AVATAR – 2D – Kageko – Sha'El

[Kageko]

Heya, im a 3d artist usually, but i wanted to work on my concepting for the holidays (and hopefully keep practising in between models) so i figured why not throw myself into the fire completely and enter a competition on the 2d side instead for once.

Anyway im in, and ive been sitting here the last 4.5 hours and trying my hand at designing a humanoid that isnt human. I started out from an old (well just a day rly) figuredrawing i made, and then i went berserk with a chalk brush for a while, trying to make the damn thing look inhuman, i think i spent 2 hours just doing that trying to find something that worked. I think i found something fairly interesting, ill see if i stick to this one, she might be a bit too orcish for my liking, but i think it might just work.

Anyway, for the story, lets see here im sort of half-winging it here so bear with me, i was thinking that this race would be a shamanistic and peaceful people, and i also wanted them to be necromancers, lets see how we can make that fit together eh?

So the Sha'El-race inhabits a planet stuck in perpetual twilight, and while the ancient egyptians of earth prayed to the sungod, these people would pray to the god of darkness. Their peaceful god, which has no name, blesses his people with the gift of supernatural vision and letting their priests manipulate the spirits and bodies of the dead to whatever purpose they see fit. Not wanting to disrupt the fine balance of their world, the Sha'El have taken great care to limit their use of necromancy, finding other ways to hunt the dangerous animals they eat and use for clothes, waste not, want not.
In battle is where this race proves their worth, when defending (and they always are) they place priests on the fortress walls, summoning great armies of the undead, each priest can summon everything from hundreds of ghouls slashing their way through their enemies, to a single banshee, whos earshattering screams disarm and disable several legions of unlucky enemies (that eventually become ghoul-fodder ^^), to do battle on their behalf.

There, i think thats enough for now =) heres a concept for a female priest...

[Kageko]

alright i got around to finishing the first draft for the sha'el priestess. I still say shes too humanlooking, i tried doing some sort of thin spidereyes, and somehow i deleted them all except one, made it glow, and then i forgot what i was doing.

Oh well i finished the coloring, and for some reason, i felt i needed to screw around with the brightness/contrast to make her look like shes in a darker enviroment, and then i couldnt undo it so thats why she looks so incredibly dark.

Anyway... Heres the picture, gonna start brainstorming on a new look, but i still rly rly want some crits since im still fairly new to the whole concepting thing =P

[washka]

I preferred the look of her hairs on the first image, less "dark style" but more dynamic and powerful.
I don't know why but talking about spider, it seems there is a spider on the back of your priestess, putting its legs around her shoulders like a rucksack...creepy.
Are there bone on her chest?

[Kageko]

well tbh, its just a poorly painted ribgage supposed to be used as armor =P ive been trying to find new looks for her, but in the end i always end up throwing the thing away... ill hopefully have some new image soon... =)

[Kageko]

ok, new wip shot...

[AndrewQ]

I can't wait to see where this one ends up, I like the sort of skeletal/Egyptian feeling of the first post, but the third is really interesting too. All those cloth wrappings could be pretty intense.

[decosouza]

Well, very creative concept and good initial sketchs! I'm waiting to see more!