Critic for Medieval Fantasy Character Design (charger themed grim reaper)

miguelnarayan

Hey guys. (Long description about the process, just skip to the 1,2,3 points below if you're not interested)
I'm working on a series of outfits and char variations to simulate a run of the character through a story. It's a medieval, high fantasy setting, using a assassin as class and grim reaper as thematic/inspiration.

I've worked on different stages of it and I have these three so far. I wanted to know if:

1. You could spot any critical anatomy errors that I could fix and can't get away as 'stylized'
2. If you have any tips on how I could improve the design and staging of it, to emphasis it.
3. What do you think of the initial color comp. I added a punch of contrast between orange and purple to make it look like he has power and strength and a little bit of reds here and there, not sure if I have too many accents? The overall color is black, to emphasis he is not a white knight.

As far as design:
Further down the road, I plan to design little pieces of him as separate artworks to export but part of the same project... such as the leg diary on his side and one of the boots has a mechanism that sticks a knife out of it once a button is pushed on the side. (Actually I had the TV on last night and I saw a James Bond villain that had this in his boot! I was like.. doooooood, srsly? Do you think anyone will think I copied it? Is it bad to include this design in my folio? I even had the inside mechanisms drawn like it was functional before I saw it!)

Process: I printed a silhouette I had drawn in a photo copy machine and went crazy with the ink pen on top. Later on, I noticed some anatomy mistakes on the arms and legs, but I fixed those (I think) before posting it here.

Some influences from seeing a lot of Iain McCaig Gnomon DVDS on storytelling.

Line sketches:


Initial Color Comp:

GuardarGuardar

miguelnarayan

Sorry for the rough sticker like white outline, I can't be bothered to make a mask for the background until I am done with the character shapes... here is a WIP on the painting, I picked up Alla Prima, and not that it was a major boost to my skillset, (but I'd be full of %&## if I said it wasn't) but it did demystify a lot about painting!

I'm taking this one slow and having fun, I think the skin could have a bit more reddish tones, but I am uncertain of whether to add a tattoo or not for added design and backstory hints, and would cover most of the skin anyway.
I'll push this more on next week, there's lots to do. I haven't added any photo textures yet, I'm thinking of doing it, would you guys think it's not a good idea?

miguelnarayan

I was hoping to get feedback on a character I'm painting. It's a looter, criminal. It's not a main character type of look, he would not be the NPC who sells you apples either, but I think, more of a guy who you would at most, have to bounty hunt for a reward for looting a village with his gang or something.

I was looking at gladiator and pirate reference and having a grim reaper in the back of my head the whole time. I was going to add skulls taped to the scythe for storytelling, but the scale of the human skull was throwing everything off.

Someone told me the mask+hair look too naruto and immature. And just to be safe I thought about adding head+outfit variations. What's your thought on it? I want to have some function, and emphasis a concept to 3D pipeline; by adding material reference to the design sheet, and a backside view, but I think it would get confusing with the outfit variations? Would it be better to just have one version? I feel it's becoming too much info to get in just one page... 2-3 outfit variations + back views + busts + mat reference.