New character concept

[creedguytrent]

Hey everyone. I posted this in my daily sketchbook on this forum, but its so hard to find burried in all those folders. So I wanted to get some crit on it here. One guy told me that its a "very unoriginal" character design. Just wanna check the consensus before I do a whole book with it.

http://www.trentkaniuga.com/daily/octaviusconcept.gif

-trent

[wallychairmover]

sucks to their asmar, i think it's good and original. it's got influences but it's your pic and it's a sweet paintjob.

...and it was good

[L0n3WoLF]

thats pretty tight. I like the huge pants on the skinny character..ahhh, watch out for the little blue men :D

[kabuki]

its ok, its beautiful, but what i think he means is its somewhat influenced.

its a blue/dark elf with glowing eyes, spikey hair and an overlarge weapon.

its an original styletake on a not so original charactertype.

see final fantasy. see soul reaver. etc.

it will however stand on its own as a character. provided you give it the personality to match


my advice would be to be careful with the hair and the scarf.
as they draw the most inferences.

otherwise, its beautifully handled.

[afklamer]

Originally posted by kabuki
its ok, its beautiful, but what i think he means is its somewhat influenced.

its a blue/dark elf with glowing eyes, spikey hair and an overlarge weapon.

its an original styletake on a not so original charactertype.

see final fantasy. see soul reaver. etc.

it will however stand on its own as a character. provided you give it the personality to match


my advice would be to be careful with the hair and the scarf.
as they draw the most inferences.

otherwise, its beautifully handled.

jupp first thing I thought was : hey final fantasy! ...

else it's beautifull

[cucaracha]

I thought "Hey, Final Fantasy" - but it was in a "wwwoh, cool, awesome, booosh!" way ;)

Great job!

cu

[Wystor]

Wow ! I love ! Very good work !

[keyth]

i agree w/the others whole-heartedly. if you maintain the influences present but push it a bit more...it could be sooo much better. the quality of the artwork is top notch. just play around with some stuff. look for ideas in magazines and such that you usually would not look at and subtley add them to your design. great job...no doubt about it.:p

[krayz]

nice style

i like it

[deviousg]

Love the paint job and drawing style - I like how the feet and hands are in a more sketchy style, but maybe a little more definition, I had to make them out a bit -

[Special]

omg it's the guy who draws Creed!

*bows*

[Tedsuo]

It does sort of remind me of Final Fantasy 9. But I like it. And as I have never seen a comic done in that style, I wouldn't sweat it.

[MonkeyAssSlapper]

thats kick ass man.. where do u learn do color like that.. its cool

[Hardcore]

There must not be a lot of creed fans here !! I loved your work for years man :wazzup:

[blackhand]

Trent, I like the rendering style on this piece. I wish the first piece you posted here--the night time scene--was rendered in this manner. The more painterly approach looks good on your stuff.

It's hard work to come up with something TRULY original these days. Artists draw inspiration from everywhere, subconsciously or intentionally. A lot of the costume details, etc., on the character are drawn from various influences, which does somewhat diminish the impact of the character, but the visual design of the character is really only the surface. As someone mentioned earlier, where you can really make the character alive is in how you write it. More often than not, how a character behaves and acts defines a character, not the design [this is, of course, debatable]. Also the context of where the character is--how the world is defined around the character--can add or detract to a concept. Make the world around your character convincing.

Having a killer design doesn't hurt, either. Try to make the character iconic--what elements can you reduce the character to but still define the character? Link from Zelda has his green outfit and hat. The Punisher has his white skull, etc. Part of that icon status is having a fully developed history, etc.

I think you can take your character to that level if you just put the effort in making the world around it, 'unoriginal' or not.

[creedguytrent]

http://www.trentkaniuga.com/daily/octaviusconcept2.gif
Thats what I love aout this board... everyone is so honest. I gave it another shot wrapping up his hair a bit for some style, detailing the footwrapping, and changing his upper body gear quite a bit with some white tattoos on the arms, and steel for the armored backhand.
As for the scarf... its cold out there.
http://www.trentkaniuga.com/daily/PG1_3.gif
-tk

[creedguytrent]

Blackhand- thanks you always seem to have really great input. The plan is to attack the entire book in the style of the page above, which means giving that 2 page shot another pass. Im not super confident in my handling of lights yet which is why im doing a lot more light study photoshop sketches which im posting in my daily sketchbook.

Monkeyass- nice name. I just keep coloring and coloring and coloring... until it looks like i know what im doing. Then i color some more, get shot down, relearn new technique... repeat process.

Tetsuo- I love the final fantasy series, particularly the first 3, 1, the american 2, and 3, though ive never played the original japanese 2, FF7 and FF9 (whew). Incidentally Ive always drawn with a similar style since back in 95' i guess.

Kabuki- There is a great deal of story involved which explains his body appearance and gear which will change depending on his environment. So the character is constantly changing his look throughout the book.

Thank you guys for such great input.
-trent

[Wizard of KOZ]

I like it a lot! awesome style you have going and that sample page is beautiful. I can't wait to see more...

But I do have to say that your character is very reminisint of Raziel from Soul Reaver. To me thats a good thing cuase I love the game...but it is very simialr...esp with the spiky hair, scarf, and blue skin.

[xulamon]

i see some cloud from FF7, from the hair and the shoulder armor, i like what your doing though(':thumb:') perhaps if his hair were blue or black it might not remind me so much of the FF stuff. i like what you did with the second image especially the rings on the feet! very cool! and i understand that it's cold so perhaps ad to the scarf and give him a cowl or something warm to where, or just make him burn from the inside soul reaver style a bit more. good stuff, realy dig the background and i'd like to see supporting cast enemies ect!!!!

[gallon]

I really like the snowy scene. Looks really good

[kabuki]

hey, this may be an amazing comic. asides from battlechasers, not much else has captured that fast fantasy element. and joe just dosnt like to draw on a regular basis. so it would be nice to see something as well done come out. On a regular basis ;)

but we all have demons to bear i suppose.

good work on the rework. oh, i didnt say to ditch the scarf. just becareful with it as its getting common lately.

whatever you do dont make it red!

anyways good job!

my only critique would be the hand where he's holding that pole. its a little awkward, but otherwise everything is beautiful.

and i like the panel. :chug: