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New artwork direction for Nimitz

Discussion concerning the TV, film, and comic adaptations.
New artwork direction for Nimitz
Post by Spacekiwi   » Wed Feb 11, 2015 2:08 am

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https://www.facebook.com/TalesofHonor/photos/a.355825264555598.1073741828.352796188191839/493171260820997/?type=1&fref=nf

Have to say Evergreen, He's starting to look much better. Proportions seem a little off, but that might be the angle, and the viciousness/cute balance is much better this time round. :)
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Re: New artwork direction for Nimitz
Post by fallsfromtrees   » Wed Feb 11, 2015 10:51 am

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Spacekiwi wrote:https://www.facebook.com/TalesofHonor/photos/a.355825264555598.1073741828.352796188191839/493171260820997/?type=1&fref=nf

Have to say Evergreen, He's starting to look much better. Proportions seem a little off, but that might be the angle, and the viciousness/cute balance is much better this time round. :)

Indeed - far superior to the previous effort. The ears look a little odd to me, but that could be just me.
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Re: New artwork direction for Nimitz
Post by hvb   » Wed Feb 11, 2015 11:23 am

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Spacekiwi wrote:[failed-url deleted]

Have to say Evergreen, He's starting to look much better. Proportions seem a little off, but that might be the angle, and the viciousness/cute balance is much better this time round. :)


I concur with fallsfromtrees. Overall a marked improvement, definitely ball-parking, but not quite there yet.

In specific:

Arms/Forelimbs & Midlimbs: much closer to what I would hope for than the “T-Rex forelimbs” from the running sequence.

The forelimb hands don’t seem to have fingers long enough at all to give the good grip needed for a Paleolithic tool-user species, also they are tetradactyl: three forward-pointing fingers is correct … plus an opposable thumb, also known as Sir Not-Appearing-In-This-Image.

Midlimb thumbs seem absent/not-shown as well; I would like to see at least ‘vestigial partial duplication’ of the forelimb thumbs on a scale of say the Bonobo thumb (‘apposable’, but not ‘opposable’ if one likes that terminology), Phalangeridae Marsupials are another example and have the advantage from the artist’s POV that they have three fingers: just grap a pic, crop the opposable thumb number to one; heck, keep the distal thumb for the true-hands and the proximate thumb for the foot-hand; one stop shopping; fiddle with length until it looks like it can hold and use a net, a basket, and a handaxe/flint-knife, and just add fur.

Size is still a bit large for shoulder-carry, but also a step in the right direction. (Yes, Honor is a heavy-worlder, but she also needs to be able to shoulder-carry him on that self-same heavy world, so that parameter should be largely a wash).

The facial expression doesn’t look at all like the treecat we all know … to be a stinker, that is. Ok for some other more serious ‘cat (being serious), but not Laughs Brightly.

Still not sold on the horns / bifocated Parasaurolophus crest / “<bleek> tubes” or whatever they are; what is their biological function … that David Weber omitted to tell us about because it wasn’t important to any particular story so far, yet was biologically advantageous enough for it to be retained be natural selection?

The otter like-on-the-inside/cat like-on-the-outside tail is also absent from the image, so cannot be commented on.

Image

Not liking the sideburns/mane on this one, but better hands & a clearly visible and well executed midpelvis/midlimb arrangement (which is not clearly visible in the Evergreen pic, but could already be similarly implemented, no telling from that angle):

Image
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Re: New artwork direction for Nimitz
Post by Bergie   » Tue Feb 24, 2015 1:38 am

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I also agree that this is much better for Nimitz!
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Re: New artwork direction for Nimitz
Post by memorychaser   » Fri Mar 27, 2015 12:45 pm

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Bergie wrote:I also agree that this is much better for Nimitz!



