FMP - Character Design: Random Characters #1

A concept for a small, rotund alien that inhabits a planet that's pretty much the galaxies junkyard.
At the start of the story, Doomcough crash lands on the planet these creatures inhabit.

I got inspiration to design this guy after seeing a gas mask at the Royal Armory in Leeds.

I doodled an idea for a 'rival' character, a mad scientist that Doomcough had to knock heads with on occasion.
One of my concepts was an aging scientist called Dr. Pen Dayo. (A play on 'Pendejo', meaning asshole in spanish.)
I'd imagine he'd always keep his calm and splurt witty insults at Doomcough, much to Doomcoughs enjoyment.

I like how this character is even thinner than Doomcough, like to the point of him being a stick.

One of the ideas I had (And a nod to the Sonic the Hedgehog series, sorry Dave.) is at the start of the story, the two heroes are fighting Doomcough onboard his spacestation, whilst he pilots a giant machine called 'The Big Doom'.
In the story, the heroes shatter the windows in the room and knock the robots head off, sending Doomcough into space, with the junk planet below so Doomcough gets caught in the planets atmosphere.

I like the 'yeti' look of the machine, it makes the machine look bigger and Doomcough, having a Napoleon Complex, would like.

FMP - Character Design: Brute Character Concept

The brawn of the group; I haven't got a name for him yet, but he's the 'pick up hovercars and throw them at people' kind of guy, using his immense strength and size to take advantage of a situation.
Despite the 'All brawn, no brains' cliche most big guys have, this guy is actually smart from a predatory standpoint.
If you gave him a complex math question, he'd be stumped, but if you ask him to hunt down an individual, he'd do it and bring the individual right to you.

I was originally going to have his skin be green, but I thought he'd look too much like a crocodile, and he's an alien, not a crocodile.

I also attempted to record myself colouring in his skin.
NOTE: The video has music, its not important, I just put it in there to make it less boring.

Me colouring in the skin of this character.

FMP - Character Design: Assassin Concept

I doodled an idea for an assassin character in my sketchbook, a character that Dr. Doomcough would try and recruit.
She would have been an alien with reptilian green skin, a black vinyl vest and a full face mask with built-in nightvision lenses.

I liked this concept, but I drew it too large on the paper and couldn't fit in her legs.

The second concept I did; This one was smaller and I could fit the whole body on the paper.
For this design, i tweaked her design, making her a lot more feral and primitive, having her clothing worse for wear and using a two-pronged dagger in an age of lasers.
I thought her specialty would be exotic poisons from other worlds, and she'd also be very stealthy, sticking to shadows.

Artist Notes: I like this character, she looks like a primitive character in an age of technological breakthroughs and futuristic weaponry, she adds a nice change to the roster.
I'll still be messing with the design a bit, but the basic look of her will be the final one I've done, though I think the bandages need to black instead of brown. - Dan

FMP - Character Design: Dr. Doomcough #2

I coloured in the concept from before, settling on a navy blue attire with silver trim, with a red cloak.
I imagined his hair would be navy also, though it could be his hair was black when he was younger, but is turning silver with age.
Something in this concept that I haven't kept in future drawings is his blind eye, since I thought it made him a bit more handicapped than needed to be.

From thsi design, I worked forward with the character, as I was certain this character was now in a stage where I could settle on an idea.

I posted this image on my previous Doomcough post, but I actually drew this after colouring in the first concept.
Here, I caricatured Doomcough even more, exploring expressions, poses and seeing what I could do with him, and using this page, I settled on this character design, as he was easy to draw, fun to look at and extremely expressive.

This piece was an A1 page filled with doodles, it was impossible to scan into my computer, so this badly lighted iPod photo will do.

The drawing on the right was my attempt at seeing if a mustache might fight him, which it didn't, so I made it so he was wearing a fake mustache during a 'classy moment'.
The picture on my left was inspired by Looney Tunes, since when a character smiled with a large grin in the Looney Tunes shorts, they occasionally had quite pronounced individual teeth instead of the 'line and fang' I usually do for smiling characters.

This was an idea I had that Doomcough could wear goggles.
Some people pointed out that goggles were too 'generic mad scientist', so instead of incorporating them into his normal design, I'm incorporating them whenever Doomcough is building something.

Also, I noticed Doomcoughs head could be called 'Butternut Squash' shaped.
So if I need reference for his head shape, I need look no further than the noble butternut squash.

After the exploratory stage of Doomcough, I decided to draw a 'final' design concept which was quite refined.
I used the first coloured image I did as reference, though changing the design in places I thought needed it. (Making his legs one solid piece instead of banded, removing the blind eye, cutting down the detail a bit etc)

Artist Notes: Dr. Doomcough was the character that gave me the idea for this project, and so far, I've really enjoyed developing him as a character, and even now he's one of my favorite characters I've ever designed.
I'll be doing a lot more with this character over the project, expanding his story, character and making him a living, breathing character. - Dan

FMP - Character Design: Cindy Baseline Concepts #1

NOTE: I'm still developing this character; These concepts are just that. Concepts.
I still need to design her in a way that'd be easy to draw in a graphic novel, as well as still looking interesting.
These designs are good, but aren't the final designs.

The first concept I doodled; I had the idea for an android with arm-mounted speakers that blasted Dubstep.
She could use the 'wubs' to destroy buildings, shatter glass and deafen people.
As she had a 'popstar' look to her, I named her 'Cindy Baseline', to also mirror her Dubstep functions.

I was happy with this cocnept, though it has the problem the rest of these designs have, being she's too detailed and would be difficult to redraw again.

I next did a couple of head variations for her; I really liked the idea that she's wearing headphones, so I kept that as a running theme in my designs.
The left one is innocent looking, whilst the right one looks a lot more nefarious and devilish.

I like both concepts, the right one is my favorite, though it's not the final design either.

I drew a more refined concept for her, though it still has the problem of being too detailed.
I am quite fond of this look for her, though if I simplified it, it'd look even better.

I'd imagine her with clothes too, so that's something for me to note when doing her next design.

A refined version of the above concept.
She is way too detailed, like 'Michael Bay Transformers' detailed.
Scaling down the detail by hiding parts behind clothing and metal plates would help.

I like the colour scheme though, it's very 'Pop star'.

Artist Note: I think I need to greatly simplify her next design, in order to make her much easier to draw if I do explore the possibility of doing a graphic novel.
This can be done in a matter of ways, by adding extra plates and rubber to cover her gears and even give her some clothing. - Dan

FMP - Character Design: Hero and Heroine Concepts

The concept I sketched of the hero; The story is told from the Villains point of view, so the Hero isn't the focus.
He and his female companion are the two characters who thwart Dr. Doomcough on a regular basis.
He needed to look cool and spunky, but also ready to fight.

I wanted to make the characters teenagers, since it has a better chance of identifying with younger audiences than an adult hero. (Even though, again, this story is told from the villains perspective for the majority.

The concept I sketched for the Heroine; The hero has a female companion, but from the start, I wanted to make the other heroic character an alien to diversify the characters a bit, and to show that the organization that the two are from employs all species, and not just humans.

Her design was one of the hardest to do so far, to the point where I had to do two designs just to get a decent starting design.

The first concept I did of the character, though I wasn't happy with it and I redrew her as you can see above this image.

FMP - Research: Looney Tunes