[a_sh]

hi.

this is a prawing of a friends rpg-character that he asked me to draw. he is a knight and rather mean.
anyway, i don�t have a background yet but i'm working on that.
i'd really like som critique and suggestions... mostly about the colours and values and also the anatomy (the horse has problems here!)
the lines are sloppy and scetchy right now, i will fix that in the final version.

is the composition and pose working?

any tips are most welcome

[MoleculeMan]

I would recomend making the lance longer and the saddle larger.

Jake

[Jezebel]

The lance needs to be MUCH longer

[a_sh]

hmm... now that you mention it.
how could i ever draw the lance that small?!?
at least noone can accuse me of compensating for 'other stuff'

[Jezebel]

It's cool lance though... hehe... almost looks like a rocket

[Steven Stahlberg]

Here's an overpaint, to show my comments on the anatomy of horse and rider, hope you don't mind. Basically he needs to sit higher, straighter, and knee out more, and the horses neck more tapering and curved, and the hindquarters lower. I also did the hooves/fetlocks chunkier, but that's just my own personal bias.

[mister b]

hmm.
Anatomically:
I like what Steven Stahlberg has done with the horses head but I would have made the horse's legs even longer .. they are still a little 'pony' like. I wouldn't have made the rider more rigid tho .. this seems to take away all the pent up malice .. the real problem with the knights leg in a_sh's drawing is that the shin curves inward rather than outward. This give the impression that evil knights tend to have two left legs.

Positionally:
your knight is ready to ride off into battle, looking like he's in mid kick but he horse looks like he's been dead, stuffed and mounted for some years .. try to give your horse as much if not more malice and action as your knight .. all bad guys have a sort of symbiotic evil thing going on with their trusty steeds!

[Matt Elder]

You have a good base to an image here. My comments are similar to those mentioned before. Lance is too small unless that is your knights idea of handicapping himself so that the competition has a chance. I would agree with the pose. He seems to be slouching backwards for no particular reason (maybe he's helmet is the dense-est thing on earth and he is struggling to support it). Keep at it and I'm sure it will turn out fine.

[a_sh]

thx for all the tips! they really help.

Steven Stahlberg: overpaints are the best form of constructive critisism, so i definetly don't mind.
i have had big problems with the horse anatomy, so that part really helped.

when it comes to the pose of the knight, i probably should have given abit more background info (about the background mostly)
the reason why he isn't sitting straigt is because he's supposed to look evil, with all the props from his 'good' orden, that was pretty much all i had to work with (the horse must definetly look more evil though)
thx to mister b for pointing that out

but i see what you mean. i'll try to straighetn him up some...

this was the first time i've ever made a serious attempt to draw a horse, so i gathered a few photos of different horses before i began. as far as i could tell, warhorses are rather short, almost ponylike. (at least they look short because of the bulky body)
i'll try making the leggs longer to see how it turns out

edit: fixed some typos

[ October 05, 2001: Message edited by: a_sh ]

[Jezebel]

If you want a guy to look evil you can't dress him in white and blue... those are angelic-like colors. It's just against the rules ^_^

That guys needs some menacing garb. His horse as well, don't give his horse a sheet to wear... give him some crazy spiked armour plates!

I also think that if you have the guy sitting up straight he will appear more evil, contrary to what you think. A good villian is confident and strong, he appears almost immortal. He should sit up rigid and firm as though he knows exactly what he's doing. Then give him a more wicked helmet, something with "expression". Perhaps the eye slots can be slanted inward to represent an evil stare. You could put some horns on the side.

Just a few thoughts. But maybe I'm putting too much personal opinion into it :>

[Jezebel]

And one more thing... the horse should look evil as well. Give him a mean stare with steam being snorted out of his nose. Maybe he's restless and stomping his feet - ready to charge.

From what I've read the old warhorses were very similar to a modern day Clydesdale. You may want to look up reference photos of that specific type of horse. Webshots.com will probably have some nice pics.

[ October 05, 2001: Message edited by: Jezebel ]

[Probotech]

Jezebel said it all.

Color suggestion:
Classic Evil Knigth: Black & Red
Modern Evil: Dark Blue-Grey & Black
Evil: Black & Purple
Evil2: Orange & Black

Basicly...anything with black.

[MoleculeMan]

UNless ofcourse he is the evilist of all black knights, the ones posing as good knights!

I like steve's overpaint, in that it rounds the horses bottom end. Post the next installment already

Jake

[Rohan]

Looks like that magic card 'White Knight', i would scan it but .. . *is lazy*

Nice pic though

[Matt Elder]

now that I look at it again, it is almost like the knight is looking at the lance and thinking

"what the?!"