Yes. Yes it is. Update: THIS is better still, I think.
http://nenethomas.com/art-prints/honor- ... n-1903-pd/
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Re: New artwork direction for Nimitz
Post by memorychaser   » Fri Apr 03, 2015 11:39 am

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The portrait of Honor after Second Yeltsin that's now available here: http://nenethomas.com/art-prints/honor- ... n-1903-pd/ has, I think, the *definitive* Nimitz included. The website says BuNine helped insure the accuracy of her uniform and appearance details.

The image is copy-protected, but let me describe it.

Honor is standing in front of a starfield. Nimitz is sitting on her shoulders, looking out to her left. He rises slightly above her white beret in height; the bottom of his chin is about even with the middle of her beret's crest. His coat is very fluffy, shades of cream below and gray above. He looks, to my inartful eye, about the size of an Old Earth Russian Forest Cat (or perhaps a bobcat, although only his size and the extent of his whiskers resemble that feline). He has one true-hand on her shoulder and the other in midair, and the delicate fingers are clearly visible. The bulk of the 'cat rests below the top of her shoulder, and the fur on his back can be seen above her other shoulder, in the round shape of a sitting cat's back. Three of his other four limbs are concealed behind her head/back; you can see one mid-limb and hand-foot ensconced next to her collar.

He's not the size of a German Shepherd, let alone a Great Dane (as seen in the TopCow/Evergreen works). He's the size of a *cat*. A big cat, maybe the size and fluffiness of a manul (Pallas' cat), but a cat nonetheless. His ears are easily as large as the central pair in the TopCow/Evergreen art, but they're set wide apart and the artist makes them look highly mobile, which the graphic novels have not done; they are what I'd consider classic "prick ears" for a feline, as large as, oh, a caracal's proportionally. His eyes are a very clear green like Kentucky bluegrass in early spring, and are equally large; to me, his face looks very expressive. I could readily see *this* cat playing Frisbee or grooming his whiskers reprovingly at some human's remark. Something about him suggests a non-Earthly agility; there's some of the slenderness of the ringtail and some of the playfulness of the otter implied, and he looks like someone I'd enjoy meeting, and hope to find amenable to friendship.

There's a patch over Honor's eye on the same side Nimitz's head appears. She wears a correct RMN captain's uniform.
Under her arm, bent at the elbow to allow her hand to rest on her hip, Nimitz's very fluffy ringed tail appears on the opposite side. She's wearing the Star of Manticore on its ribbon around her neck, but I don't see a Steadholder's key. Nor is there any visible sign of Honor's hair, except possibly the faintest suggestion of sideburns; her face is framed by her beret, her collar, and a shadow under her beret on the same side as Nimitz's head. She has an oval face and her visible eye is both enormous and a beautiful dark brown, with just the merest hint of an upward-outward tilt. The patch strap bisects that eybrow, and entirely covers the other one as well as the eye and socket. She doesn't look rakish or daring; she looks serene and determined.

I'm a little surprised at the height of her bootheels -- they look made for fashion not function -- and how closely her uniform trousers fit, given that we never hear anything about her tailoring. ;) Four gold rings on each tunic cuff are shown; two scarlet, one gold and one maroon stripe appear on her right sleeve. I am insufficiently expert to read her ribbons, but there are an appropriate number (not a Pentagon-staff chestplate of 'em, but two rows of four or maybe five above one row of three). Her figure is not overendowed -- the tunic sleeves show slack; she appears neither too slim to be believed nor too muscle-bound to be attractive. The shape the uniform shows off suggests a swimmer more than a ballerina.
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Re: New artwork direction for Nimitz
Post by hvb   » Sat Apr 04, 2015 10:41 am

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She is in RMN uniform, as such the Steadholder's Key would be inappropriate.

