Marlow Evolved

For Marlow's 'evolved' version, I was going to do some beginning sketches, but I did this first loosely with no reference, and it was actually exactly what I wanted. I did other sketches quickly afterwards and looked for other poses, but none of them beat this.

What I imagine Marlow's character progression would be like it her relaxed, calm demeanour is not allowed because she has to fight, she is frustrated that she can't just go back to her garden, also making her a lot more grumpy and begrudged by others. Her aesthetic goes from sunny to night, the owl hair being a reference to it from the beginning, she also acquires elements of moth patterning, too.

I wanted her hair to still be a staple in this version so I messed around with a lot of hairstyling, knowing I wanted stubby braids in the original to be longer and fuller.

She also acquired a lamp that originally was going to be a staff, I wanted the strawberry aesthetic to carry through trying to tie as much to her first design. The floretted strawberry gave a more complete look in my opinion.

Also experimenting with lighting, I really like how this turned out, but it didn't make sense that her hair, out of it, was still light, and it was a bit too harsh in the end. If I had more time, I would have tried to make this work for the final render.

I tried out a couple different outfits, in this first rendition she had armour pieces. I did enjoy this version but I realised it didn't match the mood I went for on my initla vision mood board, neither her personality.

I then tried out with some pieces I knew I wanted in there, which were the moss/flower/grass boots. I think the shape they make is very interesting and new, though not making a ton of sense, they are aesthetically very appealing.

Another big item is the backpack she carries. I wanted her silhouette to be big and bulky, carrying a lot, trinkets and plants, etc. If I were to redo her, I would spend a lot more time adding tons of trinkets and hanging items to her backpack to clutter it up. If it is not super clear, the backpack is an old cabinet with stained glass on the front containing more plants. Her whole gig is making seed bombs, healing pastes and being all over helpful on the battlefield with what she can make with her plants. I love the idea of this backpack, but I think it should have more layers to it, maybe going well above her head and stacking precariously, more like a wardrobe.

Her outfit is essentially her old overalls with the addition of a huge owl wing that acts as a shield over her shoulder. Also having an eye, a mixture of the dots on a moth wing and being the eye of the owl, her hair colour comes from. Simple but adds a lot to her outfit, also her makeup now represents the eye of the owl too, mimicking war paint in a way, I would think she just took the opportunity to do something fun on her face.

In her final render, I did try adding the belt, but it felt too cluttered with the detail on the wing and the hair flowing past, so I removed it.

An attempt at the light, but it didn't feel the same as on the sketch, and again was a bit too harsh with super hard lines compared to the rest of the illustration.

The final render, I was super happy with how this one came out. I think it is my favourite, there are some things I would change, like the hair over the owl wing is a little confusing, and she has no arms on display. The lamp and plant at the top are my favourite, yet it is the bit I rendered the least, so I will do some illustrations in that style and see if that is a path I want to take.

Overall, I am happy with this, and I made myself stop at a point to keep on the schedule I had set, which is an improvement on my time management skills.