@Fergus: your answer is so personal, I have no doubt that you find a great satisfaction in making those images. The "approach of creation" you describe is very natural in fact. I'm surprised by your self-estimate.
I follow exactly the same path when I create 3D pieces or, even, when I write. I do, change, re-do, re-change, re-write, re-draw until I get satisfied. And we are probably tens of people here doing that in our hobbies, painting, sculpting, composing music, etc. Call it creation, call it art, what matters is the result. Appreciating the result is certainly personal also. Here we are talking about the representation of chess variant pieces, not about getting a nice-looking images. My opinion is that you got very nice results in some cases:
The Dragon on the Dark Welcome Page is very sophisticated, but it does look as a very nice chess piece.
The Advancer in the Piececlopedia is excellent. As well as the Antelope.
The Camel, the Wildebeest are OK.
Now, I don't like at all the Princess on the Dark Page. First not sure that a Princess is a good target, a name that we rarely use nowadays for CV, second the shape, it won't stand on a board, and last not least, why representing a princess with wings? Princess with wings, this is a Disney cartoon cliché.
The Centaur just looks as a female centaur on a base. A nice female centaur maybe but this is not a chess piece. Similar critic for some other pieces.
@Fergus: your answer is so personal, I have no doubt that you find a great satisfaction in making those images. The "approach of creation" you describe is very natural in fact. I'm surprised by your self-estimate.
I follow exactly the same path when I create 3D pieces or, even, when I write. I do, change, re-do, re-change, re-write, re-draw until I get satisfied. And we are probably tens of people here doing that in our hobbies, painting, sculpting, composing music, etc. Call it creation, call it art, what matters is the result. Appreciating the result is certainly personal also. Here we are talking about the representation of chess variant pieces, not about getting a nice-looking images. My opinion is that you got very nice results in some cases:
The Dragon on the Dark Welcome Page is very sophisticated, but it does look as a very nice chess piece. The Advancer in the Piececlopedia is excellent. As well as the Antelope. The Camel, the Wildebeest are OK.
Now, I don't like at all the Princess on the Dark Page. First not sure that a Princess is a good target, a name that we rarely use nowadays for CV, second the shape, it won't stand on a board, and last not least, why representing a princess with wings? Princess with wings, this is a Disney cartoon cliché.
The Centaur just looks as a female centaur on a base. A nice female centaur maybe but this is not a chess piece. Similar critic for some other pieces.