CGAN April 2018 - April's Fool - WIPs

Thanks Val your entry gave me a good laugh (and I mean that in a good way).
I've fleshed out a little more of mine in regard to the actual fool. I have also spent some time drawing and then promptly discarding a plethora of borders too. I want something along the lines of an angular Norse detailing featuring dragons but nothings sitting right with me atm. The border colour and the wooden table top are just holding space right now.

I like the reflection. It gives it a bit of symmetry like you'd get in normal playing cards, and yes I know that they're rotational rather reflections but the effect is the same and it's working here very well.


Just been spending time working the skin. Still no patches but I'm trying to keep it on the light side at the moment so that any overlay won't darken it too much. I also want his eyes to be pale and watery to maybe remind you of all that drowning he's been through.



Edit: Forgot to insert image.

I'm glad you noticed it wasn't a real reflection but more than that I glad you understood why Val. Its comforting to know some of my reasoning behind stuff comes across.
Nice progress on yours, the twigs are very convincing and the translucency on his ear is very cool. He carries his chubbiness a lot more realistically than mine too.

Yikes! Only ten days to go?
This month seem to be going as fast as February.

I feel another last ditch rescue effort is imminent.

I've been wasting far too much time being indecisive about these motley tattoos on the face.



The full red+green option on the right is closest to the character description but it looks a bit drab to me and I kinda prefer the versions that have more skin showing through.
I think I'm gonna switch to photoshop so I can do some colour adjustments on the individual layers to try and get it right.

1. As I said can't remember Patchface much from the books... But "patches" sounds to me more irregular than this? maybe even bigger... Butmaybe I'm influenced by all the "patched plushie" items and pets of Aywas I think I did even expect "stitches" between the patches.
2. Perhaps you can do a coloration with green patches plus skin color and let the skin colour go more towards red, but more so on say nose and cheeks like on a drunkard or something?
3. The way you've added the diamond pattern (which, come to think of it, is probably more appropriate seeing it's a "playing card") seems to follow the shape of his head well, except on his chin (the er... upper... original, chin). I'm not sure how hard this was to do, but you might want to try a somewhat larger-scale pattern? Unless it's described as a small scale one, which I wouldn't know, because I can't remember.

Thanks, Charlotte.
Yes, that top chin bit isn't quite right, I didn't notice that.

Technically, the patches are supposed to be squares but while drawing it was easier to elongate them into more of a diamond shape to try and follow the form of the face.

I actually had a search through the books today to find the first description of the character (it's the prologue to Clash Of Kings) and was surprised to find that they're supposed to be real deer antlers on the bucket. I always remembered (or misremembered!) them as branches that just looked like antlers.
It's strange how you sometimes make up your own versions of stories when reading.
(Edit: And I haven't forgotten the bells, I was saving them until the end.)

I think the thing that's bothering me is that I've picked red and green colours of a similar brightness, so they don't have the kind of contrast you usually get from motley patterns. That's why I want to try that photoshop fiddling next. If that doesn't work I may indeed try a repaint.

I think that changing the brightness of the red/green colours is gonna work. I had a little experiment today and it didn't look quite as drab as before thanks to the extra contrast of the pattern. (I can't prove it here because I forgot to save a wip. ) Also I did correct the chin and got as far as adding some bells on the antlers (which are staying as branches.)

Now I just need to try and make it look like a tarot card. I think I might use one of those GoT sigils in the corners, and then I'll have a rummage around in my custom shapes folder for some patterny things.

did all the Baratheons have the stag as their sigil? *can't recall but it would make sense* (I peaked at the prologue to refresh my memory and found Patchface accompanied Shireen.)

hmm there are four main houses in the books. Might actually work well for a deck of cards "Ha! My three dragons trumps your pair of wolves!"

EDIT: OK that's not quite how card playing works but... my point... er...

The Stannis version of the sigil is a stag inside a burning heart. So hopefully putting the hearts in the corner (along with the diamonds on the face) will help convince the viewer that it's supposed to be a "card".