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Black-Chimaera — Namae
#oc #agasil #namae #originalcharacter
Published: 2017-02-14 16:52:18 +0000 UTC; Views: 596; Favourites: 16; Downloads: 1
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Description
Timelapse video here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1egKZ…An OC and not a fanart? Something must be wrong with me! This drawing was almost done last week then six days in a row of overtime struck me and he wasn't finished. It's a simple redesign of an old OC of mine. His design didn't change much, he just got hit by the aging punch all my characters go through when I redraw them. My previous drawing of him dates back to 2011, you can see him here, he's the one in the middle: black-chimaera.deviantart.com/… Tora (the one on the left) will be the next one to go through the relooking process, and Casey, the one on the right, has been cut out entirely. Let's just say his design wasn't one of my best, to be kind...
Basic info:
Name: Namae (nah-mah-ay)
Age: 23
Race: Nocturne/Human (He has no typical Nocturne features like dark hair and red/violet/gold eyes, except the markings around his eyes, a dominant Nocturne trait)
Hair: Orange
Eyes: Blue
Height: 5'9''
Birthplace: Agasil
Weapon: Red laser knife (their laser blades are battery powered, there's a regular metal blade underneath the laser in case the battery runs out)
Made with Photoshop CC and Intuos Tablet
Time taken: 4 hours
Related content
Comments: 15
Hey there, I'm here from ProjectComment !
If you are fairly new (or newly returning I guess?) to OC's, then this is very impressive. I am particularly fond of the idea of aging the character when re-drawing them and in all honesty, it's not even something I'd considered, though I am only really starting to get to the point of designing my own characters!
What's the character designed for? Is it part of a game, manga/comic or other? I would be interested in hearing about that side of it as I've no idea what a Nocturne is, though I imagine it's some form of night-based character 
Anyway, on to the actual critique!
Firstly, the line work is very solid and the colours are a good choice. I do not know if this is right, but it strikes me as a sci-fi/cyberpunk ganger of sorts? That said, the biggest comment I would say on this is to ramp up the contrast a bit more. The background lighting makes it seem to be night time, but the characters shading is almost as if stood in daylight. Ramping up the contrast would make it look more like a streetlight is hitting him from one angle, or it could even be used as a way to test multiple light-sources, accounting for numerous street lights, or even neon signs.
But with the above, I am biased as I am hugely fond of high-contrast shading and it may well not be something you like, so it's not necessarily a bad aspect.
The proportions are good and the linework is crystal clear which is always great. Furthermore, you have done my own personal favourite of having the character 'step out' of the background box, which really helps them pop out. All in all, I would say it's a great piece
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Thanks for the comment!
Yes I had already designed him before, but after the first draft I gave up on his story. It was full of plot holes and pretty much incoherent. I dug up the story recently and plan on turning it into a comic, once I manage to patch the plot. Many characters were cut, the timeline was changed as it made no sense, this is why he aged up a bit. Nothing amazing, but just enough so that it makes sense in the story. The Nocturnes are a race I made up, but they were vampires at first, then Twilight happened and vampires were not so cool anymore... Also, I don't think anybody would have wanted living with neighbors that wanted to suck their blood. So I cut out the blood sucking part, and kept the fact that they die under the sun. Basically their main trait is that the die in sunlight, and gain wings under moonlight. But not Namae, as he isn't a pure-blood Nocturne, he can't get wings, but can stand the sun. Other races are the Demons (who can shift into a beast like form and have hair of two colors) and Sorcerers (who have control over an element). Some other characters from the project that got relooked can be seen here: black-chimaera.deviantart.com/…
Excuse me, I talk uncontrollably when somebody asks about my projects, and I love hearing about other people's projects too. For the critique though, I also love high contrast shading. I try to turn myself of because everybody would be lighted by a super harsh light. I didn't know what to do with the shading as he lives in a city under a dome that blocks the sun. So everything is quite dull, not to mention the city is in shambles, so probably not that many lights. But at the same time it was a character ref, so I didn't want it to be grey... In the comic I plan to have everything desaturated when they are in the city, and much more vibrant when they go out.
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Well, it certainly sounds like it could be interesting
Some points that may be worth noting to make the appearance a little more obvious from the start, considering this additional information:
If he lives in a domed city with no sunlight, it would be likely that the skin would be more pale, unless ofc he goes out very frequently. We see it in people who are fair of skin all the time, think that, but whacked up to 11 if they are even uncomfortable in sunlight. After all, if he can stand in it, that doesn't necessarily mean its pleasant. Especially if brought up around that side of his heritage.
I wouldn't say ramp up the lights with that in mind, but perhaps test out taking the shadows down about 2-3 steps. Being digital, it should be straightforward to test them side by side
As for the vampire side of it... While I don't think the Twilight series is 'quite' as bad as the rep it gives, it certainly did a number on vampires lol. But, there are plenty of modern vampire fiction etc out there at the moment that still do well despite this. Take a look at The Originals if you haven't already. Could be interesting source material, considering it's essentially about a city run by extremely powerful vampires.
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You have a lot of good points. It's still unclear at this point in the plot if Namae went out of Agasil (the city) before. Tora (the other main character) sure hasn't, and yeah I've planned for him to be really pale. He won't also fare well under the sun until he gets kind of used to it. That doesn't stop him from being overly enthusiastic about the outside world.
