Designing Remus

"Remus is the most elite member of BioGens liquidators, sent to hunt and detain or destroy the most dangerous threats to BioGen’s political and financial power, as well as the trained body guard of BioGen’s elusive CEO. Her body has been augmented over time with mechanic internal and external hardware to enhance her combat prowess, and her robotic arm is interlay interchangeable with different tools and equipment. Despite her somewhat unstable nature, her loyalty to BioGen is unmatched, throwing away all familiar ties, previous connections, and even her own morals in exchange for her current position."

Silhouttes

Her design starts off with just pure silhouettes done with one value, to get an idea for what kind of shape language i want to use, what feeling i want her to evoke, and what features i want to be most prominent at first read. Usually I start with just some keywords to keep in mind as i sketch. For Remus, I went in with the words "villain", "unstable", and "mechanical". This process can include anywhere from 10 to 80 abstracts.

Refinement

I then go on to pick from the silhouettes that stand out the most to me and feel the most on par for the character I'm aiming to create, and create a disign on top of that, using the natural abstract shapes to inform my design aspects. This stage is still pretty loose, and I don't need to stick 100% to any one design. I often end up picking one of my refinements as a base, and will incorporate elements from the other designs that I like.

Finish

Lastly, I finished with a sheet depicting the now decided character from multiple angles so that all her important details are visible, and an action pose to show off her personality. For her back view, I hid the hair to be able to show the detail of where her wings attach. Since this kind of work would go on to 3D modelers or used as a guide, I refrain from rendering the basic poses to just show local base color.