Offering up a picture of your character to any willing party. I have a specific character - pair of them, in fact - which I would love to draw but cannot for the life of me manage to get down on paper to my satisfaction. So, instead, I'd like to see someone else's take on one or both of them.

These are human characters, one female and one male. I'm only looking for something fairly simple and offering same in return, but I will give you a finished, fully coloured image. I draw humans, furries, regular or mythical animals, and other things. If you want it drawn, I can probably manage it. Full description of the characters I want drawn will come if someone accepts.

Also, as a note, I am very picky about my own art, but I'm not picky about others', so don't worry about that. I'd just like to see these characters drawn. Thanks for reading!

EDIT: For reference's sake, my gallery is here.

I don't normally draw humans, but, since the forums have fallen asleep again, I'll give it a shot. I could probably use the practice.

The Carnival of the Animals

Excellent! Any particular character you'd like me to draw?

The female character I would like is depicted here, except with dark red hair and she may also wear a royal purple cloak. The male character is fairly tall and well built with shoulder-length dark brown hair brushed back and blue eyes. Shirt and breeches, dark leather breastplate, gloves, and boots are all various shades of brown and he wears a black cloak parted under his right shoulder.

Thanks for accepting, CyberCorn! I'm really looking forward to seeing your image. Let me know if you have any preferences for your return image and I'll get started on it ASAP.

Deidrei Leafbright would work, though feel free to tweak her a bit to appear more squirrelly (the ears especially). She's modeled after an Eastern Gray Squirrel, so should have that copper tinge to her fur and hair. Alternatively, if there's a character in Winterfur whom you have a hankering to draw, you can do him/her instead/as well.

Sounds good. Deidrei probably would have been one of my selections if you hadn't had any preference. I always liked that picture of her.

I haven't had much time for my own art this week, but I got a sketch down this afternoon. It ended up a bit more complex and interesting than I initially suggested, but I couldn't resist getting a chance to play with Winterfur. Going to add a background to it, but I wanted to run it by you before I got anything solid down. I was going on memory, so let me know if I misrepresented or forgot anything about either of the characters.

Now that looks like an excellent start. I like Baksrit's physique and face. She looks prettier and more feminine than how I often picture her (which is more her self-image than the reality you've captured). Good work in bringing me to my senses there. I like Deidrei's posture; she looks very interested in what Baksrit is doing. I assume Deidrei's braid is on her back, out of sight. Her tail is nicely done, her clothing spot on, and those whiskers are cute. The two look to be about the same height, which is good. Baksrit is supposed to be only a little bit taller than Deidrei. As for things you forgot, Baksrit is underclothed and needs trousers. Her tunic has sleeves which almost to her wrists. Since I like how you've done her feet (though you can emphasize the big toes a bit more if you want), I wouldn't be adverse to her boots being off to the side, as if she had taken them off so she could get more comfortable. Physically, while I've not mentioned it in Winterfur, I see her having hair on her head as Deidrei does. Her hair (white, naturally) is pulled back into a tail tied at the back of her neck. You shouldn't need to erase those hairs on the top of her head since her hair can get a bit unkempt over time, but not excessively or unattractively so. Color-wise, her cloak is dark gray with golden symbols embroidered along the edges. For the colors of the rest of her clothing, I'll leave those up to you (but they shouldn't be as dark as her cloak). Her tail is a little over a quarter black on the end. Gee, I sure quibbled a lot, didn't I? I tried to keep it down. Eh, you'll get your vengenace when it's my turn. I haven't drawn human faces in nearly fifteen years, so I need to work on those a bit before I can show you anything. Speaking of which, can you describe your male character's face some? While I could be wrong, I don't see him as clean-shaven or bearded, but with a few day's worth of stubble. In general impression, I'm thinking something along the lines of, say Aragorn, rather than Bruce Wayne or Clint Eastwood? Lastly, since I have Winterfur's entire first draft finished (in fact, I'm stumbling about several chapters into the sequel), how much of it do you need to complete your set of chapters? Or should I just send you the whole lot and let you pick and choose as you need to?

grin It's no problem, I know how it is with one's own characters. You want them to look right, and especially since I haven't seen a picture of Baksrit in your gallery, I would like to make certain she comes out well.

I knew I would forget Deidrei's braid. I saw it in the reference image, made a mental note of it, and then... forgot. Will be sure to add that.

The styles of the two characters are actually a bit different, as you might have noticed. For some reason, I pictured Baksrit more animal-like than the other characters. It was difficult attempting to draw her with more human proportions, which is why I stuck with a more cartoon animal-type look - the kind with no human/privates definitions, like in Secret of Nimh - and drew some things in a certain way as a result of that. I'll be certain to lengthen her sleeves and give her some pants, as well as add her hair.

