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sillvyre · 2 years

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I am asking very nicely for you to PLEASE talk about all the tiny details of your art i LIVE for that shit.

Yes yes yes!!! Okay this is gonna be LONG. We’re just talking about my portraits for this one but I’m gonna talk a lot, so most of this will be under the cut. In this essay I will be going over what goes through my head when coming up with facial features for different personalities and why I did what I did for each!

Let’s start with fWhip and Gem. Both of these characters are smart as hell, but I think of them as being high INT but low WIS. They’re maybe not the most personable—fWhip makes enemies pretty easily, and Gem doesn’t need to be nice when she knows she’s right. The challenge with these two is: how do I make that clear while I show their different, distinct personalities while also making them look like twins, even to people who don’t know them?

They’re fraternal twins so I wanted them to have different eyes, different nose shapes, different mouths, different chins and jawlines, but while still looking the same.

Fun fact, Gem was the only one who didn’t have an initial pencil sketch. Here’s why:

^ I wanted them to have the same base, so here’s how hers started! I painted directly on top of Count fWhip and changed the features to reflect Gem’s traits instead of his.

So, what traits do their portraits show? The weight on fWhip’s face draws his features downward, but the tightness in Gem’s face draws her features upward. His brow is furrowed lower while Gem’s is slightly raised, and the, like, meatiest part (?) of his cheeks hang lower while Gem’s cheeks sit up higher. fWhip has a hint of a downturned smirk while her lips are quirked up, looking more smug. This is because fWhip is surrounded by ores from the deepest part of the earth while Gem lives high up in a tower! As well, fWhip’s eyes are sunken deeper into his skull with slight marks around the eye sockets as a result of wearing his goggles tight against his skin; Gem has wrinkles around her eyes as a result from squinting while she pores over books in her studies.

You can’t see it here but I interpret Gem’s braid to really go down to her knees like on her mc skin, and when loose it falls into really long, loose ringlets. fWhip has the same hair texture but it’s way curlier since he keeps it shorter. I took a lot of inspiration from @pontsalin’s fWhip design for the hair!

Going back to my notes about them being high INT but low WIS, I played around with the proportions of their faces relative to the overall silhouettes of their heads. Gem and fWhip both have their facial features take up the least amount of space compared to the rest of their skulls—fWhip’s silhouette is mostly hair, and Gem is mostly hat. Their faces are overall less important than everything else because they’re not focused on making friends so much as they are being clever and using their brains (implied to be large because their head silhouettes are very big). As well, neither of them have very bright highlights in their eyes, and their gazes are more calculating than warm or friendly.

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Up next, Scott versus Shrub. These are the only two characters looking at the camera fully head-on, but for very different reasons. Both of them also have their facial features take up a LOT of room on their skulls, because in their cases I’m thinking about the face they put on to show the others.

So first of all, Scott is looking down at us while Shrub is looking up. Sure, Scott is tall while Shrub is short—but Lizzie is the tallest and we look at her normally. No, this is about power. Specifically the fact that, whether he wants to or not, Scott has a lot of it—and Shrub has very little.

Scott is the mortal Champion of a god and was tasked with defeating his own brother, a demon bent on destroying him and everything he loves, and grappling with supernatural powers he can barely control. Dude’s been through a lot!! He didn’t ask for any of what he ended up with, all he can do is deal and try to lead as best he can given the circumstances. He’s drawn up to his full height, looking down at us with a cold expression of neutral, careful control. His eyes have no highlights in them at all—his eyelids catch the light, but his irises are in complete shadow. His head sans accessories takes up the most space on the canvas of anyone. His hair is perfect, his clothes are crisp. It’s a carefully curated facade.

Shrub is similar in that her life was turned upside down by Xornoth, but in a different way. Her story is all about loss and grief. She has no family, no home, no people, no kingdom. She’s looking straight on at the camera but from below, a position of vulnerability and loneliness. Her eyes have the most highlights in them of any character—almost as though she’s holding back tears. Her face doesn’t have uncanny elven symmetry; while Scott’s hair is perfectly kept to show his need for control, Shrub’s is messy with hair escaping her braid and curling around her head. Her head, minus the mushroom hat, is the smallest of anyone’s, and the lowest down on the page. Her mushroom hat contrasts nicely with Scott’s perfect geometric circlet: it’s asymmetrical, it fits a bit wonky, it’s an organic shape, and it looks like it belongs in the Undergrove.

Overall, these two both get to face forward because of their particular relationship to Xornoth. Scott had to step up and become a leader in an unexpected way, forced into it by circumstance and received a portrait displaying a cold, distant expression and tidy appearance; Shrub lost everything and was driven to madness, so her portrait has an expression of pain and vulnerability.

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The Seablings!

Don’t worry, it’s more lighthearted from here on out 😜

Since the Seablings aren’t twins I made them look much more different from each other—the main similarity is that that they both have scales (duh) and really dramatic bone structure. Note the shape that the rim light makes as it catches the sides of their faces, sinking in so deeply in the eyesocket and clinging so tightly to the skull, only protruding again for the muscles of the mouth and chin.

When it came to Lizzie my focus was on the textures as opposed to the expression. Her features are well-proportioned and her expression is kind, but more important to me were the scales—I know axolotls don’t have them, but I wanted a really distinct mermaid princess vibe for her. Since scales are shiner than white human skin, hers reflect the colours around her while being the purpley-blue of the Blue Axolotl. That’s why in the highlights they take on the pink of her hair and the brighter blue of the background. I’m also really happy with the way her ear fin came out, with that semi-transparent stretched texture.

Lizzie’s tiara is made of pearl, just like the accents on the banner I designed for the Ocean Empire.

