30 Day Character Design Challenge - Day 14

14) Go to this random name generator and design a character for whatever name you get. Tip: you can click each name to learn its origin and meaning.

So, as you can see, I got Osmund Perkins. I can’t hear the name Perkins without instantly seeing someone slightly nervous, and involved with some kind of academia. Put together with the name “Osmund”, something swung that into a fantasy mage academic who doesn’t talk to people much.

(Yes, I know I did this and a few others a day late, but I figure it’s not so bad to forget a few days as long as I still do each of the prompts. I’ll still develop my skills, even if I don’t strictly manage it in 30 days, yknow)

30 Day Character Design Challenge - Day 13

13) Pick an order of angels and design a character based on/inspired by their description. The resulting character doesn’t necessarily have to be an angel. Bonus: pick Thrones, the giant wheels covered in eyes.

Yeah, day 13 was an interesting one. I looked through the list of angels, and decided to use the Cherubim, as I thought it had a particularly interesting description. I can probably blame my interpretation of the four faces a little bit on Koh the Face Stealer from ATLA, though afterwards I looked at it and thought to myself “this looks Lovecraftian as all hell. Well, better not do it halfway”. Hence the flying dinosaur wings.

30 Day Character Design Challenge - Day 12

12) Design a high fantasy character whose outfit is based on whatever you’re wearing right now.

Challenge day 12, and as you may be able to tell, I had a lot of fun with this one. My current outfit is my favourite set of pajamas, which feature pants with a teacup pattern. I definitely wanted to incorporate that as soon as I read the prompt. Hence the teacup hip thingies and the weird kinda camo on the pants. Mostly, I like the tunic, which is based on this hand me down shirt that’s like 5 sizes too big for me.

Please ignore how shitty the fire is. I tried to follow a tutorial, and it didn’t quite work out for me.

30 Day Character Design Challenge - Day 11

11) Pick your favorite mythological figure and create two designs for them: one that’s as historically accurate to their time period and culture as possible, and another that takes as many artistic liberties as you want (this could a modern AU, something in your typical style, etc.).

I probably should have done Persephone, going by mythological figures rather than species, but I decided against that and went in favour of the Grecian Sphinx.

The “historically accurate” one probably doesn’t look too accurate, but that’s due to my sudden “how the fuck does this creature dress itself” moment. That kind of ended up being the theme throughout. I decided to give them sort of Lion King style paws that kind of act like hands, but they still wouldn’t be terrifically dexterous. And that’s not even getting at the wings.

I kinda want to write a short story from the modern Sphinx girl’s perspective, about how she’s annoyed with things that require or are much easier for bipedal creatures that have hands, because everything’s designed for humans not creatures. I think it might be interesting to write, once I’m done with the challenge.

30 Day Character Design Challenge - Day 10

10) Create a color palette based on the colors in your bedroom, then design a character from this palette. Bonus: don’t use the colors of your walls or floor in your palette.

The problem with this day’s prompt, for me at least, was that I quickly realised something. My room doesn’t have very many colours. Things are red, things are white or things are wood. I assumed I wasn’t allowed to use my dragon collection, by virtue of that having more than enough colours included to cover most characters I’ve ever created. So, I used the wall for her sash, picture frames for her pants and boots, and took her brown hair from the fact that most of the women in the posters in my room are brunettes.

30 Day Character Design Challenge - Day 9

9) Design a character inspired by this poem.

Day 9, and this might require a bit of explanation. For some reason, when I read that poem, the image I got was some office guy looking back on his life, old ambitions to take on the world, and how he’d let himself get into a rut in a dead end job. So I figured he’d be as good a character candidate as anything. I liked doing his hair the best.

30 Day Character Design Challenge - Day 8

8) Draw a non-human character— the less human-looking, the better (so avoid things like elves, vampires, etc.). Bonus: Make up their species instead of using existing mythological creatures.

Day 8. I decided to try drawing this one straight on paper with a pen. Partially because I haven’t for a while, partially because I’m sitting downstairs right now and it’s late. I forgot to do it earlier, so I’ve just quickly put down a quick… Wolf griffin? I dunno, but she looks cool and her name is Dyrene. I actually like the idea that she’s a queen of a ruler of her culture.

