• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EST 20:30
CET 02:30
KST 10:30
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
RSL Season 3 - Playoffs Preview0RSL Season 3 - RO16 Groups C & D Preview0RSL Season 3 - RO16 Groups A & B Preview2TL.net Map Contest #21: Winners12Intel X Team Liquid Seoul event: Showmatches and Meet the Pros10
Community News
Weekly Cups (Nov 24-30): MaxPax, Clem, herO win2BGE Stara Zagora 2026 announced15[BSL21] Ro.16 Group Stage (C->B->A->D)4Weekly Cups (Nov 17-23): Solar, MaxPax, Clem win3RSL Season 3: RO16 results & RO8 bracket13
StarCraft 2
General
Chinese SC2 server to reopen; live all-star event in Hangzhou Maestros of the Game: Live Finals Preview (RO4) BGE Stara Zagora 2026 announced Weekly Cups (Nov 24-30): MaxPax, Clem, herO win SC2 Proleague Discontinued; SKT, KT, SGK, CJ disband
Tourneys
RSL Offline FInals Sea Duckling Open (Global, Bronze-Diamond) $5,000+ WardiTV 2025 Championship Constellation Cup - Main Event - Stellar Fest RSL Revival: Season 3
Strategy
Custom Maps
Map Editor closed ?
External Content
Mutation # 502 Negative Reinforcement Mutation # 501 Price of Progress Mutation # 500 Fright night Mutation # 499 Chilling Adaptation
Brood War
General
BW General Discussion Which season is the best in ASL? Data analysis on 70 million replays BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ [ASL20] Ask the mapmakers — Drop your questions
Tourneys
[BSL21] RO16 Group D - Sunday 21:00 CET [BSL21] RO16 Group A - Saturday 21:00 CET [Megathread] Daily Proleagues [BSL21] RO16 Group B - Sunday 21:00 CET
Strategy
Current Meta Game Theory for Starcraft How to stay on top of macro? PvZ map balance
Other Games
General Games
ZeroSpace Megathread Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Nintendo Switch Thread The Perfect Game Path of Exile
Dota 2
Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug Heroes of StarCraft mini-set
TL Mafia
Mafia Game Mode Feedback/Ideas TL Mafia Community Thread
Community
General
Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine Russo-Ukrainian War Thread US Politics Mega-thread The Big Programming Thread Artificial Intelligence Thread
Fan Clubs
White-Ra Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
[Manga] One Piece Movie Discussion! Anime Discussion Thread
Sports
2024 - 2026 Football Thread Formula 1 Discussion NBA General Discussion
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread
TL Community
Where to ask questions and add stream? The Automated Ban List
Blogs
James Bond movies ranking - pa…
Topin
Esports Earnings: Bigger Pri…
TrAiDoS
Thanks for the RSL
Hildegard
Saturation point
Uldridge
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 1795 users

D2 Portrait Drafting

Blogs > Raihn
Post a Reply
Raihn
Profile Blog Joined August 2008
United States216 Posts
November 17 2017 08:34 GMT
#1


[image loading]
[image loading] [image loading]

This is an image I rendered in order to place on my PSN profile. I wish I could make it my avatar for PSN as well as Bungie.net, but alas the fates have not willed it. I feel the image is incomplete, but I’ll need to execute the draft and give it some time to watch and learn to decide how best to proceed

I tried to implement some feedback from the SC Portrait Fail discussion, I'm interested to listen to feedback for this. I dont consider it done, but I am giving it a day or two before I go back for another round.



*****
GraphicsRaihnForge.com - Let me know if you need something!
Coagulation
Profile Blog Joined July 2006
United States9633 Posts
November 17 2017 12:00 GMT
#2
Man thats a nice custom avatar.

I wish TL had custom avatars.
lestye
Profile Blog Joined August 2010
United States4186 Posts
November 17 2017 17:46 GMT
#3
Looks cool. Although strangely enough the first thing I thought of was the character featured prominently throughout Anthem's trailer and promotional material.
"You guys are just edgelords. Embrace your inner weeb desu" -Zergneedsfood
ByuuN
Profile Joined November 2016
Poland678 Posts
November 18 2017 13:59 GMT
#4
Great.
Glider
Profile Blog Joined December 2005
United States1353 Posts
Last Edited: 2017-11-19 05:03:53
November 18 2017 16:24 GMT
#5
cool design. I played around with it a bit. hope it helps.
Two biggest areas to tweak is lighting (various values at areas) and form.
The lighting effect I played with a bit, if i had more time I can play around with texture but it isn't a priority for a small avatar.
[image loading]

Raihn
Profile Blog Joined August 2008
United States216 Posts
Last Edited: 2017-11-19 08:33:37
November 19 2017 08:22 GMT
#6
Thank you for everyone's feedback <3 you all!

