Character design/ value study.

[spiritvanished]

Being at home is awesome for my productivity.
I've gotten more work done in one day, than in a whole week at school.
This is a WIP, head shot character design.

I'm trying to learn what to think about a character need based on her/his Job, needs.
So I dont have much of a "larger concept here"
The idea is shes in a battle royale fight to death situation. This would be on like a character card or poster celebrating the event.
I wanted to do a before and after image, so this is her clean and then ill do another after where shes cut and bloody and angrier looking.

Shes is militant but optimistic. Her skills are long range shooting, not much hand to hand combat. She has a detonator just in case she gets caught in a bad situation.
I wanted her crosses to more of appropriation and "blasphemy" than a symbol of power for her. She is very trusting and open and its her downfall.

Also would like advice on her general anatomy.
I'm doing a transition to color soon, so any advice on that would be awesome. Thank you.

jpg upload

[spiritvanished]

oh woah too big. let me resize

[LightspeedChump]

Hey man pretty cool idea, I really dont like the crosses though. At first I thought she was a medic. Thinking about it further, what kind of person plasters themselves with this kind of imagery ? If she's making a statement like that, I think it'd be more succinct.

PS - Her hood looks awesome, it looks like it could be a fold down mask or visor.

[dierat]

Her shoulder's too high and her neck's a tad thin. My only other critique is that you have a lot of general description written up about the character, but none of that's coming through in the image. It's not hard to denote that she uses a long range weapon by extending the image to show she's holding one or have it on her back, etc. If you want the cross usage to appear blasphemous, try using it in an opposite manner to the traditional form - upside down, black-on-white, blood-spattered, made from bones, etc. (Btw the perspective on the bottom of the cross is off; it should be angled the other way if, at a similar angle to the hemline of the shirt.)

[spiritvanished]

lightspeed:
Yeah, I cant see the medic thing. Especially since shes in battle. its confusing.
I think ill change it to something else.
ohh~ im stealing the hood/mask idea. thanks. (:

dierat:
Its just supposed to be a headshot.
My line of thinking was, Shes small, not too muscular, isnt wearing "battle" armor (arms exposed/chest exposed) She would naturally attack from afar.

I like the bones/cross idea I might add to the second image. "bones of her enemies" Right now shes really inexperienced, and i want her to grow and layer on armor at the end. Right now shes clean and "pure".

Upside down crosses are cool, but a little too cliched. plus it wouldnt show on her chest in a head shot.
Maybe the weapon could be on her back, but theres already so much going on behind her with her hood.

[arenhaus]

A bit of perspective fail around the breast. Fudged shadows on the face, especially from the hair and chin. Slightly misplaced lips; the bottom lip doesn't relate to the chin. Other than that, it's an all right sketch.

[spiritvanished]

update

[AndHus]

Hi spiritvanished
Great picture. My notes would be that; is the picture about her or the weapon? Right now, the weapon is more detailed and attracts more attention. I figure its because of the rifle being an important piece of the story, but I think it should be second to the girl. What is the style? Is it sci-fi or is it present days? The amour suggest that its sci-fi, but the rifle seems present days.
I'm not sure that the detonator on the arm is reading that well. I wouldn't guess it was that unless I read your post. What about showing some wires and some explosive, that might help the story along (unless she ends up looking like a terrorist)
last note is that, to me, the rifle seems quite short. It doesn't have the power that it could have if the character was smaller and the rifle was longer. I don't have anything to say to the anatomy since it all looks pretty solid. Great work
Andreas Husballe
andreashusballe.blogspot.com

[spiritvanished]

Yeah, i pretty much spent the last few days getting the weapon perfect. My brother is a gun person and pretty much (helped me out) hovered over me. He said the size was exactly right, its really long, and her arm is extended off the canvas holding the stock(?).

The wires are a good idea, ill try it out. ty.

[spiritvanished]

also, an idea for her her potential partner.
Based off of my brothers sketches and characters he makes on games like mass effect, and the sims.
He's drawing armor right now, for me to interpret.
(my brother is 14)
He's been asking me to draw Grimm for years.
His number is 25.
glaring mistakes I see : His nose. the lighting is wrong.

[spiritvanished]

wip updates.

[KenHatch]

Him: Looks great, but thematically its quite different then Her.

Her: Like all the iterations and think the suggestions have been good and helpful. One thing I notice is the facial shadows don't seem quite right. Suggestions: Drop down the lighted area on chin a little bit and show less visible shadow area below to match chin to the rest of her face. It feels like its pointing up to much. Make her cheek bone structure symmetrical in perspective. I like where the right side is going (her left) but the left side (her right) is lower and not quite natural. On the right side (her left) I like that you started to make the cheek bone structure in shadow more visible, I suggest bring that up even more so we can see her cheek outline in that shadow better. Just a few values higher not to bright. If its a gray value 8 or 9 right now then maybe a 6 or 7 value.

Make the gun barrel bigger. I don't care if your uncle is general Patton, make that thing bigger it looks anemic. Ether wider barrel with larger flash suppressor, or longer, preferably both.

[Vanillie]

I really like the rough looking style you have. It's rough but yes detailed enough. Really like it! Especially the the last one ( female in color)

[spiritvanished]

updateee

[michaelharris]

Speaking from a thematic point, if they are in a tournament to the death that means there's an audience which means there's advertising and sponsors. Once the image of her is finished I'd put some sort of logo on there. If you look at "organized deathsport" movies like "The Condemned," "Hunger Games," and "Death Race 2000" the event is plastered with advertising. The paintings are coming along well, stylistically I wish it was a little more realistic, but that's not really a problem, just an opinion. Watch the shape of the guy's head, its a little wonky and not round enough.

[Logan Turner]

I think these are cool. In my opinion I would nock back the highlights and separate the highlight values between the gun and her skin. Also I kinda think the gun draws too much attention. I want to be looking at her face but I just keep getting drawn back to her gun.
Lastly her shoulder bone looks deformed, its not rounding properly.
Anyways Cheers Spirit

[sean_rodrigues]

I like the grey scale render. The colored version makes her look hot and sweaty. I like the color temperature. What layer type did you use to get the hot and sweaty look? Did you paint color on one layer?


Sean

[Obstfelder]

Great work!

Like michaelharris mentioned above: If you add some of the context that you describe in your post into the images right away instead of waiting until you are finished with the portrait I think it would help you improve the images.

For instance: If you are going to have graphics framing it, the very heavy black background in the first one and the saturated red in the other might give you trouble with using the same framing on both. It might not be a problem, but you will spot any potential issues sooner if you make mockups of those graphics and try them out.

[nirmwood]

these have come out great, have you used photo refs for them? or purely from imagination or both? I agree with the gun taking away the feel of the sketch maybe if you toned down the details on it a bit but enough to retain its identity it would blend in more

[spiritvanished]

Okay.
i'm calling it finished.
Thanks for the help you guys!
I still might play around with the color.
but, i'm really happy with it. c:

[spiritvanished]

Okay.
i'm calling it finished.
Thanks for the help you guys!
I still might play around with the color.
but, i'm really happy with it. c: