Team Chow II: Super High Five Squad Sketchbook

[tron-one]

Roll Call!

joyproject!
Primordial Seven!
tron-one!

We are The Super High Five Squad and we're here to show you bitches how it's done!

All our updates and discussion will take place here if we can't do it over IM. We'll each be taking two characters and carrying them from conception to completion while helping each other out where we can. Post who you're taking on. Here are the contest rules.

TEAM CHOW SIX CHARACTERS

DESCRIPTION

For this Team Chow you will be required to design six characters that make up the 'protaganist' side of the game/tv show/ect that we are pretending to create. There will be no villians/antagonists this round.

* Can be changed according to genre. ie, mechanical = magical = steampowered, car = boat = horse, etc.
** You may do two version of this, if you wish.

Characters:

The Hero
- Female, between 20 - 30. Has no memory of anything beyond a year before present.
- Stubborn to a fault, but unswervingly loyal to those she cares about, convinced that she could lose her memory of them at any time she makes the most of every moment.
- Has a tendency to say things before she thinks about them.
- Rumoured to have a second personality that can remember everything from before, a 'dark' side, as it were, with totally different personality traits. **
- A quick learner, but unlikely to pay attention unless something immediately catches her interest.
- Searching for her past but ultimately easily caught up in the present and the worries of others, tending to think of other people before herself.
- Found (to her horror) that she is more than capable of handling herself in a fight, and likely capable of killing.

The Shadow
- Male, between 20 - 30 (should be around Hero's age).
- The only person that the hero has any memory of, beyond the last year (though she can only remember his face), and the only person who might know who she is. He pretends he doesn't know, or refuses to say.
- Seemingly self-absorbed but actually self-destructive, has a tendency to take out his insecurities as malicious remarks on other people.
- Isn't well liked, but doesn't care, or pretends he doesn't.
- Doesn't seem to have any friends except the hero, who he would do anything for, though of course he would never say that. However, though he seems to actively despise the rest of her friends, he cares for them more than he admits.
- Whether he is helping the hero find her memory, or actively hindering her, is unclear. She believes he is helping her. He doesn't necessarily believe that it would help her to find it.
- Often disappears for long periods.

The Protector
- Male or Female, between 25 - 50, well-built
- Found the Hero directly after she had lost her memory, and managed to piece her back together.
- Strong and loyal, but prone to worry. Decided to take hero under wing, and began to notice the very strange energies* and events that surrounded her.
- Completely distrusts the Shadow and the Sage and believes they are actively working against the Hero's interests, but defer's to the Hero's opinion and trust of them.
- Strengths lie in activities done with the hands - higher concepts either are not a concern, or are too hard to think about in depth.
- Honest and blunt, so sometimes seems unkind, but never means it.
- Sometimes wonders if accidently stepped in way too deep into something never meant to be approached.

The Sage
- Male or Female, any age
- Does not come from the same country* as hero. Came from far away to find something, and claims that the hero will lead her to it, though will not say what it is - even whether it is a physical object* or a higher plane*.
- Often seems to be looking through the person that he/she is speaking to, and just as frequently stares off into space.
- Seems to disappear whenever trouble starts, but has saved the hero and her companion multiple times to threats that they were completely obvlivious/unaware of.
- Eats very little and sleeps less, and makes very little noise when he/she walks.

The Technician*
- Female, 18 - 28
- Completely in tune with anything mechanical*. Takes things apart / dissects things with disturbing regularity, and while can usually put them back together again sometimes forgets to do so, to the dismay of her friends whose objects* she 'borrows'.
- Fascinated by all methods of transport*, and has an amazingly large memory for all vehicles* and machines* but not for people or places (they are just not important!)
- Initially hired for one-off job by the Hero and the Protector, but took an instant liking to them and convinced them of her usefullness.
- Not very good in rough situations like fights, prefers cold logic of puzzles, as her size tends to work against her. However, pressed into a corner, she can make her technical* knowledge work to her advantage in place of physical prowess.
- wears her heart on her sleeve and is often very cheerful, but takes some blows very hard (a friend getting hurt, etc). Sometimes flighty.


