ART WAR 4 | 2D | War of the Elements | Parsk the Undying | nantianmu

Name: Lance
Contact: hengyalan@gmail.com
Twitter: @lancehengya

First time doing this, let's see if I can follow through

Preliminary concepting

So far I have 3 main ideas:
- Steam vents teakettle/coral
- Watertiger mermaid
- Mud person with exploding water inside them

I will probably do more later because I get free post-its from my job. I definitely want to do Water team, but I'm not sure about attack vs defense. I am somewhat reclusive when it comes to showing my conceptual process to others, so doing this contest is going to be good exposure therapy for me, haha

@aleck5andrs Thank you, and for sure, I am going with a parallel prototyping approach so I will be repeatedly iterating upon these ideas. I definitely don't want to lock down anything for certain for a while

A few days ago I was thinking about some lore for the world. The 4 elements system reminded me a bit of Pokemon, so I thought it would be interesting to come up with a similar rock-paper-scissors type dynamic as there is none canonically stated.

Red = Type advantage (devastating)
Green = Renewal
Blue = No effect

Aka
- Fire swiftly kills Earth, Earth snuffs out Lightning, Lightning swiftly kills Water, Water snuffs out Fire
- Water strengthens Earth (plants, really), Lightning re-sparks Fire
- Earth has no effect on Water, Fire has no effect on Lightning

Note the potential alliances here, that Water and Lightning are more "healing" elements, Fire and Lightning are more piercing-attacks while Water and Earth are more smothering-attacks. If that makes sense.

I was thinking that this is a common conception about how the element system works at the basic magical level, it may not be actually true but it's how everyone thinks. As a result, warriors would be outfitted with gear designed to resist whichever element they're weak to, and equipped with weapons designed to use their own element in a form that can actually harm the element that's resistant to theirs.

So for example since I've got someone from Water, they would be outfitted in anti-Lightning armor, and they've got steam guns or vents equipped to injure Earth defenders. Someone from Fire would have waterproof armor and like, maybe lava to coat a Lightning defender and actually injure them, someone from Earth would have flame-resistant armor and, I dunno, poison? Lightning is a tricky case, I guess they would have piercing-type armor focused on digging the user out of or breaking through any Earth attack, and apparently electricity can move fire around on account of fire being made of plasma/charged particles, so that's something there.

I will be using this to compose and think about my final illustration, as well as the armor and weapons for my fighter. Feel free to suggest alterations or feedback on this system, if you like it a lot you can use it too.

I have been sketching my designs but i didnt' want to post them until I had them all together. Keep an eye out for it :))

Okeydoke folks I think I have picked my challenger.

Her name is Parsk the Undying and she is an (overgrown) water beetle larva. For some reason, she never pupated when she was supposed to. Instead, the shell of the beetle adult grew over her larval form, rendering her impervious to harm, but also cursing her forevermore with the larva's incessant hunger for flesh. If she doesn't eat enough, she'll get extreme hunger pangs and eventually wither up and die. But as she eats, she grows, and as she grows, she needs more meat to sustain herself. Seeing as meat is limited in her home village (at the bottom of a swamp, where cannibalism among beetle larvae is a normal part of adolescence due to limited animal matter), Parsk decided to move out to spare her kinsfolk and seek a more sustainable source of nutrition... by joining the Water Army.

Sketches:

Stats:
Beetle Carapace (all over body): Notoriously tough adult water beetle skin. Actually, because of this stuff coating her entire body, Parsk can no longer breathe/sleep underwater and must come up for air in aquatic environments.

Hollow Pincers (on head): Crushes enemy exoskeleton/armor, then pumps them full of digestive enzymes, then sucks the stuff back up. This is Parsk's primary method of feeding; her face/mouthpieces are mostly for communication, although she does occasionally eat things through her mouth (mostly human foods, like porridge, or anything served in a bowl).

Hollow Jet (in mouth): Shoots digestive enzymes.

Steam Spirelets (on back of abdomen): Vents scorching hot steam, heated by biochemical reactions. Parsk likes to stock up on extra water before battle, but in a pinch can boil her own hemolymph for an attack. She usually uses these spirelets to breathe.

Poison Tip (on tail): Bacteria-infested. Dangerous.

Her overall body plan is set. I am most unsure about the mouthpiece area and would appreciate feedback on that/how the current setup is looking, if it looks better with a second set of pincers on the mouth or not etc. I would also appreciate feedback on spirelet placement.

Sometime I will post an inspiration/moodboard for Parsk and also talk a little about the ideas I scrapped.

BTW, Fun Water Beetle Facts:

• Water beetle larvae view predation as a psychospiritually significant act of sacrifice, on account of their.. unusual... dietary circumstances. As a result Parsk is insulted by corpse desecration and may also refuse to eat an enemy if she dislikes them enough.
• In water beetle language parsk means "someone childish, someone who refuses to grow up." It's like calling someone "dunce" or "fool".
• Larval language is signed (using mouthpieces) as they cannot hear underwater.

There's more, I came up with this all in the past few days and will post more once it coalesces. It may not be necessary for my final illustration, but at the very least developing the water beetle's culture will help me understand what kind of adornments and armor Parsk wears. It's also a lot of fun!

Update: Sketch page from December! Many changes and fixes to Parsk's head.

Still working on Parsk's physical appearance. I'm pretty happy with her head structure now and will move on to finishing up the rest of her body + adornments. This page is really messy, I find that having everything overlapping helps me iterate while staying loose, not worrying about getting too locked in to concepts unless they're good.

Summary:

• Parsk's horns (pincers) are a lot shorter now, this is to better reflect the diving beetle larva she was based on and also to address problems of balance. It also makes for a more believable silhouette.
• Concerning balance, originally her horns/pincers were supposed to be massive to counterbalance her large tail while on land. I think while not in combat she drags her tail around, but when in combat she dons armor that extends her horns (seen in the yellow sticky notes on the blue Parsk). It's hollow and metal and inspired by stag beetles. The tips are for grasping/blunt trauma, and the points in the middle are right over her pincers and have an opening on the inside face, imagine like a cut reed. She pierces enemies/prey and injects digestive enzymes into them through those pincers, then sucks it right back up. (That bit is based on actual diving beetle larvae, by the way.) The armor comes in two pieces that latch on the posterior face of Parsk's horns, and rests on top of a sash wound around her horn joints to prevent chafing. She might also have little "earrings" dangling off this armor, I definitely want to make it ornate and reflect the water beetles' culture as well as her personal taste.
• Parsk's mouthpieces are now inside her mouth. They come out for signed communication, for maneuvering (human) food into her mouth, and when pulling out her Hollow Jet. They were too clunky and un-waterdynamic on the outside of her face. They are also at risk of entanglement/breakage which seems inoptimal for communication-critical organs. Additionally, Hollow Jet is something that should be aimed.
• Added stretchy cheek flap (Is there another name for this?) where there used to just be nothing. This was because I watched Jurassic World and really liked the velociraptors. There's something a lot more disturbingly organic about the skin flap. It also makes sense in the context of evolving in an aquatic environment - Prevents too much water from getting in and also helps snap the jaw back to its place. Suffice to say Parsk can unhinge her jaw and does so for Hollow Jet.
• Added neck flap/neck skin underneath chin. Without this her jaw is just cemented there.
• Added antennae. Makes Parsk more emotive as a character design, and makes evolutionary sense (socially, as a sense organ). It also helps break up her silhouette which by this point was starting to look way too much like that guy from Hylics.
• I've been thinking that a big traditional motif for water beetles is kelp. Their main motifs overall probably tend to be plant-based.

I'd also like to elaborate further on armor for Parsk's tail - Metal plating covering the dorsal and ventral faces and a "lateral line" row of sharp edges that turn her swinging her tail from painful into deadly. (This image drawn before the previous one)

For next time: maybe a clear (digital) diagram of Parsk's head, more work on her adornments (I think it's very important that she wears clothes and armor), maybe some work on her body plan. I continue to struggle with the spirelets. For the final illustration I was thinking her in full armor piercing somebody/draining them through her pincers and lifting them high above the ground; meanwhile, a friend told me that I should do something involving her mouth jet, to capitalize on her being Team Water. It's all still very up in the air at this point. Speaking of Team Water, I have no idea where to put her emblem. Probably as a patch or pin, something "army standard issue."

Also take this meme

IMG_20191227_0349461572.jpg4096x2133 1.51 MB

moar concepting

i realized i dont' know how arthropod exoskeletons actually work, so i referenced crab legs/shells and will be pulling upon that for her limb/body structure. i think i'm going to scrap the spirelets idea, it ruins her silhouette and also doesn't make biological sense anyway. parsk is now a double bladed staff, deadly sharp at both ends and the middle is just for spinning those ends around. also i'm struggling with her stag beetle pincer armor... looks like the form is harder to draw than i thought.

actual illustration concepts coming up super soon