I took a few artistic liscense liberties so far...and will likely take a few more. Most notably, a majority of the reference pictures I have of her show her with blue eyes. I really wanted to give her a native american look, and changed them to brown.
The hard part's coming up....I have to find her a pair of boots, and try to figure out how I'm going to add the fringe to her uniform. Then it's time to put her in an interesting pose, and start thinking of a background.
Registered: Oct 2003
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Wow! That's awesome, draub! Wait til Grey gets a look at it!
-------------------- "Hey Jim! Get Mon out of the Zone!! And...when do we get Condo back?"
From: Paragon City on patrol | Registered: Jul 2003
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She's looking really good, full of visual texture. (This is Poser, isn't it? It makes all textures a bit smoother than in "real life," but that seems to be integral to how it works.)
You might consider yet another layer of feathers, as her wings usually were shown as being a bit broader than you have them here. And especially if she's in flight, rather than standing.
As for her eyes, early depictions (including her listing in "Who's Who in the DCU") had them as blue, later ones (including "Who's Who in the LSH") had them as brown. I'd say brown works better for her coloring and outfit.
Few remember that Dawny didn't have an explicit Indian heritage for the first year, until her origin story in "SLSH" 240. Since she did gain one, though, that would also suggest brown.
From: Starhaven Consulate, City of Angels | Registered: Jul 2003
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Good insight on Dawny's change(s) over the years. I wasn't aware that she didn't start off with an obvious Native American background.
Yes, I'm using Poser for this. I hear you on it flattening things out. Much of that is the technique I'm using to add the clothing to her. There are clothing models that I could purchase and do some transparency mapping for, but even that has it's limitations.
Once I have the final raw render, I'll have to do some photoshop magic to make the clothing appear as if it's got some thickness to it. I'm going to also play with the option of doing bump mapping (which may help...I'm not used to going that route...so another adventure to add to the mix).
Even now, I'm *STILL* not sure how I'm going to pull off the fringe for her uniform. I almost took the easy way out and went for the "this is what her new uniform will look like", but I'd rather do her traditional look first. More of a challenge.
Now as for the setting...I must admit that I know very little of Starhaven. I was thinking of putting her in that environment, but because I have no good reference pictures it's all going to be based on imagination.
Registered: Oct 2003
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Thanks, Dean for the words of support. You guys have no idea how much your kind words have motivated me on this one.
Here's a quick update. Played with the uniform a little more. There were some "jaggy" areas which I smoothed out, and got rid of the annoying portion around the neck (now the uniform looks like it continues to the back instead of just stopping halfway through the neck). I then added some bump to make the uniform stick out from the clothing. It's not quite enough but will be invaluable in the last stage as a reference to the lighting. I may tweak it out a little bit more (in particular, the two straps on the leg, I want them to cross closer to the front), but for the most part I'm done with that part.
I think I figured out the best way to do the fring on the uniform, but that will have to come later....have a pig roast to go to.
Registered: Oct 2003
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The best Starhaven visual reference is the story about the end of Dawnstar's vision quest, in "LSH" v2 n311. Gene Colan's renderings of a temple and of her parents' home are a bit sketchy, but it's more detail than is shown anywhere else.
From: Starhaven Consulate, City of Angels | Registered: Jul 2003
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Hopefully I'll be able to do this one justice in the end. I have a bad habit of not keeping track myself of how I go about things...hopefully by blabbering on "step by step" as I work on it, I can get a streamlined jump on future images.
Okay, here's what I got done yesterday and this morning. Yesterday I played around with making 3D meshes for the fringe of her uniform. However, after sleeping on it, I decided not to use them. It will be a lot easier for me to draw them in during the final stage than it would be to get them to convey an accurate sense of motion.
So this morning, I decided to move on. Added the base material for her boots and made her foot more bootlike. You can still see the toes, but that's a quick fix later on. I then started working on her pose for the final image.
I used an arms by the sides flying pose. For some reason, I think those look more elegant, not to mention faster.
One last thing...I've also decided that I don't want her to be alone for this image. I'm going to have at least one other Legionnaire in the picture with her...perhaps more depending on how "antsy" I get later on in the process.
The next character will be a little more challenging. What better person to add to the scene than....Wildfire.
Registered: Oct 2003
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(Although it makes me painfully aware of his ill-suited Illustrator is for this kind of stuff compared to programs like Poser or 3DS Max. Sigh - time to learn a new program, I suppose... )
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