Draw What You Want Friday: Character Design (Patreon)

My husband and I started a new universe for one of our RP character pairs recently (Amber and Jason, for those in the know) and I decided I wanted to do a lovely painting of them. Amber is a dryad and Jason is... I don't know yet! A bad boy, I guess!

So first things first, I need to break down everything I want to study before I tackle the painting. And before I can do that, I need to pin down... character design. So that's where I started.

I kept some parts I wouldn't ordinarily have kept (half-finished bits) because I feel like it's a good illustration of the process and the missteps and the exploration.

I don't know what a dryad should look like in this world we're building, cuz we've barely started building it up, but I am experimenting with different types of features. I know they have nature magic, are associated with their grove, and bloom lots of flora on their person in general. Due to Stuff That Will Happen Later (some secret backstory stuff for Amber), there are some design decisions I have to keep in mind, namely, she shouldn't have a tail.

Anyway, I tried to also work more on shape and gesture for some of the poses instead of trying to get the anatomy exactly right. I have a terrible habit of following anatomy exactly, and then I end up with an overworked pose or something that is structurally accurate but feels stiff and lacks fluidity.

So yeah! Here's step 1 of the process I'm exploring for tackling an illustration or painting. I don't know where it'll go or what I want to do but here's the start~