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Here's our example sketch, a young burgher:
Here's our example sketch, a young burgher:
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thonkasa
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Roinaa
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wiki-images
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vector-portrait
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The blue lines show the edges of the shadows. It is convenient to make the shadow edges visible, because it is then easier to trace them (and scanners easily lose the lighter shades of pencilwork anyway), and by using a colour pencil, you make them separable from the actual linework. You can do the same thing with highlights, but use different colour than for shadows. The red arrow indicates the general direction of lighting.
The blue lines show the edges of the shadows. It is convenient to make the shadow edges visible, because it is then easier to trace them (and scanners easily lose the lighter shades of pencilwork anyway), and by using a colour pencil, you make them separable from the actual linework. You can do the same thing with highlights, but use different colour than for shadows. The red arrow indicates the general direction of lighting.
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In our image, we start with the sleeve at left. It's one of the "bottom objects," it's being covered by the torso, but doesn't itself cover anything. In the image below we see the sleeve traced with the bezier tool. Note that this is not the only, and not probably even the best, way to place the nodes. There actually isn't a "right" way to trace a shape, the only places where you ''must'' put a node are the sharp corners. You should try to get away with as few nodes as possible, though. You will also notice tha we didn't trace the line separating the sleeve and the torso. We will do it when we trace the flat for the torso, which comes on top of this one.
In our image, we start with the sleeve at left. It's one of the "bottom objects," it's being covered by the torso, but doesn't itself cover anything. In the image below we see the sleeve traced with the bezier tool. Note that this is not the only, and not probably even the best, way to place the nodes. There actually isn't a "right" way to trace a shape, the only places where you ''must'' put a node are the sharp corners. You should try to get away with as few nodes as possible, though. You will also notice tha we didn't trace the line separating the sleeve and the torso. We will do it when we trace the flat for the torso, which comes on top of this one.
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welho.com
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thonkasa
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Roinaa
/burgshot1.png
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wiki-images
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vector-portrait
/burgshot1.png
If we want the flat to have an outline, this is the time to do it, because it will then be directly on top of the flat it follows, and has the same relative z-placement as the flat.
If we want the flat to have an outline, this is the time to do it, because it will then be directly on top of the flat it follows, and has the same relative z-placement as the flat.
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The "stroke to path" tool makes the original path disappear, so we will first do "Edit -> Copy" and "Edit -> Paste in place" for our flat. Then select the copy and disable fill and enable stroke. Set the stroke colour to black with 50% opacity (you might want to adjust this later, but these are good working settings at this point).
The "stroke to path" tool makes the original path disappear, so we will first do "Edit -> Copy" and "Edit -> Paste in place" for our flat. Then select the copy and disable fill and enable stroke. Set the stroke colour to black with 50% opacity (you might want to adjust this later, but these are good working settings at this point).
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The width of the stroke should be about twice the intended mid-width of the outline. Then do "Path -> Stroke to path." Half of the outline still lies outside the path, and we will cut it away with a clip path, but wirst we will have to make the outline variable width. This is done easily by moving the outline path slightly, only so much that the edges of the underlying flat stay within it. Moving the outline makes the part that is inside the flat, that will remain after the intersection operation, to become thinner in some parts and thicker in other. As a general rule, the outline should be thinner on the lighted side of the object and thicker on the shadow side, so you should move the outline towards the light source.
The width of the stroke should be about twice the intended mid-width of the outline. Then do "Path -> Stroke to path." Half of the outline still lies outside the path, and we will cut it away with a clip path, but wirst we will have to make the outline variable width. This is done easily by moving the outline path slightly, only so much that the edges of the underlying flat stay within it. Moving the outline makes the part that is inside the flat, that will remain after the intersection operation, to become thinner in some parts and thicker in other. As a general rule, the outline should be thinner on the lighted side of the object and thicker on the shadow side, so you should move the outline towards the light source.
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wiki-images
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vector-portrait
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When the inside part of the outline is the way you like, select the flat path and do "Edit -> Clone -> Clone". Select the clone and the outline path and do "Object -> Clip -> Set". What we did was using the clone of the flat as a clip path on the outline path, making the parts that are outside the path invisible. Because we use a clone, if we edit the nodes of the flat, the changes will automatically change the (visible) shape of the outline path correspondingly.
When the inside part of the outline is the way you like, select the flat path and do "Edit -> Clone -> Clone". Select the clone and the outline path and do "Object -> Clip -> Set". What we did was using the clone of the flat as a clip path on the outline path, making the parts that are outside the path invisible. Because we use a clone, if we edit the nodes of the flat, the changes will automatically change the (visible) shape of the outline path correspondingly.
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thonkasa
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Roinaa
/burgshot4.png
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wiki-images
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Since this method decides the outline width only by the angle of the outline, it doesn't always produce the desired outcome in all the places, but you can easily adjust the line width by moving the appropriate nodes of the ''inner edge'' of the outline path, inwards to thicken the line, outwards to thin it (the "sclupting" mode can become handy for this).
Since this method decides the outline width only by the angle of the outline, it doesn't always produce the desired outcome in all the places, but you can easily adjust the line width by moving the appropriate nodes of the ''inner edge'' of the outline path, inwards to thicken the line, outwards to thin it (the "sclupting" mode can become handy for this).
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Proceed by this method for the flats in back-to-front order. Having the flats traced and outlined, my picture would look like this:
Proceed by this method for the flats in back-to-front order. Having the flats traced and outlined, my picture would look like this:
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thonkasa
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/burgher1.png
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wiki-images
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vector-portrait
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Note that not all flats need an outline. Outlining usually adds a sense of weight and substance to objects, so thin, light and fluffy objects, such as hair, beard, moustache and the quill in my image, generally look better without.
