HeroMachine Character Portrait Creator

CDC- Do a Thing

I had to finish this tonight. I was paranoid I’d reload it tomorrow and all the layers would be out of order and all the masking would be messed up. So finish it I did.

I wanted to do something a little different with my characters. I write a lot of warriors and when I use the Machine, I make a lot of battles and ‘action’ shots. So instead I made a quiet moment. Aura and Aldar, Warriors and future monarchs, taking some time alone during the bustle of their wedding day. They predominantly wear green, which is a sacred color (as it is a mix of blue and yellow, the two colors symbolizing the sun goddess and river god). They wear only limited jewelry; earrings, the Warrior neckrings, and Aura wears her Warrior’s Crown. The royal family of this land (a desert bisected by a great river) bears tattoos of the Sun embraced by a River wave, and so when they wed, Aura takes one also. The dragons on her sleeves are the symbol of her own homeland (the southern neighbor of the desert). They also wear their Blades at their sides, as this is a peaceful event, rather than in regular back harness.

Edit- Link here to picture, as it doesn’t seem to want to upload.

http://orig08.deviantart.net/51e8/f/2015/316/8/5/quiet_moment_by_melmo44-d9ghxvk.png

(Warning, wall of text)

Thanks everyone. I appreciate the compliments. I’m an older gamer-type who hasn’t had a good tabletop group in a few years. This has helped me move some of my creative ideas and gaming impulses around to satisfy my needs hahaha.

My influences are Masters of the Universe, DC’s New Gods, Marvel’s Inhumans & Celestial Beings, Frank Frazetta’s Conan & Elric, Tony DiTerlizzi’s Planescape & Spiderwick work, and Brian Froud (known for The Dark Crystal), I also love Wayne Reynolds, Larry Elmore, Clyde Caldwell, Brom, and Boris Vallejo but my work has very little Brom in it at the moment. It might be fun to try to put some of Brom’s Dark Sun ideas into my characters.

Elric, Corum, Conan, and John Carter are all a big deal in my preferences about how fantasy/sci-fi should be represented and as for celestial/cosmic entities, you can’t beat the artists at Marvel & DC over the years.

@hawk007: I’ve been working with HM 3 Premium for about 8 months. I remember when HM 1 was brand new and played with it then so it’s been in the back of my mind for years. I recently started doing this work only after seeing the amazing things other people were doing and just analyzing their work; picking apart the layers and items etc.

@Suleman: Thank you very much. I try to create pieces more than use stock items wherever I can because I feel it personalizes my characters. I actually feel joy in taking a HM object and manipulating it into something else it wasn’t intended to be in the first place 🙂

@ Suleman – Glad you like it.  Was fun to build and challenged me on a couple of things.  I like the way it all came together.  Thanks for letting give her a shot.  Cheers!

@ Magnus Maximus – Thank you!  The chain mail is made up of some armor top items originally concieved by Suleman.  Check out his original pic. http://sulemania.deviantart.com/art/Imperial-Soldier-549943847

It is an excellent use for the item and opens the door for further experimentation.  For mine, I used female and male armor top items depending on the shape I was looking for.

Cheers!

Some items for your consideration, sir 😀

this fellow’s mask

Really great details and colors, man. There’s just the right amount of details that they complement the work without stealing the show. I really like that. I also like how you made some of those custom items.

It’s actually really hard to pick a favorite, I dig them all.

[URL=http://s421.photobucket.com/user/leemccree/media/Aries_zpsda0ticeq.png.html][IMG]http://i421.photobucket.com/albums/pp299/leemccree/Aries_zpsda0ticeq.png[/IMG][/URL]

Lady Knight is fantastic! I particularly love the chain mail look on the sleeves. What item(s) did you use?

How long have you been doing this?