Stretch Goal - hire Justin Sweet to make portraits.

[Gorth]

As much as I like Justin Sweet's work, I would rather see something new. To me his work ( and Jason Manley's) is too connected to the IWD series.

VMBL too for that matter. Lots of interesting art work was made for that game.

[Sedrefilos]

He's great but, to be honest, i would't like that serious, sad face to everyone around me :D

 

Also I prefer 3d custom made by me portraits than pre-drawn for me. I couldn't ever get attached to any of the pre-made portraits in IE games and I loved that i could make the face i wanted in the most recent rgps.

Edited October 25, 2012 by Sedrefilos

[Karranthain]

As much as I like Justin Sweet's work, I would rather see something new. To me his work ( and Jason Manley's) is too connected to the IWD series.

 

I can definitely agree with that, it is; personally, I don't mind it, but I can see your point.

 

But to quote Josh from the latest interview :

 

We look at Icewind Dale levels for a lot of our inspiration. They were beautiful settings full of atmosphere, interesting architecture, and a ton of cool, hand-painted details. Also the relatively subdued color palettes of that art falls in line with what we want to explore, similar in saturation what you might see in the art of the Hudson River School. We also look at Icewind Dale portraits because the brushwork of all of the artists tended to have an enjoyable mix of loose and tight strokes.

 

It seems we were right about Sagani's portrait - it's definitely influenced by the Icewind Dale style.

Edited October 25, 2012 by Karranthain

[Malkaven]

Justin Sweet is simply put my favorite fantasy artist. I've been really bummed that Magic the Gathering hasn't used him for any cards in a long time. I think he has a very strong painterly style which I prefer over photo-realism. Especially in terms of character portraits. Sometimes in BG2 everything was just a bit too defined so in the end I felt that they were good paintings for somebody's character but they weren't MY character. Leaving things a bit rougher and painterly allows for me to fill in the broad strokes with my imagination and feel that it's really my character.

 

I've always loved his paintings of Narnia

 

 

Man, the polar bears in the bottom picture look amazing. From the posted pics I would definitely support him joining the Obsidan team again.

[jezz555]

Yes. No. No.

 

Not fond of "boobplates" for armor. Other than those the style is very nice, though.

 

Hey, at least they're all fully armoured, which is quite rare in itself

 

Good point, but still.

 

The armor in the first of the three pictures looks a lot more functional, and less silly. Largely because of the lack of boobplate.

 

How exactly does the addition of molded breasts make the armor any less functional? If anything the added angles would deflect the kinetic energy of a sword blow better. You might not like the design, but steel plate is steel plate, regardless of what's on it.

[Merlkir]

How exactly does the addition of molded breasts make the armor any less functional? If anything the added angles would deflect the kinetic energy of a sword blow better. You might not like the design, but steel plate is steel plate, regardless of what's on it.

 

On the contrary. There's been an article posted several times in threads on here, where an armor smith talks about this stuff. The breasts direct blows and stabs into the middle of the chest. Also the way it's shaped creates edges that would possibly hurt the sternum and internal organs if struck with force.

 

http://madartlab.com/2011/12/14/fantasy-armor-and-lady-bits/

[Karranthain]

How exactly does the addition of molded breasts make the armor any less functional? If anything the added angles would deflect the kinetic energy of a sword blow better. You might not like the design, but steel plate is steel plate, regardless of what's on it.

 

On the contrary. There's been an article posted several times in threads on here, where an armor smith talks about this stuff. The breasts direct blows and stabs into the middle of the chest. Also the way it's shaped creates edges that would possibly hurt the sternum and internal organs if struck with force.

 

http://madartlab.com...-and-lady-bits/

 

Please, let's not open this can of worms

[Grotesque]

I think all the artwork will be done by the same person that made the character portraits in the updates, inhouse

Even if those received "great feedback", I don't like them at all. I think that they are bland and lack originality

 

Of course Justin Sweet will be a dream come true to be hired but sadly that's not gonna happen if you don't chain yourself to Obsidian's gates and declare hunger strike. And that excluding more hardcore choices I had in mind

[Sensuki]

Eh I preferred the wallpaper tbh, which I think was done by a different person.

