@mr_dessin Thanks so much for your feedback. Sorry I was on autopilot when I was the numbering.

I also prefer 7 (prev 1), 10, 11 (prev 6).
I won't be going with 7 as I think Xan might get lost to the background.
I'm leaning more towards 10 as there might be room for more visual effects, but yeah that pose or camera angle gotta fix to show more of the knock back and punishment she takes.

Added a bit more detail to 10 and 11.

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After working a bit more on 10, I've chosen 11.
I'm going to explore the background more with hopes that I can transfer some of the design from 9 & 10. Incorporating more metal, cables, rays of light, maybe a disintegrating droid for her opponent, stuff like that.

@doan @stallout @mr_dessin Thank you so much, I really appreciate your comments and feedback.

Added a bit more shadow and highlights. I think that should be good enough for the character concept sheet.
I suppose I could always come back later to add cables and detail if needed.

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Still in the rough stages.
Added some detail to her opponent and the background.
Put some colours in as I'm trying to get a feel for how the image is going to look when it's finished.

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@berrysquare Thanks, I'm hoping it turns out the way I imagined. Yeah the idea started as a steampunk concept and it kinda morphed into a mix between cyber, diesel and steam.

@Kreyhardt Thank you! I think my style has been heavily influenced by comic book inking. I agree with you about the foot. I battled with the perspective for awhile till I decided to take some pictures of myself in that pose. What I found is that the right foot has a hard time coming forward and it feels more natural when it's pointed down and trailing behind. So all the weight is on the left leg while the right hovers giving you the sense that the motion has just happened. I'll show you what I mean in my next post.

A bit more work on the droid and a change in Xan's right foot.
It looks alright to me in this perspective, but I could be completely wrong.

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Yeah I agree. Her right foot will need a bit of work, maybe once I push it back a bit and add the proper lighting. Her movement is interesting because what she is doing is ducking and putting her weight on her left leg that is slowing her forward momentum. Meanwhile she is lifting her right foot to change her balance. She could put it back down and continue forward, but I think what she plans to do is to fall into the momentum to her left and spin around to follow up with a slash or spray of her sword. Making this movement one she has planned beforehand and linking up to her bot could make it possible.

Added a lot of detail and rendering before I realized that I forgotten to increase the image resolution.
This is me sketching a few things on top of the blurriness.
At least I was able to separate the characters from the background to make it easier on the next part.

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Sketched lines for the droid, drone and xan.
Going see how the image looks with colour before moving on to lighting, effects and detail.

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Gave the image colour. I'm quite surprised at the difference.

My power is being turned off for the next two days so I'll see how much I can do before then.

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I just wanted to say thank you so very much to everyone that liked, commented and critiqued this thread.
Your interest and feedback have been a great boon to my character creation journey which I will hopefully carry over to my future characters.

I can't seem to edit my first post. If I have enough time I'll post everything together.

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My electricity came back on so I took some of the remaining time to tweak the final image a bit.

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This is my final entry in this ArtWar Contest.
The journey has been awesome.
I'm really glad and thankful that I was able to participate.

Name: Devon Wright
Email: sdk957@hotmail.com
Website: http://deviouslydevon.deviantart.com/

Character background story:

Xanriella Kinsley Penagril is born to a wealthy merchant family. She has an inquisitive and intelligent mind, conquering finance and diplomacy at a young age. She opens a blue flame powered toy her father gifts her upon his return from one of his voyages. There is an accident and Xanriella loses her right arm and is left with a scarred lower face. Hope for a future as a noble woman is no longer possible for her. She joins her father on a scientific expedition to better understand the mysteries of the blue flame that powers their cities and airships. What they find is quite miraculous. However upon their return trip to reveal their discovery they are attacked by sky pirates and Xanriella is taken as a slave. She is traded between captains as some form of joke. However one captain sees past her disfigured form and takes notice of her intelligence, but more importantly her deep rooted lust for vengeance. The captain known as Captain Tengrin (A name he acquires due to his charismatic smile which he uses rarely and the one he paints on his faceplates reserved for his enimies) takes Xan under his wing. Although Xan despises pirates she is swayed by Captain Tengrin as he shows piracy in a new light and the evil controlling hand of industry and nobility. Xan is indoctrinated and learns to fight, build, repair and bond with her crew. As a family of well-oiled murderers and thieves, they hunt down the pirate that had captured her and killed her father and his crew. Xan discovers from the pirate captain’s dying breath that someone had hired him to kill her father and his crew, someone rich and powerful, someone in the nobility, someone that was scared of what their scientific discovery might undo. Thus Xan sets on a path of a Robin Hood stealing from the rich to give to the poor and use her father’s scientific discovery of the blue flame to bring the whole charade of hierarchy down. Only then will her vengeance be sated.

Character Concept 2048x2048

xan concept.jpg2048x2048 2.35 MB

Combat Style:
Xan fights in the thick of combat. Her armor and weapons absorb, consume and expel thermal and kinetic energy. She uses that energy to help her breath, keep her balance, move quickly or even expel it on her enemies in the form of deadly heated punches from her mechnical arm or brutal heated cuts and burns from her flamethrower sword. Xan doesn't fight alone. She is usually shadowed by hovering combat drones which link up to her headset and goggles to give her greater battle awareness as well as carrying a supporting arsenal to destroy her enemies.

Final Illustration 3564x2048

xan final.jpg3564x2048 2.95 MB

Best of luck everyone!