The Rabble Rouser
- Male, 20 - 30 (should be around Hero's age)
- Met Hero + crew rather accidently and they helped out of a bit of trouble (which he had gotten himself into and was almost entirely his fault).
- Developed instant infatuation with Hero + told her that he would help her find her memory. Infatuation may or may not be sincere. Hero does not return it.
- Tends to bring trouble with him, or create it when he gets there, as he grates people's nerves.
- Charming and seemingly hollow, but in select instances with the Shadow has shown that he's invested more in the quest than one would think - though perhaps not for the apparent reasons.
- Has good luck with gambling to match his bad luck with people, and never is wont for money - it tends to find him as easily as he finds it.
- Has an excellent memory for faces as well as for numbers.
- Well groomed, but not as flamboyant as one might expect - unless it is on purpose as part of a bluff.


--------

SUBMISSION GUIDLINES

The Final Burning Thread will go up ONE WEEK before deadline. The deadline will be April 30th, at 11:59 pm GMT - 5, Eastern Standard Time. I will accept submissions as long as it is April 30th somewhere in the world, but after this I will close the thread. I am going to give myself 1-2 days to then sort out the poll and the voting, so please be patient.

1. One team member will be in charge of submitting the final entry. How the entry is presented will be up to you, but keep it consistent and coherent.
2. Remember that you will need to submit wips. If you decide to make a group sketchbook for this activity, a link to that will suffice.
3. Also sumbit a list of Team Activity. I want to see how well you worked as a team - who was in charge of what and what each member did.
4. All other ChoW rules apply. If you are not familiar with the usual chow rules, please read the guidlines thread sticked at the top of the subforum. Including, 3/4ths rule, no paint-overs, etc.
5. Please submit files with this naming convention: TeamChow_TeamName_Image001.jpg

[joyproject]

started doodling a "hero" character

[tron-one]

Do you have any references you're using? It'd be great so we can see what you have in mind for her. Then I can decide whether to scrap mine or not.

[tron-one]

Ok. If I'm not mistaken, Primordial may have started the tech already. I just remembered that after spending a little under 2 hours working on this. I really need to hear from you guys on which characters you're doing. There needs to be a record of it so this kind of thing can be avoided. Prime, do you want to keep working on the tech or can I run with this idea?

[joyproject]

Do you have any references you're using? It'd be great so we can see what you have in mind for her. Then I can decide whether to scrap mine or not.


I don't actually have a reference on that one, if you'd like i can start over with one.

[joyproject]

My reference (http://tw1stedtruth-stock.deviantart.com/art/Spartan-Sitting-4-50713208) - A very quick sketch I did today while hanging out with family.

[Primordial Seven]

Love this stuff, guys. I've actually just been working on the Protector, not the tech. so if you want to go with the tech, tron, go for it. I'd personally like to take the protector and maybe the Rabble Rouser but I'm happy to pick up any of the others instead so if you had your heart sat on RR, let me know.

[Edit: Joy, I guess you're doing the hero but if you could pick another as soon as possible, that'd be great. It's simply due to the fact that you're not able to get on as much as tron and I so this way you can go full steam ahead on your characters and we'll take up the others.]

If you're in need in reference, I've thrown together some of the images I've collected:
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h211/GodsProphet/Hewlettstyle_refsheet1.jpg
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h211/GodsProphet/steampunkgreek_refsheet2.jpg

[tron-one]

Here's my ref sheet. Feel free to copy it. I think I'm leaning toward a tech-heavy/accessory abundant design. I like your sketch joy. Is there anything you'll be adding to it?

