Tuesday 23 October 2007

More character sketches...


One of the more problematic elements of War in Gaul for me is - you'll laugh - the fact that a host of characters will have to have facial hair. Commios is the most important of them. I am not used to drawing beards or moustaches, and I had to study reference photos; otherwise it looked as if the beard had been glued on :-).

You may have noticed that in the image I posted to go with his character description, Commios has a scar over his left eye, the result of an assassination attempt. I rather like how it looks, but I have to find another place for it nevertheless. It has been pointed out to me that Miller's Leonidas in 300 has a scar like that, and I also noticed that it makes Comm bear a striking likeness to King Arthur in Chauvel and Lereculey’s Arthur. I think I will make it come out of his hair, or something. It is less decorative, but I don't want him to look as if I copied him from someone else.



This is a page of particularly bad Rigantonas. The picture that went with her character description is much, much better, but it was done after these and I already had a better grip of the character. The difficulty with her is that she is supposed to be very attractive, which means I need to train on how to draw beautiful women. I don't feel as if I have been doing a particularly good job so far.




Finally, Volca. Since she is the newest addition to the cast, she is probably the one to change most often. Her character is developing nicely; I have a few recent sketches that I will post as soon as I get them scanned. Volca is the most ordinary of my characters, visually and story-wise, but I have grown rather fond of her.

6 comments:

the comics expert said...

I dunno if a scar coming out of your scalp is less decorative... Have you tried it? You could go for something a little bigger, but largely hidden, as a reflection to the depths of ol' Comm's character. Njork.

I dunno if Volca is that ordinary in design. She looks plenty pretty.

ampersand said...

Heh. Maybe it's all just in my mind...? I don't really try to make Volca pretty, whereas I feel nervous about Riga - it might just be that nervousness cramps my style, and that Volca looks nice because I'm relaxed when I draw her... :D

Thank you for the scar advice! You are right, it could be used to great effect even when it's mostly hidden in his scalp. I'll have to do some sketching and see where it takes me :-).

BTW, "njork" = <3 XD

the comics expert said...

Heh.
I was having visions of a character from Warren Ellis' newuniversal series when I mentioned the scar thing, but no need to go quite THAT far ^_^
http://www.comics.org/coverview.lasso?id=358689&zoom=4

Btw, a variation of njork used by Terry Moore in SiP, is "bjork"

ampersand said...

LOL! No, indeed, that's a bit much for me ^_°...

Goody, it does look painful. Would Comm even have survived if his skull had been split like that? I mean, it doesn't look as if it's just the skin that had to be sewn together... *shivers*

"bjork" reminds me too much of Icelandic singers. "njork" is - I dunno - more fun? :-)

the comics expert said...

You said it!
Sorry i've been so quiet.
Lots to do, tell you more soon!
--nout

ampersand said...

Meh. I've been pretty quiet myself, haven't I. Good news: I'm really, really finishing the Big Enterprise now :-).

Hope to get back in touch soon!

*hugs*