Glider, Thanks!! I made these changes today before I saw your post! Yours is still better. I'm so out of practice with illustration, Great feedback, thank you! Let me know what you think of my update below. I think I'll try another round on it tomorrow to incorporate what you've laid out. I need to be more diligent about thumbnailing and reasoning out my values and light sources before I dig too far in. I didn't realize on the onset that I wanted to have the glow so prominent, and originally liked the idea of a sort of happy forest in the background. In essence, I think the story I was trying to tell was conflicted, so drawing two different 'moods' at the same time. Very bad practice. TY TY TY!

PS So funny how we added a lot of the same details. More texture, same chip placement, many of the same fixes, but mine isn't as well thought out and executed.


[image loading]
GraphicsRaihnForge.com - Let me know if you need something!
Glider
Profile Blog Joined December 2005
United States1353 Posts
Last Edited: 2017-11-19 16:15:54
November 19 2017 15:57 GMT
#7
On November 19 2017 17:22 Raihn wrote:
Thank you for everyone's feedback <3 you all!

Glider, Thanks!! I made these changes today before I saw your post! Yours is still better. I'm so out of practice with illustration, Great feedback, thank you! Let me know what you think of my update below. I think I'll try another round on it tomorrow to incorporate what you've laid out. I need to be more diligent about thumbnailing and reasoning out my values and light sources before I dig too far in. I didn't realize on the onset that I wanted to have the glow so prominent, and originally liked the idea of a sort of happy forest in the background. In essence, I think the story I was trying to tell was conflicted, so drawing two different 'moods' at the same time. Very bad practice. TY TY TY!

PS So funny how we added a lot of the same details. More texture, same chip placement, many of the same fixes, but mine isn't as well thought out and executed.


[image loading]


Better! and strictly speaking from avatar design's goal it's not necessary make things quite as realistic or dark in some parts as I have. Yours is more bright, which when u shrink it could be closer to what you are looking for. feel free to test it out with mine and such. The reason I made parts in my version (esp bot) darker, both the figure + the environment is to add contrast and kinda fix this conflict you created with the super black neck line. You see the problem is if he is outside then there would be plenty of rebound and environmental light causing things to be more lit up, even if he isn't facing the sun, like you latest iteration. But if that is the case why is his neck pitch black all the way through like a void. If it is black fabric / paint there should still be some subtle reflection/ a gradient. So the only way the uniform pitch black neck can make sense is if it's near sunset/rise where light is not as scattered and rebound light is not as uniform from all directions and as strong, and your character blocks most of it. (so technically I could make the sun lower and over all background darker as well in my drawing)

Another thing i want to point out is that, look at the red lines i have drawn on my critique, see how it looks like his head is not a round helmet but has this weird concave all the way through the center of the head on one side. You probably want to make it so the shape conforms to the blue line. Unless you specifically wanted his head to have this shape.

yeah always look at the big form and shapes and shades first, get those values right then add details to your heart's content. If you do it detail first, it is much more of a pain in the ass and generally not practiced by 99.99% of illustration professionals. (not saying I am one, but I know a couple and seen enough work to come to that conclusion). Generally you start from rough guideline/line drawing/pencil sketch (w/e u need to get the initial shape and form, detail ideas like you have. Then when it actually comes to painting u go general first, then u add in the details. In this case head wise you would start with a giant egg like thing, shade it right, then go in with the details.
Raihn
Profile Blog Joined August 2008
United States216 Posts
November 20 2017 10:14 GMT
#8
Thanks again for all the guidance, Glider, I really appreciate it!
GraphicsRaihnForge.com - Let me know if you need something!
Powerpill
Profile Blog Joined October 2002
United States1693 Posts
November 20 2017 10:33 GMT
#9
Oh, I was expecting a picture of a pee-wee hockey team. The robot looks nice too though. ^_^
The pretty things are going to hell, they wore it out but they wore it well
FFGenerations
Profile Blog Joined April 2011
7088 Posts
November 21 2017 20:56 GMT
#10
good job guys love this
Cool BW Music Vid - youtube.com/watch?v=W54nlqJ-Nx8 ~~~~~ ᕤ OYSTERS ᕤ CLAMS ᕤ AND ᕤ CUCKOLDS ᕤ ~~~~~~ ༼ ᕤ◕◡◕ ༽ᕤ PUNCH HIM ༼ ᕤ◕◡◕ ༽ᕤ
Fleetfeet
Profile Blog Joined May 2014
Canada2607 Posts
Last Edited: 2017-11-22 17:52:18
November 22 2017 03:35 GMT
#11
First off - Love it when people share their progress as an artist, especially when the results are good and always getting better. You're awesome, thanks for sharing!

Now for, as requested, some crits :

One thing I noticed you've left behind in your pencil sketch is the willingness to use silhouette to define or reinforce form. I'm stuck on my crappy laptop with cs3 and a touchpad, but I still managed to scrape together an edit to overdramatically show what I'm talking about. I definitely don't think all my choices were good ones, but it does help show how you have a ton of landscape to add shape/depth to the portrait without much of any effort.

[image loading]

I would also be careful of having the earpiece be a dominant focal point without having a clear idea of what to do with it. Right now, it's a wobbly shape at best - which is to say it isn't a clean and perfect shape as you would expect on an exo, nor does it look like it performs some specific function or anything.

