day 17: samurai general

More old samurai redesigns!!!  I’m debating on taking out the cape and spikes on the back because the design is supposed to be more of a second in command type of henchman.  I think the accessories make him seem more like the guy in charge.  I drew it in the generic 3/4 front because I was resolving the design still as I elaborated on it more than I did 5 years ago and I was considering the design for a possible turnaround.

day 16: turn that around

Thought I would take another stab at getting a decent character turnaround done.  Definitely some parts that need to be tweaked here and there but still light years better than the last turnaround I did.  It’s progress and sometimes it’s excruciating.

Not an old sketchbook drawing revamped.  I wanted to add a macho character to my portfolio since all the male designs I’ve done are fairly on the tweener/villain side.  The character ended up being a mix of Kevin Sorbo’s Hercules and something from Fist of the North Star.  Thinking about it after the fact with my teacher Mark McDonnell, it made sense to think of the story of the character to incorporate as a design motif.

Once I add that secret motif, I think the character will sell better.  You guys will have to tune in later to see what the secret ingredient is.

day 15: starship gunslinger

Another idea revamped from a few years ago.  What would old west gunslingers look like if they existed in the future?

day 14: space cadet

Another old idea redone 5 years later.  Sci-fi girl with a space-gun for the win?

day 13: samurai henchman

This drawing is a testament to keeping a sketchbook.  I was looking through a few sketchbooks I’ve kept over the years and boy did I stink back then.  Granted, I’m not that good now but it’s to elaborate over the pencil mileage I’ve accumulated over the past year and a half.  Anyways, the point I was trying to make is that I had some pretty cool ideas back then that I wasn’t able to execute because of my lack of skill.

While flipping through my old sketchbooks, I got inspired to breathe life into those old ideas.  I remember Marcelo Vignali saying that “you can output what you haven’t put in” and boy does it ring true.  Incorporating the knowledge I’ve gained into that old idea turned out fairly well.  Or I think it did.

So the character is based on some evil samurai characters I drew over 5 years ago and only now was I able to execute the idea adequately.  Expect to see the other samurais as well as other old ideas in the next few posts.