Thanks for the clothing colours. I wasn't certain what the colour selections should be.

I normally see the male character as clean-shaven, however, I'm open to artistic interpretation. None of his facial features are especially prominent; medium-sized, ordinary-shaped eyes, nose, and mouth, fairly smooth skin and skull without much sharp definition. A really sloppy, but comparatively appropriately portrayed sketch of him is here. That image was done before I decided to give the characters normal hair colours, but hopefully, you can at least get a basic idea. He's generally very solemn and stoic, rarely showing much emotion at all, and his skin is a medium tan.

And finally, I have up to chapter 25 of Winterfur, so I'd certainly like to read anything after that.

If you have any other questions, let me know. I'm glad you enjoyed the initial sketch and hopefully, I can get it fixed up and a (simple) background in soon.

Yes, Baskrit is as anthropomorphic as the other characters. You gave her pretty eyes, though. Perhaps I ought to finally scribble out some of my characters alongside yours. I do have reasoning behind the characters' anthropomorphic traits, so it's not quite a "because I said so" type of thing.

Okay, thank you. That helps me visualize him better.

That means you've gotten to the point where Baksrit has finally seen the Cat Sith for the first time. You've got eleven chapters and an Epilogue left to go. Where would you like me to send them?

E-mail will do.

And I certainly don't have a problem with your anthropormorphization of Baksrit; it's just personally how I visualized her when I read it. I guess drawing this will help give me a more accurate mental picture when I finish the last 11 chapters, then, eh?

It's also interesting to hear you mention her femininity in my sketch. Due to the more cartoony style, I had a hard time portraying that she was female and for a while, she could easily have been mistaken for a young man. As it were, adding eyelashes was the only thing that really seemed to make it clear. Not what I wanted to rely on, but I'll take what I can get.

Well, here's my best stab at your characters so far, along with the best one I've done of Baksrit so far (helped along, in no small part, to you, so thank you). It's a concept picture rather than a finished one so your characters' appearance may vary when I attempt the final picture, expecially if they don't look the way you want them to look. Incidentally, I can now tell you Baksrit prefers clothes with warmer, autumny colors so her appearance doesn't appear so icy. Her feet are similar to Deidrei's only softer, less spread out, and more delicate-looking as you'd expect from someone who wears shoes to protect her feet compared to someone who actively uses her feet to help her climb trees. Think of the difference between Baksrit's feet and Deidrei's as the difference between yours and those of Disney's version of Tarzan.

Also, as I'm sure you know, I've sent off the rest of Winterfur from Chapter 25 to the Epilogue. Now, you know the rest of the story.

I wasn't criticizing you. I'm sorry if I sounded that way. I had a longer explanation worked out with convergent evolution and all that, but chose to delete it for brevity.

Some styles are more conducive to femininity than others. Certain manga styles are a prime example of this.

For having not drawn humans in so long, you seem to have picked it up quite well so far. I really like the picture of Baksrit, too. It helps the mental picture a lot seeing her that way. I didn't get the impression of criticism; as I mentioned, for some reason I saw her less anthropomorphic than the others as I read.

I like the way you've depicted my characters. (For reference's sake, their names are Damian and Domino, Damian being the female.) It's interesting to me to see how she looks with red hair, as I've yet to draw her that way. I'm still trying to figure out what shade it should be, so this is helping me to see what looks good and appropriate on her. You seem to have gotten her colours down quite well. I would give her a softer expression in the final image; though she becomes pretty confident and determined through the course of the story, she is still pretty feminine in appearance.

I forgot to mention previously - slipped my mind that her eyes are closed in the reference image offered - her eyes are yellow, like a wolf or panther shade. Also, if you choose to draw it, she wears a tiger iron brooch shaped like an owl over her cloak's clasp. I won't be disappointed if you don't draw that, though, I've had difficulty depicting it myself.

You're certainly on the right track for Domino. I would make his eyes and nose a little bit smaller and give him a little less of a widow's peak. It does curve downward slightly in the center, but not much. Feel free to add some variation or mess to his hair as well, if you'd like to give it a little variety. The colours look pretty good, though I would increase the saturation on his skin a little bit so it doesn't look as grey. Broadening the shoulders a bit could help bulk up his stature.

I updated the sloppy profile image I posted of him earlier, by the way. I'd forgotten that I was actually pleased with the redo of that sketch and coloured it up last night. The new version also shows his sword and amulet, but don't feel obligated to draw either one. Both are usually hidden beneath his cloak, anyway. (That's the reason he wears the cloak to the side like that; he's not well liked as it is.)