[Primordial Seven]

Finally got some sketches done for the Protector and the Rabble Rouser. First is a ref sheet I put together the other day. The first collection of drawings was done back before we really sorted out what we were doing so they're in the Hewlett style. The second lot is getting more into designing the characters and there are a few notes I should make:

-The one arm design probably won't be the final and I'll be working on different ideas next.
-The chair was an idea I had for the protector as I'd already removed one of her arms, why not remove the legs? ;] However, I can't quite figure out how this contraption would work and therefore look so there's a strong possibility I'll drop it.
-Three ideas I had for the rabble rouser were sun shade-like goggles, a cane which was also a gun (obviously done in a steampunk fashion) and I thought maybe give him some wings which would collapse up for portability.
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h211/GodsProphet/victorian_P7chars_refsheetsmall.jpg

[joyproject]

Bad news guys ;[

I live in florida. We had a bad thunderstorm Mon and Tues that knocked out the power for our neighborhood. The power company has not told us what date the power will be back on, but they are working on it and we have a number to call.

For some reason my wacom and my mac arn't working together, so at the moment I have no way of getting my drawing online. I am going to draw them on paper, in the hopes that I can scan them and work on them in the next few days.

I am SO sorry about this. Thought I should update you guys as soon as possible. I'll post another update when something happens.

[tron-one]

Quick update on the Tech before I finish her up:
Let me know what ya think

[Primordial Seven]

Finally got some sort of final thing done. This is one of the rabble rouser images I wanted to get done, I want to also have a drawing of him using his special walking cane/steampunk flavoured bolt-action rifle. Looking at it now I might end up swapping out the head if I can draw something better (The haircut was meant to be punky but ended up dangerously emo).

[tron-one]

Good job! The only thing I can think of to fix is his collar. Other than that, it's great. Keep it up!

[tron-one]

Here's my final for the tech

[Primordial Seven]

Tron: Looks great. I particularly love the mechanical spider idea and design.
-----------
So, I guess I may aswell be the one to say here that the super high five squad will not able to complete the project for this month's deadline but we are looking to get in on any future team chows. Also, thanks to tron and joy who were super nice and I had a great time talking with you both even though communication was a problem even at the best of times. ;[

Anyway, I did just manage to get renders done for the Rabble Rouser and the Protector (left and right images respectively). I may try to also draw the final design for the RR's cane rifle later.

[tron-one]

I like what you did with the protector Proph, in particular the steam coming out of the arm. If you've got the time, maybe you can experiment with some more arm designs.

With them both side to side, I'm noticing that your proportioning is a little off. It seems like the legs are shorter than they should be. Other than that, good work.

[tron-one]

Team Super High Five Squad is back!

We are: Tron-one, Primordial Seven and Stephen Mason
edit: m0uS3r is the newest edition to our squad. Now let's kick some ass!

It seems we have something of a rivalry with Team Ken-Do-Pu-En-Ds. Dwardo insists that his team will destroy ours. Let's show him how wrong he is.



1. Teams of two MUST create at least 4 portraits, teams of three or four need 6 and teams of five need 8. You are perfectly welcome to create more images that the requirement if you feel your team is up to it.
2. You must take a random selection of the choices below. Please don't do 4 elven fighters, or only orcs, for example. Please take a randomized selection. If you would prefer me to give your team a specific assignment, I will generate the selection for you. If I see teams doing more select parties, then I will request you to change to something more random.
3. You must follow the format provided. See it below, please!
4. You must do a LIGHT and a DARK version for each character, please! This means that for each character you need two portraits.
5. You must submit a paragraph about each character. Do a short write up for each character you create. I want to see some interesting, stereotype-breaking stuff here, folks!

PLEASE SELECT ONE OF EACH CATEGORY FOR EACH CHARACTER.

Gender: Male / Female

Race: Human / Elf / Half-Elf / Dwarf / Orc - (and anything else you can think of!)

Class: Fighter (Barbarians, Knights, Dark Knights, Brawlers, etc) / Thief (Assasins, Rogues, etc)/ Spell Caster (Wizards, Sorcerers, Druids, etc) / Healer (Priest, Cleric, White Mage, Medic, etc) - (feel free to make up something for this, too)

Alignment: Good / Evil (please do both for each character)

YES, THESE LOOK LIKE STEREOTYPES. IT IS YOUR JOB TO BREAK THEM. I want to see some really interesting, kick ass stuff!

Okay, NOW GO!


Now that that's settled, here's the thumbnail I have now. Any help weeding through is much appreciated. I'll be throwing up some reference pics later today.

