[C&C welcomed] David's Character Design Thread - The Blacksmith

Doodlok

Hello people of Polycount!

Might recognize meh from my improvement thread, but since the thread has literally became digital sketchbook (record) of everything I've ever done, kinda cluttered up together, I decided to create another thread purely to follow my character design process for an individual character.

I hope to create multiple thumbnails, T pose render from front / back / side view and eventually a full blown illustration.

This is going to be a blacksmith, in a deserted world near future. He was once a blacksmith in profession, but after he'd lost all his muscle, his jaw and physique, he'd hop onto a exosuit and start smithing some creepy stuff. THats the catch for now.

Visually, I wanted to break from the typical imagery of pop-culture blacksmith which would be very muscular and gigantic, and put some sort of ironic relationship with the main character's thin and weak physique and support it by massive exo-suit that would allow him to gain enough force to work.

MY rough idea board atm:

Before I start on exosuit  which will be a huge part of this character, I wanted to establish the character himself as a weak figure so I started laying down some basic ideas.

2 Things I realized as I worked on this is that since smithing is very demanding activity, and as a man with disabled jaw / nose, he will definitely need some sort of respiratory device that would allow him to breathe and even possibly be injected with some sort of enhancements on his face. (I'll most definitely change the design). He will also need a goggle, which I initially thought would be great if they're embedded into his eyes but I thought that would be too over the top, since I don't want him to look like a complete hellraiser knockoff. More stuffs to come, crit always welcomed!

carvuliero

Cool idea , maybe few questions that will help you better understand your character :

How he lost his muscle and why is he in this deplorable state ?

How far in the future is he living

Is he old school traditionalist coal and hammer or state of the art new technology guy

Is he one man show or run a huge shop

Whats his goal and motivation

Doodlok

@carvuliero

Thank you for your detailed questioning! I sorta got them around in my head

1. I imagine a world where the air pollution (I lived in China for couple years and I realized how bad it could get) is so severe that it drove civilization into somewhat of an apocalyptic state, thus he wasn't getting enough sunlight and food to sustain his body.

2. Not too far, within 50 years.

3. Fundamentally old school; but just have the technology. I'm imagining him using exosuit to enhance his muscles, and using some sort of broken Jet-engine as a replacement for fire/coal.

4. One man show.

5. Only thing that keeps him alive is just working and distracting himself from whatever's happening, so that would be sort of his escape route from the dismay of reality.

I'll explore these ideas visually as I proceed with mein designs!

Edit: WHoa, now that I've written these down I can visualize the direction I'm heading for much much more clearly. Thank you so much for your guidance.

Doodlok

He hello peeps!

i came back to Vancouver to finally get back to school, so it’s been hectic but I managed to find some time for an updated design


More updates to Come!

Doodlok

Some illustration based on my previous concept. I think I'l lhave to change the design a lot.

lotet

Looks nice, your anatomy and brushwork has become much better