DWIII - 2D - thePoet - Harrower

#1

Just came across this contest with 12 days left and I figure, what the heck. I’ve had a couple of character ideas drifting in the back of my mind and they fit the category so now it’s time to open the throttle.
A couple of sketches are already made so I’ll get them scanned in and posted up. Cheers and Glory to CGtalk–may our enemies broken pencils and shattered screens fall at our feet!!!


Here’s the first sketch.
The Harrower is summoned when the fate of the magical beings lies on the brink. He is the dark protector of the world of faerie, a single demigod capable of harnessing all magical power and banishing all foes. He is the grave balance to all that is fair and gentle in faerie.

Without having an idea what I was doing I started with a human skull and added gazelle horns but switched to a bovine skull to make it a little more exotic. Not being grand enough I added a twisted set of antlers to really give him some presence. Now I started to get a feel of who this guy is and sketched in some upper body.
I’m working on some body concepts and will post them when finished. Cheers

#2

Nice horn design.

#3

  1. This is the first figure thumbnail, just wanting to establish the ideas that he may have more than two arms and from waist down becomes a kind of armor.
  2. A figure to be used as basis of quick design ideas. A little tweaking to the horns.

These are various concepts built on the “3” figure.
4) Playing with the thought that two of the arms are in front of him and two holding staves.
5) Trying for a more fabric based attire.
6) Variation of the fabric as well as seeing that the figure needs to be lengthened to balance out the horns/antlers.
7) Playing with the surroundings and wanting to convey a huge amount of magical power around this guy. Swirling whirlwind around him, levatating rocks and a staff whose top is a spherical spell design.

#4

I love the antlers shape on his head I agree that he might need some more balance in the hips and feet side! but The magic he can do around him its a great concept like an already ready to action aura! great job in the concept hope to see more soon!:thumbsup:

#5



8) Playing with some of the curves and found that I prefer a more deer-like neck. Also came to the conclusion that AxelAlonso was feeling, for balance, he needs to either have two arms and two legs or four arms and no legs. Thanks for the coments Axel :slight_smile:
9) Seeing where I’d take the two arms/two legs design. There needs to be a strong vertical below the head to weigh against the strong horizontal of the horns so I went with a long priest style clothes that hang from each shoulder. I also like the sleeves starting low and being rather billowy.

I just wasn’t getting the power/presence I was imaging, I have in my mind that this character holds a deity status in the world of faerie and is a form of a king. Till now he looked like he could be a standard non-human mage. Until…

10) Alas! I’m getting somewhere. This is very close to what I had in mind. Recognizable silhouette, sense of power and something of demigod presence.
11) Just a quick side view to have an idea how things would work out.

Some color variations on the design of “10”. If I had more time I’d probably do a lot more concepts but right now I’m just trusting my instincts and trying to run in the direction I feel is right.
Since Harrower is basically the harbinger of judgment for faerie I’m inclined to go with a dark set of colors but I tossed out some lighter ones for kicks. There’ll be gold details that weave throughout the whole character.

Thoughts are welcome.

Now I’m going to start on variations of “10”. Cheers

#6

hi, i like ur concept, kndda like the Asura, and i like your instinct, and my instinct says color variation 12 & 15 will work just right :slight_smile:

#7

Kinonato - I appreciate the words. Didn’t know what the Asura was so I looked it up and you’re right. That’s basically what I had in mind.

We’ll I’ve been at it, bouncing between a lot of different ideas and here’s some highlights:

1a) As this design for the character has no legs I just wanted the body to form into some kind of object at which point the thought of it being patterned off a inverted cathedral spire occured to me. Seemed to have the right amount of grace, angles and semi-religious presence.
3a) The sketch “10)” above was in the direction I was thinking but wasn’t dark enough so this was an attempt at that. The wing things as well as the base of the body would be stone and the glass cylinders hanging down would be filled with glowing gas and have old vines criss-crossing over them.
4a) The blade on the left is close to what I was thinking.
5a) Just a variation of “10)”, more altruistic appearance than the one above it.
6a) I was doing a skull for all the faces and had to see what a fleshed out face would look like while also hoping it would give me some more ideas.