 

But yes P:E is a very in-house Obsidian project, I don't think there'll be much outsourcing of stuff. As with Justin Bell getting his first shot at composing, they'll likely keep the art in house as well.

Edited October 27, 2012 by Sensuki

[Karranthain]

Eh I preferred the wallpaper tbh, which I think was done by a different person.

 

But yes P:E is a very in-house Obsidian project, I don't think there'll be much outsourcing of stuff. As with Justin Bell getting his first shot at composing, they'll likely keep the art in house as well.

 

I prefered the wallpaper Sagani version, for an instance

 

And yeah, that may very well be the case - I guess we'll find out more soon enough, they're currently assaying the budget.

Edited October 27, 2012 by Karranthain

[ArkhanTheBlack]

His art is pretty average to be honest. For rough scenario drawings they are okay, but for character portraits they lack too much detail.

Artists like Luis Royo, Cris Ortega, Wu Shuang, Jonathon Bowser, Keith Parkinson, Linda Bergkvist, etc. have much better art.

[Merlkir]

Meh. I take it you're enchanted by kitchy sacharine female portraits then? These artists you list are either oldschool (and most likely too expensive/uninterested in videogames), or quite boring, or lying cheats (like Linda Bergkvist).

Sweet is "average"? Good ****ing grief...

[Guts]

Meh. I take it you're enchanted by kitchy sacharine female portraits then? These artists you list are either oldschool (and most likely too expensive/uninterested in videogames), or quite boring, or lying cheats (like Linda Bergkvist).

Sweet is "average"? Good ****ing grief...

 

Newsflash. People have different tastes in drawn art. One person likes another style and another person likes something else.

 

I personally find Justin Sweet's art unfit for "portraits".

Edited October 28, 2012 by Guts

[nikolokolus]

Hire Tony Di'Terlizzi

[Merlkir]

Meh. I take it you're enchanted by kitchy sacharine female portraits then? These artists you list are either oldschool (and most likely too expensive/uninterested in videogames), or quite boring, or lying cheats (like Linda Bergkvist).

Sweet is "average"? Good ****ing grief...

 

Newsflash. People have different tastes in drawn art. One person likes another style and another person likes something else.

 

I personally find Justin Sweet's art unfit for "portraits".

 

newsflash, if one goes around throwing words like "better" and "average", that implies some kind of objective value. And only shows how clueless that person is.

[Agremont]

His art is pretty average to be honest. For rough scenario drawings they are okay, but for character portraits they lack too much detail.

Artists like Luis Royo, Cris Ortega, Wu Shuang, Jonathon Bowser, Keith Parkinson, Linda Bergkvist, etc. have much better art.

 

I take it you don't know much about illustration and art then. There's nothing average about Justin Sweet's art. You may not care for his style though, and that is fine. But that's subjective, not objective.

[GhoulishVisage]

As much as I loved Sweet's portraits for IWD his art is far too linked with that series for it to be used extensively in PE.

PE should have it's own identity and it's own unique style.

[ArkhanTheBlack]

I take it you don't know much about illustration and art then. There's nothing average about Justin Sweet's art. You may not care for his style though, and that is fine. But that's subjective, not objective.

Take it easy dude, I didn't say his art is bad.

His painting style is very similar to how Frank Frazetta's was, who also specialized in 'rough' scenario drawings.

Those paintings focus on the whole scenario and use an intended lack of detail to give the whole image a 'wild' undertone.

Character portraits are focused on the character naturally, therefore details are very important to read the facial expression.

However, Sweet's style omits details intentionally which therefore makes it unsuitable for character portraits.

 

I guess calling Sweet average was maybe a bit harsh. For his intended style his art is good.

