Character-Portraits
Latest
Character Sketch: Call for submissions
In the midst of all this Real ID brouhaha, it's good to be reminded that we sometimes play the World of Warcraft to immerse ourselves in our other identities -- the characters we play. Some of us enter the world of Azeroth to have a grand adventure, leaving our probably awesome but otherwise non-magical real lives for a while to masquerade as dwarves or orcs ... as anything from plate-wearing champions of the Light to felfire-wielding sorcerers in brimstone-stained robes. World of Warcraft is still an MMORPG, after all, and at the heart of it the characters we play are reflections of ourselves, real names or otherwise. Here at WoW.com, we'd like to celebrate these characters -- your characters -- by taking them for a spin. We're looking for submissions of our readers' characters which we'll take and draw. Think of it as a reverse version of World of WarCrafts, where we'll draw your character and throw in a paragraph or two about them, Know Your Lore-style. We'll need your help, of course. We want you to tell us about your favorite character, whether it be your awesome end-game raiding night elf priest or your humble, low-level bank alt in a snazzy tuxedo set. It's up to you. We want you to let us know about your character by shooting us an email at zach@wow.com with your character's name and a few lines describing them. Obviously, we'll need to get them right, so you could either link us to your character's armory or just send us some screenshots we can use as reference. The more detailed your descriptions or pictures, the more justice we'll be able to give to your character, so make sure to give us everything we need. We'll even try our best to get little details in there somewhere, like your favorite non-combat pet if you want it hanging around. In the end, if we get it right, we'll have a WoW.com wallpaper featuring one of your characters every week. In a way, it's a shot at 15 Minutes of Fame without actually having to be anyone famous in real life or having done anything particularly stupendous. You just need to be you -- and your character needs to be, well, just about any character in the World of Warcraft. Over time, we hope to compile a fairly decent gallery of the heroes that you play. Maybe it'll even help our readers get to know each other somewhat. Without, you know, having to tell anyone your real name or anything.
Mondolithic Studios creates oil portraits of virtual world characters
Here's another WoW/virtual character portrait studio -- we've covered a few before -- but I think it's the first place we've ever seen that will actually create an oil-on-canvas portrait of whatever character you choose. Most folks do it with digital art or illustration, but Mondolithic Studios goes the extra mile -- not only will they actually put a painting together, but they'll show up to photograph you in your element, too. Lots of artists use reference shots that you send them, but Mondolithic apparently aims for "combat photography," which means they'll have a toon in world with you to watch you do your thing.Interesting. There's only a few samples there at the moment, but they'll probably have more when and if business picks up. The style is quite interesting -- it certainly is oil paint, but rather than going realistic, it seems like it's designed more to mimic the actual look of the game, with a few weird polygon angles and designs.Unfortunately, there's no mention of price at all (you have to email them for estimates), but odds are it isn't cheap. Then again, if you're in search of a one-of-a-kind oil portrait of the character you've sunk so much time into, this just might be worth the money you put into it.[Via Massively]