Note that not all flats need an outline. Outlining usually adds a sense of weight and substance to objects, so thin, light and fluffy objects, such as hair, beard, moustache and the quill in my image, generally look better without.
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For the eyes, you need white for the eyeballs (the white you see is the background colour). So make a eyeball colour flat (not usually pure white) that covers both of the eye holes, and drop it below the face flat. Then use the ellipse tool to make the iris and the pupil, group them, and drop the group below the face flat, but above the eyeball flat. When you have made one iris/pupil combo, you can copy it to get the other be exactly alike.
For the eyes, you need white for the eyeballs (the white you see is the background colour). So make a eyeball colour flat (not usually pure white) that covers both of the eye holes, and drop it below the face flat. Then use the ellipse tool to make the iris and the pupil, group them, and drop the group below the face flat, but above the eyeball flat. When you have made one iris/pupil combo, you can copy it to get the other be exactly alike.
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Now would be a good time to make the rest of the linework, that is the lines not outlining any flats. These lines are also to be made dark with partial transparency, so that they become a darker shade of the colour of the flat they are covering. There are several ways to make the linework. With short lines extending from the outlines, like the ones on the sleeves in my picture, can be made by making new nodes in appropriate places on the outline path and dragging them out. Thick lines can me treated as the flats by tracing the edges of the lines with the bezier tool. If you have a tablet, the calligraphy tool might be useful, but it takes some practice to use well. If the calligraphy lines overlap, you have to fuse them together by doing "Path -> Union" on them, or the partial transparency will produce darker shades on the overlapping parts.
Now would be a good time to make the rest of the linework, that is the lines not outlining any flats. These lines are also to be made dark with partial transparency, so that they become a darker shade of the colour of the flat they are covering. There are several ways to make the linework. With short lines extending from the outlines, like the ones on the sleeves in my picture, can be made by making new nodes in appropriate places on the outline path and dragging them out. Thick lines can me treated as the flats by tracing the edges of the lines with the bezier tool. If you have a tablet, the calligraphy tool might be useful, but it takes some practice to use well. If the calligraphy lines overlap, you have to fuse them together by doing "Path -> Union" on them, or the partial transparency will produce darker shades on the overlapping parts.
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Whatever method you use to make the linework, it's good to keep things organised and put it on its own layer.
Whatever method you use to make the linework, it's good to keep things organised and put it on its own layer.
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welho.com
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thonkasa
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Roinaa
/burgher2.png
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http://
wesnoth
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wiki-images
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vector-portrait
/burgher2.png
After the linework we can do the shadows. Create a new layer titled "shadow" on top of the others, and start tracing the shadow edges like you did with flats, but obviously, the shadows don't need outlines. You can make the shadow paths extend beyond the outlines of the figure, and cut them off in the end using the silhouette path you created earlier, using "Path -> Intersection." The shadows will also be partially transparent to show through the colour of the flat, but their own colour can well be something else than black. In my image I have used dark blue for the shadows, as in outdoors the light coming to the shadow parts comes from the sky and is bluer than the sunlight. You can try different colours for your shadows to see how it affects the general mood if the image.
After the linework we can do the shadows. Create a new layer titled "shadow" on top of the others, and start tracing the shadow edges like you did with flats, but obviously, the shadows don't need outlines. You can make the shadow paths extend beyond the outlines of the figure, and cut them off in the end using the silhouette path you created earlier, using "Path -> Intersection." The shadows will also be partially transparent to show through the colour of the flat, but their own colour can well be something else than black. In my image I have used dark blue for the shadows, as in outdoors the light coming to the shadow parts comes from the sky and is bluer than the sunlight. You can try different colours for your shadows to see how it affects the general mood if the image.
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http://
koti
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welho.com
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thonkasa
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Roinaa
/burgher3.png
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http://
wesnoth
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org
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wiki-images
/
vector-portrait
/burgher3.png
We still have some details to do, like the buttons on the jacket. Here I made the buttons with the ellipse too, using the same ellipse to create the shadow (by now you should be able to figure out how to make the crescent shape). If you need identical objects, you can always make copies of one, but if you make clones instead, and decide to change something about the design of the object later, you only need to change the original and the clones change as well.
We still have some details to do, like the buttons on the jacket. Here I made the buttons with the ellipse too, using the same ellipse to create the shadow (by now you should be able to figure out how to make the crescent shape). If you need identical objects, you can always make copies of one, but if you make clones instead, and decide to change something about the design of the object later, you only need to change the original and the clones change as well.
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http://
koti
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welho.com
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thonkasa
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Roinaa
/burgshot12.png
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http://
wesnoth
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wiki-images
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vector-portrait
/burgshot12.png
To complete the image, some final touches are needed, like the specular spots in the eyes and some texture and highlights for the beard and hair (all done with semitransparent dark and light paths). Then the standard black background and some cropping and we're all done (I'll leave it as the exercise of the reader to figure out how to do the cropping).
To complete the image, some final touches are needed, like the specular spots in the eyes and some texture and highlights for the beard and hair (all done with semitransparent dark and light paths). Then the standard black background and some cropping and we're all done (I'll leave it as the exercise of the reader to figure out how to do the cropping).
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http://
koti
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welho.com
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thonkasa
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Roinaa
/burgherfinal1.png
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http://
wesnoth
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org
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wiki-images
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vector-portrait
/burgherfinal1.png
[[Category: Art Tutorials]]
[[Category: Art Tutorials]]