earthsong9405

F&F: Mal "spirit form" explorations

Added 2023-11-25 15:51:37 +0000 UTC

A whole bunch of pen sketches I did in my sketchbook while revisiting Mal's design! The leading headshot sketch is the direction I ended up going with for the design moving forward, but I did a whole assload of roughs and variations to find the look I wanted for her.

It's largely because, now that Mal officially has a human form, I wanted her Spirit form to look far less human without going too much into giant creature territory that her full monster form has. This is basically the "inbetween" shape, the one all Spirits are typically in.

As you may be able to see in the sketches (starting with the light ones), I initially started with playing on her original design with small additions I figured may help. But the more I drew the more I wanted that monster influence to shine through, so she began morphing more into something closer to a harpy. That third page is where I found a direction I really liked and played more into it; hair that was tied into a lion's mane style turned into an actual lion's mane, horns are a cross between ram's horns and antlers, digitgrade birdy peets, so on.

The last couple were just me exploring how the rough design looked in action. Specifically how she'd emote since her zigzag mouth no longer allows her to smile like a human would. Which ironically falls back into a character trait I originally gave Mal from the very beginning before I decided she could speak common; initially, she rarely ever spoke and communicated with just looks and the few words she knew in the language (understood it, but couldn't speak it deal). I ultimately scrapped it because it made her feel too stoic.

ANYWAY! Before I launch into a tangent, there's Mal! I actually have her tentative final design for this form already drawn and colored so you can expect to see it soon! Until then, I hope you guys liked the peak into my traditional sketchbook; a little different than what I typically post, but I'll be working at posting just about everything I make here from here on out. :>