I haven’t shared a lot of stuff about The Last Pirate Queen for a while now, so I figured I’d share some of the art evolutions of the portraits I’m using for the game. These are the fourth or fifth iterations of the portraits during the development process, and will likely undergo several changes themselves before I finish. (You can see the style evolution better in my previous blog entry, Character Design: Part 1)

Queen Elizabeth Greene was given a look akin to "resting bitch face" more than the pure neutral that she had before. She's a warrior at heart, and being a queen bores her somewhat. I also altered her jawline to make it a bit more different than the other characters.

Nerina Northwind, though a woman in power, is unsure of her future throughout the parts of the game where she is present. I tried to address this worry while retaining some semblance of neutrality (as a minor character she only gets 1-2 portraits). Her collar was also changed to better fit the style of the jacket and her sprite.

The Witch is a wily old woman with motives and plans all her own, even as she gives the main characters the keys to success. I wanted to make her look a bit more confident and less feeble. Her collar was cleaned up as well, and her makeup was made a bit more severe to accentuate the fact that she's holding on to her glory days as a young witch.

I have issues with extreme emotions and faces, so this one in particular was a challenge. The first iteration of the Earth Spirit, while creepy, didn't have much of the carnivorous plant vibe. Her features were made to push the uncanny valley with overlarge eyes, nose, and mouth.

With the “befores†I was trying for a better unity of style, as my style can change somewhat between sessions. So everything was formulaic, using the same eye base and face base and simply altering noses/mouths and identifying characteristics. Even though it isn't too obvious in this lineup, even with the superficial details the similarities grew into a sameface (and the eyes looked rather dead anyways).

So I approached these with another half-year of experience and research under my belt and tried to keep the unity while giving each character more defining characteristics. Though it's still a work-in-progress -- and likely will remain one until the game in its entirety is finished -- I have a deeper appreciation for the individualities of each character and the pitfalls of following formulas too closely.