[tron-one]

Heads up Stephen! Here's a convo Prime and I just had.

H1Z1 says:
alright it's up
it's mostly trying to figure out which general shapes work for characters
i need to know what's interesting, has potential to be really interesting, what works, what doesn't, etc
and we need to start pulling together our regions and influences
Matt/godsprophet/PrimordialSeven says:
yeah
I've been working on two characters which are pretty consistant with eachother and I've a few ideas related to that so I'll put it all up in the sketchbook and then we can see it and talk about it
H1Z1 says:
are we going with the regular european high fantasy angle?
>>
Matt/godsprophet/PrimordialSeven says:
well, I think daestwen wants it to be high fantasy races, classes and stuff like weapons. However, what I had in mind as I said before is something much more like a del toro twist on things where we take the traditional idea of an orc but then do something that completely ISN'T that and is as weird and original as we can go whilst still keeping it recognisably an orc.
stephen said he had a drawing so I'm not sure if he or you have any other ideas in terms of style but It'd be good to talk that over at some point
H1Z1 says:
i'm fine with that
you can tell i'm pretty much headed in that direction anyway
have you spoken to stephen recently?
i've been building a backstory for the third in my head for a while now
Matt/godsprophet/PrimordialSeven says:
not recently, no I've got his skype and msn details though, do you have those?
H1Z1 says:
no, i got a pm from him about 10 minutes ago though
Matt/godsprophet/PrimordialSeven says:
Also, yes I like where you're going with the cathedral head-like character
especially the two guards holding eyes
H1Z1 says:
he says he's started on a male medic character. i think we need to throw some reference pics in the sketchbook asap so we can get a hold of the flow before things get out of hand
Matt/godsprophet/PrimordialSeven says:
big hands are good too
yeah
I'll put together what I have for now but we can always go out and get more
H1Z1 says:
i'm gonna send him a link to the sketchbook and add what i find to the thread later today
i'll copy you on the message too so we can have a dialogue going there even if thread posts aren't made often
Matt/godsprophet/PrimordialSeven says:
ok
we can always copy e-mail discussions to the SB
H1Z1 says:
exactly
alright, that's done
stephen's doing a medic
i originally wanted one of mine to be a medic but they work for the mage as well
did you have a type you were set on doing?
Matt/godsprophet/PrimordialSeven says:
the main one i've been working on was a dwarf bard
also I thought maybe doing an alchemist might be interesting though I've not done anything towards that one
I've also started on a female elf though she has no class defined yet
H1Z1 says:
alright. i'll keep mine to a half-elf mage
or sorcerer, maybe a druid
it's hard nailing down which class i want because i initially wanted her linked to nature and having some kind of magical ability
that's perfect for the druid i suppose
the general idea is she drank from another race's pool of knowledge and it's warped her body
so she's really in tune with nature but still pretty much a monster
Matt/godsprophet/PrimordialSeven says:
sounds cool
one thing I've been thinking about too which is basically what you've just said is to design the characters based on their natural environments so for example, a dwarf is very much influenced by underground, earth. rock etc
and maybe elves are more woodland
H1Z1 says:
exactly. we're on the same page
Matt/godsprophet/PrimordialSeven says:
cool

[Stephen Mason]

hey guys, just a post to let you know im here. gonna get a few refs together and a few thumbs ive been working on. will repost in a hour or so. btw im always on skype, on msn most of the time, will accept any adds. speak soon x

[Stephen Mason]

http://stephenmason.net/images/chow/1.jpg
http://stephenmason.net/images/chow/2.jpg
http://stephenmason.net/images/chow/3.jpg
http://stephenmason.net/images/chow/4.jpg
http://stephenmason.net/images/chow/5.jpg
http://stephenmason.net/images/chow/critter.jpg

sorry about dodgy lighting just wanted to get them up for you to see. working traditionally these are what i throw down when im out and about. the oversized backpack for the medic is what im playing with most. just experimenting to see what works. havent thought of a final style so to speak, dont want to box myself in to early on.

the last image is of a little critter, he helps the butcher by collecting bodyparts from the battlefield. want him to be evil n stupid, sort of vacant looking.

the butcher, instead of having a back pack like the good medic has body parts graphted straight to his circulatory system to keep them fresh. will update tommorow with some decent scans rather than photos, refs and other images tomorrow. chow chow. x

[Primordial Seven]

Stephen, I really like where you're going with these characters. The over-sized backpack and the body part grafting play really well into the style I think we're going for. The only slight concern I have at this point is the apparent class change between good and evil versions. If your idea really was to change class, I think we'll have to talk to Daestwen about it. However, I think if you said the evil version was also a medic but took body parts/whatnot from others and used them to heal his allies we should be safe- Again though, I don't know quite what you had in mind for that.
-------

Alright, a little late to the party but I've got plenty of stuff to post here. First up, I've got a few reference/inspiration sheets. So everyone knows, it seems like we're going for a very Del Toro/ Tim Burton look to these characters but that's still under discussion and we've got more to talk about later.

Typical fantasy artwork:
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h211/GodsProphet/Fantasyinfluencesheet.jpg
Notes: Even in these images, there's plenty of variety in terms of design. Though armour does seem to be quite a big deal in a lot of cases, we can easily get a fantasy look with clothing and accessory choice too. Robes in particular seem to be pretty prevalent, though they're all different and at least have some interesting element to them.

Tim Burton ref. sheet (with some artwork from Matt Gaser):
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h211/GodsProphet/TimBurtoninfsheet.jpg
Notes: Burton's artistic style seems to be to have pale faces and long, spindly elements. 'The nightmare before Christmas' has geometry in the background which is a jagged swirl; I really like this element which is why I make note of it. The other thing about Burton's style is that it's quite similar to Del Toro's in that it's very surreal, bizarre, certainly based on horror though only light horror and there's almost a touch of lunacy there- particularly thinking about the new Alice in Wonderland film and the shot in the ref. sheet where Edward Scissorhands has made a topiary hand and deer.

Del Toro ref. sheet:
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h211/GodsProphet/DelToroinfluencesheet.jpg
Notes: The Del Toro is pretty self explainatory I think. As I mentioned with Burton, the characters (we're really thinking about Hellboy and Pans Labyrinth I think) are very different to the norm and have a very ancient, dark (even the good characters) and mysterious quality to them. Guillermo has said (I'm paraphrasing) he creates designs which suit the character rather than just designing something that looks cool but doesn't necessarily fit the character's background, personality etc. In a video I've been watching of the making of Hellboy II, Doug Jones says he thinks what makes a Del Toro character is a blend of architecture and organics. Also note that carvings and patterns play heavily into these characters.

Elf Ref. sheet:
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h211/GodsProphet/ElfRefsheet.jpg
Notes: We all know what an elf is but one note I'll make, which was mentioned in the conversation Tron posted above, is I think it'd be nice to really incorporate woodland/forest features into the character design. This character too could be a nice opportunity to use interesting patterns (though this is pretty normal for Elven characters to have).
-
That's all the ref I have for now though I may add more here later. If you guys (Tron and Stephen) have any additional notes for the above, let me know and I can add them to this post or you could just add your own post.

[Primordial Seven]

What I've been working on

Obviously we haven't yet sorted out who's doing what race and class so I've just been working on whatever I felt like. The first character I worked on was a Dwarven bard. I've not yet written up a character description but I'll try to give you a good idea of what I had in mind at least.

Below, the first image is a sheet of various initial designs. I've numbered them so I can give a few notes about them but so that you can too if you wish:
1. Fairly typical dwarf heads. At this point I was just trying to identify the key features of dwarves so I could keep the character a dwarf no matter how different I went.
2. A lot of dwarves are depicted as being very fat so I went one better here and made a floating spherical dwarf. I think the problem with this design was it wasn't actually that original and was pretty cartoony.
3. Still playing with the floating dwarf idea, not a very strong design.
4. I began to play with the idea of actually making the character out of earth, grass etc. This guy's a lot more monster-like and comes complete with a nesting bird on its head.
5. See 4.
6. Fairly similar to 5 though somewhat different.
7. Another direction change. This guy has freakishly long nostril hairs fashioned as that typical pony-tail sort of thing. I also have him white, beady eyes which I really liked, as it seemed the sort of thing an underground dweller might have. Also gave him messy hair.
8. Basically the same as 7.
9. Height scale and playing with a slightly different body shape.

