Caesar - Historic painting
Printed From: Pixel Joint
Category: Pixel Art
Forum Name: WIP (Work In Progress)
Forum Discription: Get crits and comments on your pixel WIPs and other art too!
URL: https://pixeljoint.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=26004
Printed Date: 12 September 2025 at 2:03pm
Topic: Caesar - Historic painting
Posted By: Quake
Subject: Caesar - Historic painting
Date Posted: 27 October 2017 at 11:47am
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Hi all,
I'm in the process of creating a piece in the style of a historic painting, with Caesar talking to the pirates who kidnapped him. Before I work on this more, I'd like some feedback on what could be improved. The figure is largely done, besides the chest plate/skirt and the cape behind his body. Furthermore, I'm somewhat struggling with how to do the chest plate/skirt so any suggestions are welcome. Folds are not my forte! 
Some inspiration which I've used: http://www.miguelcoimbra.com/images/galerie/books/2romans/Mars.jpg http://media.gettyimages.com/photos/copper-plate-etching-showing-roman-god-mars-god-of-war-and-father-of-picture-id50699053 https://i.pinimg.com/736x/4f/e3/9b/4fe39bb546620259f28b5c2fe44c2e8b--roman-sculpture-bronze-sculpture.jpg Thanks! |
Replies:
Posted By: eishiya
Date Posted: 27 October 2017 at 1:56pm
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His torso looks too long, and his upper arms look much longer than his forearms. Try sketching in the body underneath the clothing, so you can more easily spot anatomy/proportion problems. I recommend blocking in the whole painting before you go in and refine the details. It's a lot easier to tweak the composition and anatomy when things are still rough. |
Posted By: Quake
Date Posted: 27 October 2017 at 3:06pm
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Originally posted by eishiya
His torso looks too long, and his upper arms look much longer than his forearms. Try sketching in the body underneath the clothing, so you can more easily spot anatomy/proportion problems.I recommend blocking in the whole painting before you go in and refine the details. It's a lot easier to tweak the composition and anatomy when things are still rough. Thanks for this Eishiya! Made the legs shorter, as to make the torso look less long. Sketched the body underneath the clothing, which helped a lot! 
Character form blocked out, with the upper body toga. 
Does this look better? |
Posted By: eishiya
Date Posted: 27 October 2017 at 3:55pm
This is not a critique, but rather a suggestion for a different way to think about torsos. The pelvis is an important part of the torso, and legs attach to the sides of it, not below it. Including it like this and attacking the legs to the sides should help you construct the body correctly more easily. I also sketched in the ribcage. It's useful because the elbows more or less line up with it, making it a great guide for arm proportions in addition to torso shape. Don't skip the feet and hands, either. They're important to the proportions, and not including them can throw you off. By blocking in the painting, I meant the whole painting, the entire composition, not just the character. In addition, blocking things in is only helpful when you block in with a purpose. Just filling in your sketch doesn't achieve much. The goal of blocking in figures is to work out the shapes/forms without the details getting in the way. It can be pixel-rough, but what you have there is so rough that I doubt it'll be useful to you. The goal of blocking in the whole painting is to work out the composition - these blobs can be rougher, but they should correspond to the colours and shapes of the major elements in the image. |
Posted By: Quake
Date Posted: 28 October 2017 at 10:22am
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Thanks for that Eishiya. Tried to incorporate your recommendations into the updated Caesar.
Also sketched the other characters. Will need to formulate better etc, but I wanted to get people's opinions on the composition. 
If you read left to right, I'm trying to make the characters show their warming to Caesar. First a soldier, then a man questioning the soldier why he isn't doing anything, then a man thinking, with the last offering his sword to Caesar as a gesture of acceptance. |