I've got a "work in progress" texture and I'd like some opinions. I'm working on a female Drow elf (male to follow). Unfortunately, my 20-year-old (*sigh*) copy of "Fiend Folio" is buried in some box... For the D&D fans out there, maybe you can jog my memory. For others, what do you think so far? I am planning on adding some spider-themed body art...

Wow, that looks great. I would use that skin color as the base and add any other detail to the skin with a darker one. D'mentia would like this thread.

red eyes, darkened skin tones, white hair.. looks like the folio to me I think they're depicted as a tad more emaciated though... from memory.. their eyes are red and rarely violet.. violet being "abnormal" ala Drizzt some descriptions have the skin tone more a "coal black.. almost with a sheen" I like it and as long as ye like it? 8 ) Cheers

Good start!

Attached Link: http://www.silverleifstudios.com

I agree with Wizzard about the eyes and the skin, black skin can be a bit tuff, but nothing is impossible...I did an image of Drizzt a while back, its on my web in the character gallery... you should also check out Anton's tips on rendering skin, the highlight, ambient, and reflective colors can really be your freind with black textures... something else I tried with my black texture for the poser horse was to add a violet reflection map to the skin set to 25% under the texture, it gave that sheen... Nice work so far though :)

Queen of Demonweb Pits set the original visual standard for Drow, and they had blue eyes, weren't emaciated, and universally had Big Hair. D&D "elves" are really nothing other than humans with pointy ears. Thus, there will be resistance in the fan base against giving them anything other than a mundane human physiognomy.

It i could cut in, in this conversation. If I was you i would make the drows skin blueish gray, I have seen pictures on drows drawed with verious artist and many of them uses a blueish gray tone in the skin and it's absoulute the best i have ever seen... Thats just my opinion

I no longer have my D&D book, but I remember the Drow as "stretched"; taller than human, thinner than the test shot here, and very emaciated. Great skin, I like it!

Drow aren't taller than humans - all elves are built more "frail" looking than humans, with longer, more delicate limbs and finer muscle-tone - but actually SHORTER, albeit rarely more than a foot on the average. The skin color is good, but it doesn't match any of the "cannon" material; it looks more like a Shadow Elf out of the Great Rift of Ravenloft, with that pale, dusky tone. Most of the pre-Forgotten Realms Drow had night-black skin with blue highlights and silver, white or gray hair. After the FR material came out (mostly the video games) drow suddenly developed brown skin with blue or black highlights and some had golden or red hair. Oh, and they eyes are often violet, black, or golden, IIRC. Some were shown with reddish eyes, but I think that was a drow vampire. Tolkein's elves were, BTW, taller than humans - tall and thin; i.e. "stretched," you might be thinking of some of the Middle Earth artwork instead of the AD&D/D&D stuff, joeyb!

Dmentia - your Drizzt picture looks great, complete with his twin swords. Dogface - you're saying that D&D elves are essentially Vulcans! :-) I never got into the Ravenloft things, and I didn't realize they were different in the Demi-Plane of Dread... Real black is a tough one but I tried some suggestions. Recalling some old comic books, the highlight on black is usually blue ("Veronica's" hair) but I tried a soft violet highlight on a 100% black skin color as a quick test. I don't know... it harkens back to Al Jolsen, doesn't it? Perhaps some dark, but not black, tone is in order. Stay tuned.

I'd suggest a very dark purple with a medium to dark blue highlight.