The second image is the beginnings of further designs which I personally like the most which is why I've separated them. I'll also probably be up-dating that sheet once I have more sketches done. Please note that whilst this design is very wood based, I think I may try using earth and rock though probably keep the roots legs. Let me know what you guys think.

The dwarf character: I've just realised that what I had in mind is quite similar to the faun in 'Pans Labyrinth' but I imagine him being a very strange, old character who likes nothing more than to annoy people and insult them (he also speaks and sings in Dwarvish which allows him to get away with this). He moves in a very jagged and almost awkward way and bits of earth, rock and whatnot fall off as he walks. One reference I could make would be the old, mad Yoda in the original Star Wars films.

I also had an idea for dwarves getting underground which was that they almost melt into it and churn up the soil as they burrow. I may draw up a quite sketch to slightly better illustrate it.

The bard's instruments: I've narrowed down the list to three possible instruments I like though I'm open for other suggestions.
-Lute (http://www.music.iastate.edu/antiqua/lute.htm)
-The Kortholt (http://www.music.iastate.edu/antiqua/kortholt.htm)
-Hurdy-gurdy (http://www.music.iastate.edu/antiqua/hurdy.htm)
Personally I like the hurdy-gurdy the most.

That's it for the dwarf for now, I'll up-date with more stuff later.

I've also been working on an Elf (no class decided) though I've not got many sketches done for this one so I'll hold off until I have some more.

[m0uS3r]

ok hello guys

i am here so i am looking on doing lie a dwarf class/ good/evil but plz tell me whats whit the hero/the shadow and so on

so i ca get on business because i don't understand shit atm :))

[m0uS3r]

P.s. tron-one on your piece you need to take some references, that's a must if we wanna have a chance plz , the legs don't seem to be good at all, at least the one standing on that spider thingy.
another thing, opacity of your brushes man try to use a little more strong shit in them :))
because now it feels like world of warcraft ... like ... shit man i am going trough my char oo shit is there any solidness in it :))
know what i mean ?the drawing its to foggy at the moment but you need to push it more

ok so i think we all need to use refs i am using them and some stuff from an anatomy book

ok so this is it, don't be mad at me i just wanna be sure we have a chance to at least be better than some teams if not winning

[tron-one]

Nobody's gonna get mad. We need to help each other out. I think you're looking at the pics from the past team chow. Still, I appreciate the bit about contrast. I noticed that shortly after the first chow was completed. I'm putting a ref sheet together now and it'll be up before the night is out.

[Stephen Mason]

just to let you know im still alive working nights on the weekends so havent had a chance to get a ref sheet together. try not to over think you concepts, over thinking may make the character look confusing. i think a simpler concept executed well, will do better than a complex concept that doesn't get the point across. Think what are you trying to tell the audience about this character? and do it in the simplest way possible. lol, i think im chatting poo but its late must sleep ref sheet soon. x

[Primordial Seven]

Welcome to the team, m0uS3r.

I've been carrying on doing various sketches but I think we're getting to a point where we need to establish who's doing what character and make sure they're not too similar. It'd be good to hold an IM meeting but obviously trying to work out a time that suits everyone might be difficult. If this is so, we could always talk it over here on via e-mail- what do you guys think?

In regards to Stephen's and m0uS3r's comments, I'm definitely trying to keep this stuff mind and this time round I'm trying to create a strong silhouette first but I think it'll become a lot more relevant once we've decided on characters.

[m0uS3r]

agreed to last post so plz decide upon the classes who will take them and just give me one

[tron-one]

I'm going with a female elf. Going to make her a druid or sorceress. Haven't quite nailed down her profession yet but definitely one of those two. I'm still hashing out the little bits of her story.