If some less tangible descriptions would help portray the characters to you, let me know. I know that sometimes it's easier for me to draw a character when I know what they're like psychologically and socially, and there's certainly enough I could say about these two. There is also some brief information about them available here, though I wouldn't take too much of the picture of Damian there to heart. It doesn't portray her much as I picture her.

Thanks again for trading with me and sorry for going on like that. I do very much like the way you've depicted them so far and I'm looking forward to seeing the finished image.

That's all right. Your advice has been most helpful. Truth be told, I'm not entirely satisfied with their appearances myself, especially Domino's. I posted this to see how I'm coming along so far and to get your advice.

Sorry it's been so long since I got back to you, CyberCorn. Things have been a bit hectic lately, that's all I'll say. Anyway, I ended up redrawing a large portion of Baksrit. The updated sketch is viewable here. I also added in Deidrei's braid, but she remains unchanged otherwise. Of course, I still need to draw the background, but if there's any other changes you'd like me to make, let me know. Thanks for your patience.

I can't be irritated at you because you've been delayed by other things. That would be like the pot calling the kettle black. Suffice it to say, I have only finished a concept picture of Domino which I like, but I don't like my last tries with Damian. If I'm fortunate, I might be able to change that by this weekend.

As for the picture, Baksrit looks much better now that she's fully clothed. Her feet look very good as do her boots. I still like the fluffiness of Deidrei's tail and her braid looks good. However, Deidrei's feet are a little small. They should be a little longer than Baksrit's with the toes more spread out.

I'd hoped to post a Damian concept image with Domino's, but I figure I might as well post the picture of Domino to prove I have been doing something with your characters.

Looking good! He looks a little older than the way I normally depict him. I like it. I'm looking forward to seeing the finished picture.

Done. Let me know if there's anything else that needs to be corrected, otherwise I'll get started inking and colouring it.

By the way, I'm sorry I haven't read the rest of Winterfur yet, I've been holding off on it 'cause I've been busy working on my own writing and art lately. If only I still had my Palm eReader software on my computer, I could read it on the plane next week...

Cue the first stanza of "Faith of the Heart". Finally, here is a picture of Damian which came out reasonably close to the way I wanted her to look. There's a bit of continuity crossing there as the medallion she's holding actually belongs to an Adherent of the Path of the Phoenix, a quasi-religious order of peoples from the Winterfur world. The picture on the medallion is the sigil of Pax, the Great Phoenix, underneath her rune. Ironically, Pax was agnostic.

Overall, it looks excellent. I do notice you've mirrored my style by only drawing Baksrit's far whiskers in full. As I'm sure you figured out, I leave out the near whiskers as I think they make the face look too cluttered and busy, using little dots to represent the roots of the near whiskers. I also babble.:o However, you should redraw at least some of the crystals on the ground as their perspective is off. Some of them just don't look right to me. Also, I'm afraid, Deidrei's feet are still too small. Lengthen her left foot by at least two-thirds the length of her big toe. Redraw her right foot so that we can see some of the top of her foot which should be partially visible at this angle.

That's okay. It's not like you have to do a book review for it.

I saw that picture in today's uploads before I came here and I was wondering what that was she was holding. Incidentally, the kingdom Damian actually lives in has a phoenix and olive branch as its device, so I found that interesting when I saw it. Looks like you're getting the hang of her.

Perspective is something I still have trouble with. Thanks for the tip. I'll also work on Deidrei's feet again. Just to let you know, I'm going on holiday next week. I'll hopefully be able to make those changes to the sketch before I leave, but obviously I won't be working on it much after that.

No worries.

I'm still working on Deidrei's feet, but I'm very near the point where I don't want to work on the sketch any more. I'm going to start inking once I get Deidrei's right foot the way I like it and hopefully within proportions for her. I'm sorry for taking so long. Hopefully, the colouring will go a little quicker than the drawing has.

Colour check. I've inked and put down the flat colours on the picture, sans background. I tried to stick with the colours in your reference images, though I did adjust the saturation a little. I also haven't added Deidrei's markings yet, as I'm anticipating having to experiment a bit with getting the proper effect. Let me know if anything is off.

It looks fine to me so far. Don't worry about how long it's taking. Things happen, and we're not being paid for these pictures, so delays can be expected at times.

At long, long last, I've finished shading the foreground in your picture. I'll give you a teaser here, not least because I liked the effect of hiding the colour layers and showing just the shadows over the background colour.

So, I need only to paint the background and I'll finally be finished, though it may take a little while yet, as I have troubles with backgrounds and I want to get this one right. But I have finally returned to working on it, and I mean to continue doing so. I apologize again for taking so long with it.

EDIT: You know, looking back at the colour test, I had forgotten how animated it looked. Feels kind of like I could just slap a quick background on that and call it done.