Dominance War IV - 2D - Sammy - Kaamos

[Sammy]

Yo! I got a good vibe from making the entry for the DW mini comp, so I thought I'd finally join in for the main event too. I've closely followed DW II and III through from the audience and now I'm going to make this one into an even better learning experience by being part of it.

This year's guidelines are really inspiring and I noticed that many people grasped their favorite class incredibly fast After chewing the possibilities for couple of days, I found myself interested in cyborg, invoker and warlord. Of which I ruled warlord out pretty soon after (we're meant to walk different paths ).

Anyway, I made then some small sketch / thumbnail tries on both of the remaining classes. As the result I feel I might have a bit more to give with the invoker. There are still intriguing things in the cyborg class, so I hope I won't be too much torn in two when working with the other

My plan now is to make some more thumbnails of the chosen class and fuse together the usable ideas from these ones and develop them further. I'm also trying to create some characteristics that would fit the name I've chosen. Kaamos is Finnish and means the time in the winter when the sun doesn't get above the horizon at all. This lasts for one and half months or so in the northmost parts of Finland. The English name should be Polar night or something, but doesn't sound quite as nice

Here are most of the sketches I mentioned:

[ninjastic]

i like the last one from cyborgs but crab legs are very popular and i have seen 'em many times

[Sammy]

Here's my first take on the invoker class after my decision sketches. With the little freetime given to me today, I came up with this tough lady, who commands the darkness. In this case she is fusing herself with the shadows. The lantern is there to be some sort of an activation tool for the shadow magic, but if I'd go further with this one I might leave that out.

I try to get to do some more sketching soon.

[walrus]

Nice strong pose - it reminds me of Reaver miniatures, which I love the design of. If that was what you were aiming for, you got it. If you don't know what I'm taking about, look 'em up, you might get inspired by them.... but I somehow suspect you've seen them before!

[Centrifuge]

great energy in the last img, pose is extreme but it communicates what's going on well enough. keep it going...

[Ksan]

Neat sketches so far (i like the last one, but the boobs are a bit melon like for my taste). Good start

[Sammy]

Hey, thanks for the comments!

walrus: At least that name I can't connect to any miniatures I know

Here's another approach to this pretty much the same theme I had on the previous sketch. (Demons don't to get to be the only scary ones ) Anyway I wanted to find some a bit intimidating feel to it. That is something I might still want to push further. Maybe later I still try some very different approach but these already have some qualities I'm quite fond of.

[Amethyst]

Sammy: A vile female cyborg character - WOW I love her. Looking forward to your next update.

[DV8]

looking good, nice design on your latest. if this pose is gonna stick though, I would watch the loss of depth on the 2 overlapping feet/lower legs.

[Sammy]

DV8: Thanks If I'll end up with this or similar pose, I'll try to find other possibilities with the legs.


Here's something I still wanted to try on the same pic before starting to redraw or redesign her. I thought if she would have a "pet" it could be something like this.

Lord of Shadows, who she has living as her own shadow by contract or by force. She can bring forth and use his powers and essence at will. This will make his form to appear and her body to disfigure according to the power used.

[Nether]

Hey someone else from Finland as well! Very nice start and a well chosen name, given her powers of darkness.

I actually liked the sketch with the darkness lantern the best. You should think of returning to that concept.

I'm not saying the latest sketches are bad. They look very cool, I just liked the previous version better. The latest is also a bit confusing. She's a norm invoker, right? Cause she looks very much like a demon princess. Maybe it's because of her devilish face.

Onnea kisaan, joka tapauksessa!

[Sammy]

Nether: Hey, thanks! I have to come check your stuff as well. I haven't in general had much time to browse through others during the last days, but I got to fix that and see what direction GA is going

I've been giving some thought for that lantern too and I also think the idea of a lantern for creating or "calling" shadows works fine. On the other hand I've also been trying to develop the idea of this fusion of with the shadowlord. Instead of a generic mage I try to find ways to make this very light armor wearing lady fit for melee combat with her shadow powers.

At the moment I'm working on a sheet of 5-10 different sets of clothes, accessories and other details, where I also play around a bit with her looks too. from those I'm planning to pick the best parts and combine them.

[Genius_Malignus]

Of your thumbnails, I think the Cyborg ones worked best - but your invoker concept is very nice. As some of the others mentioned, it doesn't come across as much of an invoker though, because of the demonic/dark look. You should probably adress that issue, or change your class and go for a Demon instead.
I would like to see you working some more on the cyborgs.

[Sammy]

Genius_Malignus: Thanks for sharing your view I said in the beginning that the cyborgs came close to invoker on my interest list and they have kept their place. Always when I check other people's cyborgs / other machines, I get quite some urge to draw some myself. I don't think it is impossible at all that I would give my invoker some competing cyborg concept. The War is yet far away from the finish line

And what comes to my invoker design, I'm soon going to introduce quite some changes and possible directions where I could be taking it. I might have a bit too wild opinion about norms and what for example "alien" as a listed possibility could mean, so I'm in general toning her down a step or two. I anyway more meant this look to be somehow caused by her union with this shadow power than being her Sunday church look

[Sammy]

Heh, it seems I'm driving myself to the situation I mentioned in the first post, that I was "afraid" of happening ... ending up developing a character from both of my favourite classes (invoker and cyborg). But in the end it is all good, since I'm here to make myself practice many sort of stuff. The earlier post from Genius_Malignus made me think of taking a break from the invoker and yesterday I put my current invoker doodles on hold.

This is what I came up with after trying something cyborgish again I actually like the one on the right a bit already.

[Sammy]

This guy feels nice. I try doing some more drawings of him soon.

[walrus]

I like where you're going with the hover-feet. The right arm feels a bit stubby when it its open position, although I really like its silhouette. I got the name wrong of the miniatures I mentioned: The company was Rackham, not Reaver (d'oh!) and you can see some of them here. Enjoy! And good luck with the rest of the entry!

[WhiteGuardian]

The right one from your last post is really nice robot. Go for it dude.

[Sammy]

Thank you both I'll be developing him more in the next few days. I think I will now take a bit more detailed look at him, probably starting from the arms and the head.

[Nether]

Still undecided, huh?

That last cyborg sketch is really starting to grow on me, the more I look at it. It's got a good sleek design and I think the idea about the pedestal/hover feet is very good. I can practically see it pretending to be a machine statue and then suddenly springing to life to slice it's unsuspecting victims.

That spinning double sword is really something. I say develop this further.