A Moment of Downtime
A Moment of Downtime is an illustration commission by a client as a gift for their role-playing group. The commission entailed character design, process work, and back and forth with the client about possible iterations of the final piece.
I was provided with written description of the characters personalities, their interpersonal dynamic and the setting. The client emphasized a feeling of warmth, and wanted it to look like the characters were just relaxing and hanging out.
THE PROCESS
Beginning with the character designs, I immediately determined their individual statures and body types to figure out what they would all look like next to each other. I wanted the outfits to feel natural for each character and to say something about who they are and where they came from, which were then taken into consideration for the outfit iterations I created for each character.
The pre-made character busts were helpful in determining colour palette and basic physical features, and the rest was gleaned from conversations with the client. These conversations were vital, as these characters are the original creations of four people who love them dearly, and I needed to do them justice to match the image they have of them in their minds.
These were the thumbnails developed, prior to paring them down for client choice. The client liked elements of both 6 & 9 which ended up being combined. One character was described to “occasionally have wings”, which could be incorporated. The client decided to forgo them for the final piece, as they felt it didn’t fit the relaxed scene.
After thumbnails came the final approved sketch, though adjustments were made during the next stages to further consider form and composition. Finally, I rendered the figures in values to ensure that the lighting in the final piece would be as dramatic as the client wanted, and helped me prepare for bringing things into colour.
The Final Piece
