Tempest Ballad: Mage Part II

HOLY HELL!!! Almost a month has gone by without a post! I guess my New Year's resolution should be keeping to my own schedule. Also, I'm just about out of old artwork to post, so I gotta get crackin' on some new stuff. I really have to make time outside of work for my own projects.

Well here's the rest of the mage concepts I have for now (execpt for the rest of those photo collages). Did I call him a mage before? Hmm, well in any case, now you know what it is. I really don't know how specific I can get with this without letting to many cats out of the bag.

As with the previous character, these designs are still EXTREMELY rough. They're kinda in the ballpark though.

After this post you'll get a special treat. I've been planning to write an in depth analysis of how "Deadly Desire" reflected my world view of that time versus my current one.

In a nutshell, I used to be a "glass is half empty" person who fostered a backup belief that "the glass is half full." An event that transpiered in my life early December stripped me of both those world views. I now believe that the glass has no inherent nature and that pondering such is pointless. It is nothing more than a glass of water.

I smell another controversial post coming. hehehe

Tempest Ballad? Yes I like the sound of that one.

Ah, yes. Another photo finish(I just realized that's a bad pun). It's not midnight yet, so I made the Saturday deadline! But anyways, here's another character from the yet-to-be-officially-titled video game.

For this character, I decided to take a different approach for costume design. I spliced together some pix of fashion models in various orders to get a feel for the character's over all look. These four are just a few of the numerous combos I came up with. I feel that these best represent the overall look I was going for (especially the last one). I don't have anywhere hear as many sketches for this guy as I do the other character, but I'll post what I have later.

And yes. Even though I used all female parts, this is supposed to be a guy. To give you a better scope, the character is supposed to be a steampunk era mage.

Tempest Ballad

Alllmost there, but not quite. The very last image in the post is probably the closest the what I'm going for. I'm actually considering going back to the very first color concept and building on that. Most people seem to like that one the best anyway.

Tempest Skies

This was the next phase. Taking the costume concept I liked the best and trying to refine it a little. Even at this stage, I still haven't quite nailed down the overall look.

Tempest of the Skies

The rest of the costume concepts. Blogger wouldn't let me post them all at once.

Tempest Sky

The first round of sketches.

Really rough costume tests.

Tempest Blue

Yes, it's a bit late, but its still Saturday. Technically I'm still on schedule.

Anyways, this post consists of some concept art for a game that's been on the back-burner at work for a while. I don't know how much I can say about it without violating my non-disclosure agreement. What I will say is that the game has a fantasy/steampunk/WWII kind of environment. The character art that follows is that of one of the characters.

In this post I'll start with some of the reference I choose to work with. My goal here was to make the character as distinct as possible within the bounds of the setting. Trying to achieve that, as well as incorporating idiosyncratic features, is pretty challenging. I wanted the character to look less like a steampunk character, and more like a CHARACTER that just happens to be from a steampunk world.


I picked this actress for facial reference because,......well.......she has a distinct face. That and the fact that I'm firmly against the gross overuse of redheaded heroines in most media (specifically animated series). I specify facial reference because the character is in her 20's and this actress clearly is not.

Well,..... not SO clearly. Eh,...... I going to stop talking now.

The rest of these are just costume reference.