Here's my concept for a comp over at the Sumea forums, which is titled God of War and I'll be posting my updates here in this thread to get some solid C&C.
The character I've chosen is Hades but decided to take a different approach and make it a woman.
After a good week of thumbnailing, speed painting, deleting, re-drawing, I settled on this.


Hi-Res Version

It's still an early concept and more of an anatomy study really to get the basic forms down. I do plan on messing with it some more and fixing up a few areas that aren't sitting quite right.
I plan to have molten lava flowing through the feet/legs exposed through cracks with ash like skin. Possibly even attempt some kind of fire hair. As for clothes/armour, I'm still messing with a few things, but everything I've tried has made the character look less creepy.
Let me know what you think and what I can improve on. Suggestions, paintovers, tags all welcome.

-caseyjones

Looking good casey, Saggy titties FTW. Im looking forward to seeing her in 3d [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]. Its and original an interesting concept [img]/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]

I don't think I have time to enter the Sumea comp this time round, too busy and lacking inspiration. Glad to see PC'ers over there [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

my idea of Hades and Anubis [just generalising on these two gods of death] would be more elegant, and rich types. Possibly enjoys watching deaths happens, but at the same time is not decaying or anything. Possibly a few battle scars after fighting with a few gods or what not, but ultimately, they would also live a life of luxury. In greek mythology [not 100% sure about egyptian] the gods were brothers/sisters, and hence, more or less equals. just my thoughts on things that could help u concept the character.

but i like the whole 'hades-is-a-girl-with-sagging-boobies' direction. so don't take me wrong!

The Vikings had an ugly female underworld goddess called Hel, who was half dead and half alive (split down the middle). Maybe you could take something from that.

It'd also be worth reading a bunch of Greek mythology to see if theres any aspects of Hades that you could carry over into your design. For instance, he was given a Helm of Invisibility to help win the Titanomachy War (the battle with the Titans that you see in a cutscene during God of War 2). Presumably it'd be a rather ornate piece of armour and might be worth working into your design somehow.

It looks like Wikipedia has a fair bit of info on classical mythology.

Asmuel: Thanks for the kind words. I wasn't going to enter the comp, but figured I need to do another character seeing as I've been doing a lot of environment work lately and a few dudes from work were entering as well.

indian_boy: Interesting take on the whole god of death. Initially I was going to do a beautiful woman, with lots of dark drapey clothing. But after a few thumbnails it just looked too generic. So I figured... Fuck it! Make it some really haggard looking ugly monstrous woman that looks brutal as hell!

Jackablade: I personally wanted to stay away from reading too much up on the character of Hades. I didn't want it to bottleneck my creativity. But I have read a little from Wikipedia, which does have a fair bit of info as you've stated.
I was possibly going to do something with the helm idea. Will try a few things as I have a few ideas on how I want it to look.

Here's a few quick paintovers for some possible clothing/armour designs.


So far, I only really like the 3rd iteration, mainly the ashen legs with lava cracks, the neck brace and some of the thigh guards (mainly the 2 chains that connect from one guard to the other).
Hopefully I'll get a chance to do a few more paintovers tonight so I can get a start on the base mesh. But still a good while away from the modelling process.

-caseyjones

I like the idea of having only one boob covered.

Looking good so far dude. I'd carry the style you have around the face/neck to other parts of her body, ie: her upper chest, ribs. And would probably make her arms slightly more sinewy. Mouth design is cool too bra.

Looking good dude...I love re-designs. You have a very advanced pencil work technique.

i know she's meant to be the ultmate hag from hell - but maybe, thinking of the idea that she is still a god and therefore slightly vain - beehive hair! - i got the idea of the 3rd iteration's hair

or not.
i tried to enter my ye olde sumea log in - and nothing!

and just a question, is the lower row of teeth not actually protruding from inside the mouth?

Its been a while since I took some time to work on Hades. But, due to a bit of downtime at work I decided to get back to finishing the concept of this character so I can finally build the bitch! Need to start building a strong character folio.
Here's a bit of a new direction I'm exploring, still kept most of the original proportions but I'm still not too happy with it. Need to finalise an armour design, which I hope to have done by the end of the day.
I will keep the upwards teeth from the original concept, I just haven't added it into the new one.
C&C/paintovers/tag encouraged.


-caseyjones

much better.

should make her in lingerie... she's a god, she thinks she's hot shit. mmm, all the boys want her.

dont cop out on the feet dude. Not sure if you are or not..but, I thihnk it would look nice to have some more human like feet, with maybe a copycat of what you did with the boobs, and maybe have little deformed pinky like toes sprouting out on the sides of the foot.

