Bioware's artists have made some absolutely wonderful portraits, but the one for Valen in HotU just never was my cup of tea. I thought I'd try making my own, and here it is. Hmmm... never done this before, so I hope it looks fine on everyone's computers. Made with Photoshop CS from a random pencil sketch of mine (I couldn't find any reference photos that I liked).
UPDATE 5/17/05 - Now that school is out I had time to correct the portrait by adding a ponytail and tweaking with the colors/contrast/cropping to make some of the images look better in the game. I also chopped off certain parts of the hair that I felt were a little too dramatic.
UPDATE 5/18/05 - LOL, whoops, another update. Now it has undergone some major eye shrinkage and slight chin modifications.
Posted by Jarandel at 2005-11-27 00:59:03 Voted 10.00 on 11/27/05
Hmm, I know a friend's character for whom this will look as if it was custom made. The horns, hair color, expression on the face...
Posted by Anonymous ( 66.109.xxx.xxx ) at 2005-06-26 18:52:45
hmm..pretty good...But I like Valen's red hair..that's part of the demonic blood showing itself...
Posted by Olivia_Chillia at 2005-05-20 18:25:10 Voted 9.75 on 05/20/05
I really liked the BioWare Valen, but this one is kind of cool too. Technically and artistically this is a lovely piece of work. You get bonus points for original work too! :D
My feeling about this is that he doesn't look rugged enough (physically or emotionally) to be Valen. He looks very young, delicate and on the edge of tears to me.
Nirraen, thank you very much for pointing out the missing ponytail! I like it much better with one. You know, I never would have guessed that English isn't your mother language. Heck, it is for me and I don't even speak it well. I think your interpretation concerning the eyes is just as valid. Intense is a synonym for harsh or fierce. My interpretation would probably actually hold more water if the conversation had said "intensely" blue instead of "intense" blue.
Mechanics, thank you very much for your input and kind words as well. It's awesome that there is something for both of us out there and that the original portrait has some fans. ^_^
Posted by Mechanics ( 82.207.xxx.xxx ) at 2005-05-10 00:43:00
A VERY good performance. I wish I could do the same with that blasted Photoshop!
But... EEEUUUUHHH! - definitely not my type!
Bioware's Valen rocks.
Again, your mastery of the drawing program is impressive.
Posted by Nirraen ( 216.95.xxx.xxx ) at 2005-04-25 05:40:00
Um... I guess now I'll have to agree with your point on his eyes. You see, I never concidered the word intence as a definition of brightness. I always thought it to be a synonym of tense, unfriendly, caustic. Just to claryfy, English is not my first language, I've immigrated to Canada from Russia just three years ago, so I don't know the meaning of many words yet, and sometimes I tend to guess the meaning more, than actually look it up in dictionary. Eh... lazy me. Well, anyways I guess I really should look into the dictionary more instead of just blindly relying on a word to sound simmilar to some other word. So now it actually begins to make sence to me why everyone was so disappointed in his portrait eyes. Though I still like his in game portrait eyes... I guess I actually like that somewhat alienish (is there such a word?) feel to his face, which makes it believable that he IS actually a part demon. But I have to repeat again it just me, and yeah, my tastes are ruther odd sometimes. As for your portrait being your first attempt to draw a male... well... I would never thought that! I mean it is totally awesome! You should've seen my first male! It was different from a woman just by lack of breasts and long hair... And your portrait is avesome! Yes the small thumbnail looks kind of feminine, but on the larger one it is definitely obvious that it is a man. So you should really be proud of it! Maybe if you don't mind I might give you a couple of hints on how to make a man appear more masculine. Usually they tend to have smaller eyes, well not always byt at least it is an artistic trick to make a man appear less feminine. Higher and stronger cheek-bones, deeper, sometimes like somewhat sucked-in cheeks, and more pronounced chin and whider jaw. When I learned to draw a man I used Arnold Shvartceneger's photo very often. Now, I don't want to say that he is my type or should be anyone elses unless you really like him, it is just I consider his face very masculine and male-like, and I just used his pic to see which details actually make a mam look like one. So Arnold really helped me to find out what exactly I need to make bigger or smaller in order to achieve strong male features. Maybe you might find someone else's picture for a refference, just in begining I would suggest to avoid such selebrities or actors as Johny Deep, Bred Pit(sp?) or Tom Cruise, I do not doubt their musculinity at all and do find them very male-like, yet they are the ones that have a very tricky faces, I mean large eyes and fine features, which may lead to a feminine face again.
