"The Sphinx" - Character Design & Illustration

Design of a mythical creature and human character which culminates in a final illustration.

Below: illustration, sphinx turnaround, merchant turnaround

First, the character design process:

Below: silhouettes and turnaround for the sphinx.

Below: silhouettes and turnaround for the merchant.

Next, the illustration process:

I began with sketch thumbnails, picked my three favorite compositions, and developed value thumbnails exploring the opposites of night and day.

After picking a composition with a dark scene, I quickly got to work on color comps. I knew I wanted to try a blue-orange complementary scheme, so I explored slight variations of that and observed how the color affected the values.

Finally, I started pulling the illustration out of the comp and rendering until finished.