I wish I had better tools to test/execute my ideas, and I salute you for your excellent overall design and execution. Thanks for sharing, and again, you're awesome <3
FFGenerations
Profile Blog Joined April 2011
7088 Posts
November 22 2017 09:35 GMT
#12
image says please update your account to enable 3rd party hosting ^
Cool BW Music Vid - youtube.com/watch?v=W54nlqJ-Nx8 ~~~~~ ᕤ OYSTERS ᕤ CLAMS ᕤ AND ᕤ CUCKOLDS ᕤ ~~~~~~ ༼ ᕤ◕◡◕ ༽ᕤ PUNCH HIM ༼ ᕤ◕◡◕ ༽ᕤ
Glider
Profile Blog Joined December 2005
United States1353 Posts
Last Edited: 2017-11-27 02:58:51
November 22 2017 16:12 GMT
#13
On November 20 2017 19:14 Raihn wrote:
Thanks again for all the guidance, Glider, I really appreciate it!


ya and i really only point out the parts that i think you could consider change or modify if it makes sense to you. Art is subjective so everything I mentioned is just my suggestion from my limited experience. There is plenty of good / right thing you did, but I feel it's a waste of time to give you pad on the back and encouragement for those at this stage. You want max efficiency toward improvement I'm sure.
Fleetfeet
Profile Blog Joined May 2014
Canada2607 Posts
Last Edited: 2017-11-22 17:52:36
November 22 2017 17:46 GMT
#14
On November 22 2017 18:35 FFGenerations wrote:
image says please update your account to enable 3rd party hosting ^


This is what I get for forgetting my passwords :D

on it.

-e- I fix!
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Replay Cast
00:00
WardiTV Mondays #62
CranKy Ducklings95
LiquipediaDiscussion
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
PiGStarcraft521
elazer 162
Nathanias 54
CosmosSc2 43
StarCraft: Brood War
Artosis 671
Larva 176
Bale 32
Noble 32
Dota 2
monkeys_forever545
NeuroSwarm58
League of Legends
C9.Mang0308
Counter-Strike
Foxcn293
Other Games
summit1g12696
tarik_tv4987
FrodaN1424
Day[9].tv731
shahzam523
RotterdaM155
Maynarde123
Mew2King77
ViBE46
ToD29
Organizations
Other Games
gamesdonequick750
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
sctven
[ Show 17 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• Hupsaiya 50
• Migwel
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• sooper7s
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
StarCraft: Brood War
• RayReign 37
• Azhi_Dahaki16
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
• BSLYoutube
Dota 2
• Ler53
League of Legends
• Doublelift4455
Other Games
• imaqtpie1408
• Day9tv731
Upcoming Events
The PondCast
8h 30m
OSC
14h 30m
Demi vs Mixu
Nicoract vs TBD
Babymarine vs MindelVK
ForJumy vs TBD
Shameless vs Percival
Replay Cast
22h 30m
Korean StarCraft League
2 days
CranKy Ducklings
2 days
WardiTV 2025
2 days
SC Evo League
2 days
BSL 21
2 days
Sziky vs OyAji
Gypsy vs eOnzErG
OSC
2 days
Solar vs Creator
ByuN vs Gerald
Percival vs Babymarine
Moja vs Krystianer
EnDerr vs ForJumy
sebesdes vs Nicoract
Sparkling Tuna Cup
3 days
[ Show More ]
WardiTV 2025
3 days
OSC
3 days
BSL 21
3 days
Bonyth vs StRyKeR
Tarson vs Dandy
Replay Cast
4 days
Wardi Open
4 days
StarCraft2.fi
4 days
Monday Night Weeklies
4 days
Replay Cast
4 days
WardiTV 2025
5 days
StarCraft2.fi
5 days
PiGosaur Monday
5 days
StarCraft2.fi
6 days
Tenacious Turtle Tussle
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Proleague 2025-11-30
RSL Revival: Season 3
Light HT

Ongoing

C-Race Season 1
IPSL Winter 2025-26
KCM Race Survival 2025 Season 4
YSL S2
BSL Season 21
CSCL: Masked Kings S3
Slon Tour Season 2
Acropolis #4 - TS3
META Madness #9
SL Budapest Major 2025
ESL Impact League Season 8
BLAST Rivals Fall 2025
IEM Chengdu 2025
PGL Masters Bucharest 2025
Thunderpick World Champ.
CS Asia Championships 2025
ESL Pro League S22
StarSeries Fall 2025
FISSURE Playground #2

Upcoming

BSL 21 Non-Korean Championship
Acropolis #4
IPSL Spring 2026
Bellum Gens Elite Stara Zagora 2026
HSC XXVIII
RSL Offline Finals
WardiTV 2025
Kuram Kup
PGL Cluj-Napoca 2026
IEM Kraków 2026
BLAST Bounty Winter 2026
BLAST Bounty Winter Qual
eXTREMESLAND 2025
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2025 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.