Uncommon Fairytale: Character Designs

This was a class project, creating characters for a hypothetical story. I needed to create a princess, a hero and a villain.

Gothic Princess

 I started on creating princess designs with in mind a Gothic and/or Victorian feel.

I had in mind for my princess to have a reserved, mysterious quality which would fit the Gothic look.

This became my favorite design, I gave her bags under her eyes, skinny arms to give her a frighten look. I wanted a look that conveyed that she hasn't been outside in a long time. For the hair I just started playing around with different styles that would make her look distinct, I ended up with making them heart shaped and giving her proper looking clothes to match the Victorian style. 

This is my touch up version.

Uncommon Hero

I went through various renditions for the hero, I got to say that out of all 3 characters, the hero was my favorite to work on.

I first started off with a standard looking protagonist, broad shoulders, average proportions, still keeping up with the Gothic clothing style, and hairstyle. I wasn't really satisfied with this design, it looked overused.

I started exploring different designs like someone who doesn't seem heroic but more like the wrong person at the right time. Then I with the complete opposite spectrum to find my protagonist.

I went with the giant oaf design, with some references I took from wrestler Andre the Giant and other giant people.

I started off with the mean tough guy look but started to soften up his appearance.

I start exaggerating the proportions, giving him a more top heavy look.

I ending up creating the gentle giant, giving him round features to make him more likable but with an appearance that's suppose to intimidate others. Inside though he's a big softy and romantic.

The Villain

The villain I think I had the hardest time developing, I wanted to still with my Gothic/Victorian style and create a intimidating adversary. I think that was my mistake though, I forgot that my theme was that each character was not your stereotypical character.

I started off with a shadowy character who can shapeshift and his form was always ambiguous like smoke.

Then I went with a creepy caretaker look and his hair matching the princess showing connection between them and giving the design of the characters a more uniform look. But the look didn't really match up well with the time period. He almost looks like he has rocker hair.

I ended up going with a more vampire count look which I like but I feel like I could have gone further and made this character stronger.