This will probably be my most controversial design for now, but i think i have nice explanation. So, i drew fan favorite ✨Regis✨
Regis is one of the best people in witcher universe, but he is still a vampire. Geralt always felt weird about him, and when he found out what he was, he was terrified. Fringilla was also catious around him, so i figured that his very presence is intimidating.
In my headcanon, Vampires are similiar to dopplers, they can turn into various animals but only one person. And their tranformation is much more painful and grotesque which we can see in this drawing. I relied on uncanny valley, i don't want vampires in my drawings to be just another pointy thooted undeads, i want them to be smthg else. His human look should look human, but with a very small unnatural feeling, so guess what i used for inspiration. Botched plastic surgeries! Like Simon Cowell, Donatella Versace, etc. I wanted to focus on creepy smile, since in the books in the scene where Dandelion hurts his head, Regis is described with a huge scary grin. When he transforms into huge bat like creature, he basically rips his human skin off revealing horrifying, gorey insides. I think it's very interesting for Regis to look uncanny, since it's a very nice contrast for his great personality. Plus, it creates very unique dynamic between him and readers, since you will never know if he'll end up being bad, which makes his sacrifice in the end much more meaningful imo. My idea for vampires is that they can mimic human shape, but not what makes us humans. Bcz they do not understand our emotions, our mannerism, social gestures and basic human experiences, so even tho they can look human, they can never capture humanity, which causes uncanny valley.
Another subtle detail is that i tried making him look similiar to Geralt, almost like a demonic version of Geralt. And that's mostly bcz we all mimic people we like. We copy their movements and their speech when we feel comfortable. And i assume, Vampires are no different. Except instead of movements and speech, vampires borrow faces. Think of my Regis as a parody of Geralt, an extension maybe. So that's another neat detail i added.
In the upper image, he is simply discussing poetry and art with Dandelion, regardless of his creepy smile, Dandelion knows that Regis is harmless...
In the middle is my favorite scene in which when he was challanged by that priest. Here we see his petrifying and vampiric side where he walks towards the priest while scaring him shitless with his mandela catalogue type face.
And then at the bottom are simply few of his faces, mostly during the Stygga battle.
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