Samorol sketches

Finished some more sketches for the Samorol character. At the moment I'm liking number 1, looks nice and agile, and the armour all seems to tie in together nicely, i think the helmet could be combined with number 2 though to improve it, i might also combine a few others parts to get a design i am happy with.

Samorol sketches wip

Moving on now, starting some quick sketches for the Samorol character which are the Emperors finest guards. Granger has to fight one of these in his trial. They are some sort of magic or cursed assassin guards, who can only see through magic Unmer seeing blades, Granger also finds that behind their wolf mask there is nothing left apart from a human skull with a brass plate covering the eyes and nose opening. Ill work on a few more sketches before finalising the design, I'm trying to keep them armoured but, enough for them to move easily so more chain mail than anything.

Granger Unmer armour finished

Calling this one done for now, just need to add some pouches and some small accesories to his belt, again if i have time once the project is finished i will come back to concepts and touch parts up but i need to move on.

Granger development 2

Blocking in the colours and details for Granger's armour. I've also gone for the head variant 1 because i think it seems to fit with the rest of the body, I've also changed his expression so he looks a bit more pissed off and meaner looking, things could change though, any of the other head concepts could be easily swapped in.

Granger development

Just having a go at making Granger looking all messed up after he dived into the poisonous water. The book describes his face covered in sharkskin, dry cracked and grey, and red painful looking eyes with a bald scalp. So here are just a few small variations, not sure which one ill will go with though... I'm thinking number 2 at the moment, i like the idea for number 1 with odd bits of hair still remaining on the scalp.. but I'm not sure if it looks a bit odd. And number 3 might be a bit over the top with the dry skin, but I'm not sure....

Unmer armour wip 3

 Here is the finished concept for the armour, pretty happy with it, looks quite protective and mechanical with cogs and belts on the arms and legs, these are there to help the user move and have increased strength. Below I've started to block in the armour on the Granger character, next i need to transform the characters face and start rendering and detailing the armour.

Unmer armour wip 2

Some more progress on the armour, every thing's blocked in now, even the back view (Black and white, no need for colour) Just need to add some details and polish a few bits up then ill need to draw this armour on Granger, which will be interesting because i also need to transform the character to look like hes been exposed to the briny waters (Brine sea water turns people in 'Sharkskin' when exposed for long enough, sharkskin people can only live underwater, or they will die in the sun) The water makes the skin become grey, dry and cracked once in sunlight.

Unmer armour wip 1

I chosen thumbnail 5 to develop further, Ive also taken a few other ideas from the other thumbnails and merged them with this concept, I'm working my way through the armour design now refining and adding more suitable parts to the armour to make it more believable, I'm happy with how its looking so far, starting to look a bit more mechanical now which is what i wanted. Ive gone with the brown, bronze colour scheme like the old brass diving gear, think it fits the overall theme of the book pretty well.

Unmer Armour ideas

Here are a few armour concepts i came up with. This armour is a magic Unmer artifact in the book, its called 'Mechanical nerve armour' its something that i imagine give the wearer increased strength as well as being protected by metal plates of armour. In the book it describes the armour to whir softly when moving and the small metal plates move and chatter, like its almost moving itself, or its aiding the wearer to help movement. So i wanted these armour concepts to look kind of medieval with mechanical looking parts, while trying to keep it looking functional. The only problem with this, i think that some of the armour concepts turned out looking a bit sci-fi  and more futuristic. I'm still not 100% sold on any of the concepts so i might have to bash a few ideas together and see how it looks on the character with colour. I think the ideas on the bottom row turned out better though.

Granger Final concept

Calling this character done for now, ill have to wait until i come back to uni for feedback if things need changing.. which I'm sure there are, but ill move on now as there's lots that needs to be done.

Granger development 3

More progress on Granger, began working on the back view now, hope to finish the concept soon so i can move onto designing some armour for him.

Granger development 2

Starting to work on the final design for Granger, so i drew out a quick back view and started blocking in colours and some definition of where detail will be. Just need to put a few hours into it now and paint it up. The process for this character is going much quicker at the moment though which is good, characters with more clothing takes much longer, but as this character was either going to wearing trousers or a piece of material its much quicker.

Granger development

Some  character development for Granger, a few full body black and white variations. Think the character definitely looks better with the torn trousers, and the pose where hes holding his ribs, it adds some story to the character. Next i then painted up some colour studies of different faces, again i much prefer number one, it just suits the character more in my mind as he doesn't look that beefy but he looks tough. Ill now go onto develop the character until i have the final character design.

Granger initial sketches

Here are a few quick sketches, just throwing some initial ideas and possibly body shapes out for the character. Although i quite like number 3, looks pretty tough and ugly,  i just think it he looks a little big for the character and the pose needs changing too. At the moment I'm more happy with sketch 2 because i think he fits the build for the character better but also the pose is much nicer, the characters been pretty beaten so this pose represents this, cut and bruised holding his stomach like he's hurt. I might develop 2 and 3 more a little further before choosing one i like, then develop that design further.

Mood boards

just a little progress update on what Ive been doing, just got all the mood boards, references that ill need out the way.

Granger referances

Moving back onto character designs now, here i have gathered some images to get the ball rolling for a character called Granger, he is one of the main characters in the book, although he is in most of the book he isn't described that much, i think the book really leaves it up to the reader to give an image of what he looks like. The only descriptions i found were that hes fairly tall, and lean in appearance, not the most well built of men but has over sized joints, "ugly" looking face and looks generally quite battered. So i researched into a few actors and also grabbed some concept art for a character from Dishonoured mainly because i imagined Granger to have the same kind of broad chin, quite ugly and beat up face with the short cap of hair. I'm designing this character for a scene in the book where he has just been held in prison, beaten up and now heading into a arena or execution so hes not going to be in the best of shape, i don't think hes even wearing too much clothing as he pretends to hang himself with his own clothing earlier so he would not have been given any clothes back, so maybe hes wearing a rag around his waist or just trousers that have been given to him for the execution.

Final scene wip 6

This is pretty much the final image i think now, might just tweak a few things but apart from that i need to be moving ahead with the project. Ive done two slight variations one with a gem lantern by the characters feet, the gem lanterns in the book are a light source that cannot be turned off, the lantern has a shutter mechanism to simply block the light. Not sure which one i like the most, need to get some feedback if it looks better without the lantern or not, im thinking adding it in might be overdoing it, ill have to come back with a fresh view and see what i think...

Final scene wip 5

Fire?? i think it adds to the scene a little and gives it a bit more depth and action going on... makes it a little more interesting i think, plus i can do some nice lighting around everywhere now!

Final scene wip 4

More progress on the painting...