Stretch Goal - hire Justin Sweet to make portraits.

[Piccolo]

 

Well, I liked Imoen as you can see.

 

But yes, the portrait is also very good, much better than anything Justin Sweet could ever whip up.

It's probably the least vulgar portrait in the game. Some of the others are absolutely hideous looking:

 

 

Awful, awful artwork...

[dlux]

 

Well, I liked Imoen as you can see.

 

But yes, the portrait is also very good, much better than anything Justin Sweet could ever whip up.

It's probably the least vulgar portrait in the game. Some of the others are absolutely hideous looking:

 

Awful, awful artwork...

Loads better than the hideous crap from Justin Sweet that is plastered all over this thread.

 

 

[Loranc]

 

Well, I liked Imoen as you can see.

 

But yes, the portrait is also very good, much better than anything Justin Sweet could ever whip up.

It's probably the least vulgar portrait in the game. Some of the others are absolutely hideous looking:

 

Awful, awful artwork...

Loads better than the hideous crap from Justin Sweet that is plastered all over this thread.

 

 

 

You just don't like dark themes, that's the only difference. IWD was a very dark game, baldurs gate is a very bright game. Mike Sass did the BG portraits and as you can see they are all 'very' bright, while Justin Sweet's are all very dark. It all depends on the type of game Project Eternity is going to be, if it's a very dark game i'm not going to want bright character portraits that's for sure. But I have a feeling that's it's not going to have that same 'dark' feel that IWD had, which is probably why they only talked about contacting Vance and Justin and never did actually do it.

[Sugarjaye]

I've said it once, I'll say it again. Justin Sweet just does not work for me. I really just do not like his style, and in my opinion there are way better artists well known or not. You just have to search through the work on Deviantart to see a sample of the quality that is out there.

[Karranthain]

Loads better than the hideous crap from Justin Sweet that is plastered all over this thread.

 

[dlux]

 

Well, I liked Imoen as you can see.

 

But yes, the portrait is also very good, much better than anything Justin Sweet could ever whip up.

It's probably the least vulgar portrait in the game. Some of the others are absolutely hideous looking:

 

Awful, awful artwork...

Loads better than the hideous crap from Justin Sweet that is plastered all over this thread.

 

You just don't like dark themes, that's the only difference. IWD was a very dark game, baldurs gate is a very bright game. Mike Sass did the BG portraits and as you can see they are all 'very' bright, while Justin Sweet's are all very dark. It all depends on the type of game Project Eternity is going to be, if it's a very dark game i'm not going to want bright character portraits that's for sure. But I have a feeling that's it's not going to have that same 'dark' feel that IWD had, which is probably why they only talked about contacting Vance and Justin and never did actually do it.

It has nothing to do with that. I have no problem with dark themes, I have a problem with Justin Sweet's style. His art is unpolished and very bland. And yes, pictures with nothing other than every shade of brown and black are very boring.

 

This picture isn't "bright" either, as you put it, but it looks damn good:

 

 

 

 

Loads better than the hideous crap from Justin Sweet that is plastered all over this thread.

 

 

Edited October 13, 2012 by dlux

[Maf]

Loads better than the hideous crap from Justin Sweet that is plastered all over this thread.

[Loranc]

Loads better than the hideous crap from Justin Sweet that is plastered all over this thread.

 

 

..... That's your definition of a dark themed portrait? I can defiantly see why you dislike Justin's work. The chances of him being put on the team are very slim at this point. With the kickstarter almost over and a planned 2014 release, they don't have a lot of time. They are most likely already fully staffed now with George and good to go, I would have loved to have had Justin and Vance on the team but it will make no difference in the amount I pledge.

[Krikkert]

This thread talks of hiring Justin Sweet, yet I see all of these portraits from Icewind Dale in this thread. Then let me tell you that it was the brilliant Jason Manley who did the portraits for Icewind Dale. Do not give Justin Sweet the credits for Manley's work. Justin Sweet did the portraits for Icewind Dale II though, I believe.

 

Anyway, Justin Sweet is a brilliant artist too, and him doing the portraits for this game would have been awesome.

[dlux]

This thread talks of hiring Justin Sweet, yet I see all of these portraits from Icewind Dale in this thread. Then let me tell you that it was the brilliant Jason Manley who did the portraits for Icewind Dale. Do not give Justin Sweet the credits for Manley's work. Justin Sweet did the portraits for Icewind Dale II though, I believe.

 

Anyway, Justin Sweet is a brilliant artist too, and him doing the portraits for this game would have been awesome.

Yes, Justin Sweet is a good artist as I have said many times. But he is a terrible portrait artist IMO.

 

Loads better than the hideous crap from Justin Sweet that is plastered all over this thread.

I meant the portraits. Sorry if this was not clear.

Edited October 13, 2012 by dlux

[Karranthain]

This thread talks of hiring Justin Sweet, yet I see all of these portraits from Icewind Dale in this thread. Then let me tell you that it was the brilliant Jason Manley who did the portraits for Icewind Dale. Do not give Justin Sweet the credits for Manley's work. Justin Sweet did the portraits for Icewind Dale II though, I believe.

 

Anyway, Justin Sweet is a brilliant artist too, and him doing the portraits for this game would have been awesome.

 

Yes, it's been already discussed in this topic, most works here are Justin's, though. Icewind Dale I portraits were done by Jason Manley. Something interesting, however :

 

Justin and I worked together for years at Black Isle. I learned painter four and the digital side from him. I remember the very first painting I made at work he said...man you use the same compositional devices as I do. I said yeah..is traditional composition. His figure was far better than mine. He also had to match the vibe of the IWD portraits so there is cross over for sure. We were all learning together at that time, which is why some of his early pencil sketches resemble puddnheads gesture drawings, or some of vance kovacs work resembles justins. I remember seeing justin paint some icy green into puddnheads paintings and that color stuck with puddn throughout his career. It was a big hodgepodge of ideas there at that time. Justin was the art director and the leader of the pack. We all added something to the mix though.

 

source : http://conceptart.or...932#post2279932

 

So that answers the questions why the portraits are somewhat similar

Edited October 13, 2012 by Karranthain

[Sugarjaye]

Also. Just because people don't like his particular style doesn't mean we don't like dark toned or themed artwork.

 

I myself am a huge fan of Victoria Frances

 

And Luis Royo

 

And their work is by no means what you would consider light. Actually I don't think I've ever seen a brightly coloured Luis Royo artpiece

[Karranthain]

Really no point arguing which is better, some people prefer realism, others impressionism etc.

Lots of people in this topic are fans of Sweet's work.

[Merlkir]

Justin Sweet isn't a crappy portrait artist. He's just NOT a portrait artist. 90% of stuff posted here is concept art, or illustrations, not portraits. Which doesn't mean he couldn't do absolutely kickass portraits if he tried.

 

Royo is overrated and thankfully almost forgotten now, that girly crap above is not even worth a comment.

The portraits in BGII were alright, although one can clearly see they're real people with earrings and hamsters added. (also the artist seemed to struggle with getting the eyes aligned in most of them)

 

See? It's so easy to spout really really insensitive comments about someone's art. Good grief, I do hope none of the artists read this thread.

(and believe me, artists sometimes do make the mistake of reading what fans have to say about products they worked on.)

[dlux]

Really no point arguing which is better, some people prefer realism, others impressionism etc.

Lots of people in this topic are fans of Sweet's work.

Certainly, and that is fine, everyone is entitled to their own opinion. But there are also people that don't like his work as you can see.

[Apatia]

Seriously? People dropping pledges because of CHARACTER PORTRAITS? Umm... yeah, priorities.

 

And don't give me that "but those are ugly and they reflect my character's personality etc" crap when you probably can make your own portraits for the characters if you want. You could in IWD1/2, NWN1/2 and BG1/2 and I see no reason why you couldn't in PE.

[Loranc]

I've seen that art style in NWN, people using custom portraits. I defiantly like that art style, and I never meant to suggest that if you didn't like his designs than you didn't like dark themed designs in general. I was mostly just speaking to dlux. But anyways, there are 'a lot' of amazing artists out there today. I'd like to see some more concept art from Project Eternity myself, just to get a feel for what's in store for us.

Edited October 13, 2012 by Loranc

[Loranc]

Also. Just because people don't like his particular style doesn't mean we don't like dark toned or themed artwork.

