Commissioned Portrait of Ramulein!
After commissioning Reiesu for Marcus and Jessica and Nefertiti, the next character was High Chancellor Ramulein. This one was the hardest yet. I had/have a very, very fuzzy view of him. I knew…general things about what he looked like. Very general. Mostly the physical qualities of Sacon. Not…much else.
For that reason and others, this was the longest back and forth.
My…‘Resources’
So, before we get into WIPs, let’s talk about some of the resources I provided Reiesu. Beyond the Sacon drawing and meager description, the following were given throughout the process:
- A drawing I made of him over a decade ago that I’m not sharing because it’s horrible
- A drawing of Ramulein’s robes I sketched with my Apple Pencil
- A sketch of what I imagined the pose should be
Yes, very meager and barebones. Anyway, let’s continue on…
The First WIP
First go at Ramulein by Reiesu. It was a bit different than expected. Far more dynamic than anticipated. Summary of comments:
- The skin color of this original WIP was so provocative to me. My vision of gray was a bit different, but that one blew me out of the water and made me rethink the visual.
- Loved the Halo addition.
- Hands were weird…but we’ll get to that.
- It was cool to see the Neran
It was different than what I thought I wanted, but it made me think. And, I believe, him think too.
WIPS
And so we reach the next set of WIPs which, as you can see, are dramatically different from the original! The pose is shifted to the front facing, hand covering one I had been thinking of. The first WIP in the series had a different hue, more red-purply. The robe turned out fantastic. I love the sort of warbly green color and the pattern. The next one tweaks the tone, hand, removes the neran due to perspective, and adds the halo back.
The hand…ugh. The hand being over the face was a way to avoid having to figure out the details of his countenance. Also because I liked the idea of him essentially in some form of face palm. But the point is: it was to reduce complexity of alien anatomy.
And…well, doing this was more complicated than expected because the hands of a Sacon are different than that of a Human. Longer fingers, more joints, and one whole finger less! So that was a bit tricky to get going, like the anatomy of that in relation to the face. Eventually it settled into place and a few things were tweaked towards the end and then boom!
Final!
It was a process to get to this point, and I do admit that I think this misses what he truly looks like, but why and how I am still uncertain. It’s a feeling of incongruence without yet knowing the full truth of his face and form. This definitely pushed my articulation abilities to the limit and made me realize, again, how light I am on the details in my writing.
But!
That is not to say that I do not like it. I do. But not as much as Marcus/Jessica and Nefertiti. It’s a learning experience for me. Next time if I do Ramulein, I will have a firmer grasp on him.
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