reaganlodge
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Sgt Rek - Character profile image, process, & layered PSD
🕑 Added 2019-09-08 03:19:28 +0000 UTCGreetings, Legionnaires!
It's been several weeks since the last update, so let me first start off by thanking you all for sticking around despite the fast & loose approach to this Patreon. I know this is more of a "tipjar with some behind the scenes stuff" but I do feel the itch when I haven't filled the content trough here recently enough. Been really, REALLY busy with launch-related materials for the book and helping my dad with farm labor and fruit deliveries.
Anyways down to business. If any of you have been in my recent Twitch livestreams you'd have seen the character lineup I've been drawing for the main cast. I'll be posting the others eventually but first we'll start off with Rek here.
From left to right in the wide image you can see the versions I sketched of him before settling on the final pose. NORMALLY I don't take this long drawing a single character pose - I like to get the main idea across and move on to the next panel.
But for a cast image I needed a pose that said as much as possible about the character, while still feeling like a natural stance. You'll notice in the sketches I kept trying all these more complicated arrangements with him wielding various weapons... All of them too overworked and noisy. I needed to convey a "mountainous" strength for Rek; silent, patient, and crushing.
Something big I realized along the way: anytime I find myself redrawing a character with a variety of tools or poses I can't decide between, that's usually a sign to go with the "less is more" approach. In this case it worked out great for Rek.
Comments
Thanks! That helps a lot! :)
Reagan
Hey Aimee, good question: I usually draw some initial rough version of the character first, and then the story starts to come to me. The first few drawings almost never resemble the final design, but they still contain an emotional core that sticks with the character all the way. The early versions of proto-Rek (which appeared in a halfbaked short comic called 'The Calling' on the Empire of the New Sun blog) were a lot smaller in stature, less dangerous looking, but there was still the same "grim guy in a big helmet" energy there.
When you create characters do you write out a character outline for them before drawing them, or do you draw them first and then flesh out who they are, their profession, etc? I tend to have big, long character outlines for my characters, but that's where the writer in me takes over too much.
Great advice! I'm struggling with this right now, as well, while designing one of my main characters. I love drawing detailed fashion; so I think I'm just going to go with a simple stance that focuses mainly on the fashion. With Rek in such a simple pose, it also allows the viewer to quietly analyze his character a lot better without it feeling too overworked and noisy, as you say.
