Dev Log -26: Character portraits

I've been working on the first character portrait the last few days (among other things). It's not done yet.

This is hard work, but very fun. It's the kind of graphical work I enjoy because you are heavily rewarded for investing in details and there's not much repetition, unlike when you have to draw a complex object from many angles or when you're doing wall spritesheet or some such (I love isometrics really, but it can be such a pain).

I'm debating whether I should refine the portrait with smooth shading in the end or leave it as more of pixel art. Most things in the game (except very small objects) have smooth shading, but portraits are sorta design aspect of their own so they might be fine as pixel art. Portraits are as much part of the interface as of the "in-game" world, so I think it's just as important (if not more important) that they fit in well with HUD graphics and icons. Portrait style will also guide the style of backdrops and boxshots when I get around to them (will probably get a professional to do those, however).