Of Mice and Men: Character concepts

My entry for the Get Into Staffs Jam!

When creating the individual references, I wanted to make them useful for a 3d modellers use; as if I was passing this on to be modelled for a game, hence the inclusion of images of textures to help clarify the design, as well as some notes that help suggest functionality and/or personality.

I wanted Seregil to be an older protagonist, because you don't often see that in games, and the familial relation between Seregil and Alec provides story - Seregil has taken her grandson on as an apprentice because she's noticed his impressive, but unrefined, magical ability.

For Mardus, I wanted to create a much more earthy necromancer - one that uses plants and living tissue in their work. I had this idea of a resurrected character who's lost a part of themself and become intertwined with nature in this kind of dark way; moss and lichen grows all over their fur, and tree roots have begun to take hold of their head and permeated their skin. I came across the Great Gerbil breed when doing my research and loved the idea of the antagonist being a much bigger imposing figure against the heroes, and that also helped me develop the idea of Mardus not being native to the forest  - Great Gerbil's natural habitat is more arid.