Hi, pretty new here, and this looked like an interesting challenge; albeit not entirely sure I'm fast enough to complete something in 2 weeks (but what the heck).
And I do enjoy playing around with character concepts (old tabletop RPG habits) even if I have difficulty bringing em to a polished finish.
Liking everyone's designs so far, and I'm envious at the speed people are churning out their designs/ideas.
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Decided to go with the Queen of Stormhaven. Pushed the fantasy bit to "high fantasy" to give me more ideas (or excuses for some design choices) to play with.
Recently listened to one of Chris Oatley's casts on char design. He suggested to add a quality that's opposite to the characters key strengths to make them more interesting.
In this case I decided to go with child-prodigy-diety/child-like-empress; or at least mid-teen(ish).
Was aiming for a poised, commanding pose, that still had a hint of femininity without being too sexual. I didn't want her to stand like a strong man or typical male soldier.
Tried some silhouette/form studies for her headgear/crown. Had some interesting idea(s) near the end of it:
"Front Line" isn't limited to infantry, so why not Navy (although admittedly I'm a bit lost on how to incorporate the crown/queen idea with naval hats; that and I like the small crown silhouettes).
Maybe she could be a pirate queen(?) or have an eye-patch. (and Sturmhaven could be a ship, or a fleet, or a massive moving island
)
played with the idea of an over-sized anchor like Mace/Hammer for her weapon.
lots of references used.