and there's been a lot of discussion that didn't exist before. This happened back when I had my tirade about black on black on black costumes as well. Everyone jumped on me for being a jerk and then a month later, suddenly it was okay for the rest of the forum to start calling people on it.

Hate away, it won't stop me from pointing out the blatantly obvious.

Your style is delightful, TL. Unlike Liefeld's. Nuuuuuuuuu.... Liefeld! XO

http://progressiveboink.com/archive/robliefeld.html

I approve of this image!