Alright, I know i went a while without posting here, so i plan to dump a fair amount, though i have also been working on some other projects so my progress has not been grand either, but thus far i have 3 pretty finalized concepts for the character i have been working on individually and together. I decided to spread them out into new poses and angles to make them more interesting and reflect the designs better for each one. Plus, i am more efficient when working from new line art, rather than painting over silhouettes. Its probably largely just from the way i usually work, preferring the sketching and lineart approach to blocking out color or form first. anyway, would love some feedback on these:
All 3 are not in color as i really wanted to be certain of the final designs and hopefully get a few bits of feedback regarding these before going into color to really balance out the designs. I only plan to really flesh out and shade 1 of these, but i also plan to do a full build for the arm and weapons, as well as their accompanying holding materials, etc when a design is decided. I was really trying to stay focused on the silhouettes still, hence the darker grays on the left two, though i decided to block out material separation on the last one, more than darken it too much to focus on linework. If this is too distracting to get a good read on the designs for feedback, please let me know and i can adjust this to a more readable palette for the other two.
This one is kind a similar to the middle design, but was supposed to be less focused on the armor aspect to bring focus to the mechanical arm and hopefully the weapons when they are added to the design. Its also supposed to be the most functional of the designs as the coat is more functional than the others, the main outfit hides his scars and keeps his body shrouded and protected, plus there are still bits of armor for protection as well. There is still a bit of personality in it too between the pose and the showy designs for the belt, jacket and boots.
Hopefully this still comes across despite the lack of color and separation on some of the materials here. I feel like the weakest parts of the design are the large parts of the clothes that have no interesting design or pattern or anything, but i really don't like overly busy designs and felt like this would be less boring once some texture and lighting was applied to these areas. I could be wrong though so i welcome anyone addressing this as something that needs to be adjusted or not.
This was the first one i started working with after the original silhouette designs on the last post and i feel like this one may be the weakest design of the 3 now, if for no other reason than the fact that its much simpler than the other two. However, this isn't always a bad thing and as previously stated i actually dislike anything that feels too busy, so this one still has its advantages to me.
This one focuses a bit more on separating each element of the design and having a bit more space between them as their own piece of his character. The idea was that keeping his outfit simple would allow me to make the weapons and tools on the character stand out a bit more once i get to them, as i plan to design them to complement the character, regardless of whichever design i end up focusing on. I feel like this one is much more sleek and i really like that this one can actually show off the scars on the side with the prosthetic as its an element of the design that is meant to communicate a bit of his background in the suggestion that something caused him to lose the arm, rather than it simply being a physical enhancement of some kind which is common in cyberpunk type stories. If i end up going with this one i could always steal another element of the others like the mask or the coat patterns.
Lastly, the newest one is alot easier to take in the visual elements and i really like that there are two items that i could potentially do a full breakdown design for if i end up liking them, as it would give me more reference sheets for the character and makes him feel a bit more complex and interesting. This one does, however, start to feel a bit less realistic in its designs somehow, between the extra short jacket and the little solar relay on his shoulder pad. The latter could probably be fleshed out a bit more to help with that, but it's also a strength of the design to a degree because it makes it more unique rather than predictable. Feels like the design was made to convey something new and the others are a bit more safe.
Anyway, I would love to hear anything in the way of suggestions, criticism etc. I am not the most vocal here and i know that makes for a bit of a weakness on my part on visibility and feedback, but anything is helpful thank you!