PaintBG Introduction and Samples

PaintBG is a mod that replaces each of the NPC portraits of Baldur's Gate with original artwork by artastrophe. This portrait pack also overwrites the PC portraits included in the original game with new images to choose from! As always, each of these components is available to install separately.

Download for: BG/BG2/BGT/TuTu
Download for BG:EE

Baldur's Gate 1:

• Ajantis
• Alora
• Branwen
• Coran
• Dorn (Enhanced Edition)
• Dynaheir
• Edwin
• Eldoth
• Faldorn
• Garrick
• Imoen
• Jaheira
• Kagain
• Khalid
• Kivan
• Minsc
• Montaron
• Neera (Enhanced Edition)
• Rasaad (Enhanced Edition)
• Safana
• Shar-Teel
• Skie
• Tiax
• Quayle
• Viconia
• Xan
• Xzar
• Yeslick
  
  Baldur's Gate 2:
• Aerie
• Anomen
• Cernd
• Haer'Dalis
• Jan
• Keldorn
• Mazzy
• Nalia
• Valygar
• Yoshimo
  
  Extra portraits:
• Abazigal
• Balthazar
• Bodhi
• Ellesime
• Gromnir
• Illasera
• Irenicus
• Melissan
• Melisandre
• Sarevok
• Sendai
• The Solar
• Yaga-Shura

More PC portraits as well as additional versions of some NPCs are available at artastrophe.deviantart.com.
Visit the website or forum for all the latest updates to this mod.

Here are the samples of PaintBG portrait pack by artastrophe and Lava. (download the attachement to get the bigger poster)

Cheers!

Edited by Lava Del'Vortel, 24 October 2013 - 12:56 PM.

Edited by Galsic, 26 December 2012 - 01:46 PM.

 Will the portraits have a refined, finished look, or will they remain as they are, as a matter of style?

They are to look like paintings, it's not like every line must be perfect - that's why the pack is called PaintBG. It's for those who are fed up with the original BioWare portraits (whic are also nice, but I personally got bored of them after 10 years ) and would like to see NPCs done in a different style.

...so yeah. They'll stay as they are. Maybe with some minor fixes if Arta feels like working on them, but I think we would rather try some mod NPCs after a break.

Edited by Lava Del'Vortel, 30 December 2012 - 12:42 PM.

Portraits look great. I especially like how Edwin looks. My only criticism is that Minsc should have his tattoo (I'm so used to it).

Edited by Kwiat_W, 30 December 2012 - 04:47 PM.

Aye, I really miss Minsc Tatoo and Edwin's hood. That's my two greatest missing features from that pack.

Something that would also ROCK would be to provide some other, generic portraits for player characters using that "BGPaint" style.

Oh, and I think I'm in love with Shar Teel portrait, haha

Edit.: Woah, just saw the alternates. Gonna take a look and comment a bit

Edited by Aranthys, 31 December 2012 - 06:11 AM.

Regarding the alternates :

I really like the alternate Yoshimo, that haircut is very nice

I MUCH prefer Edwin this way (Even if lorewise, RWoT should be bald, I just can't picture hum bald), and the expression in his alternate portrait fits him perfectly. Really, great job.

Overall, regarding the portraits :

- Another alternate I'd love to see is a more "blue-ish" / "square jaw" / fierce Dorn, the portrait in your package feels a bit too much gentle to me, whereas the guy is actually a bloodthirsty revenge-seeking mad guy (The BG:EE portrait is actually very nice !)

- Your Keldorn does look nice, but, I don't know, I feel like the "Old, experienced, wise Paladin" feeling is a bit missing from his expression (He feels more like some kind of roman senator to me, whereas the vanilla portrait had a very fine expression that expressed just what Keldorn was)

- Your Rasaad feels a bit too "Barbarian" rather than "monky" to me. The expression does fit, but his jaw feels a bit too "square-ish" / large to me.

Basically, add hair & pointy teeth to your rasaad, paint him blue, and blam, you've got a Dorn.

Remove current dorn's hair & teeth, and you've got Rasaad  (Expression-wise, I mean)

Otherwise, I really love your portraits and all the art you've done. That's really a brillant job.

Edit.: Small suggestion about the Edwin alternate : You shouldn't cut the picture that close from his face, if you compare his portrait with the other existing portait, his face is much bigger (relative to the size of the portrait, I mean).

Plus, his hair is awesome, so don't worry about showing that hair

Edited by Aranthys, 31 December 2012 - 07:02 AM.

