I looked up a bunch of stuff before moving onto more sketches. Apparently dual wielding spears has never really been a thing in real life. The closest I could find was some kind of short spear style from Ireland.

Anyways, I tried to make some sense out the way the lances could work, along with some overall variations of the character itself. Taking what I got from the previous sketches, I pushed them a little bit more with some slightly higher quality sketches.

The first one was initially based on the original drawing, but with the keyword being "regal", I ended up with something different. I started with a seahorse as the inspiration for it's posture, followed by the betty's fins for decoration. Once I started adding the fins, it reminded me of muay thai fighters. In the end, it came out looking like a more capable fighter than the original drawing.

The second one was just supposed to have the "hulk" kind of feel to it. Big, slow and a chunk of power. Instead of giving it proper lances, I figured it'd look more interesting if it simply would've used the debris around it - resulting int the coral inspired handles. Also, it's a huge shrimp, so I guess that's kind of something.

Last one is pretty straight forward. A predator through and through, in terms of visuals at least. Looks dangerous, uses something more akin to harpoons and is most likely faster than the other two. I didn't really put as much thought into this one.

First one most likely uses the lances to swim faster in some way. Big Shrimp simply throws them at it's enemies and Sharky just chase its targets the old fashioned way.

Ok, that was a lot. I'll shut up more next time. Not sure if people actually care about all of this.

Happy Holidays!

After playing a round a bit with the designs (trying to explore my options), I have decided to go with a mix of the top and bottom row.

The "hulk"-type no longer appeals to me, in terms of what I'm trying to achieve. Which also happens to be the reason I only did two more versions of it.

Putting gear on the top one was a little bit tricky, as I didn't want to give it something that'd reduce it's swimming capabilities. This lead to fairly lackluster legs.

The sharky ones were fun, as I could simply take the characteristics from actual sharks and translate them onto the original one. I really like the whole predator look to them.

Next up is the final design of the character.

I'm not sure what to label this as. It's is the final design, but It's very rough
- "Rough Final Design"?

Anyways, I've kind of settled on this shark-ish (great white) man with large betty fins as decoration. I thought it'd look neat if it were to swim and you'd be able to recognize it based on the red.

Instead of giving it a full on mermaid/man tail, I went with a sort of loincloth made out of betty fins (one in front, one in the back). This way it can still walk on land (for a limited amount of time, I'd assume) and board ships (if it ever finds itself attacking one). Thanks to said fins, it would still look like a full on tail when it swims. A best of both worlds so to speak.

Next up is probably going to be a cleaned up front and back view (in a more neutral pose), to serve as the "real" final design. That only leaves thumbnails and the final artwork. Shouldn't take too long...

Adjusted some of the proportions for a more interesting physique.

Friends of mine also pointed out that it looked similar to Undyne from the Undertale game. Most of said similarities was based on the fanart of said character and the colors I used. With that in mind I adjusted some things to make it a little bit more distinct.

I ended up leaving the back in a little bit of a mess, as I'm starting to get pressed on available time to work and it gets the point across well enough.

Moving on to thumbnails. I'll try to get that done asap and just get to the final drawing.

1. Atlantean Warrior attacks a small boat (fishing boat perhaps?) and focuses on the size difference between them.
2. Swarm of Atlantean Warriors is gathering beneath a ship, showcasing just how many of them there are.
3. Atlantean Warrior is approaching the surface as someone on the ship spots it. Supposed to be a night time scene lit by moonlight.
4. Atlantean Warrior throwing it's lance as it rips through the water and waves.

I'm leaning towards number 1 and 2 for now. I think the feeling of helplessness that they can invoke is somewhat interesting. I want to highlight how hostile these creatures are and how dangerous they are, when you're in their territories.

Tried some different variants of the two thumbnails I liked best.

I really liked the ones where it sort of jumps out of a wave, or is about to do so. It really gives me that "it's over" kind of feeling, where all hope is lost.

Same goes for the one where they're swarming beneath a ship. Having them circle around it more, really help sell the underwater look. That said, I think that would require way more effort to get something with less impact than the one the jumps out of the wave.

So i'll be going with one of the two images depicting it inside a wave from the first image or a mix of them. Something along those lines...

Starting with drawing the character and then creating a mask. I'll most likely do the same for the boat and then jump straight into painting the wave.

