Style Exercise

(CLICKY FOR BIGGER)

Recently I've had the opportunity to undertake an exercise that I've been wanting to do for some time.  That is, to take an archetypal character with a pleasing yet basic design and transpose it across various styles.

As you can see, I decided to do a barbarian/viking style character.  This exercise threw up a few things that I didnt expect.

I started at the Dexter's Lab type one then literally worked up in terms of proportion and detail.  Then I did the Sword & Sorcery style one.  I found myself struggling at the more hyper realistic end of the spectrum, not due to technical ability but more due to the constraints on the pose that I wanted to remain constant throughout.  I've learnt that much of what I deem a successful hyper real character relies (for me at least) on powerful and interesting posing and gestures.  Plus I had to create and embellish more detail than what was created further down stream.

Also worth noting that the pixel one was a hell'a fun to do and those who know me expect pixel style xmas cards this year.  Honestly, its like drawing with lego and takes minutes.

This exercise isnt really about favourites but more a method of breaking down and analysing popular styles and applying that treatment to a design of my own (warts and all)