Portraits look great. I especially like how Edwin looks. My only criticism is that Minsc should have his tattoo (I'm so used to it).

@Kwiat_W Thanks! For most of the NPCs, I pretty much avoided painting tattoos and scars (as well as removed a bunch of earrings); you have no idea how many of the characters were sporting those til you start to paint all of them! ;D It was hard for me to decide what to do with Minsc, though; his original portrait contrasts with lore so strongly anyway, but at the same time he's so iconic that changing too much just wouldn't be Minsc. (ie, a darker-skinned, hairy, no-tattooed barbarian...) Seemed to make the most sense to compromise by just leaving out his tattoo. Although technically that IS official, since Viconia insults him about it, aghh. xD But yeah, I can add one to the alternates pack with a tattoo; that shouldn't be too difficult.

Aye, I really miss Minsc Tatoo and Edwin's hood. That's my two greatest missing features from that pack.

Something that would also ROCK would be to provide some other, generic portraits for player characters using that "BGPaint" style.

@Aranyths I was actually already thinking about tinkering around with this old piece and updating it to include as another alternate since I can't seem to paint enough Edwin, anyway. ^^ There are some additional PC alternate portraits, but I think you must have found them yourself already! I've got a few more I'll be working on... right now I'm taking a little break. In fact, I just got around to finally playing BG:EE! So kind of related to your next post regarding Rasaad and Dorn: I didn't have too much to go off of when I started their portraits, since I hadn't played it yet, so just tried to look at their artwork and extrapolate. I can see Rasaad's original artwork was a little misleading, now that I've met him; they made him appear rather ominous. Still haven't encountered Dorn, though, but I can see your point. ^^ I have to admit they aren't high on my list of priorities (I'd much rather offer a wider selection of PCs etc), but I completely understand what you mean and that does seem like something that should be fixed, so I will have to work on that (someday! xD). In any case, thank you so much for your feedback and I'm glad you enjoy them!

Aranthys -> I disagree on the hair. Indeed, Arta's other Edwins are fine, but here we try to present portraits that are at least a bit closer to the FR Lore and Red Wizard shave their heads + have tattoos. I have nothing against adding a hood (if Arta feels like working on it) and as long as it's fine to have "hairy alternate", I would rather his present portrait stay as the main one. Also Rashemi would rather avoid tattoos, due to the conflict with Thay. It is said that some noble Rashemi can have "mulan tattoos", but I don't think Minsc is like that.

Dorn and Rasaad were done before the release of EE so we could do nothing, but guess NPCs' character.

It would be artistically wonderful to see as many mod NPCs as possible rendered in this same style, I think, as well as perhaps the more prominent game NPCs

Regarding my edit : See below picture for the explanation about Edwin alternate portrait's cut  

Aranthys -> I disagree on the hair. Indeed, Arta's other Edwins are fine, but here we try to present portraits that are at least a bit closer to the FR Lore and Red Wizard shave their heads + have tattoos. I have nothing against adding a hood (if Arta feels like working on it) and as long as it's fine to have "hairy alternate", I would rather his present portrait stay as the main one. Also Rashemi would rather avoid tattoos, due to the conflict with Thay. It is said that some noble Rashemi can have "mulan tattoos", but I don't think Minsc is like that.

Dorn and Rasaad were done before the release of EE so we could do nothing, but guess NPCs' character.

I know, and to me, that alternate portrait fits perfectly. I dislike the regular portrait, even if it fits FR lore, but it's fine : I've got the alternate that suits my tastes, so I can't complain 

Edited by Aranthys, 31 December 2012 - 07:23 AM.

Sure.

I was wondering if there should be alternate portraits in the package, but I think I'd rather make them manual, as I would like to avoid too many "optional" stuff in the installer as there are already 47 components and making it more confusing isn't a nice thing

(Aranthys, your corrected Edwin should go up more. A tiny bit of his head should be out of the picutres. Most portraits that are situated lower on the portrait are short NPCs like halflings etc)

Eric:

prominent NPCs? You mean Jon, Solar etc? Uhm, they are already there. Just not included in the poster as their bmp are really small.

Aye, I just did that with a quick copy / paste to show what was the problem, since I don't own the original material, I was just pointing the mistake so that the alternate package could be corrected

Edit.: Yeah, you should keep the alternate portraits install manual, but don't hide them too much : not all players like to strictly adhere to the lore, and the alternate portrait has that "edwin feel" just right for me.

Edited by Aranthys, 31 December 2012 - 07:47 AM.