Edit: I know I wasn't very clear with this post. I was in a bit of a rush. I'm here now to correct that. We're creating a high fantasy world that has been influenced by the works of Mike Mignola (Hellboy) and Guillermo Del Toro. The idea is to look at the creatures and worlds these men have created and participated in and try to capture the weird, almost disturbing bits of their character designs. Our goal is to turn fantasy on its head just a little.

My character is Irra-Jahad, half-human/half-elf that lived with her elven mother after her father's passing. Because she's of mixed blood, she grew ostracized. Despite that, she'd always wanted to be a Mediator; a special elven sorceress that has an intensely intimate bond with nature. She'd been denied the opportunity because of her lineage. After years of frustration, she snuck into the elders' den and made the mistake of drinking the Mediator's Elixir. She's been granted the abilities of a Mediator but because she's not full elf, it has begun to warp her body. She must now seek the aid of one of two entities to preserve her life. The one she chooses will determine her course in life. Penance must be paid for her crime.

(For anyone that didn't get it initially, her name is from the Hellboy books. Irra-Jahad is one of the dragons of revelations foretold to scorch the earth in the final days.)

[tron-one]

Here are my reference sheets. I'll have preliminary sketches up in a day or two.

[m0uS3r]

hehe lineage that's my fuking passion right there

[tron-one]

a buddy of mine is hooked on it, saw him playing it and went from there. got anything you can throw in now m0uS3r?

[Primordial Seven]

Note: Have up-dated the second dwarf design sheet with a couple more sketches.

Over the last couple of days I've been trying to come up with semi-final designs for several characters to keep my options open. M0uS3r, I know you said you've been working on a dwarf so if you don't really have anything else, I'm quite happy for you to take that. Saying that however, the strongest design for a character of mine was probably that of my dwarf so I'd like to take it if you've come up with something else. The only request I have at the moment is that I do a bard classed character (hope everyone's ok with that).

Anyway, the first sheet is some designs I did for an elf. The first Idea I had was to give the elves four masks which they never took off in the presence of anyone other than their own race; This would sustain the illusion that elves had four faces and thus were superior in combat. After some thought, however, I decided it wasn't elven enough so I kept the front mask only and gave the character leaf-like ears which were to be coloured in a gradient from red at the base to yellow at the tip.
(Note: Tron is now doing a half-elf character so I did not proceed with this character)

The second character I tried was a sprite. I kept going back and forth with designs, giving some wings and some none. At one point I thought of making it a clockwork sprite where the starter key would magically turn into wings once it was operating. The only idea I liked really from this character was the face which was inspired from the elven mask.

I recently asked Daestwen about fantasy race fiction and in a reply she said we didn't even have to use an established fantasy race/creature and I thus interpreted this to mean we could come up with our own, unique race just so long as it was fantasy-like and read as a character rather than a creature. However, I've asked her to confirm whether or not that is what she meant but no reply as of yet. Nevertheless, I felt the urge to come up with something unique just in case. -
-The character I've come up with is currently called Mr. Clock, though I wanted it to be gender-neutral and thus the name will probably change. The idea with this character was to base it largely on a grandfather clock though to also have elements of a mantle clock and a slight oriental feel to it. Most of what you see is infact a costume but I've really yet to work out what the thing inside looks like. As you can see in one of the sketches, I've given him/it a hurdy-gurdy as I really like the idea of the bard and infact in a weird way I think it suits him/it.

[tron-one]

Hey Prime, I just took a look at your sketches. I see some potential in a few of them. I'll expand on them a little in some quick run-offs today to show you how I see them developing. I think the clockwork guy is a good enough idea but it may be a bit complicated. We don't want to get too bogged down and have to rush at the end yknow. Don't abandon it yet. I want to see what I can do with it really quick.

Here are my sketches on my half-elf girly. I already have a basic idea for the evil version but right now I'm just working on the good. Her upper torso is really busy so i'm trying to figure out the balance. Hit me with crits.