I agree with Sectaurs, you should play up on that godly vanity.

Sectaurs & Neo_God: I'll definitely see if I can work that in, I did have a similar idea when I first came up with the concept of a female Hades. Making her very womanly with her posture and stance while still making her hideous and grotesque. Just hopefully while trying to portray the vanity, I don't slip up and make it look too comical.

tremulant: I agree, man. The legs at the moment are shithouse. After posting, the first thing I did was grab the eraser tool and rub out everything below the gut and started again.

Thanks for the comments.

Just got back from my lunch break, looking through some reference art to help inspire me, iPod is blaring, Wacom stylus in hand... LETS DO THIS!

-caseyjones

nice work, casey - saw your progress on sumea..
but i'ts taken a while dude, i spose you've got other shit to do, how long are sumeas comps again? like 3 months...
not so sure bout the multiple boobies, as it has associations with fertility, but on the other hand it kinda works if they are 'dead' and corrupted boobies, as the female hades is the nemisis to all life, renewel and positive stuff like hugs and smiles and kittens...

with that much flesh - maybe consider some masochistic peircings - espically some nipple peiceings and links - kinda like the evil/reverse equivalent of a belly dancers nip tassles......

and give her some fat roooolllls

achmedthesnake: I like the piercing suggestion, I'll definitely get some of that cranking in there. As for why it has taken me so long, mainly due to work. 8 hours a day in front of a PC making art is quite enough really, haha.
Also, your point about the boobs. I actually thought about that already and considered just sticking with the 2 and covering them up. But FUCK IT! I want multi-boobs! [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]
As for your question from months ago, the bottom row of teeth are more like horns/spikes that stick out from the chin. Just liked the shape it created.

UPDATE
Well after some more sketching yesterday and a fair bit today, I realised I had to start my sketch again because the one I was doing had whack proportions that I wasn't too pleased with. It had a lot of male proportions like broad shoulders, a gut rather than hips/belly, and when I tried to amend it, it pretty much started looking worse.
I picked up an anatomy book at lunch, which was really helpful and decided to do front and side orthos before attempting a posed 3/4 concept.
Heres where I'm at. Decided to get the proportions right first before I attempt clothing and armour.



-caseyjones

Man, that's so well drawn, yet so gruesome on the eyes at the same time.. Just keep her clothed when you get to modelling her -_-

I dunno, Casey. I kinda liked the bulky, powerful limbs she had before. they're not terribly feminine, but then niether is the rest of her.

t4paN: Thank, dude. I really appreciate the compliment. She will be clothed to a degree, though her multi-boobs will be on display for all to see!

Jackablade: Well I'll give both variations a go and I'll see which looks better. Thanks for the input, dawg.

Nothing new to show today, didn't get much of a chance to work on it. Will hopefully have a whole bunch done by the end of the weekend.

-caseyjones

gg double post.
I got about 30mins of sketch time in towards the end of the day. The waist piece is a tad shit, but figured I'd see what the rest of you think.



Beefy arms, just for you Jackablade.

-caseyjones

Well, I spent today building a base mesh for the sculpt as I feel I'm happy with the proportions I have so far. Took it into Mudbox to see how the topology will handle and got a little bit carried away.



I'll have to re-sculpt it all again once I have the final base mesh (needs toes, a head and a little bit of re-topo). But this is the general direction I'll be going with the body.
Will be doing armour/clothing paintovers as soon as I get some time.

-caseyjones

That's sufficiently gross! Nice work

more droop...the front two just look like standard b##bs, i like the rest of the anatomy nice and clean - though i hope you'll add a little badass scarification in later stages - maybe even a c section and add some celluite lines on that butt


i just got the music in my head: "my milkshakes bring all the boys to the yard..." GAAAAA!

foreverending: Thank, mate. Always good to have someone with your talent stopping by and checking out my work.

achmedthesnake: The boobs do need more sag and will definitely work on that with the next sculpt.
I will include some skin scarification/deformities to break up the cleanliness and smoothness of the skin. As this was just a test of the base mesh and didn't want to get too carried away :P
As for the cellulite, believe it or not, I actually attempted some but it just didn't look right. So I just smoothed it out for now and will try again for the final sculpt.
Thanks for the comments, dude. Strong crits [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

-caseyjones

nice booty. Keep it up man.