*looks up* WOW! That is one huge post from me! Sorry about that. I hope you'll find it at least a little helpful though. I wish you good luck on your future art work. Keep it up, I hope to see more of your stuff soon. My real user name by the way is Nirrael, I just write from another computer and I don't remember my pasword. I also post my portraits here so you may check them out if you wish. There should be my Shadowdancer in the Newest Releases list now. Oh... ok, I'll shut up already.
LOL Nirraen, thank you very much for sharing your honest opinion! I really appreciate it, and everyone else's as well. I agree that he shouldn't look like a Prince Charming at all, given his history. I had a great fear the entire time I was making this that I would make him 1. too young 2. too feminine or 3. not surly enough. I've found that I don't like men as masculine as most other women do (of course, I don't like them too feminine either), and I was worried that my bias would show through. I've never done a picture of a man before, and I really struggled with it. Concerning his eyes, I always thought the original ones were really off given that in conversations with Valen it refers to his "intense" or "brilliant" blue eyes. Considering those give an impression of his eyes being extremely blue (particularly "intense," given the definition of the word means an "excess" or "extreme degree"). I felt the original seriously lacked this characteristic. You have good points considering the fact that his demonic blood should affect the way he looks. To be honest though... I know nothing about how demons should look. ^_^ To answer your question about the ponytail, I had thought that his head wasn't turned enough to see one, especially since the model had the ponytail sitting nearer the nape of his neck. Now that you mention it though, it looks like one could actually fit in there. I might consider playing around with the portrait a bit to see if it looks any good with one.
Posted by PrincessPocket at 2005-04-17 09:51:42 Voted 9.00 on 04/17/05
Posted by sbrage2000 at 2005-04-15 22:43:04 Voted 9.50 on 04/15/05
Posted by sbrage2000 at 2005-04-15 22:42:00 Voted 9.50 on 04/15/05
Fantastic portrait, Heather. Welcome to the Vault! Can't wait to see more of your work.
Posted by VSheep at 2005-04-14 09:57:43 Voted 10.00 on 04/14/05
Posted by Celt46 at 2005-04-13 18:49:55 Voted 9.50 on 04/13/05
Great work!
Posted by Anonymous ( 213.64.xxx.xxx ) at 2005-04-11 01:54:00
wow really nice work, love the way you've made the lightnight on it. Would love seeing more of your work around here.
Wow! Awesome job for a first time...and for any time!Timmy C.
Everything is only because you think it is. For indeed, your brain can be interpreting your senses' signals wrong...in which case everything that you think is real, is only a product of your imagination. _________________________ Timmmeahhhhhhhhh!!!!!
Posted by Anva ( 209.151.xxx.xxx ) at 2005-04-10 08:23:00
I loved the Bioware version, but I agree it was abit creepy O.o This Valen looks like someone I could hug :D Very nice.
Posted by SorrowA ( 67.11.xxx.xxx ) at 2005-04-10 06:34:00
Personally think this is a wonderful portrait. The Bioware valen was a tad bit creepy and he looked like a drug addict. The texture is good, the facial expression is good; he's not freakishly attractive(which tieflings shouldn't be usually) but isn't bad looking.
Posted by SorrowA ( 67.11.xxx.xxx ) at 2005-04-10 06:33:00
Personally think this is a wonderful portrait. The Bioware valen was a tad bit creepy and he looked like a drug addict. The texture is good, the facial expression is good; he's not freakishly attractive(which tieflings shouldn't be usually) but isn't bad looking.
Posted by Selvan at 2005-04-10 01:31:10 Voted 9.75 on 04/10/05
Excellent.
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