ART WAR 3 | 2D | Villains | Omens of Destruction | brassmoon

[brassmoon]

Name: Juho Kilpeläinen
Artstation: https://www.artstation.com/jkilpelainen

Sabah
Character description: The most skilled member of an assassin cult known as "Wisdom of Amarant" that is fanatically devoted to Saint Amarant, saint of knowledge, secrets and silence. The cult is suspected of multiple brutal assassinations which have no readily apparent motive or connections between them.

Sabah is a skilled and devious fighter and is also capable of wielding a mysterious form of energy. This energy appears to allow him to enchance the power of his weaponry, greatly boost his physical abilities and even turn his throwing knives into deadly guided projectiles. Although his equipment will vary based on his mission, he appears to prefer using a kilij sabre and throwing knives. Like other members of the cult, Sabah wears a devotional mask of Saint Amarant while on missions for the cult. This naturally means that his actual identity or even name is currently unknown.

Concept sheet.

Final illustration.

[brassmoon]

First thumbnails of the concepts. I've got four different villain concepts under consideration: The necromancer, The pyrokinetic, the brute and the assassin.

And here is a few select concepts I refined a bit further. My current problem is that I have a bit too many potential concepts that I like. I need to figure out what to focus on.

[brassmoon]

Work on my submission continued during the Christmas week as much as possible, although lack of access to a scanner meant no updates.

I was still indecisive about the villain concept so I decided to make more refined sketches of the different concepts. I was away from my own computer, so I sketched with a pencil. These sketches are for the pyrokinetic and the necromancer. Both are bit more "modern" conceptually, although the pyrokinetic is closer to sci-fi.

These sketches are for the brute and the assassin. These are more fantasy in style.

After the more detailed sketches, I decided to leave out the pyrokinetic and focus on developing the backstories and details for the brute, the necromancer and the assassin. After some thought, I decided that the brute would be the least interesting of the three. Eventually after building the concepts further I decided I would use the assassin, Sabah, as my villain. I already did some quick sketches for his main weapon, but I will put up more sketches now that I'm back home and have access to my computer.

[brassmoon]

Due to the deadline extension, I decided to work on Sabah with a more relaxed pace. I was already pretty sure about most of the design, so my sketching focused towards few key elements like his cuirass, weaponry and the devotional mask of Saint Amarant, saint of wisdom, secrets and silence. Sabah belongs to an assasin cult devoted to this saint and these masks are one of the few common identifiers they have. These are most commonly worn when the cult chooses to eliminate their target using either a public assassination or an open assault.

[brassmoon]

Final turnaround for Sabah including additional work on his weapons. Just linework due to time constraints.

Here is a preview of the concept sheet for final submission, which I'll add to the final submission.

Quick sketches for the final illustration. Most of these have guards in them, but I'm going to have Sabah solo or just with his target in the final illustration. It's likely that addition of multiple people would make the illustration too timeconsuming.

[brassmoon]

The final illustration. Sabah is a member of an assassin cult known as "Will of Amarant". It is believed to be fanatically devoted to Saint Amarant, the saint of knowledge, secrets and silence. The cult is suspected of multiple brutal assassinations and assaults. Currently these attacks have no known motive or connections between the victims. The outfit and equipment of these assassins varies greatly, but a devotional mask of Saint Amarant is their greatest commonality.

Sabah is the most notorious of the cult's assassins and is a skilled and devious fighter. Additionally, he appears to have the ability to harness some kind of mysterious energy. Sabah can channel this energy to boost his physical abilities, enchance the power of his weaponry or even use it to turn his throwing knives into deadly guided projectiles. He will vary his equipment based on the target, but he appears to prefer using a Kilij sabre and throwing knives.