It's kind of tricky to figure out a pose that shows off the design, while still keeping the action and story of the image. This may not be the case for everyone, as I want to capture both the feel of something "emerging from the depths" and also show as much as possible of the character itself.

For it to look like the "attack from below", I will need to obscure some of the design and turn it into more of a shadow inside the wave. In order to not loose too much of the character within the wave, the pose of the character must counteract that.

Thus, I tried to push for more of an explosive leap kind of thing. I don't think I'll be able to showcase the propulsion idea I had for the lances though.

The values aren't really "there" yet, but I now have an idea of what process I'll be using for this piece.

The water is very intimidating, but at least it doesn't have a set form/design I need to follow. I can just paint away until it looks alright.

Unfortunate update:
I didn't notice it until now, but a lot of elements in my final piece are very similar (if not almost identical at times) to another submission of Art War 4. Since we're both doing aquatic creatures and his work is way closer to "done" than mine is - I will change pretty much everything, except the character.

(I shouldn't need to point out who it is, since he's among the featured ones on top)

I want mine to be able to stand on it's own, but with how things are looking right now, I'd just come off as somewhat of a copycat. Something, which I'm not too happy about.

I will proceed in a completely different direction and change up the entire composition.

Here's the new piece.
I discarded most of the background elements, in favor of more focus on the character itself. I'll most likely put a lightning bolt behind him and light the piece that way. It is supposed to look more scary than previous thumbnails. Kind of like "you thought you were safe, but it realized you were still alive", with a sort of sadistic grin on it's face.

Anyways, I feel more confident in this one.
The first one was probably destined to fail no matter what.

@nesokaiyoh Thanks! Yeah, I do think the story elements of mine made it stand out a little, but I ended up wanting to separate it as much as possible. Given that both are aquatic creatures, it is what it is.

@sani Haha, totally! I missed your somehow, but they do feel like they belong in the same universe (mine could be a henchman to yours?). As for the waves, I was actually thinking of adding some later on. Splashing from behind is a nice idea - will try it when the time comes!

Learning and correcting the anatomy as a I render is somewhat therapeutic, compared to all the work prior. It's a little bit dark as of now, since I haven't added in the actual lights (not counting the bolt in the back) .

Something went "wrong" with the face. I added/implied eye-sockets, but I accidentally widened his face. I'll adjust that later on.

(Any muscles that doesn't match human anatomy is obviously meant to be that way. It's a stylistic choice and has nothing to do with me not completely understanding anatomy.🤡)

@nesokaiyoh You took the words straight out of my mouth, as I was enjoying just that. Researching and correcting is really enjoyable and it becomes almost like sculpting, when working digitally.

Posting any and all progress that's made, every time I touch the piece.

I didn't have enough for any major progress today, so I aimed to tweak anything I wasn't happy with. Namely, the face and the abdominal anatomy. Since it's torso isn't as long as a human's, I had to make up the muscles to some degree. Based on actual anatomy, of course.

Since it doesn't have any genitals (at least not where we have them), I thought I might extend the muscles down further and blend it out. The fin-skirt will cover up some of it anyways, once that's added.

I hope I'll be able to have enough time available this week for the character. The main stretch goal for this week will be to render the weapons as well.

This has nothing to do with Art War, but I just realized that I hadn't completed my profile on cubebrush. Like... at all.

Anyways, now I got my picture up and all. Should stand out a little bit more now.

Back to work!

I find it a little bit tricky to paint it without truly implementing the light. Without indirectly creating another light-source, I tried to give it a little bit more contrast.

I do not feel too confident about the weapons and the fin-thingies. It feels like a matter of rendering skill rather than reference - which means more grind and now easy way out.

Adjusted some things here and there, which sort of solved minor issues with the proportions and silhouette. At the very least, I might just finish it's body on time (not counting the fins). If that's the case, I'll be able to finish the whole thing in time for submission!

Finally felt ready to add the rim-light. This is where all that anatomy rendering pays off, as I don't need to think too hard about where the light goes. I'll probably render 80-90% of the piece in B/W, before coloring it.

I adjusted the look of the fins, but i'm not 100% satisfied just yet. That said, I decided to let the lightning peek through a little bit, for some extra spice.

Quite a jump from the last update. I accidentally saved over an older version, that contained the things that happened between this one and the last - But I'll blame photoshop, since I don't feel like I was fully at fault. That does mean, that I can't show what happened earlier.

Don't worry. It wasn't pretty. This is much better.