Archer (process/walkthrough/file) (Patreon)

So many stages ... Um so secretly quite a lot of character design is just making characters I think look cool or cute or Other. 

This file actually has layers for once! It also has the art in the different stages of the process, for every layer, so you can take a closer look if you're interested. 

Initial sketch made like 3 months ago 

She was made by frankenstein-ing together references of a horse (heh) and an archer. Starting with placeholder colours and marking joints and limbs with different colours makes it a lot easier to remember where body parts are and also where to add shadows later. You can be pretty sure assuming bony animal joints with be a highlight part except for cats because they don't have bones. The yellow on the back limbs was supposed to be for the lighter fur parts but I ditched it bc it started looking cluttered. 

Big fan of RGB colours. Can't go wrong with some primaries. Also a big fan of using dark or exaggerated colours for back view limbs. 

Quite honestly a lot of character design is instinctual and something that you get a sense for over time. e.g her hair is in a ponytail bc it flows better and looks more serious. She has a cape/poncho thing bc it has a flow to it too and looks like something worn for either protection or shelter against weather. The bow is just cute 

I was a very big fan of the tiddies out look heh. Clothing made the same as the rest- by painting with placeholder colours to get shape down and colouring after. 

Alt outfit I ditched 

Saddle was added because I think it looks cool and also the body looked so empty compared to the rest of her. Adding a pouch and hunting knife sells the idea shes a hunter, the saddle sells the idea shes in for the long-haul and used to traveling around. Probably for hunting. Dunno what she's hunting 

Cleaning steps. At this point I thought she lacked movement so her tassels were changed and hair too. The face was difficult ;a; I love her original face but it was too small. Now she got the >:0 face 

More cleaning! Legs got moved to exaggerate the pose more and the bow was finished. I added flowers because a solid blue was a bit boring and the red was sparsely used anywhere else so it was a good match. Changed the bow colours to solid black and the center (?? idk what bow words are) changed to blue to highlight it. I actually meant to keep the string colour red but didn't notice I'd changed it, I only noticed just now writing this .w. 

The bow was only referenced at the very start, after that I just made it up skjfkg having another layer for the hands was super annoying I kept forgetting to turn the layer on and got confused about where the hands went. I'll make a post on drawing limbs and hands and stuff in pixel some time. 

Would an animal limbs/general animal post be helpful? 

The background! That origami witch I made had a circle background too and it seemed popular so I wanted to do it again. At first the trees were green but it blended in too much. Also not worth adding details if it's just going to be covered up anyway. 

Consider setting but also how much to show- a full forest would've cluttered it and also been pointless. An open field would be fitting colour wise but not mood or the idea. The slight curve in the grass gives movement. Trees on one side each is good for framing. 

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