[tron-one]

Busy busy. Here's a quick update of what I've done. Going to add the knots and whatnot to her back. Threw in some color to see what it'll look like. I might just skip the background and move on to the evil version. Ignore the hand and feet, gonna fix those soon.

Time is winding down. Prime, keep going with your idea. I still haven't had a chance to work out the sketches. I'll see what I can manage tomorrow but the outlook is bleak. Really need some feedback guys. We don't have that much time left.

[tron-one]

Not hearing anything from you guys. We need to get it together. I'm going to try again to catch up with everyone. Here's my final for the good elf. I'll have the evil one done long before the end of the month.

[Primordial Seven]

Sorry for not posting before now, Tron. I had hoped to have some stuff to share but that'll be coming in the next day or two.

The elf is looking really good. Firstly though, I think the dress needs a little more work; right now it looks like it's made of loose cloth but how does it stay attached to her body as it is? One idea might be to add some string around the chest area so it's almost like a corset. Also, the shading on the nearest wind-blown part is a little off- I can't quite work out what's going on with the shading. The only other small crit. is about the yellow glow effect around her- maybe try softening that up so it is more of a glow and less of a defined line.

As far as my character goes, I was struggling a bit with the design and trying to really define the character. However, I did have a bit of a break through today with the idea that rather than a grandfather clock, it'd be largely now a metronome shape which makes much more sense for a bard. As I said, I'll try dump several images tomorrow and possibly bits for an evil version.

I don't know how Stephen and mouser are getting along but as Tron and I discussed a few days ago, I think we just need to focus on doing as much as we can at this point even if it's some rough sketches and a character description.

<Up-date 25/08>
Finally got something done today. Mostly just rough sketches again but I'd rather work out the designs this way so I have more time for the final pieces.
I'm now calling the character Tempi (no gender) but this is subject to change still.

Good Tempi
-The first piece is a quick drawing of more or less the final design but there are a few embellishments I want to add to the final.
-The second piece is a scene which I've had stuck in my head for a while now and which gives some indication as to the height and atmosphere I've associated with the character. If you imagine that this character floats as it moves and the jovial yet ethereal songs appear to come not from where we may imagine the mouth to be but from the surrounding environment.

Evil Tempi
The final image shows one idea I liked for the face where part of the head is actually missing and you can see inside the cloak. The other part is a sketch where Tempi leads some helpless villagers pied piper style to the sea and obviously the idea is that they drown.

[Primordial Seven]

I spent today working on the final for the good version of Tempi. Any quick changes anyone thinks I could make to better it are very welcome.

Tomorrow will be dedicated to the evil version and then 29th-30th for writing the character description and and last minute touch-ups. Does anyone feel up to posting all the bits in the final burning or would you guys like me to do it? I'll PM/e-mail everyone this if noone has replied before the 30th.

[Primordial Seven]

Finally finished the description and finals today. Unfortunately, Tron won't quite be able to make the deadline but said he should be posting his finals here soon.

Quick note to Stephen and mouser: If you have anything you've done please post it.

Finally, here's the character description for the finals:
Good name: Tempi (translates as: That which echoes in the mind)
Evil name: Tempus (translates as: Those who fell and wander)
Race: Diskface
Class: Bard
Gender: N/A

There is a single, small passage in the 'Valdic book of Myths and Legends' that is dedicated to a curious character named Tempi (sometimes known as Tempus). The passage describes it (I say 'it' because the gender could never be ascertained) as being a tall creature dressed in a long, concealing robe and strange accessories. It is said Tempi was a bard and that when it spoke the voice appeared to emanate not from the body but from the surrounding area as though it was carried on the wind from some other place. Those who met Tempi commented too on the manner of its movement, they say it glided along rather like some hovering sprite or pixie. Nothing is truly known about its race but the belief at the time was that they could only speak in riddle and rhyme and that they dwell in the realm of Middle Distance which lies between Somewhere and Nowhere. The truth is of course, Tempi is the only Diskface* known to have visited our world. Soon after Zarin's victory in the Hills of the Meiflocks, Tempi's whereabouts were lost and time soon covered any tracks.
*A term made popular by King of that which binds the seven axes.