Characters and Design

I am trying to exercise my character design muscles. .

These are a few recent attempts from my nerdy brain, Guys and gals with big-guns and big-ass swords, with the occasional lame ass Mage and Orc thrown in.

Magnus the Unicorn Hunter.

Assignment: take a movie star and turn them into a character, I got inspired by Bruce Willis to draw this: Magnus-the Last Unicorn Hunter. 

Yep, yep.

Go to museum, draw gazillion year old fossil, bring said fossil to life, active DnD powers by throwing a 12-sided dice.... assignment complete.

I give you Mageasaurous: Lvl 25 mage, with a staff made of whale bones.

While others draw cutesy characters that would not be out of place in 'my little pony'. I activate nerd powers. 

  

Gunette 1

Gunette 2

'Gunettes', I figured I never drew the cliched girls with a big guns, so here are my takes of girl with a big-ass guns, one inspired by Mass Effect, the other Steam-punk.

Oh, and for some reason I love drawing at the back of drawing pads, the texture is just fantastic.

These started when I finally got my mediums and tools right. I draw with a 0.9 pencil with Red or blue lead on marker paper, then inked over with Pigma-markers, with photoshop colouring.

 I started two years ago and now it has become my method /medium of choice. 

I tried to draw/design non-human characters. I mixed three or more animal to create these fuzzy critters. But my style is more realistic and  gritty, so drawing these was a pain. I had stand-up comedy on radio all the time that I was trying to create these as a source of inspiration.

But drawing cutesy creatures in an animation/cartoonish style can damage a guy's head, cure ? Listen to Megadeth for an hour after said drawing(s).

You are welcome.

Adventures in character design. ;)

Hooded Ronin

The idea was to create all the visual elements of a given story and to make it your own.

I choose the classical story of Robin Hood. The idea was to show the classical tale in a Japanese setting, with all the visual clues and elements that go with it.

I came up with 'The Hooded Ronin and the Ninjas of Sake'wood forest '. ( I tried to use as many bad puns as possible....)

The Hooded Ronin himself

The idea was to make a cross between the merry men in tights with japanese design clues with a little artist licence throw in the mix

Character development for the Hooded Ronin

My Idea of Little John, a failed Sumo-wrestler with big heart and an over sized naginata.

Character development for 'Little John'

My take on FRIAR TUCK, a Monk who loves Sake more than life, his excuse...it gets him closer to Lord Buddha, in size he is almost there...

My take on Maid Marian : Mariko ( I warned you I'd used as many bad puns as possible...) The first is her as Prim and proper Japanese noble lady, the second is her after she joins the Hooded Ronin gang, armed with twin-Tantōs, mirroring Ronin.

Visual development of the Mariko.

My take on the Sheriff of Nottingham : Shogun of Nishizawa, one is showing him in traditional samurai armour, the other is him in more noble japanese garments.

Visual development of the Shogun.

Hand gestures.

Character line-up

Turn-around of Hooded Ronin

Visual development for the environment.

The classical and cliched 'hero does towards the fortress....'
The drawing was easy and done in a matter of hours, but the painting took forever with several colour/mood variants. I never have this problem when I am drawing, I get the choices sorted out in the sketch stages...but while colouring.....discovered many wonderful methods of working. One of those works where you go ' hey I never knew that...' and 'why didn't think of that before...'

Line art

At one time I wanted to be a comic artist ( not the stand-up kind...), so in the process I refined and tried to perfected my line work. Also in the process of learning to ink, I started to develop a proficiency in quills and tech pens. I have a long way to go, but I am happy with the line work I can do with pens.

This is my take on Circe, it was supposed to be the line art for a watercolor painting.

I loved this , which guy doesn't like drawing knights, swords and ogres ? I was still experimenting with tech pens and quills when I finally found my stride with Pigma-Microns.

My take on the Ice-wind dale books the 'Icingdeath' scene , this is the first time I used the pigma markers to render in this way instead of my trusty quills. 

My first time using a quill, I have gone a long way since this drawing. This has been called Moon clan priest, Lunitari, Night Shaman.....amongst other absurd names. My skills in the art of nomenclature has not improved over time...

Minataurs and other Mishaps

It was one of those things that I wanted to get out of my system. The usual Minotaurs, Werewolves and other assortment of creatures mixed with humans. 

Oxataurs, Liontaurs, Tigertaurs and Buffalotaurs. Yup, yup.

Again , just sketches and doodles that I had fun doing.

Creatures and Design...

I took one of those creature design classes and had the most fun from any class ever. I never knew I loved drawing animals, also I loved to mix and match anatomies of different animals like some modern  Dr. Frankenstein/Darwin.

Also when I made these creatures, I  made sure I got their Latin names right too, as in the probable names the creatures would have, if they existed.

 I loved this one, I mixed a Rhino with a Gorilla & Orangutan.

I loved this drawing, I created this in class while cracking jokes with fellow classmates. It evolved from a simple doodle and I just kept adding details and more details. 

It's a Fire-horse-fly btw.

I had fun with this, I mixed a parrot with an Ostrich and called it 'Postrich'....yeah, I need help.

The funny thing these assignment is that I mixed pencil-colours over pigma-marker line work on marker paper for the first time, I loved the clean crisp look of the pencil colours on this paper. I never figured pencil colours would look great on a thin-toothless paper.