FINAL | ARTWAR 2 | 2D | Dark | Capricorn | Hano Mrno

[hanomrno]

Hi! this is my final entry to this amazing contest. I had so much fun while designing, painting and re-painting (because yeah, it was not good the first time) this champion.

A brief lore piece: For centuries has human kind praised the gods and celestial beings, but with every generation their true forms were slowly forgotten. Such is the case with Capricorn, ruler of the Southern Lands. She was so full of care and commited, and quite beloved by the mortals. But it was not long before humans started to get dettached from her; that made her anger and rejection burn wilder every single day, until she got fully consumed by wrath.

Nowdays, her sole goal is to teach humans to never turn their backs on a celestial creature.

So this is my final design. I took the "fashion model" approach, and combined it with the betta fish. I wanted to give a demoness kind of vibe, just to convey the fact that she got consumed by evil. Her victims are mostly sailors and other sea-related jobs. With her beautiful looks she awes her victim, so she can steal their soul. If someone resists or tries to escape, her large and strong tail comes into play: reaching great speed and creating currents strong enough to stunt that pur guy/gal who dared to resist.

My approach to the champion art is a ship wreck. It was quite fun to paint oh so many elements while trying to keep everything looking random in nature. Definitely my favorite part to paint was the fire light hitting her. It was very hard to get it looking right, but in the end it worked out and now I feel good haha!

I hope you liked my dark champion, and good luck to all my fellow contstants!

My personal details:
- Haniel "Hano" Moreno
- hanomrno@hotmail.com
- www.artstation.com/hanomrno
- Twitter @hanomrno
- Facebook @hanomrno

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Hi everybody! I'm very excited for this year's ArtWar, and I wish you all the best of luck

I'm trying to push my ideas and develop those creative muscles that last year where very weak, if I'm honest. The pitch of my concept is the Zodiac sign but as an evil sorceress/queen. I think that is a direction few - if any - have gone when humanizing Capricorn.

First I did a little bit of research and assembled a moodboard. here it is:

My main inspiration is the betta fish, as I find it very elegant and noble, yet it could house a decieving nature and that's the twist I'm adding. Haute Couture is also in tune with the betta, and it would give Capricorn that queen vibe I'm looking for.

after a little bit of thinking I came up with some basic ideas for her body and head

I am still exploring what works and how I could give her an elegant but menacing look. It's proving to be quite difficult to mix high fashion and the enchantress haha

[hanomrno]

Hi! I'm uploading more progress images of this character.

I started to refine her features, and I also wanted her to feel like a very bad mannered model, in one way to put it. She absolutely has magic as main weapon/attack, but I'm still trying to land that idea. So far I've come to her final design.

I'm currently working on her colors and her magic, so I'm definitely not done with the concept part

[evehartman]

Love the originality of your idea and your mood board is very inspiring! The red, pink and purple colours really pop

[hanomrno]

thanks a lot!!! >w<

[hanomrno]

second post today! I have some color ideas. Still deciding which route to go

I'm thinking that whichever color scheme is the one that works, her magic could
a)be on the same color family (a la Scarlet Witch)
b)be a complementary color to stand out (Maleficent style)

what do you think?

[Acolet]

Looks amazing!
I like the pink, just because it's so unusual to see in the Dark side, (maybe together with some dark shading like the red has could look good?). but all the color combinations look solid to me. I would add some nice lighting to the dark ones so that you wouldn't lose all the detail.
Have you looked at some exotic fish for reference? I think you could find some nice color inspirations there too.

PS hell yea capricorn's the best sign

[hanomrno]

Thanks a lot! @Acolet
I'm jumping between the pink, lilac and a little bit the black/violet. I'll test the dark shading on the pink one, for sure.
I'll do a deep dive into some exotic fish references again, thanks for the suggestion!!

ps: scorpio's better (i'm a scorpio )

[hanomrno]

Hey!

I started to sketch some ideas for the champion card, as I am happy with her design even if her colors aren't still fully defined haha.

My favorites are the first and third one from the top row, and the second one from the bottom.

[hanomrno]

More Progress!!!

I pushed a little bith further the color palettes, and I'm quite satisfied with these options.... I feel the red with cyan reads very well, and after some research I learned that the Ruby is Capricorn's crystal. I guess that colors matches on that level as well. (that black splash is supposed to be the smoke coming ouf of her, like Enchantress, and I was testing on wich Capricorn looked better)

Now, about that champion card, here are my two strongest sketches, but I'm VEEEERYYYY torn between both of them, as the both look so strong and send the message across quite well (in my humble opinion). What do you think?!?

the background is a sinking ship on fire (viewed from down under), and the bodies are pirates.

[hanomrno]

Progress!!

after a quite long weekend (Epiphany Day is very big in Mex!) I've been making and cleaning the final concept art. It's halfway there, but now I don't know if she should have like some sort of jewelry or the likes to look as Her Highness..... guess I'll try that on the small color sketch before commiting to the final piece.

halfway there, her back should look interesting but not as visually strong as her front.
I'm also testing the Final card colors.... trying with green-ish waters just to make it look come cinematic, but I don't know, maybe I'll switch back to blue water

[kabochacreates]

Beautiful concept! Looking forward to seeing your final piece!

[Uran]

This is so cool, i think you give her Soul Eater abilities right? love the concept!

[hanomrno]

@kabochacreates Thanks a lot!!! >w<

[hanomrno]

@Uran Thanks!! That is my actual pitch! she is supposed to drain all soul and energy from her victims, the interesting part will be to show that on the final card, maybe with glowing eyes on the pirate or something

[Uran]

Well, i think a good way to do that is making victims mouth very opened and a glowing smoke coming out from mouth!

[hanomrno]

@Uran oh right!!! it's been done so many times and yet it flew over my head XD thanks for the suggestion!!!

[hanomrno]

well, I've finished Capricorn's design.

this will be her full design, but this is not the Final Concept Piece, I still need to arrange all those sketches and scribbles XD.

I decided to give her some fine jewelry, not too much to saturate the design. She wears a fine but sturdy chain around her neck in a reverse-necklace fashion. The two hanging chains go all the way to her lower back, and are anchored to a ring on an old fishing hook wound ( it'll be quite dumb that a sea creature has a piercing just to be cool....right? )

what do you think of this design? Is it strong enough, or weak? any suggestions or changes? All that's left is that splash art, and I am excited about it!!!

[shengchieh_lin4]

I think the colours are gorgeous. Good use of the that saturated dark red to convey power. I think you can definitely push the proportions more with her body. Try enlarging the tail or extending the fins to make them longer. I think it will make her look more enchanting yet deadly. Perhaps the fins are also how she captures her prey? and the tail is also used to swoosh out waves of attacks?

[hanomrno]

@shengchieh_lin4 Thanks a lot!!!
I'll give the extended tail and fins a try, thanks for your suggestions I never thought of those extra abilities, but they sound really cool!!

[hanomrno]

hey Guys! more progress on the illustration

I'm slowly working my way through this piece, taking care of values, colors and the overall harmony. Flat colors are pretty much done, and I'm starting to work on Capricorn herself.

The top part of the background is still unpainted, as I'm not sure exactly how to render that specific area.

Hope you like it