 

I myself am a huge fan of Victoria Frances

 

And Luis Royo

 

And their work is by no means what you would consider light. Actually I don't think I've ever seen a brightly coloured Luis Royo artpiece

 

This quote was meant to go with my post above it. Not sure how I managed to jumble this up lol.

Edited October 13, 2012 by Loranc

[Sugarjaye]

Justin Sweet isn't a crappy portrait artist. He's just NOT a portrait artist. 90% of stuff posted here is concept art, or illustrations, not portraits. Which doesn't mean he couldn't do absolutely kickass portraits if he tried.

 

Royo is overrated and thankfully almost forgotten now, that girly crap above is not even worth a comment.

The portraits in BGII were alright, although one can clearly see they're real people with earrings and hamsters added. (also the artist seemed to struggle with getting the eyes aligned in most of them)

 

See? It's so easy to spout really really insensitive comments about someone's art. Good grief, I do hope none of the artists read this thread.

(and believe me, artists sometimes do make the mistake of reading what fans have to say about products they worked on.)

 

 

I wasn't using them as an example of portrait art. I was using them as an example of other dark themed art and artists. Becasue just becasue we don't like Justin sweets work (which happen to be dark) doesn't mean we don't like dark art.

[Loranc]

Seriously? People dropping pledges because of CHARACTER PORTRAITS? Umm... yeah, priorities.

 

And don't give me that "but those are ugly and they reflect my character's personality etc" crap when you probably can make your own portraits for the characters if you want. You could in IWD1/2, NWN1/2 and BG1/2 and I see no reason why you couldn't in PE.

 

I don't think anyone will actual drop their pledges based on information that isn't actually there. We have no idea who the 'portrait' artist will be and like you suggested that's a very small part of the game itself. So hopefully nobody will be silly enough to drop a pledge based on something that hasn't even happened.

[Karranthain]

Really no point arguing which is better, some people prefer realism, others impressionism etc.

Lots of people in this topic are fans of Sweet's work.

Certainly, and that is fine, everyone is entitled to their own opinion. But there are also people that don't like his work as you can see.

 

Certainly, I think you've said as much more than several times

[Sugarjaye]

Seriously? People dropping pledges because of CHARACTER PORTRAITS? Umm... yeah, priorities.

 

And don't give me that "but those are ugly and they reflect my character's personality etc" crap when you probably can make your own portraits for the characters if you want. You could in IWD1/2, NWN1/2 and BG1/2 and I see no reason why you couldn't in PE.

 

I don't think anyone will actual drop their pledges based on information that isn't actually there. We have no idea who the 'portrait' artist will be and like you suggested that's a very small part of the game itself. So hopefully nobody will be silly enough to drop a pledge based on something that hasn't even happened.

 

No I don't think any one would actually do that.

[Piccolo]

Seriously? People dropping pledges because of CHARACTER PORTRAITS? Umm... yeah, priorities.

 

And don't give me that "but those are ugly and they reflect my character's personality etc" crap when you probably can make your own portraits for the characters if you want. You could in IWD1/2, NWN1/2 and BG1/2 and I see no reason why you couldn't in PE.

Dropping pledges because of portraits is ridiculous, I agree, but it's still a very important aspect of the game that warrants discussion. Bad portraits (like the ones in the BG games) can really spoil a game's charm for me. And if that kind of thing doesn't matter, then why even bother producing beautiful environments like the one shown in the first PE screenshot?

[Aedelric]

The Baldur's Gate two portraits are not hideous but far from being very nice, At the end of the day this is all subjective.

 

Justin has a great artistic style and is one of the big things that I loved about Icewind Dale and as Obsidian have stated they want to mimic the artistic style from that game, those that love the BG2 portraits should be prepared for some disappointment... dlux.

 

I feel the campaign to get Justin on-board is pointless at the moment, due to the campaign being close to closing. But Obsidian have great artists that can pull off his style well, Dwarven ranger being a good example, I would like to see more of that art soon though.

[Karranthain]

I still think it's a possibility, Aedelric; maybe not as a stretch goal, but they might hire Justin later on. They've previously hinted that they will begin hiring people after the Kickstarter is over. Besides, I know that Brian Fargo hired several writers after the Wasteland 2 campaign was over.

 

From yesterday's chat we know that they've at least considered it.