Comparisons with Royo & Co are kind of unfair since he can hardly called the 'standard'.

 

I think the original painters of BG 1 & 2 did a good job.

Keldorn is still the best Inquisitor / Paladin style character portrait I've ever seen.

Imoen's BG2 style portrait was also very good since she was a very lively character in BG1 and she had a slightly sad undertone in the facial expression which showed how the harsh events in BG1 scarred her personality. It's a very 'deep' portrait. I've rarely seen a character portrait that fit a characters personality so good like that.

 

I actually don't care who makes the portraits for eternity as long as he does a good job.

Further, truly good art doesn't need an expert to acknowledge it, it needs an expert to make it.

Nobody will ever convince me that Picasso made good art. His art was crap, is crap and will ever be crap.

Edited October 28, 2012 by ArkhanTheBlack

[Merlkir]

Nobody will ever convince me that Picasso made good art. His art was crap, is crap and will ever be crap.

 

Thank you.

 

[Karranthain]

As much as I loved Sweet's portraits for IWD his art is far too linked with that series for it to be used extensively in PE.

PE should have it's own identity and it's own unique style.

 

Well there's that quote. They're definitely inspired by Icewind Dale.

[Agremont]

I take it you don't know much about illustration and art then. There's nothing average about Justin Sweet's art. You may not care for his style though, and that is fine. But that's subjective, not objective.

Take it easy dude, I didn't say his art is bad.

His painting style is very similar to how Frank Frazetta's was, who also specialized in 'rough' scenario drawings.

Those paintings focus on the whole scenario and use an intended lack of detail to give the whole image a 'wild' undertone.

Character portraits are focused on the character naturally, therefore details are very important to read the facial expression.

However, Sweet's style omits details intentionally which therefore makes it unsuitable for character portraits.

 

I guess calling Sweet average was maybe a bit harsh. For his intended style his art is good.

Comparisons with Royo & Co are kind of unfair since he can hardly called the 'standard'.

 

I think the original painters of BG 1 & 2 did a good job.

Keldorn is still the best Inquisitor / Paladin style character portrait I've ever seen.

Imoen's BG2 style portrait was also very good since she was a very lively character in BG1 and she had a slightly sad undertone in the facial expression which showed how the harsh events in BG1 scarred her personality. It's a very 'deep' portrait. I've rarely seen a character portrait that fit a characters personality so good like that.

 

I actually don't care who makes the portraits for eternity as long as he does a good job.

Further, truly good art doesn't need an expert to acknowledge it, it needs an expert to make it.

Nobody will ever convince me that Picasso made good art. His art was crap, is crap and will ever be crap.

 

I'm taking it easy. I only reacted to the average bit.

 

I understand what you mean about Justin's work.

 

I prefer BG1's portraits to BG2's, mainly because of the colours. The colours in BG2 are too I don't know, pale. Not the best description but hopefully you get what I mean. I also like the "character" of the ones in BG1 more.

 

Keldorn and Imoen was probably the best of BG2's portraits I would say. But the general style is, for lack of a better word, eww to me.

 

Btw, it is the same artist that has done both games portraits. Mike Sass.

Edited October 28, 2012 by Agremont

[Karranthain]

However, Sweet's style omits details intentionally which therefore makes it unsuitable for character portraits.

 

Many would disagree with this. It's a matter of preference - some people like the fact that Sweet leaves space for imagination.

[Piccolo]

I think the original painters of BG 1 & 2 did a good job.

No. The portraits in those games are vulgar. Hideous abominations.

 

I can't take anyone's opinion seriously if they think the Baldur's Gate portraits were good.

[Guts]

newsflash, if one goes around throwing words like "better" and "average", that implies some kind of objective value.

 

No it doesn't. It just means he likes the artists he mentions better.

[Game_Exile]

Justin Sweet's illustrations have very good style, but if you were going to hire the guy, why would you want him to just make portraits? The guy could probably contribute a lot more with background art and character models.