I would welcome another gnome portrait, but do gnomes have to always be steampunk?
They don't, of course. It is a visual way to distinguish a gnome's face from a halfling's. "A mysterious person with a hood" could be either or neither. I will make a note of it, however.
What about the big nose and beard? I know a gnome doesn't have to have a beard, but the avatars do anyway...
How do you tell big nose and beard apart from a Dwarf?
If gnomes had some distinguishing feature that would be very helpful, like blue skin or little horns, but they aren't physically well defined apart from their gadgetry.
Gnomes and Dwarves tend to have pictures that work well for either race. I don't think I'm the only person who feels this way. If people want to simply say "This guy is only a dwarf!" or "That guy is clearly a gnome!" that's kind of their problem.
Look at Tiax and Quayle. Neither have any "steampunk" elements and someone could argue works just as well for a dwarf as for the gnomes they actually represent.
Well there's one portrait I recall having searched for for a long time and finally not finding anything, but it's rather specific. It was a halfling barbarian/sorcerer character (IWD2) and I wanted a portrait with a raging evil-looking halfling on it. The internet has a lot of stuff on it, but I might have overestimated its capacity in this case.
Calishites, Tethyrians, Waterdhavians... A woman in poor clothing, probably a bit dirty...good for a Ranger or a Thief. A man that looks like Fabio Lanzoni, looks very alluring...good for Bards. A halfling female or male holding some jewelry, as if offering, or perhaps astonished. More gnomes. More dorfs. I think Icewind Dale compensated for Baldur's Gate. There were more dwarves, gnomes, and halflings there than humans, half-elves, or elves! More "evil" portraits...perhaps depicting the symbol of Bhaal. Sort of like daddy's little boy or daddy's little girl.
@Hertz I would say a normal black guy wouldn't be bad. There doesn't have to be anything necessarily specific, just normal fantasy stuff. Black Paladins tend to look pretty awesome, though a Morgan Freeman esque wizard would also be enjoyable. If I recall correctly there either just weren't any or they were already being used by NPCs.
...a normal black guy wouldn't be bad. There doesn't have to be anything necessarily specific...
I appreciate that you both feel there is a distinct need for a niche to be filled, but a portrait probably represents hours of work. I don't want to spend 5-6 hours on a drawing of "just a normal black guy" and get the response, "No, not that one."
Make Morgan Freeman in a nice blue and gold silk robe with a smile on his face and you'll have a friend for life. For a background adds some type of high backed fancy chair with ornate corners at the top.
Old Morgan Freeman too, maybe show some of that gray in his beard. Hell I'd change that to my avatar and post it all over facebook with a link to whatever account of yours hosts your artwork. Also I guarantee your art will be appreciated, I have worked with many artists before and I know the time and care they put into their work. Putting that much of your time into something for someone you don't know is good character, there is absolutely no way I would just say "Uh not that one."
I would welcome another gnome portrait, but do gnomes have to always be steampunk? Before Jan they didn't really have that vibe going on in BG. It's not like they can craft items in BG or anything. What I'd like to see is a gnome in a hooded cape, as that could pass equally for a thief, illusionist, or cleric of Baravar Cloakshadow.
@salieri Actually there's a subset of gnomes who are tinkerers: "Tinker gnomes are the common gnomes of the Dragonlance campaign setting." So they're D&D but I'm not sure if FR has them though... I think that in this case the artist that made Jan really made his portrait to fit his personality more than gnomes in general
@Hertz Why not a young female gnome cleric (mediterranean, light brown - fits with the lore and from a lot of time in the sun; light brown hair with blonde highlights - from a lot of time in the sun again ) She is wearing a necklace with the symbol of Garl Glittergold (the main deity of the surface gnomes) and a chainmail. For an element of whimsy you could add a badly made flower circlet hanging loosely over her forehead on one side. A smiling young Bhaalspawn, so far untried by the world.
I'd like a picture of Imoen that fits her BG1 personality. A happy-go-lucky young woman. I don't think either of the official portraits suit her character.
It would be cool if someone tell us what dimensions the new portraits will have to be, in order to make the new fan-made portraits fitting to the enhanced edition
@Sophia From the BG:EE screenshots we've seen (the new batch with the UI shown) it seems that the format remains the same as it was in BG1, BG2, and IWD1.
@Hertz I'll be very blunt about this. There are not enough black people, and that's always bothered me. It just cuts out some of the realism in my opinion...
I had a similar problem in NwN. Wanted to make a character based on the black man with the bald head (aside from one pony tail from the top). Couldn't find a single voice that fit. At all. Gave up on the idea, because it would have bugged me to hear the voice that doesn't match the image...
@Sophia I see. It would be an interesting decision for them to change the large portrait's size. I'm not sure how I'd feel about it. On one hand, bigger portraits is good. On the other, my portrait collection encompassing over 130 portraits would suddenly be useless. Hmm...
@Sophia I see. It would be an interesting decision for them to change the large portrait's size. I'm not sure how I'd feel about it. On one hand, bigger portraits is good. On the other, my portrait collection encompassing over 130 portraits would suddenly be useless. Hmm...
Exactly, for me it would be the same. But since we have to wait till november I wouldn't mind to spend some time to resize and make new portraits, if they tell us what the new size will be
Comments
What about the big nose and beard? I know a gnome doesn't have to have a beard, but the avatars do anyway...
If gnomes had some distinguishing feature that would be very helpful, like blue skin or little horns, but they aren't physically well defined apart from their gadgetry.
Look at Tiax and Quayle. Neither have any "steampunk" elements and someone could argue works just as well for a dwarf as for the gnomes they actually represent.
I think the key is silly hats.
I couldn't draw my way out of a paper bag. Anyone up for creating a grizzled and battle-worn David the Gnome??
Calishites, Tethyrians, Waterdhavians...
A woman in poor clothing, probably a bit dirty...good for a Ranger or a Thief.
A man that looks like Fabio Lanzoni, looks very alluring...good for Bards.
A halfling female or male holding some jewelry, as if offering, or perhaps astonished.
More gnomes. More dorfs. I think Icewind Dale compensated for Baldur's Gate. There were more dwarves, gnomes, and halflings there than humans, half-elves, or elves!
More "evil" portraits...perhaps depicting the symbol of Bhaal. Sort of like daddy's little boy or daddy's little girl.
@Hertz
Why not a young female gnome cleric (mediterranean, light brown - fits with the lore and from a lot of time in the sun; light brown hair with blonde highlights - from a lot of time in the sun again
That was the question and the answer:
"First: Thank you for being awesome.
Second: Are portraits still limited to 110x170 in size?
Portraits should be slightly larger I believe. There's always the giant version in the Character Record screen if you want to gaze longingly into the eyes of Cameron Tofer: http://catalogingjunkie.net/BG1BG2style/images/GarrickH_jpg.jpg"
But since we have to wait till november I wouldn't mind to spend some time to resize and make new portraits, if they tell us what the new size will be
In other news, larger portraits. Yay!
No need to put your collection on trash, it exists several freeware for resize quickly the pictures.