Fanart Contest Round III: Ust Natha Portraits (UPDATE: Winners Announced!)
Jalily
Member Posts: 4,681
The theme of Round III of Candlekeep's Grand Fanart Contest is Ust Natha portraits! The winner(s) of this round will receive one free copy of BG:EE as well as one free copy of BG2:EE when it is released. In addition, your artwork may be featured in The Candlekeep Library! For a recap of the rules, please see this announcement. You do not need to sign up to participate, but we'd love it if you did.
Note: Participation in prior rounds is not required to participate in this one.
Theme
In Baldur's Gate II, we get to visit the drow city of Ust Natha in the Underdark, and we do so disguised as drow ourselves courtesy of Adalon. However, our portraits remain unaltered which, from a roleplaying perspective, is kinda awkward. For our third round, pick any number of joinable, non-drow NPCs (BG II preferred) and draw an alternate portait in drow disguise for them. If you choose to draw more than one portrait, each one will count as its own, separate submission.
Guidelines
Submissions must retain the style of the original Baldur's Gate portraits and the aspect ratios used in BG:EE. All three sizes should be accounted for (large = 210x330, medium = 169x266, small = 54x84), but higher-resolution portraits are welcome so long so they adhere to the in-game proportions. Please submit entries in BMP format.
Although multiple entries for the same joinable NPC will be accepted, we strongly encourage contestants to offer alternate drow portraits for different NPCs: This way, we may avoid ending up with several entries for popular NPCs and none for the others.
Ending Time
This round will end at 12:00 P.M. CET on March 6th, which is exactly two weeks from now (click the link to see the time and date for your time zone).
...
Ready? Set? Draw!
Note: Participation in prior rounds is not required to participate in this one.
Theme
In Baldur's Gate II, we get to visit the drow city of Ust Natha in the Underdark, and we do so disguised as drow ourselves courtesy of Adalon. However, our portraits remain unaltered which, from a roleplaying perspective, is kinda awkward. For our third round, pick any number of joinable, non-drow NPCs (BG II preferred) and draw an alternate portait in drow disguise for them. If you choose to draw more than one portrait, each one will count as its own, separate submission.
Guidelines
Submissions must retain the style of the original Baldur's Gate portraits and the aspect ratios used in BG:EE. All three sizes should be accounted for (large = 210x330, medium = 169x266, small = 54x84), but higher-resolution portraits are welcome so long so they adhere to the in-game proportions. Please submit entries in BMP format.
Although multiple entries for the same joinable NPC will be accepted, we strongly encourage contestants to offer alternate drow portraits for different NPCs: This way, we may avoid ending up with several entries for popular NPCs and none for the others.
Ending Time
This round will end at 12:00 P.M. CET on March 6th, which is exactly two weeks from now (click the link to see the time and date for your time zone).
...
Ready? Set? Draw!
Post edited by Jalily on
9
Comments
In order to be true to the FR lore, I followed a few guidelines. First, I used darker ebony skin rather than the light blue/black that Viconia has. Second, all facial hair was removed from the male drow characters. Third, I turned the three short NPCs (Jan, Korgan and soon Mazzy) into duergar, complete with the spiky hair, dull grey skin and grey eyes (http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Duergar). Third, I stuck with the muted colors that drow are often seen with. The eyes I allowed to be a range of red, purple and amber, even though red should dominate. Finally, I changed the backgrounds. They're in the Underdark after all, so they shouldn't have the same light backgrounds!
For each of the following, I may also throw in a few notes about the changes I made.
While I couldn't find any reference to the symbol on her forehead, it seemed like it wouldn't fit in the Underdark, so I replaced it with a symbol of Lolth.
This was quite difficult because of the beard entirely hiding his chin, so I had to guess where it would be. I altered it a bit by moving his mouth down; in its default location, it looked ridiculous when the beard was removed.
This was relatively straight-forward. His default portrait was easy to change, and I added a small spider symbol as a final touch.
Her portrait is actually a pain to change due to the oddly shaded areas after changing her hair to be white.
Other than the beard removal, this was a fast job. I may create a second version in which his eyes have more of an amber shade (similar to Haer'Dalis).
This one was quite fun to do. I removed his Rashemi tattoo and instead put one representing House Mizzrym (http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/House_Mizzrym). It makes sense, as few in Ust Natha would know all the members of the house, and they were heavily involved in trade around the time of the game. And I naturally had to change Boo a bit as well...
Like some of the others, her portrait was straight-forward. I did add the same symbol of House Mizzrym as a replacement for her amulet.
His hair looked horrific when changed to white, and dreadlocks seem odd for drow anyway, so I gave him smooth, flowing hair.
This was one of the most difficult for obvious reasons. His gnomish inventions would look out of place, and duergar are typically bald. Since I was sticking to lore-accurate changes, I also had to give him the "quill" beard. Basically, his portrait meant a lot of editing...
If Jan was tough, this one was a nightmare. His hair had to go, which meant creating a whole section of the armor that didn't exist.
I LOVED THEM ALL!
I just had to make one change to this before posting, so I'll do it now as well. What always baffled me about "drowified" portraits of Anomen was the fact that he's wearing a big symbol of Helm around his neck. You'd think that'd be a red light in the Underdark, so I changed it to a symbol of Lolth.
Nice to see it taking off like this
Well done @Isandir !!!
Also, for this reason, I think that Haer'Dalis is the best one since he looks most elf-ish. (even if he is supposed to be a tiefling)
I personally really like this - Example for a Drow priestess of Lolth -
I posted it here: http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/comment/232389/#Comment_232389
Minsc, Keldorn and Valygar still look human, despite the skin tone change.
However, Jaheira and Aerie look great and I adore Jan Jansen's new look. I am keeping that picture for...I dunno, something, I'll think something up.
(no not that, you pervs, jeez)
I'm seriously impressed by all the entries so far. Looks like this round will be even harder to judge than the last one!