oh haha i actually was talking about the siluhettes cus they look sooo good
if we are talking just the arms, i like the 3rd one the most
29 days later
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!
My fav is 1 (reminds me of Ed from FMAB). (and from ur post above this one, if u went with the 3rd arm it'd look even more like Ed lol)
The second one reminds me of Assassins creed even tho ive never played the game but i have seen the pics. It looks really cool tho.. I can't rly pick between 1 and 2 cus they're both so cool XD.. but ultimately i think the 2nd one might be my fav fav
IMO this actually looks really good because of the belts. if you think it is lacking in design, what i personally like to do is add.. idk what u call this lol, a line at some of the edges or try moving said line around to see if it would go anywhere good and color it like so:
Also he looks rly handsome in that 2nd outfit and i rly like the belts on his pants.
The 3rd one reminds me of han solo, tho while the design is nice in terms of art, its not rly my taste.
btw GREAT job on the prosthetic arm!! that detail is amazing!!
Great designs! I like them a lot
I don't think less detailed parts are a bad thing. You have a lot of details on arms and boots. and arms catch more attention. I also don't like overly detailed designs because I add a lot texture and light later.
My favourite is first design I like this jacket and his prosthetic arms are more visible than ones on 2nd design. I think his pose and expression added a lot.
2nd design is nice. It could use a bit of variation in color it blends too much but with texture it would probably be different. It would be nice to see all these belts on his legs at least on one
I like 3rd design too but I miss that jacket. Mask is interesting
Great desings can't wait to see what you will do with them!
Great feedback as usual, thank you!
I have always heard the lines on the clothing referred to as the "hem", but i believe that directly refers to the edge of the clothing physically. Not sure if it has another name beyond that.
Glad to hear that the designs don't feel under done though considering the larger empty spaces. I will definitely consider adding those patterns as i figure out the color flats on the next step of these. Also sounds like one and two are more of a hit than the third, as i have had several people irl say the same thing about the design. Will probably ask around on the discord channel for feedback too, when i get the chance. Just to get a bit more visibility on it and see if anyone else has any stand out comments.
Also really glad to hear the character comparisons as that is also the feel i get on these to be honest 
I knew at least one of these would have the Edward Elric vibe to it, even before starting, just because i have always referenced him heavily when designing a character with a prosthetic and used to more or less always design them as automail. Was trying to move away from this just a little bit, but I feel like its going to still inevitably be there considering the design has may similar elements no matter what, unless i was to just reject it entirely in favor of the third design.
Also sounds like the belt designs and detailing on the arm and boots work well for how i wanted them to be the focus of the character, so its great to see that they are well received. May add a few more belts on the first deign when i start adding the weapons to him, to help reinforce that. The idea for the one that is there already in that design was supposed to be that it was for a holster that sortta doubles as armor, but i intentionally left the angle off the area, because i wanted to design it with a bit more focus separately to make sure it felt functional on its own.
Awesome feedback on those, thank you! Good to hear that the first one helps focus on the arm, and yeah i figured i could get away with waiting to display some of those belts/bits of armor, as i wanted to put a bit more finalized thought into their designs at all angles if i selected any particular version of this. Perhaps i should go back and add those ahead of making a finalized version on these so that it can at least show what is meant to be there.
Sounding like keeping the simplicity in some areas in favor of texture/lighting is the way to go with these, which i am happy to hear. I feel like it will make the final product more of a functional and believable design. Also, i will add a version of the 3 sharing the same color pallet for the variation of grays. Might even bite the bullet and make a color flat for all of them just to see how it looks.
To give a bit more visibility to the designs previously, so that the linework can be read a bit easier and it doesn't take away from the designs I ended up using the same palette and concept for material separation on all three designs. Next will probably be a slight elaboration on some of the outfit underneath the jackets just to give better context to all 3. I don't plan to have too much focus on the under outfit for this character and the illustrations i will use him for, but it will be good to have as a guide to whatever design i end up going with.
I absolutely welcome more feedback or suggestions on what else i may need to elabprate on for these
Aw thank you!
Haha, i think it also might help if you gave him a non gold hair color XD like maybe light blue hair or light purple hair or maybe red hair.. try out some different non gold colors cus automail, i mean prothstetics + gold hair + that style of clothes = hey it looks like Ed!
oooh fancy
Haha, yeah, I will definitely have to avoid blonde hair or red in the coat with this one. I'm thing something dark for the hair color, but i do also like the suggestion of purple. Will have to mess around with some color harmonies for him when i get to that step.
16 days later
alright, with the feedback from last time i decided to cut out the third design and focus more on the other two so i could get more done without worrying about making more unnecessary changes to a version that doesn't work as well.
started with adding the details under the coats to get a better idea of the character's features over all.
also the notes can be ignored as they are mainly for me when i start getting to the final versions of these and doing any gear breakdowns for the different pieces.
also threw together some basic color passes though i really don't know how to feel about them quite yet. I tend to get very indecisive with colors, especially without clear pallets already decided for an environment i might put them in etc, but i tried to keep the designs balanced enough to feel like he wouldn't stick out like a sore thumb in this type of genre, but also feel just a bit excessively colored for an assassin. 
next will probably be committing to the pieces of the design that work and changing around the arms to go more in line with my earlier concepts for them. I should be able to adjust layers pretty easily for the different parts of him with the way i have the file set up.
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