Poor Knights Island

It's been a while since I posted any new stuff and this is probably the reason why. So far I've only been doing landscapes and I decided to broaden my horizon and dive into character concept art. This is my first attempt. The concept is about 4 knights who travelled to an island which promised various riches, but out there each and every one of them had something stolen. The island was then dubbed Poor Knights Island. I'll try and write out the full story which I will post in the Writer's sub forum. 3 of them would be NPC's or bosses, and 1 of them is something else.

In this thread I'll post the full development of the designs, from sketch to full piece. Here's the first!

Poor knight Jonas, his Arms stolen.


Forever wandering the cellars and catacombs in search of the thief, his armour charred black by the torch he now uses as a makeshift weapon.


First I dove straight into a digital sketch. Back then the idea was for Jonas to be a boss encounter. He fights with a torch and and a scavenged hayfork as dishonourable replacements for his lost sword and shield.
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I was far from happy with the result, so I stepped back and started paper sketching:

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I like this one, but thought he looked too brave and eager. I wanted the Poor Knight to look defeated, something more like so:

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Tried a digital piece based off this sketch, some Dark Souls knight set influences here:

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I felt like I was getting closer and looking back I do like this style. But instead I started over from the same sketch and went for something darker.

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There's some work in progress images missing, but I replaced the hayfork and torch with a large club-like torch weapon. I thought it would work better with the dark and tight catacomb/cellar setting Jonas would be fought in, and make him a bit more monstrous and twisted.

This is the non lighted piece. Parts of his armour are still smouldering from being exposed to the torch for so long while wondering the underground. He's gone skinny, and his armour charred black.

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Here's the lighted piece with a snippet of background just to give an indication of the environment atmosphere.

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I'm fairly content, although in hindsight some of his armour seems more soldier-ish than knightly. I may revisit after working on the other 3 designs.

Please tell me what you guys think of the idea, process, and the (for now) final piece. Feedback is much appreciated!

These are all pretty awesome! I look forward to seeing the stuff you write up for them in the writing forum!

It's always interesting to see a progress picture. He looks intimidating!

Oh god, I love it, and I'm especially happy to see you working on an area you're not as familiar with. You've admitted your weaknesses to yourself, and have been a very fair critic of your own work; a difficult thing for many artists to accomplish. The result is that you consistently force yourself to improve, as these pictures show.

Great work, Pete. I look forward to seeing and hearing more. I'd love a full write-up, perhaps a collab with one of the more experienced authors? :D

Thanks everyone : ) I'm glad you enjoy seeing the process!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Quin

Oh god, I love it, and I'm especially happy to see you working on an area you're not as familiar with. You've admitted your weaknesses to yourself, and have been a very fair critic of your own work; a difficult thing for many artists to accomplish. The result is that you consistently force yourself to improve, as these pictures show.

Great work, Pete. I look forward to seeing and hearing more. I'd love a full write-up, perhaps a collab with one of the more experienced authors? :D

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Thank you Quin :D I'd definitely be up for a collab as doing the writing and the drawing can be very time consuming. I have ideas for all the characters and I'll try to share them in Timber Maniac's soon, see how we go from there!

So a long time ago I started this thread and finally made the effort to finish a design for the second of the four poor knights;

Poor knight Petrel, his royal armour stolen.

Wet and cold, the giant knight would rather freeze than give up his royal armour. He now shelters from the rain in the old church.

The idea for Petrel was his armour to be stolen. He would therefor be either naked or only wearing some kind of cloth and "living" in a cold, wet, old church or cathedral. The player would encounter him as a friendly NPC at first, but after fighting one of the other knights (like Jonas from the last entry) Petrel would become hostile if the player revisits the church. Petrel fights with a greatshield and halberd and has the ability to kick/bash the player out of his holy church. The fight will continue in the church courtyard as rain pours from the sky.

He is the least impulsive of the knights, as well as the calmest. He keeps in touch with his brother knights through writing letters. One idea was to make his hands black of the ink he writes with, but I kinda forgot about that. Maybe I'll add that later.

I started sketching for this one about a year ago. I thought it would be cool if he had Kurt-Cobain-ish hair that would be all messed up in the rain. That would also save me from drawing his face. :roll2

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A first photoshop sketch followed:

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Thought he looked too small, and too emo. I figured if the player would encounter him as a friendly NPC first he would have to look a bit more approachable.

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Hence the new hairdo (and less aggressive stance).

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Some variations followed. Putting cloth on him made me think too much of a caveman though.

Eventually I stuck with the naked option because it's kind of a bold design choice and thought it would be harsher in that cold, wet environment he's in. I gave him some pixelated censorship a-la Metal Gear Solid. I also brought the moustache back as it's badass and makes him look a bit older, wise and approachable. The church is light but dark and moody at the same time, and I tried to make it look dirty, cold, wet and abandoned. I hope it shows.

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So that's poor knight Petrel. Two more knights to go and hopefully one day I will write a full scenario for this stuff in the writers sub-forum.

Feedback is welcome, as character design is definitely my weak point. Tips and advice much appreciated!