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Atlas
Atlas is my current character for the game Dungeons and Dragons! He comes from a small forest tribe of fellow firbolgs, a fantasy race of giants, so his original design (shown below) needed to reflect that nature theme. As the campaign has progressed, Atlas has moved away from nature themed and more towards darker celestial themes to reflect the changes they've gone through as a character!
It was so much fun to create the design for a firbolg especially, as there isn't a super concrete design for the race within Dungeons and Dragons lore! I took into account where he is from and how his people might have evolved over time to create lore for the race as a whole, and then created my character based on that!
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Atlas is also trans masculine, so it was important to me to highlight his top surgery scars through the vines on their chest, and to not cover them up with the new outfit as they got more comfortable in their own skin.
Original Design
In this design, you can see that Atlas not only used to have a different design, but a different name as well! I focused the most on designing their body here, since I was designing both a character and my take on a fantasy race at the same time.
Rough Sketch/Ideation
Here, you can see the beginnings of the redesign, and the various references I brought in to help inspire me! I liked some parts of this design, but it definitely still felt off.
Final Sketch
After learning what I liked and didn't like from the first sketch, I revisited and refined it, bringing in some new references as I worked. At this point, I really liked the energy and how well the outfit flowed and worked for his character!
Line Art
Instead of making a new line art layer, I simply cleaned up the sketch layer with the eraser took, because I loved the sketch so much and didn't want to lose the energy!
Want to see the redesign in action? Here's a 30 second video showing the whole process from beginning to end!