Third Time Is A Charm

One of the things that is so great about being a digital artist is that your work can evolve and change to fit your needs. I thought you all might find it interesting to see how the creative process worked when putting together a picture...

In this first picture, I decided that I wanted to put the Amazon and Barbarian character archetypes together in one picture. So I worked it out, I thought it displayed both types of characters pretty well and that was that. There was a few things in here that I didn't really care for, but not enough for me to rework it.

Now some time goes on and I decide I want to give each archetype a bit more space in the book. I want to add more art so people could get a better picture of what was going on in my head and detail the archetypes in my own world, as well as a generic fantasy setting. To this end, the Amazons became more of a jungle warrior type, not so much the "come fuck me" greek fantasy look that I have above. Plus, with each archetype taking up more space, I didn't want to combine two in the same pic.

So I made the decision to transform her into a barbarian. I added some additional features to both of them and felt that they were significantly more interesting and fun to look at. So, once again content, I rendered it up and slid it into the book.

Then time goes on and I'm looking at the pic more as I'm working... and I can't get past the feeling that the axe looks like its floating in mid air. What is actually happening is that the barbarian guy is holding it, rising on his shoulder. But you can't see his hand. So I try and live with it, try and say, "people will get it... he's holding the axe..." but in my heart of hearts I know people will say stuff like, "why is the axe floating...", "He's got an axe stuck in his back..." and "Where is his other wing?"

So, I broke the picture out again and repositioned the whole frame... changed the angle and came up with something totally the same but totally more dynamic... plus I changed the guys face a little bit, because he reminded me of Mr Clean and I added a beard to make him definitively more bad ass.

Want to see the final version? Yeah, me too... Its rendering up now, hope to have it through the PS process in a few days! Wednesday is coming and AD&D comes first!!!!

Anyway... hope you enjoy the pics!