30 Day Character Design Challenge - Day 7

7) Design seven pairs of shoes. Bonus: for some of the pairs, make the left and right shoes different, but still recognizable as a pair.

Shoes for day 7 of the challenge, and I’m pretty happy with the result. I don’t practice as much as I probably should, so it was interesting to just draw a bunch of different shoes. Really, I understand how feet themselves work, and how the fit into heels and such, it’s just ankles that look weird when I draw them.

I think my personal favourites are 7 and 5, just because I feel like I got across a lot of what kind of person wears these kinds of shoes.

30 Day Character Design Challenge - Day 6

6) Go to this random aesthetic generator and draw a character inspired by the result. Bonus: make the design 100% serious, even if you get “dad wave” or “soap flapper.”

Day 6, and I got “Bird Skeleton” from the aesthetic generator. Now, this excited me, as this is actually kind of a redesign of a character I’ve been kicking around in my head already. She originally came about from the idea of the most cheery and unthreatening grim reaper to walk the Earth.

Her basic concept is that she turned up unexpectedly in the afterlife, and, since none of the Powers-That-Be could decide what to do with this situation, she essentially got assigned as the Grim Reaper’s assistant. Hence her outfit featuring bones, or more specifically, bird skeletons.

30 Day Character Design Challenge - Day 5

5) Design ten unique hairstyles. Bonus: do a turnaround of each one.

Day 5, and I know jack shit about hairstyles, or how to draw microbraids in my art style. As you can see on style 3, braids I draw are huge and bulgy, and that doesn’t translate well to microbraids.

Frankly, I only like 3 of these, and they are 1, 5, and 7. They are also the only ones I felt even a slight urge to colour, but it’d have looked weird that only 3 designs were coloured, I’m sorry. So instead of just leaving it black and white, I just reduced the opacity on the planning layer so it could fill the space.

30 Day Character Design Challenge - Day 4

4) Grab your oldest sketchbook that you can find and pick an old character to re-design. Bonus: pick the character by opening to a random page instead of hand-choosing.

Day 4! This has a mildly interesting story. You see, me and my family fairly recently did Spring cleaning. We put all the filled sketchbooks in the attic, which I can’t get into, since I’m scared of heights, and yes, I’m that pathetic in regards to it.

However, wonder of wonders, I had my Deviantart. My deviantart that I’ve had since I was I think thirteen or fourteen. I went on the oldest page there and grabbed an old drawing of one of the many Kingdom Hearts OCs I’ve amassed over the years. I considered redesigning Amy Terasu and make her notculturally appropriative as all hell, Jesus thirteen-year-old-me. However, I decided against it since, frankly, I want it unmolested to remind myself occasionally that I was a goddamn idiot at that age.

Now, on to the actual design I did. For all I harp on gritty reboots, I sure jumped at the chance to do the same to my own Kingdom Hearts OC. In the original, she was just supposed to be a history buff who kind of gave herself a challenge to make a keyblade of her own. In the redesign, she’s a full on archeologist, in a more Lara Croft 2014 situation, an expedition gone south in a big way. Except, instead of a weird devil island, here we’ve got Heartless.

Please don’t ask about what’s on her bandolier or in her hand, I can never remember jack shit about items from games. Also, that keyblade was so hard to try and update, and I’ve not drawn keyblades in a while, that’s my excuse.

30 Day Character Design Challenge - Day 3

3) Draw five mouths, each of which reveal a unique character. Bonus: all are making the same expression.

Day 3 of this challenge! I really enjoyed this one, I liked trying to get across character with just a view of their mouths. I’m tempted to grab these mouths and run off into the sunset with them for some new OCs.

30 Day Character Design Challenge - Day 2

2) Design a character in a genre you don’t normally draw (example: if you normally high fantasy characters, you could do sci-fi, steampunk, etc.)

Day 2 of this challenge! Since I usually draw high fantasy, and girls, I figured I’d go for Sci Fi, and draw a dude. And this time, not give him a background that includes a building.

I figure the gauntlets and belt don’t match because he actually scavenged them/stole them because they have much better technology than the rest of his gear. Don’t ask me how, tho.

But yeah, now you can see why I usually draw High Fantasy XD

(Apologies, I forgot to post this yesterday)