Sunday, December 27, 2009

Fantasy Illustration - Tiamat's Chosen: Designing Tiamat

A recent book cover commission I worked on called for five detailed fantasy-themed character designs. In a series of blog posts over the next week or two, I'll talk about some interesting points about each of character designs.

First up is Tiamat, a canonical character of the Dungeons & Dragons Forgotten Realms universe. The client called for some substantial changes to her appearance, however, so she's very different in these design sketches.



My initial pass on her was a modern take on the classic design in Jeff Easley's Tiamat painting.

The client liked a lot of the design elements of the initial design, but had a younger, playful and flirtier Tiamat in mind, so it was back to the drawing board for a second pass.



In the second design she's shorter and less curvy, more impish rather than sinister.


I also came up with some variations on her outfit. #1 is the classic fantasy bikini, but this interpretation of Tiamat called for a more modest costume, so I tried a number of other designs. All of them feature dragon claw shoes, a nod to Tiamat's other form, a five-headed dragon. The client chose design #4, which you'll see in the finished illustration.

2 comments:

  1. :DDD She looks really really cool. I hope client will like them too ;)
    ***Congrats anyway!***

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  2. "I hope client will like them too ;)"

    I hope so to. I sent the finished picture on Christmas, and I'm waiting to hear back from the client as to whether he likes it or not. I guess we'll see. I have a good feeling. :)

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