[Commissar_Will]

OK, I've made this thread separate from my main compilation thread because it's a separate (and very big) project that'll take some time to work on. What I have here are some initial detail sketches for three of the main charachters, as well as the Warlord-class Titan "Pertinax", in which most of the comic is set. I'll colour them when I work out what colours I'll be using for the Titan Legion, currently named the "Screaming Talons" until I think of anything better. I'm thinking of either red and yellow or red and dark green as a colour scheme at the moment, but I'm still not sure. Anyway, here's the Titan himself in all his (non-coloured) glory:



And now for the main charachters. I posted this pic up in the Enclave when I was getting people's advice on starting a webcomic, but I suppose I'd better put it in here as well. From left to right, the charachters are Lt. Gen. Waldo Mart, the commander of the ground forces at the Descartes Hive Siege, Princeps Emmanuel Kurn, Princeps of the Pertinax and the comic's protagonist, and Enginseer Josephus, Chief Engineer on the Pertinax.



Well, that's all I've got so far. Next job is a detail sketch of some of the other charachters, including Private Joe, the Pertinax' two Moderatii and the Tactical Officer, Administorum Inspector Livia Morden, Commissar Doppelpunkt and Princeps Majoris Devran Mannheim, not to mention all the enemy charachters. And please give me any comments or criticisms you may have.

[Commissar_Will]

Well, here's some of the IG charachters - from left to right, Commissar Doppelpunkt (yes, I know, he looks awful. Just ignore it, it might go away ), Private Joe and Sniper Sergeant Castor. Joe's hands and grenades are a little out of scale, but other than that he turned out OK, and I was pretty pleased with Castor overall. Coloured pics will come soon (honest!), but at the moment I'm working on Descartes Hive and it's taking bloody ages.

On the subject of Titan colour schemes, I decided against red and yellow because it's too much like the Legio Ignatum. I'm thinking of red and brown now, but any suggestions would be severely welcome.

[DELPHEUS]

Well done on the Titan and I'd say the color scheme (red and brown) makes me imagine an AdMech Titan. :-\

Side note, when did IG smile? When did anyone in the far future smile? :P

I look forward to reading the comic. What's the story?

[Commissar_Will]

Well, it's a fairly light-hearted comic - hence the smiling. I won't give away too much of the future content of the strip, but here's a brief synopsis:

The main charachter is Emmanuel Kurn, the cheerful-looking Princeps in the middle of the first picture. Ever since he first saw a Titan legion on his homeworld at the age of 6 (while his dad was driving away VERY fast), he's always wanted to pilot a Titan. And now, as the newly-instated Princeps of the Warlord Titan "Pertinax", he's got his wish. His first assignment is to help break the deadlock at the siege of Descartes Hive, where the Cadian 571st have been fighting a war of waiting for months with little sign of either side backing down. But it will not be easy - he not only has to contend with the hostility of his new crew, especially the old and stubborn Enginseer Josephus, but he also has to look good in front of Livia Mordent, a cold-hearted chainsmoking inspector whose assignment is to identify any sign of unsuitability in him, and remove him from his position before the mind link with the Titan becomes too strong. And as if fighting his own colleagues wasn't enough, he soon finds he has an adversary - a shadowy alien psyker who seems strangely intent on goading him towards his doom...

Apart from Kurn, the action will also occasionally centre on the IG ground troops - from Lt. Gen. Waldo Mart and his constant battle not to get summarily executed by a trigger-happy Commissar, to the average soldiery dealings of Private Joe and his mates (he'll become a lot more important later...), as well as Sniper Sergeant Castor and his squadmate, a Gone-with-the-blastwave-esque duo of snipers stationed on the mountains overlooking the hive, getting very bored.

And yes, the brown and red is a little Admech-like - can you think of anything else that'd go better with brown?

[arandomshadow]

Hehe, looks pretty good . You're quite a talented artist, though you didn't use a ruler did you :shifty:?I really like the Techpriest's Power Axe. It's good to see you go into detail as well with such a light-humoured comic, the first Comissar's Laspistol for example, which looks great. Also, I don't think you need to change Comissar Doppelpunkt, he fits in quite nicely. For Sergeant Castor I think it would be brilliant if he just had a twig with a couple of leaves on sticking out of the top of his helmet instead of all the camouflage, at the moment he doesn't have anything particularly comical about him. Finally, the Plasma Cannon looks a bit too small on the Titan, lengthen the bottom a bit more because it's too narrow. Keep it up.

[Commissar_Will]

Thanks. And no, I didn't use a ruler acutally, other than for measuring the Titan to check the proportions - drawing accurate freehand straight lines is one thing I actually can do. And Castor actually does have a twig with leaves on on his helmet, it's just not that obvious. Might make it a bit more prominent in the comic. And I totally agree on the Plasma Cannon, looked odd to me at the time. Again, in the final comic it'll be a bit bigger, balance it out a bit. Thanks for your encouragement!

As I still haven't finished that damned hive yet, here's a rough 2 minute sketch (hence the bad quality) for one of the antagonists, an unnamed female Farseer, as well as some head ideas - I'm still unsure as to whether to stick with the "dot" eyes for the Eldar, or have more expressive and realistic eyes. You will note that she is NOT a size-zero blonde with a thin face and hair cascading down her shoulders - I thought it was about time we had a frizzy-haired brunette with a button nose and freckles for a Farseer. Don't worry, she's still an incredibly powerful and mysterious individual with an infuriating superiority complex like the rest of those Space Elves. I'd like to know what you guys think on the eye issue, as I can't decide for the life of me. Also, I need to age her a bit somehow, she looks about 12 at the moment. And her waist looks a bit straight, she needs more curves. Meh, it is a rough sketch after all.

[MalusHunter]

Try making her head thinner, generally a fat head without a fat body makes the figure look younger .

[arandomshadow]

Just add a couple of lines where dimples would appear, but longer. Make the face a bit longer as well. That will make her look older. As for the eyes, I would keep them as they are, they're not very Eldar-like but neither's the face, so they suit each other.
What I meant about Castor was get rid of all the camouflage apart from the twig on his head.

[Commissar_Will]

Hmm...you mean sort of like this? (Again, quick sketch). Made her head smaller in comparison to body, and added a few lines. Not too many though - she's in her 20s or 30s, after all. (Or at least the Eldar equivalent of that, she's probably about 200 or something.)



I meant to get a bit of inspiration from Velma (the chick of Scooby Doo), but firstly most of her face is hidden by glasses, and secondly...well, let's just say that you don't want to type in the name of ANY female cartoon charachters on Deviantart if you value your sanity. Good grief there are some strange people in this world...fanart can be a terrible thing. Anyway, moving swiftly onwards...how's "Luriel" for an Eldar-sounding name for her? Also, could anybody give me some guidelines on how to write in a Yorkshire accent - Luriel's husband, Autarch Alkali, has a Yorkshire accent. At least partially inspired by that dodgy Eldar cutscene in Soulstorm.

[arandomshadow]

The face does look older, which is a good improvement. However, you seem to have added curves roughly where the knees would be [that could just be the 'skirt' though]. Where the stomach is you need to bend the body inwards slightly and then out again around the waist, making it level with the shoulders. Also, the arms look slightly too bulky, perhaps just narrowing them a bit and showing the elbow a bit more would work better. The only other thing is the pose of her right arm, thinking about it, I wouldn't have thought someone would put their singing spear behind their back like that, maybe if they were about to swing it in an arc in attack but she's not doing that. I would simple have her standing it straight, on the ground. Possibly leaning on it slightly. Don't be discouraged though, what you've done is good, just some areas need refining. Keep it up .