Just wanted to give forum members a heads-up on a really nice set of alternate portraits by a friend of mine.
I'm likely in the minority, but despite playing BG dozens of times over the years, I've always hated the original portraits. I don't want anime/manga style pictures, but I don't feel the inhabitants of the game should be grimacing, pox-ridden, wart-faced monstrosities either. Alora is a cute halfling, not a withered old hag. Coran should be a gorgeous ladies-man, not a warped Hall-of-Mirrors grotesquery. Even the ones that are not too hideous, like Imoen and Branwen's original portraits, are much too old for the characters they are supposed to portray. Branwen's not in her 40's, and Imoen is not a soccer mom, she's a perky teen, 17-18 tops.
Kaila's portraits are great - classic fantasy but not TOO fantastic. I don't think the anime look suits BG, and while I personally like the Boris Vallejo chainmail-bikini look, that doesn't suit BG either.
I think her reworkings of the classic characters are lovely, and accurate reflect the characters involved. We have Jahiera's trademark scowl, Xzar's unsettling stare and the bug-eyed weirdness of Tiax. Xan and Coran now actually look like high-charisma guys. The females are attractive without being airbrushed supermodels.
Check it out here: http://www.shsforums.net/topic/55677-paintbg-introduction-and-samples/
There's also another pack of her commissions, some of them mine, on DeviantArt:
http://artastrophe.deviantart.com/art/BG-Portrait-Package-145216289
I love being able to play the game with a unified look and art style, whether I'm playing a MP party or recruiting NPCs. There's a full range here, familiars, gnomes, half-orcs, halflings, the lot.
Hope some of you find it useful anyway.
I'm likely in the minority, but despite playing BG dozens of times over the years, I've always hated the original portraits. I don't want anime/manga style pictures, but I don't feel the inhabitants of the game should be grimacing, pox-ridden, wart-faced monstrosities either. Alora is a cute halfling, not a withered old hag. Coran should be a gorgeous ladies-man, not a warped Hall-of-Mirrors grotesquery. Even the ones that are not too hideous, like Imoen and Branwen's original portraits, are much too old for the characters they are supposed to portray. Branwen's not in her 40's, and Imoen is not a soccer mom, she's a perky teen, 17-18 tops.
Kaila's portraits are great - classic fantasy but not TOO fantastic. I don't think the anime look suits BG, and while I personally like the Boris Vallejo chainmail-bikini look, that doesn't suit BG either.
I think her reworkings of the classic characters are lovely, and accurate reflect the characters involved. We have Jahiera's trademark scowl, Xzar's unsettling stare and the bug-eyed weirdness of Tiax. Xan and Coran now actually look like high-charisma guys. The females are attractive without being airbrushed supermodels.
Check it out here: http://www.shsforums.net/topic/55677-paintbg-introduction-and-samples/
There's also another pack of her commissions, some of them mine, on DeviantArt:
http://artastrophe.deviantart.com/art/BG-Portrait-Package-145216289
I love being able to play the game with a unified look and art style, whether I'm playing a MP party or recruiting NPCs. There's a full range here, familiars, gnomes, half-orcs, halflings, the lot.
Hope some of you find it useful anyway.