Design Process - Ghouls

Hello,

This week I thought it would be fun to go over character designs and show you all the progress on the most current one I am developing - The Ghouls.

As you saw last week in Chapter One (check it out here) Ghouls are a powerful creature in many ways. 

Many Stages

I usually start the design process from the descriptions in my story. I like to describe what's in my imagination and use that as the controlling feature in the later artwork. The visual design is not cut an paste - like all things it takes a few attempts to get it right. 

Ghoul - First Design Art

Here is the first design I came up with. Overall, it hits a lot of the elements I set out to achieve, but it missed the mark in a few areas. The proportions are not quite right and its mouth is to rugged. In my mind I always saw them with a more angular chin. 

Ghoul - Second Design Art

This design changes some of the things I didn't like about the original design. The face is more more proportional but the character is still very muscular looking despite the gaunt appearance given by the concave cheeks and bone structure. 

Ghoul - Third Design Art

With the lessons learned from the first two pieces, I moved onto full body. This is just a (very) rough sketches inspired from source materials and inspirational images. Every artist should maintain a portfolio of inspiring materials give a reference for what they are trying to create. For example, the materials used to inspire this sketch are Gollum from the Lord of the Rings and many many goblins, crones, and malformed witches. Another feature with this sketch is the play with extreme lighting. Just like most monsters, they tend to come out a night.

 Ghoul - Fourth Design Art

In the fourth design sketch, the face is almost perfect, but once again I went to muscular with the body. I tend to draw bigger first, as its easier for me to visualize taking material off, rather than adding it on for whatever reason. Also if you compare this version to what you can see in the version above, the proportions in the body are more human (I was too inspired by Gollum and goblins in the previous version I guess haha).

Ghoul - Fifth Design Art

Here is the final sketch and the image that was just right in my head! This will be the version I will pull together in a final piece of art. As you can see it is in human proportions and deathly thin. It will be interesting giving texture as I always envisioned their muscles being like thin cables that are still immensely powerful. I am looking forward to getting this one done and sharing it soon!

Conclusion

I hoped you enjoyed this look into the creative process I go through when drawing something. I have always been a fan of extra features on DVDs and Blu Rays and wanted to do a basic version of that here. If you like this kind of content, let me know! In the meantime, I will be posting Chapter Two next Tuesday - See you all then!

Brett