Concept Art: Calcifer (Patreon)

First non-Rimworld art post! So this is Calcifer, one of two player characters for a personal project video game I'm working on. The game is called Long Live the King, and it's a dating sim...kind of.

Calcifer is a brilliant and young philosopher/economist and adviser to the king. He is the counterpart to Fatima (think Jesse and James from Pokemon). Ruthless and uninterested in "playing the court", he has quickly risen above his rank to his current position. While I was designing him, I went through several steps.

Step 1: Brainstorming - I knew I wanted him to give a prim almost stuffy vibe. I was thinking "butler" and "financier". He's supposed to be a counterpart to the other player character, Fatima, who is just as ruthless, but as a social manipulator. 

Step 2: Sketches - Since it is only me and my programmer working on this and I knew the vision, I was able to skip the thumbnail phase and dive into the sketch-phase. So I was thinking sharp angles, clean silhouette, but with a slight boyish angle around his face to lend itself to his youth.  He's an educated young man from a relatively well-to-do family, but may feel intimidated and so over compensates through dress (the programmer came up with the idea that he wears glasses he doesn't need to seem smarter). The game takes place in a roughly French Revolution/Rococo-aesthetic kingdom that is industrialized to allow for fitted pieces of clothing, but still allows for that fanciful/storybook. After doing a few sketches, I sent it to the programmer and we talked a bit back and forth about what we liked and what fed into the key character points above.

Step 3: Lineart - typically I don't consider this a part of the concept art process, but since I wanted to use this character as a jumping off point for broader aesthetic direction, I did some research on other works and artists to see what broader look I wanted for the characters. I want the art direction of the game to be a fusion of classic otome (dating sim) tropes and Edwared Gorey (I'm a simp for crosshatching). There's also an underlying Looney Tunes-esque feel to the gameplay, so I wanted there to be a pretty seamless blend between the illustrative and cartoony look that could allow for some animation down the line. Lots of stuff to juggle! 

Step 4: Color - this one is always the fastest part for me. I knew I wanted a cooler color palette with a lot of blue and grey, as his counterpart will be warmer with a noted maroon/gold color palette (referencing their status as P1/P2 for players). Originally I went with a darker hair color for Calcifer, but the programmer suggested I go for this brunette/bronze look for his hair to contrast the otherwise dark palette. I wanted him to be incredibly pale - almost anemic - to emphasize his shut-in energy. I think he ended up kind of looking like anime Brian David Gilbert when he was in his Unraveled-phase, haha.

All in all, I'm happy with the final look! I'm working on Fatima now, so once she's done, you'll get to see the two in line together.