Death By An Arrow Makes the Art Happen

Hit sort of an art block >.<
ill probably be forced to draw trees for a few days, as that tends to be what I do when I get art block...
draw trees.
then after the sylvari is finished I'll probably work on some unrelated pencil drawing.

Draw a tree in platemail, and you've got a Sylvari Guardian.

Anyway. I hope you'll manage to shake off the art block. Your Sylvari is looking good so far, it'd be great to see it finished.

Trees don't wear pants. So by that logic, neither should Sylvari.

But a serious answer, I'd say it's the weapons and armor that really define the Guardian class. I see them as plate-mail wearing protectors - so there movements and behavior would be more akin to a Warrior than anything else. Nothing too out there in terms of really flexible poses, but more upright, proud and somewhat physically daunting stances.

I still like the rit pose though. Plus, it's an imagination thread, so it's not like you really have to stick to the "rules".

@Pery hm... i suppose you're right o.O but then it would feel more like LotR Ents.

@Charlie I had a few other poses sketched but picked this one cause it seemed the most "dynamic". Didn't even stop to think heavy armor=slow. >.<
That explains why I haven't been able to design any heavy armor on top of this.

Looks like we'll have to change the thread to Sylvari Non-ingame-proffesion. xD


Edit

So... unfortantely I won't have time to finish the sylvari by saturday (threads end date) so I'm just gunna ditch it and do a pencil character sketch. The pose was good, but there was a lot I didn't get right character-wise and I kept making small changes and... well its just not right. Sometimes you just have to end things before they spin out of control Dx

Ill likely be able to do the sketch tomorrow.. I've got a new drawing class. It's called Introduction to Anthropology, Psychology, and Sociology. Worst possible teacher ever, and it's 5 months. Sounds like sketch time to me

Maybe hold onto the pose for another one of AJ's weekly themes. Never know if it'll come in handy again.

And a good tip is to always take into consideration the clothing/armor a character is wearing when doing poses. It really plays a significant role in how he or she will behave.

Quote:

I always draw the body first, and then the armor on top. It's actually a bit of a joke with my friends - if I got several unfinished sketches in my sketchbook, it looks like all I've been drawing is nudes. If I show my sketchbook to a random new person, I always feel obliged to explain why so many women are nude in there...

I draw characters completely naked first, sometimes adding major muscles etc, and only afterwards start sketching in armor and erasing parts. However, before I decide on the pose of the character, I will think about generally what kind of armor/clothing I want them to have and the restrictions it places on poses.
Having a somewhat detailed body underneath gives you a better idea of where your armor should be placed, and how much "padding" there should be between the actual body and the clothing. It's like playing dress-up with a doll - you have the basic body to work with, and all you do is add all kinds of fun clothes on top. :3

It's a pretty cool pose; I hope you do get you use it in a different pic if you don't plan on finishing the sylvari one.

I usually draw my reference pose first and then draw the clothes that I want my person to have. I never thought about having to consider armor weighting and limitations D: ...

@Pery; thats sort of what I've been doing too. My block sketches aren't necessarily very good though, so when I draw to add things on they feel awkward. But I know what you mean about the naked thing. I would do some of Mina's workshop entries during classes and people would always be like
"MANNNN WHY ARE YOU DRAWING NAKED CHICKS?!"
and so eventually my answers would just run down to "She's wearing a onesie go away" xD

@Thistle Ive never really thought about armor weightings and such, but if you think about it, it sort of explains why some armors I draw that are cool in concept just look awkward and unrealistic.


So as expected, I sketched abit in my Anthro class. I was kind of just doodling in my sketch book (10 pages until I get a new one ) and I sort of drew a Black Knight - midieval* - hinge - pointy helmet. So I'm going with that because it sort of fetl shell-like. Which could sort of make sense as a natural armor material as enough of them could probably be formidable? :P I dont have a scanner this weekend but ive got my camera so when it's done Ill post the sketch.

*I had to google the spelling. It makes no sense O.o

P.s. Good luck getting your celestial rabbits everyone!

P.P.S After this sketch, I'm thinking ill start on my landscape. Could be good to take focus away from characters (challanging for me q.q) and back to something I've done before.

Edit Azillion. The most off topic edit; but anyone who needs a ridiculously great laugh MUST watch this amazing video. Totally safe for work, unless your work is against crazy women from the 80's.

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