ARTWAR 2 | 2D | Imina | Alexandra_K

[Alexandra_K]

Hey folks,

Hope I'm not too late for the challenge.

Name: Alexandra Kovacs
Email: delyrum@gmail.com
ArtStation: https://www.artstation.com/alexandrak
Side: Light

Let me present you my champion, Imina.

My two main inspirations:
- Mawu, the creator goddess of the Dahomey people (Republic of Benin, Africa), who is also associated with the Moon.
- The Dahomey amazons or ‘N'Nonmiton’ (our mothers in Fon), the all-female military regiment of the Kingdom of Dahomey - fearless elite warriors who fought to death in battle.

My progress so far:

I had a look at amazons in pop culture, found some pictures of Dahomey warriors and since I am not familiar with African cultures, had to do quite a bit of digging, which was really fun - here is a small moodboard of my findings:

I created some thumbnails for start:

And I also experimented with a number of different hair styles:

I have been really enjoying the process so far so I am looking forward to designing the character and creating the illustration.

Thank you for your time, C&C appreciated!

[roque_leao]

Wonderful !

[Tesat]

I don't know which one to pick from the general appearances but hairstyle #8 has a nice flow to it

[kimsokol]

Nice stuff, you've really given yourself a tough task; that balance of accurately and respectively representing an unfamiliar culture, but still going for an interesting, fantastical sort of image... you've got your work cut out for you, but that's definitely a really unique direction. =) Hair-wise, I really like 7 and 8, 9 is pretty but feels like it might fall apart pretty easily in battle.

[Alexandra_K]

Thank you, @roque_leao!

@tbrk No. 8 was actually the first design I came up with, still a favourite of mine too

@kimsokol Thank you, it is much tougher than I thought it would be, hence my updates take ages. I loved doing the dreads and braids, most likely gonna go to that direction but agreed, they either need loads of pins or magic to keep them in place

[roque_leao]

@Alexandra_K Very good! It's true, it's important to take that care look you have about design. Congratulations

[evehartman]

Thumbnails 7 and hairdesign 8 are my favourites. Great concepts so far, good luck!

[Alexandra_K]

Thank you, @evehartman!

Update - based on my thumbnails, I created some character explorations. Since the time is pretty short now, I only detailed 3 possible versions, which one do you like the best?

(She is able to use magic and got weapons as well.)

[Alexandra_K]

Some more update:

Based on the feedback I got, I decided to sort of merge the design of the 1st and 3rd character, here is what I ended up with.

Still finalising the design, but I will get there soon...

[evehartman]

The tattoo design is awesome!! I have a preference for your hooded design, and I think the one on the left would be most befitting. How is the total design coming along?