Character design #2

 Design

Overall when I came across this piece I knew I wanted to break this one down because I love the occult feel of it and I wanted it to influence the aesthetic and design of my own character Atomus. It is both simple in its structure but has a lot of detail in specific places.

Repeating patterns

On the head and face we see this as obviously the focal point and the place where the highest concentration of different shapes that draw our attention there. For one we have the circular design around the head of the tiny needle like protrusions from his head. We then see an almost triangular shape of hair that protrudes on both sides of his head and then a strong black and white contrast with another repeated circle. This same circular shape is repeated in the dead center of the medallion hanging over his abdomen and on the shoulder pad on his arm. 

Another repeating element is X like shapes and stick like shapes. We see the shapes surrounding his head in the form of sticks and in his bag but we also see them in the dagger and the long strands of cloth running down. There is a strong organization of elements in his central piece on his chest and we see repeat elements of ornamentation along the strands of the cloth running down his body. 

The X shape we find on both his hand as well as on the center chest piece. Again this is a common thing we see in character designs, but this designer decided to break it up by putting a square shape directly in his chest. This is a nice contrasting shape to the circles above as well.

Layer caking shapes: big medium and small

There is something about this piece that strikes me as very minimalist in its approach. Unlike yesterdays piece that had a wide assortment of all sizes spread throughout the design, today this artist is very decisive about grouping like shapes with like and allowing this to create strong amount of contrast. For example the counterbalance between the sticks around his head and the head itself is the best example of this. We have a ton of smaller shapes surrounding big and medium shapes. 

As we go down we see the reverse with the cloak and long dress acting as a big shape that holds the detail of a lot of smaller shapes that are clustered together in the armor on his shoulder, and the chest medalions that start at the chest and go down to his abdomen. Even there we see strands of gold hanging off. behind him we see a collection of smaller shapes and we see what looks like a windmill approach to how these shapes are organized. The biggest one points us up while the rest gradually fan downwards and get smaller. 

 Color

We see in this design a contrast between warm gold yellows and orange browns with very desaturated blues. The jacket that slips off him is the warmest piece on him along with the gold ornamentation. This warm color creates a frame around the darker colors we see in his design.