Quote:
Originally Posted by ukshaun
I discovered these today 
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hadn't seen these before today.
The main thing that leaps out to me, in a positive way, is how much XM has improved on it's female portraits since the Black Widow release.
The portrait is as nice as any female sculpt I've seen by anyone up till now.
In fact, the whole upper body is excellent- especially the attitude expressed with the spell casting hands.
With so much greatness here, it disappoints me to see the lower body not relating to this upper body inclination well.
Both halves are fine on their own, but rendered together they dilute the impression of power rather than enhance it (IMO, of course).
I have enormous respect for sculptors like Harbottle, because I've yet to see a figure from him where the entire body isn't envisioned to convey a singular purpose. He doesn't contort figures simply to impress people with how arty or dynamic he can be.
The sculptor here obviously has enormous skill at rendering, but I think they got lost in the weeds when it came to the initial conception of the figure.
The top half of the character is all business, while the bottom half seems to want to channel a typical kittenish bishoujo vibe.
The top is arching back leaning in to her left, while the trajectory of her legs is shooting her body up and to the right.
That lack of unified clarity of purpose works to dissipate the implication of power rather than enhancing it.
While I think having both feet planted, in a wide A stance on the ground would have looked more powerful, even just a few changes in degree to what they are already doing here could have improved it quite a bit.
Not saying it's terrible. Just saying with a few tweaks it could have been so much more solid. (again, all JIMO)
