Sgt Rek - Character profile image, process, & layered PSD (Patreon)

Greetings, 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.