Jan '17

Oh boy am I late to this contest -- well, better late than never!! Howdy do! New to the forum here and my first contest! :smile:

Obligatory info (:wink:):
Name: Laura Mardan
email: laura@infrabit.net
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LauraTMArt/
DeviantArt: http://lolo-is-seadoo-ing.deviantart.com/

I've been debating for a while, but I'll join the fantasy side on this one: Althaia the Healer. Every war needs warriors, but I thought, hey, every war also needs healers!

An Elvish creature, Althaia, along with other Children born to the Mother and Goddess of the Earth (Aviva), is a pacifist by nature. Her life renewing powers stem from Aviva, thus making use of the Earth as the source of her healing powers and possessing the ability to command nature at her will, as with all Children of Aviva.
Althaia will help anyone, warriors, humans, trolls -- creatures of all walks of life. But make no mistake, while Althaia is a pacifist and healer, her loyalty lies with Aviva first and foremost, and she can and will fight to protect their sacred land should it ever be threatened.
Althaia lost her legs in an accident, and she was bestowed new 'legs' made from tree roots.
Heavily inspired by Native American and other tribal cultures and in part by the movie Avatar (the whole Mother Nature bond).

Ref/mood board and concept sheet:

ref_mood_board.png1638x1638 2.35 MB

Althaia_concept_sheet.png2048x2048 1.06 MB

Going for slight stylization. The design isn't set in stone, I'm definitely going to end up making some changes along the way.
Concept art isn't my forte, so any feedback and suggestions are more than welcome at this point, please let me know what you guys think!

Will begin blocking out this coming week, I have a lot of catching up to do!!

Jan '17

I like the backstory of your concept together with the idea of being a healer, and having lost and regrown legs. The lost legs support the idea of pain experienced personality (leading to help). I also like the overall design and the staff! everything matches up as a solid character.

On the other hand, my first feeling about the concept (before reading the backstory) was "I see a witch" and it was a bit hard to see her as a healer. Maybe that's due to the amount of sharp points used in the design, or the pointy eye makeup. I believe manipulating the feathers and/or the eyes can bring more trust as a positive character. (such as horizontal eye makeup, and circular overall shape for the hat/crown)

Anyhow, great start and I can't wait to see the sculpt. :smile:

Jan '17

(Never too late to make her a witch doctor or something :wink:)

Joking aside, thank you for the feedback! I didn't notice it, but you're right, it doesn't read very well as healer.
I'd like to keep the concept of a healer, so I've gone ahead and made slight modifications as per your suggestions, hopefully this looks a bit better...

I've changed up the designs that gave her a fiercer look (like the eagle feet and sharp head crown) and gone for something that reflects vulnerability a little bit more. But the use of gazelle/antelope-like feet and horns is so overused that I'm not really sold on the head crown yet.
I've tried to base her root legs on something akin to Groot's feet, but they kind of look like very bad hooves right now lol.
The eye makeup, it feels too simple right now, too boring. I might experiment with it some more once I have her face sculpted, just like with her tattoos.

Well, let me know what you think haha! :blush:

I'll keep experimenting some more, but in the meantime I'll start blocking out the body. :smile:

P.S. Sorry for the late-ish reply, school got me in a bit of a bind!

modification_face_headcrown_thingy.PNG1276x389 127 KB

Jan '17

I like it a lot more with the changes you made and the character seems more positive using any of the new heads.

The crowns and the makeup made a huge difference and even though I was thinking of a horizontal makeup, actually I like yours (Vertical) better. The changes on the feet are also less pointy which is great!

Well done :+1:

Jan '17

I'm glad to hear that!! Thank you! :grin:

Jan '17

Reply to

lauratm

She's lovely! I agree with other comments here that I love the idea of her being a healer with re-grown limbs really solid marriage of backstory and character design! I'm diggin the middle horns, would be helpful to see them from another angle, but I think they'd make a really interesting side profile :smile:

Jan '17

Thank you! :blush: I agree, the middle ones are my favorite too I think. And yeah, I'm not sure yet just how they'll look from a side profile, but I'll cross that bridge when I get to sculpting them! :smile:

Jan '17

Small-ish update.

I've started sculpting the head because I also wanted to start figuring out what kind of skin color and face painting to go with.
I don't really wanna go for a generic (normal) skin color, I feel that would be kind of boring perhaps. I've two different versions below, but honestly I'm not big on that purple-blue skin. I want to keep the colors very earthly... On the other hand I'm afraid green screams hulk and shrek.
Thoughts? Suggestions? Feel free to comment on her face in general too.

As for the hair, I was thinking something like dreadlocks with twine or thin rope near the base wrapped around the front locks.

ZBrush Document.png1093x1392 583 KB

A general idea of the hair as it would look in 3D:

Jan '17

Cool backstory, I'm really digging those artificial legs :smile: Also love the fact that she's a healer, really helps her stand out.

Jan '17

Hallo!

Haven't updated anything in a while! (And when I tried earlier it looks like the forums were down!)
I really should have uploaded these wip shots a long time ago, but here they are now, shots of the work I've gotten done over the past week.

I've got the body mostly done (except for the legs which will need a LOT more work), and have started on some of the clothes, trying to figure out exactly how I want them (the 2D to 3D translation doesn't always work out quite as I want it, grrr!).

althaia-body-wips.png1011x918 137 KB

Jan '17

Some more progress shots from this past weekend:

althaia_clothes_hair_wip.png1199x916 184 KB

I'll have a more current progress shot to post sometime this week.

(Holy cow, just a month or so left in the contest and I still have a lot of work to do!! :scream:)

Feb '17

Nice! The sculpt is really coming along! I feel like it would be nice to see a more gradual transition between her .. flesh legs (sorry gross phrasing lol) and her tree legs. You got some small roots growing up now so I'm not sure if that's still WIP and I should shaddap. But her form overall is really great!