Character Design - Celien

It's been a while since I dusted off the artistic side of my project, and wanted to complete another character concept design. Sticking to the Valshyr arena, I decided on Celien, fiesty right hand of the legendary Caro Expedition.

Since my freehand skills still aren't up to par, I once again went to Fiverr in search of a great first-look concept of Celien's character. After providing all the necessary details, I got back a wonderful concept drawing!

I dusted off my trusty stylus and drawing tablet, and quickly went to work. And by quickly, I mean over a year went by before I was able to turn this sketch into a final character card...but once I started, I finished quickly! :)

Below is a quick run from sketch, to clean-line drawing, to shaded concept character:

Needless to say, I was very pleased with how she turned out. I may end up changing out her weapon of choice, but overall, I believe I got her character concept down: explorer clothes, journeyman alchemist, a sassy look...yep, that's Celien.

To complete the design, I needed to convert the shaded drawing to tonal values, section off each element and add gradient maps, then add details, shadows, and highlights. It's the same process I used for creating Raelyn's character design, if you're interested in how that all works.

Celien's character had quite a bit more detail, so it took about 3 days to fully color and recreate, but I'm very pleased with the results. Below is the steps of converting the shaded drawing to B&W, adding color, and creating a composite background for her character card.

Look for Celien in her daring trek through the Forest of Valshyr in book two of the Mists of Kel Doran series, Ageless Fury!