So, I wanted to hold off posting this until I got the pinup finished, but i can't stop staring at his FACE! It's going so well!!!!!! AHHHHH!!!!
I'm trying to "sculpt" with the lights and shadows, so I'm avoiding linework, and it seems to be working! I'm thrilled with how it's going, and I feel amazing doing it!
Eventually I hope to go back to streaming my art so you all can see what I'm doing, and maybe it'll help you guys with your own art too. I learn by watching, personally.
I'll keep at this one as I already see some things to fix (his forehead is a lil small, and i may do different hair variants, which is why his hair and face are on separate layers), but it's gonna be good. I can feel it!
I love using references!!!! His proportions look so much better, and young!Death is going to get redrawn later. I mostly wanted to test skin so I didn't focus too hard on proportions with that one, but this one might be worth a render later.
So, suppose we want to reverse engineer Death's face to make it more canon compliant, right? How would one do that? (Note: This can be applied to any masked or faceless character with enough ingenuity.)
I will show you!
process and explanations under the cut! vvv
First we need to get a screengrab of the game (this one will do).
Then we would trace out the general outline of his features that we can see. It's mainly the eyes, but we can also use his mask to our advantage and map out a nose based on that. We also need to keep in mind Joe Madureira's typical facial design habits.
(He tends to keep his protagonists with strong brows, a compact nose, and a frown generally. We see this in War's design a lot.
And often when he wants to make a character older or more despairing, he will exaggerate features such as the hollows of the cheeks and the skin under the corners of the mouth to deepen frowns. That means that it would be within reason to do the same for Death. He's old and cranky.)
From there we can sculpt more his features and add on some of our own artistic flare. Give him fine lines, fill out his lips, make him look meaner, and even define his head shape (which is often tiny on Joe's proportions given that he prioritizes silhouette, shapes, and general body language over "normal" proportions).
After all of that, you're left with a pretty generic looking older nephilim. It fits Joe Mad's most common proportions of his characters. The nose would potentially be small enough to fit under his mask even (in my opinion anyway lol), as Joe often gives characters flat faces and small noses unless specifically exaggerated.
I hope this helps some of you!
At the same time, he has no face to my knowledge, so go crazy lol!
What about when Strife discovers Snapchat filters and plagues his siblings with selfies?? 😂😂
Death hates snapchat and filters (probably because he’s ugly) but surprisingly pretty much everyone else I know got a phone to join in. Karn is a massive fan, and Azrael sends the sweetest snaps… Samael has tried every filter under the sun and War can’t stop laughing at the face-altering ones (he was at Vulgrim’s door in 0.2 seconds after I used the rainbow one on him - it’s all he uses a phone for). Here are some examples:
What is the most humiliating thing you've ever done to your siblings? Hidden their clothes and pushed them out in public naked? I really hope it's something like that! >:)
He had to wear a shirt for an entire month…. Not to mention… Other lady issues.