The stipes are:
Scarlet: Wound Stripes (counting the Nelsons': one, two, ...)
Gold: Mentioned in Dispatches.
Red: Monarch's Thanks (cannot see the clusters from this angle, but three awards at this time: IIRC the fire on board HMS Manticore, the Attica Avalanche, & ... OBS or tHotQ not sure which ... must be getting old)

Ribbons ... yup, old; for want of reading glasses ... top outermost seems to be the Navy Pistol Expert Shooter medal, next over sure looks like the Saganami Cross (which she is not supposed to get until the end of HAE ... but what else could it be?), the third one (seem to me it is three per row) is mostly obscured by the Star of Grayson but may be the Order of Gallantry as it is white at viewer's extreme left (towards her centerline).

Second row is worse ... outermost has me flummoxed, next could be a Royal Unit Citation for Gallantry medal, and a partially obscured Manticoran Combat Action medal?

Last row ... well ... mostly grey/blue & tan/yellow ... at a complete WAG: Silesian Anti-Piracy Campaign medal & Order of King Roger?? (maybe transposed in this with the Unit Citation?)

memorychaser wrote:The portrait of Honor after Second Yeltsin that's now available here: http://nenethomas.com/art-prints/honor- ... n-1903-pd/ has, I think, the *definitive* Nimitz included. The website says BuNine helped insure the accuracy of her uniform and appearance details.

[snip] She's wearing the Star of Manticore on its ribbon around her neck, but I don't see a Steadholder's key.
[snip] two scarlet, one gold and one maroon stripe appear on her right sleeve. I am insufficiently expert to read her ribbons, but there are an appropriate number (not a Pentagon-staff chestplate of 'em, but two rows of four or maybe five above one row of three).[snip]
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Re: New artwork direction for Nimitz
Post by memorychaser   » Sat Apr 18, 2015 1:00 am

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Wow. What a generous thing you've done, identifying the ribbons and awards for me. My thanks.

I can't even make out some of those details *with* my glasses, and I'm only Mumblfrz years old ...


Also, as Nimitz is not the only 'cat in the Honorverse, I thought I'd propose an image for artwork about Farragut et. al. to grow from:

http://sharonleewriter.com/wp-content/u ... Basket.jpg

I really do want to see more Manticoran uniforms -- those boots have me flummoxed. They don't look like the ones in the House of Steel ...

Memorychaser



hvb wrote:She is in RMN uniform, as such the Steadholder's Key would be inappropriate.

The stipes are:
Scarlet: Wound Stripes (counting the Nelsons': one, two, ...)
Gold: Mentioned in Dispatches.
Red: Monarch's Thanks (cannot see the clusters from this angle, but three awards at this time: IIRC the fire on board HMS Manticore, the Attica Avalanche, & ... OBS or tHotQ not sure which ... must be getting old)

Ribbons ... yup, old; for want of reading glasses ... top outermost seems to be the Navy Pistol Expert Shooter medal, next over sure looks like the Saganami Cross (which she is not supposed to get until the end of HAE ... but what else could it be?), the third one (seem to me it is three per row) is mostly obscured by the Star of Grayson but may be the Order of Gallantry as it is white at viewer's extreme left (towards her centerline).

Second row is worse ... outermost has me flummoxed, next could be a Royal Unit Citation for Gallantry medal, and a partially obscured Manticoran Combat Action medal?

Last row ... well ... mostly grey/blue & tan/yellow ... at a complete WAG: Silesian Anti-Piracy Campaign medal & Order of King Roger?? (maybe transposed in this with the Unit Citation?)

memorychaser wrote:The portrait of Honor after Second Yeltsin that's now available here: http://nenethomas.com/art-prints/honor- ... n-1903-pd/ has, I think, the *definitive* Nimitz included. The website says BuNine helped insure the accuracy of her uniform and appearance details.

[snip] She's wearing the Star of Manticore on its ribbon around her neck, but I don't see a Steadholder's key.
[snip] two scarlet, one gold and one maroon stripe appear on her right sleeve. I am insufficiently expert to read her ribbons, but there are an appropriate number (not a Pentagon-staff chestplate of 'em, but two rows of four or maybe five above one row of three).[snip]
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