More character designs, must be Spring Break

I've been busy with pencil sketches, and trying some new techniques to quickly test color palettes, etc without full painting (as the Gavin picture has demonstrated that takes hours and hours).

I had to draw Alexis again!  It has been so long, but I finally got that vivid character picture in my head I've been looking for.

Alexis is a character near and dear to my heart.  She's bitter, a little crazy, and probably the only person in the Angelborn universe that actually understands exactly the kind of world Gavin lives in on a daily basis.  She has a "milder" version of Gavin's sight, which is actually scarier in many respects as she does not see his world of realities and spirits as clearly, leaving what she sees open to misinterpretation.  A kindred spirit, then an enemy, then an ally, she is a character that I look forward to exploring as I tell Gavin's story.  Not on that, but she is also, hey, an abdal, and the daughter of an old ally of James's (what a tangled web?).

This piece was a pencil sketch and I applied layers of flats using Photoshop to give it a wash and explore her new color palette.  She's gotten less "goth" and more gray, which I think will make her a stronger character.  May go back and make those buttons brass like I'm picturing in my head.  I think I've nailed her costuming though.




I also spent some time with Christian Rafferty (he has a last name now, shocking).  My lovable rapscallion from James's era of the tale now has suspenders.  I just think that James's compatriot would spend some time snapping those when Christian was driving them both crazy.  Plus, added bonus of shirt garters, HAH!

I am really liking this flat over a pencil sketch/rendering for a quick paint method.  I'll be working more with this in the future.