Bashed, smashed and photographed
To start, I got a whole bunch of pieces of paper, scrunched them all up and held them up to a mirrored camera and took a photo. I then collected a series of textures, such as leaves, rusty metal and wood. I layered a texture over each of the pictures, found some animal eyes and BAM! I had a flat, grayscale, patterned photo of a piece of paper with some eyes stuck on.
While this provided a useful basis for character concepting, it's not a technique I'm a fan of. I prefer my designs to be mroe deliberate and less formed from chaos. That being said, if the old ideas well ever runs dry, I will be clamoring back to this method like a...similie...
The creature on the left is my personal favourite concept. I was pushed (violently and forcefully) into expanding on this guy further, by refining details, textures and adding depth as well as colour. Take a look at the brand new (name pending) GALAXICON, THE CONQUEROR!
Well, who knew? Doesn't that look much much better? The first thing I would do differently with Galaxicon the Conqueror would be give him a body and pose. A character's outfit, posture, body type, etc does a lot in terms of character design. Most communication is done non-verbally, and without a body, that is severely limited. How cna Galaxicon possibly conquer? He's just a face. For an example of just how much contextualisation for characters is essential, take a look at Galaxicon the Salesman.
Suave gentleman in the streets. Galactic conqueror and scourge of the universe in the sheets.
See? Now a potential almighty, planet eating, cosmic horror looks like a middle-aged used-car salesman...despite the obvious alien head. If a body can make THAT much difference, imagine what he'd look like if his body reflected his intergalactic reputation as destroyer of worlds. All hail Galaxicon.