When it comes to Jimmy, his skin tone is unique among the rulers for being the coldest in hue—he has green accents in his cheeks and nose! I imagine that his scales are sort of a weird slimy film over his human skin. As well, his ear fins are far more opaque than Lizzie’s, much more like the webbing between human fingers (but green instead of reddish!). I also made his lips protrude a bit in a fishy sort of way.

Notably, Jimmy is the only person who’s genuinely smiling in their portrait. I had in mind that everyone would be taking it really seriously, trying to project the vibe they want their Empire to have, while Jim is just happy to be there. He also has some of the most high-contrast highlights in his eyes because he’s one of the friendliest emperors there are!

Jimmy is also the ruler that looks the most like the real life CC. I swear I didn’t reference his irl face when making this—I think it’s a combination of Jimmy having a face cam in his videos so I’m really familiar with his face in my mind, and also those are just his vibes.

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The Copper King! He’s the other CC whose face I’m pretty familiar with, but I deliberately didn’t make his face anything like irl Pixlriffs’ because I had specific ideas in mind for him. I’ve mentioned most of this previously but I’ll include it here with the new stuff :)

As mentioned in a previous ask, in order to get him to read instantly as “wise and spiritual desert man” I borrowed a few traits from Prince of Egypt’s Moses: the hair length and the way the beard is shaped around the jaw. He also has the deepest tan of anyone besides Joey, since they both live in really hot climates.

Pix also has kohl around his eyes because a) he lives in a desert and b) I love eyeliner on men. The kohl in this case is painted on in such a way to draw your attention on the corners of his eyes, appearing to weight them downward. As keeper of the Vigil, Pix has seen a lot of death, and so I wanted to show the weight of that in his eyes—Pixlriffs gets significant highlights both in the eye and on the lower lid, drawing you in. As well, there is no pupil visible. The deep blue of his eyes just keeps going and going, mysterious and endless…

But!! And this is important! The Copper King isn’t weighed down by sorrow and grief. In fact, he’s a really chill guy most of the time! He loves practical jokes and playing pranks—he’s wise and playful. Like an airbender. It would be so easy to have his whole face weighted downwards like his eyes and eyebrows but instead we catch it at the mouth. There’s a youthful upturn there like he’s about to smile.

The Copper King’s crown is something I designed ages ago, and it does have floating parts! The shape of the front of it is inspired by the distinct patterns in Pixandrian architecture, with the floating hemisphere representing the conduit powering the Vigil.

He also has earrings now, something I hadn’t put in my initial Copper King design, and a more… plunging neckline. These are both there because, uh, for reasons. *ahem* Have I mentioned I’m bi?

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Speaking of, Pearl’s up next! Good segue right there.

I honestly think Pearl’s Empires skin is the most beautiful of them all. As mentioned, her expression is one of kindness and tiredness after a day of working out in the sun. She’s covered in freckles and her hair is sun-bleached, and she’s got a shiny red sunburn across her face and shoulders from all her time spent outdoors. She also has broad, muscular shoulders from hard work and her martial training. Her lips have a natural upturn so she looks like she’s smiling even when her expression is neutral, and her eyes are bright. The moon necklace is self explanatory ☺️🌙

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The next three are the ones whose videos I’ve watched the least of, so their portraits are mostly based on vibes.

First up, Joey and Katherine!

Joey gets to be sharp, sharp everything. Sharp cheekbones, sharp eyebrows, sharp jawline, sharp eyeliner. His skin is flawless because he has a 14-step routine he does twice a day and he never really stopped being evil-adjacent so his chin is up and he’s looking down on us. He really knows his angles to look as fabulously intimidating as possible.

Katherine, on the other hand, is more round! She gets a heart-shaped face because she is full of love. She just wants everyone to be friends and for there to be peace! And she collects severed heads! Wholesome and little bit crazy, she gets to have big, bright, friendly, round eyes that are perfect for inviting you over for a sleepover. She’s got a dainty little nose and thin fairy ears and perfect glossy hair that is always scented like floral shampoo.

Then comes Sausage! Now, Sausage is A Lot. He talks fast and he says a LOT and he’s got a big personality and there’s always a lot going on!!! But my portrait is much more subdued—his head is tilted down, he looks tired.

Well, when it comes to showing How Much Sausage Is I wanted to show this through his features rather than his expression. He’s got a broad forehead, a large jaw, huge eyebrows, big ears, a wide mouth, and (though you can’t see it here) huge hands. I wanted to focus his expression on how much he’s gone through, in a rugged and world-weary kind of way. He practices blood magic, he’s been possessed, he’s been imprisoned, he had part of his soul locked away, he’s covered in scars…

Sausage’s complexion is ruddy and his skin is pulled taut over his features. I left the most brushstrokes in his face to show the roughness there. He has dramatic bags under his eyes, which are downturned, and he’s barely got any highlights in his eyes. You can’t really see his pupils, either—his mouth is smiling but his eyes are heavy and closed off. Like Shrub I wanted to show how he’s suffered through his eyes, and in this case it’s the exact opposite approach to the highlights.

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And finally, Joel Smallishbeans! I watch Joel a lot but his portrait is the easiest to explain so I saved his for last.

Joel is smirking because he’s a smug bastard (affectionate) and he has a wide face, cleft chin and small ears because his pfp used to be Shrek ❤️

Literally, that’s it.

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So yeah!! I spent about two hours on each portrait but only about 5-10 minutes on the initial sketch for each, which is when I would’ve thought about all this stuff. I’m thinking that later this week I’m going to try and put out a post showing the process of how I go about creating a portrait from the sketch to final with all this stuff in mind!

I know this was a ton to read through but if you’ve got any questions about this sort of thing I’d love to hear em :3 Thanks so much for handing me an opportunity to talk about all this stuff!!

#empires smp

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