I haven't read the Twilight serie, so I only know it by reputation. But I don't think I'll go back to making them vampires, it wouldn't make sense with some other aspects of the story. There are still some old art in my gallery of Namae and Tora as vampires, especially an awful one where Tora is standing in front of a sunset. That would kill him. My sister likes to bring it around how dumb it was. Extremely poor planning on my part. I'll check out The Originals, see if it was translated in French.
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Well... It's your story, no one else can dictate exactly how things work. Next time she brings it up, remind her that Dracula is considered one of the greatest vampire stories of all time... Dracula himself is capable of walking in sunlight, his powers are just vastly reduced, practically to that of a human.
Then you have Underworld; The main character is known as a day-walker, as is Blade (though true, he's only half vampire).
The originals too are capable of walking in sunlight and are able to have rings made via witchcraft that allow others to.
There are plenty of examples done right where there are exceptions to the rule
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Here, have a
First off, 4 hours of work? I looked at the video and it gives a nice insight to the efficiency of your creative process. Even though it's a straightforward pose, there are a lot of details and it's very smooth and polished, so, nicely done
As for the piece itself, I am always a fan of the semi transparent piece where the character leaves it's border. It makes them stand out more and the composition really pops. His design is cool and old fashioned in a good way. Looking at the original design, not much has changed, but there was a lot more contrast in the color scheme, while this piece is not as contrasted, making it look more gritty. I would argue that it might have worked better if contrast was present like in the previous one, but that's pretty subjective. The clothing folds are also pretty good at conveying the materials of the clothes, especially the trousers. Others already mentioned the lighting and the texturing, so I will focus on some other things.
His pose is pretty tense, and I think you could have added a bit more dynamics to it, especially the upper body. The legs have a slight twist, but the top half is very stiff and static. If you had only added a slight bend forwards, it would have made everything a lot more dynamic.
There is another slight nitpick, which is the positioning of the fingers. They are well drawn and all, but some look pretty... uncomfortable. His left hand seems to be forming a fist, but at closer inspection, the thumb is inside the actual grip, which isn't how a fist is made. I think the only case you would put the thumb like that is if you were trying to flip a coin, and that doesn't seem to be the case here. On his other hand, however, that index finger seems tense like that for no apparent reason, except to stand out. It looks to me you might have gotten confused part way through the rendering as to the direction the blade will face, since at the moment, it looks like it's angle is slightly off, the more I look at it. That probably lead to the finger standing out.
All in all, those are slight issues and they don't hurt the piece. It's already excellent as it is, but there is always some room for improvement, so keep up the good work
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Thank you for your comment!
If you have seen the video, you know that my sketches are awful messes of lines and I realized halfway through the coloring that the fingers where weird, but I didn't have the will to fix it. I probably inked a few wrong lines here in there, which happen when each fingers is like four lines side by side... I need to sketch more cleanly...
I kept the design pretty much the same, just made his jacket a normal length and not a crop top like it was previously. It made his torso seem incredibly long and I found it was strange to have such a short jacket. It kind of kills the point of having a jacket...
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Dunno, the jacket thing seems like a product of the times, making it stylish, even if it does seem pointless.
I have messy sketches too so I though that's kind of how sketches should work for most people xD
But yeah, better sketching and planning and everything goes a lot smoother.
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Great, character design, color scheme, and decent pose. Your style is beautiful, and the light reflections on his skin and clothes from the laser weapon are very well done. It lends the feel that the laser weapon is emitting light and is therefore present. I actually really enjoy your original drawing of the character, it was so lively. And the pose was a little more flowing and alive. This one looks pretty stiff, and I realize that is the nature of his stance, but the stiffness takes away from it for me.
I see a major improvement in the quality of the loincloth between the two pieces. And as I said before I really enjoy the outfit design. The red scarf is endearing, and the striped shirt is delightfully out of date, but in a good way. Your character pulls it off with spunk. My only critique on the clothing would be to add a little more texture. They look so smooth and unnatural in comparison to the lovely texture of the background. The background is so rich in texture that it robs something from your character who is so smooth. Making him seem more like a porcelain doll.
That aside, the piece is excellent, and your character is unique and interesting. And he's got this feel of personality even without knowing anything about him.
I found this via
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Thank you for your comment!
I agree that the previous version had a more lively pose, but I wanted this one to be more of a reference. I actually dislike drawing characters standing upright doing basically nothing, I find it more complicated (go figure...)
I fought with myself about keeping the striped shirt or not as I redesigned him. Part of me found it awful, yet another part of me was like ''he had that damned striped shirt for the past ten years or so, he keeps it!''. So he kept the striped shirt. Actually I didn't do much in term of changing is outfit, he was far from being the worst I designed during high school.
I slapped a few textures for the background, I should have done the same for him. I agree he is kinda flat.
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Thank you! I hope I'll manage to finish his story soon.
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Daaaamn, you did all that in four hours? Teach me, senpai! XD
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The background is basically colored textures mashed together, so I get no credit for that. The lineart was the most time consuming part. I hate doing it and it hates me XD
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