Jan '20
6

Name: Tom James
Email: artwithtomjames@gmail.com
https://tomjames.artstation.com/

My character idea is a young "lord" of the wilds. Someone who can exert effortless control over the earth itself, as well as the beasts who walk it. I wanted to do the Earth element because I feel like it is so much more than the classic image of a humanoid made of stone, or a mage who slings rock.

Final: Ailean the Evangel

Jan '20
2

To start, I researched earth spirits and deities from different cultures around the world. What I found is that The Earth, is represented as a mother figure, an example being Gaea who birthed the Greek Titans. However, deities and spirits of earth or nature are often very masculine, representing male fertility and sexuality, often in the form of a rutting stag. The roman Pan, and Celtic Cernunnos are strong examples of this, and who I ended up taking most of my inspiration from. In the end I also decided to blend the feminine and masculine sides of the earth, and create an androgynous character. Here's my first sketch from my sketchbook

Jan '20
1

Since I've decided to base a lot of my character off of Pan and Cernunnos, I decided to do costume design based off of Roman and Celtic clothing and armor.

What I found was that both Celtic and Roman clothing tended to be long and flowing cloth, though Celtic fabric was more intricately patterned, woven textiles. Celtic warriors didn't wear armor early on, but eventually started wearing leather, and an early form of chainmail they invented. Later on they wore metal helmets that resembled Roman helmets, though I don't know which culture drew inspiration from the other.

I have come up with 4 preliminary designs

EarthEmpCostume.png5100x3300 1.29 MB

EartEmpCostume2.png5100x3300 936 KB

I wanted the character to feel delicate and ornamental. Their power does not come from physicality, but rather their magic. They laxidaisically and haughtily control their "subjects" with constant heir of superiority.

I think I like designs 2 and 3 the most, with 3 being my favorite. It has a very royal roman feel to it. Let me know what you think!

Jan '20

Reply to

artwithtomjames

I forgot to mention above that each costume design contains a torc, a rigid metal band that would be worn around the neck, something Cernunnos is often depicted wearing or holding.

The final image I see in my head of this character is them lounging on a living, walking palanquin made of twisted wood entangled around chunks of stone and soil. They are almost not paying attention, lazily pointing towards the viewer, commanding a horde of beasts to attack.

Here's a quick sketch of what one "leg" of the palanquin may look like.

Cernunnos is often depicted with bulls, rats and horned serpents, so I would like the extreme foreground to have a striking snake with horns. The rest of the composition will contain other animals in the act of charging towards the viewer.

I'm also toying with the idea of having the animals be made of branches and stone as well to better represent the earth element, what do you think?

Jan '20

Wow looks great so far! You clearly put a lot of thought and research in which is super interesting.
Personally I like number 3 the most. It looks more royal than the others. It seems more fitting. (since you mentioned that he is a lord of the wilds)
One thing thats bothering me a little is that the chracter seems rather tilted. The face and the balance seem a little off. I'd recommend flipping your image. You should be able to see it better afterwards.
But other than that it looks really cool! Looking forward to see what you are going to do with the design.

Jan '20

@griasnoggal
Hey thanks! You're totally right about it being tilted, I'll have to fix the anatomy when I do some more finished sketches and poses.

Jan '20

First color study for my character. For the skin tone I drew inspiration from red rock like you'd see in Arizona, and I added the plum and red violet colors in because that's what I'm thinking the main colors for the costume will be. I want to include only small amounts of green and contrast it with these other earthy tones to make it pop. I think I should push the red skin tone further.

Jan '20

This took way too long, I don't work on anything "technical drawing" related and it shows. At least it's in a place that demonstrates my intention behind the living palanquin. I tried to make it look like the legs of the throne had grown through the rock and burst out the sides.

EarthEmpPalanquin.png3300x5100 1.03 MB

Now I want to draw the beasts my character is commanding, and start thumbnails, value and color studies. I still feel like I'm missing something to push it over the edge creatively .