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.
poorknights1.jpg

I was far from happy with the result, so I stepped back and started paper sketching:

IMG_0917.JPG

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

IMG_0915.JPG

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

IMG_0916.JPG

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.

Screen Shot 2014-06-23 at 11.53.51.png

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.

PoorKnightJonas_Neutral_800.jpg

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

PoorKnightJonas_Lights_800.jpg

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!