(Edit: None of the artwork in this batch of posts - all for Drawing I - is original! Saying that now while I contemplate archiving them somewhere.)
Mass Effect is a series of video games. Being a sci-fi setting, the Mass Effect universe also features some variety of alien races (see a theme here?). Putting both of its sequels aside, there's various concept art for the original Mass Effect floating about the internet, and Creative Uncut has managed to collect a good selection of the stuff.
In lore introduced by the commercial release of the original Mass Effect, the salarians (uncapitalized in keeping with setting lore) are one of three Council races, which represent the most important races of the galaxy. While also the only Council race the player character cannot recruit a teammate from, a secondary antagonist on one planet provides a character to remember the fast-metabolism'd perpetually-in-a-rush science-savvy vaguely-lizard-like species by. A salarian teammate is added to the second Mass Effect game, but this blog post will focus on the species' appearance's development prior to the first game.
Salarian facial features, in development, quickly went from squat to elongated, giving a less froglike appearance. Key traits such as eyes, eyebags, and the pursed lipless mouth were retained throughout, although the tattoos and early headlobe adornments went. On the final revision, the only changes aside from a more refined drawing are the lack of tattoos and much wider eyes, the latter of which help to offset the species' frowning-by-default mouth whilst invoking the classic Greys.
As for technical merit, the shading on the finalized salarian facial concept looks lovely, I feel. A definite light source located somewhere to the right illuminates the head's smooth top and eyelids, not reaching the valley of the center vertical where a human's nose would jut out. Nostrils are tucked to the sides of the surface which functions as a nose-of-sorts anyways, directly below the eyebags. While heavily detailed with black line, the eyebags aren't loaded with any additional shading and thus remain a contrast to the blank black eyes, preventing those dark features from dominating the face. Overall, the drawing is smooth, balanced, of cool grey tones, and an appealing alien portrait.
The first of the above pair corresponds to the second salarian face sketch; although colored, it comes from an apparently early stage in the development of the game. It comes from a page which also includes a couple other, more exotic species, which I don't happen to recall seeing recognizable descendents of while playing the game.
The second of the full-body concepts bears no marks of drawing, and indeed appears to be a 3D render created later in the game development process. The leg design has been changed, and the skin tone made more grey than blue. The style of clothing has also changed- perhaps indicating a change in not just the species' appearance, but their general demeanor.
I dislike how the salarian head is rendered in comparison to the shaded facial concept earlier, due to some key changes. The render's eyes don't just forwards as much; together with the much darker eyebags, they produce a very sunken effect. Without as much highlight on the eyelids, as much shading on the nose-region, and with eyebags which blend with the dark eyes, the face loses its balanced brightness/darkness and instead relies on contrast.
The top-of-head markings, sort-of-restored from earlier concepts, force some nice shading up there but emphasize the white flatness below. The render's half-open mouth emphasizes a feature which remains muted in the concept drawing. Perhaps increased contrast increases recognizability at long range, where muted features blend together, but I feel the effect comes off poorly in this render.
Perhaps it's just that render; I feel the salarian comes off fine in this screenshot, although with a different aesthetic to it than the concept portrait. More angular eyes, more texture, and a different balance of light/dark. The grittier details sell it, I suspect. And the eyes, which have depth created by eyebrows and the reflections of two separate light sources, whereas the concept render suffers from flat and empty eyes. And the lighting's work elsewhere, giving the nose-area what depth it actually has, defining what became flat and textureless in the render.
Hm.
Ultimately, I do like the salarians as a species, both for their appearance and description. They don't quite win out over the turians- which are based on *dinosaurs*, -to me, but certainly beat boring humans and the very feminine yet... um... fully compatible asari.[To avoid ending on that note, I'm surprised I found a worthwhile comparison in this post.]
