Latest Update:

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People have done some great work already.

Here are some silhouettes I drew tonight:

Hey cool silhouettes!

I like 7, 8 and 12. They look very interesting. Anyways, good luck!

Do you have any personal preference? Demonic, Angelic or whatever?

Thanks. I'm currently leaning towards 8 or 10. As for the theme, I'd be more comfortable doing something like Angelic, Core or Maker, as the other styles are a little more intimidating. Maybe it would be better to go outside of my comfort zone, though.

These are nice silhouettes, I like number 10 the most. It's simple, but the shape of the axe blade has a certain badass factor to it.
Also a fan of number 3.

8. Too many of them are a tad too clean unless you wanted 2/3 of them to be Angelic. If you were going Angelic I would go for 3. A-symmetry is always cool

@Haiasi: Yeah, most of them are too clean. These are just roughs to try to find cool shapes.

I tried some more variations on the style of 8, but I don't think I like them as much as 15 and 16.

15 and 16 are in Darksiders Core style. The bottom is supposed to be a skull with spikes coming out of it. The handle will be a femur with leather lashed around it. I might make a skull between the axe blades.



Here they are with the character scale comparison:



Which looks better - 1 blade or 2? I'm going to start detailing the concepts.

oh shit. good idea with that screengrab from the game. I'm going to copy you now

I love the final image you have with the asymmetrical axe. Fantastic job at developing your silhouettes!

Here's some more work on the concept. I'll rework some areas that I'm not happy with tomorrow and I'll also try some other ideas.

Is it obvious that the asymmetrical version is shattered? For some reason, I can't get the shards to look very good.

Looking good. I think it could use a little something extra in the blade area though. The pommel, handle, and the skull on the head all look great to me. Maybe some fleshy stuff growing between the skull and the blade?
Also wouldn't mind seeing some other silhouettes worked up like this one was.

@SgtNasty: Thanks. I haven't added details to the inner part of the blades yet, but I will son. I'm going to experiment with more handle and skull styles as well.

The 2 head axe design is a beast when displayed next to Death.

I've continued to work on the concept. Some parts are still pretty rough, such as the ornaments around the skull and the runes. I've been struggling with the shattered blade. Which version is cooler? Maybe the axe blades are too jagged, particularly in the double headed one.

It's getting better, I like all of the spikey bone detail and the breaks on the edge of the blade. However, I still don't get a good sense for what kind of material the blade is made out of. It also looks like there is a lot of detail in there and it might be getting too busy.

As for which one is better, I like the double bladed. It looks a lot cooler when compared to Death in the images above.

Very cool work yo i like the spikes at the bottom

I like how rough everything is. Think I like the single bladed more, at least it makes more practical sense shere this dual one looks like it would easily injure death on wielding.
One thing you might wanna try out is rotating the skull to face the right side direction, where the secondary blade is right now. Many designs have put their main ornament on the front view ( which is for good reason ) so maybe it'll be worth to try something a bit different.

It's going great though. Will the blue runes be carved in and glowing?

That pommel is badass! The blades however need much more love. The runes you've done are a bit too distracting.
I also like how absolutely badass the dual blade variant looks with death, but I would definitely advocate some more asymmetry in them to be honest. Break up those shapes!

Good job none the less man!

@Frump It's supposed to be really beaten up, jagged metal. Most of the DS2 reference images show the type of material I'm trying to go for, but I haven't done any shading yet. It might be getting too noisy. It's tough to find a balance.

@akacg Thanks.

@AimBiZ If I go with the double-bladed version, I'll have to scale the blades down a bit. I plan on trying some other placements for the skull. I was planning on having the blue runes carved in and glowing in the darksiders style.

@Maph Thanks. I'm not loving the runes either. Maybe I should just remove them. What kind of asymmetry do you mean, like a largish chunk out of one side?

I still like asymmetrical, I think it has more story to it. Also, it will help with UV space to have one side be broken and much smaller.

I think I'm probably going to just stick with the double axe. I attempted to make thumbnail #2 from the first post into an angelic axe, but it didn't turn out very well.

Here are the ideas that I will experiment with tonight after work:
1. Kingdom of the dead style - Bone blades and crown
2. Faintly glowing fault lines
3. Big chip on one blade
4. Remove runes from blades and maybe skull
5. Have bony spikes from the handle extend over the metal, under the skull. Possibly clutching the skull and radiating out onto the blades.
6. Putting the skull in another spot (this will require an additional asymmetrical version)

I decided to switch from Darksiders Core to Kingdom of the Dead to really push the concept. I added glow, radiating bone branch things and claws clutching the skull. The design is mostly done. I'm trying out different color palettes right now.



And Frostmourne style:

My only wish is that you vary the direction of the wraps. With it all on the same angle it gets a little boring/ neat for such a mean looking weapon.

Thanks for the suggestion, Skylerzz. You're right, they're looking too uniform in some places. The wrapped area is also a bit too wide at the bottom.

Nice update, I think it looks pretty good. From a design standpoint looks done. For colour try using the example weapons as a starting point, and don't be afraid to go crazy with it.

Here's an alternate color scheme:

Over the weekend, I created the base mesh and started sculpting.






Here's a little more refinement on the latest color concept: