Maeve's name was chosen for the inheritance of a powerful figure despite having no royal relations. Hrafen's name was chosen as one of the less brunt and brutish sounding Viking names.
The moon is a nice lighting source in how it sets a very particular mood, though adding further colour - especially warm or unexpected tones - really adds to the bizarreness of a piece with a "not right" feeling.
Silhouette tells a lot of a character's energy and what they're supposed to convey. Whether they're large and imposing or small and stealthy. Shape language entwines heavily with the concept.
For a wild, beastly appearance, something large and imposing would be perfect. After having recently watched Castlevania, I found Striga to be a perfect reference.
One of four "sisters" leading a war to enslave humanity, she is the one to handle the battles and bloodshed; the brute that has reduced interest in appearing beautiful and composed as her sisters do - as *most* vampires across media do. She's an outlier and very close to what my vampire is in that way.
Thus the borrowed mane of hair. Wild, sharp shapes that make a silhouette both larger and broader and is almost like a power symbol when well-kept in both several cultures and in the animal kingdom (e.g. male lions). The animalistic part is more relevant as he *is* animalistic.
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I always try to convey emotion or thought behind poses as well as expressions to avoid a stiff or bland sketch. Expressions are far easier given there's very obvious though specific rules in what adjustments change small parts in a reaction; low brows and narrowed eyes may mean suspicion or hostility, narrowed eyes and raised brows smugness or dissatisfaction for example. Different characters will look excited in different combinations which adds variety. Poses, however, are a lot more difficult for me to settle with. They both need to represent the kind of character that they are and the motion they're currently performing in a far broader manner.
References are great for this, but often difficult to find. I have aphantasia meaning that I cannot visualize in my brain at all which definitely shines through in how I approach things, though the main part where it causes me to struggle is in the sketch stage. Deciding what I want to be where, how I want a character to look and how to bring an idea of a pose into actuality *correctly.*
Theoretically these websites using posable dummies should be great. Often they get the job done, though I've noticed that they're often oddly limited. Unable to have more than one, remove or duplicate existing limbs, vague body types and so on. The proportions are sometimes slightly odd too, with the grey model having far too long of a torso.
References can be mashed together rather easily and don't necessarily need to be perfect, but I wouldn't have thought for these requests to be too unusual or difficult to produce - especially in just having multiple dummies.
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