I was following this train of thought but my ideas really started to grind to a halt. It had some much I was shooting for but it also seemed to lose a lot of personhood when made so “divine”. I mentally backed up and picked somewhere else to go from. I started by shifting my style which makes me think different and thereby come up with new ideas. I just began at the head and simply started drawing down with little to no preliminary sketching or planning. The result is 1b)

This design obviously is very different from the previous ones but I think it also brings a lot of personality and vitality than the others.

2b) A basic color job of “1b” following the thought that he’s a creature of magic and is intrinsicallly tied to nature and life thus he’s donned in greens, browns and golds. As well as the valiant colors of the victorious CGtalk!
3b)-6b) Variations of color. I have some thought on these but I’d love to hear what you guys think as well on the topic of the character design. Cheers

#8

I like where you going with each new design and how you keep evolving from the last sketch.

As another member who just learned of this contest and about to start working on my own design for a 3D model I hope I can work as effect and quick as you seem to be.

Keep up the good work.

#9

Your Character “Harrower”, evolves every time I see this thread that’s fantastic I like that!!:thumbsup: Although I think you are losing a bit of the mystical touched you had earlier in your cleric designs, since the big antlers it’s his main shape feature, I think keeping the human legs won’t add anything else! So I will stay with maybe a better form (kind of like elephant leg or golden tree wood pair of legs) or a nice structure church to stand on it, very much like (as you were doing it) But that’s my personal taste, I like all of them but I seen him very human seems a bit less God like” and more wearing a fancy mask.:slight_smile: Witch I never thought before. As for colors Green seems more able to describe power of magic and blue helpful magic to the purest way, so mixing those 2 will be good, and then your golden accessories as you mentioned that will be added to him. In the previous body type I preferred the purple one! More mysterious and it’s not dark or light can be any…:rolleyes:

#10

AxelAlonso - Good words man, thanks. You’re right, he certainly loses some of his mysticism but the earlier design seemed to make the character so lofty that I didn’t connectly emotionally with him as much as I do this one. There’s nothing wrong with the earlier design, would still consider doing a piece of him but right now I’m just going to follow what I’d enjoy doing most. Some competitions you just have to you know? They’re just so big and have such open paramaters that you can’t go in saying “I’m going for the win!” when of course you want to do the best job you can but you in up doing what you want to do the most and maybe some of that will come across in the end. Anyway…
Good thought about the purple variation, it would allow the character to be rather neutral, I’ll remember that.

I keep looking at the new design trying to think of a way to push it a little farther and played around with different ideas and eventually came to the decision he should have a stead. But not a drab ol’ horse but a giant fox :slight_smile: My mind starting racing with that idea and began developing a mythos about them, which really helps me design the characters. I’m thinking they work as a kind of team where Harrower uses his holy scepter Empyrean to bind his enemies then the spirit fox Tartarus, the all-devourer, basically inhales them straight to oblivion.
I’ve done some sketches and will post them a little later so until then, Cheers and glorious victory to CGsociety!!!

#11

Here’s some sketches I did of Tartarus, the giant fox. Upper left shows just a quickie to see if the concept seemed to fit and a couple of face studies to find what shapes I wanted to emphasize.
I knew something needed to be different about the fox and tried all kinds of stuff like armor, wings, tattoo markings, horns etc. I was thinking about the character and realized he isn’t an evil creature, just a devourer of evil so I didn’t want him to look evil but did want to show there’s something dark about him and that’s when I decided to have him wearing the snearing mask you see. I added the tail ornament to balance the mask but I’m still debating to use the bracers on the legs and faint designs on the back.
Upper right are composition ideas for the main image and finding how to fit everything in nicely. I love the fox head position from the bottom right and I want Harrower to be pretty much front on so I worked the composition around those.
My initial thought was to have the POV looking a little up at Harrower to make him more magestic but it quickly becomes a problem with this compostion (the one on the left) because he ends up to small in the frame due to fitting a giant fox, huge scepter/spear and vertical perspective in the pic. I’m working with some other ideas now with the POV on level with Harrower.

Thoughts are welcome as always, Cheers

#12

Hi Clint,

The Fox character adds magic and nature to the character, since magic it’s about controlling the power of nature, so it does helps a lot! The fat fox’s tale looks great at the contrast to the antlers and the texture fur and bone like structure will look great! The mask the fox it’s wearing look fantastic all the detail and design work well together, I’ll wait to see your color choices! :thumbsup:

#13

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