Lady Assassin Design

One of the projects I enjoyed and was fortunate to do last October 2015
was a few sketches of a concept for a lady assassin. One of the requirements
of this was to do the character in the likeness of the client. I was free to design
the costume with only a few specifics added in but I had to nail the likeness in
my comic book art style.
I like projects like this one because clients tend to have a deeper connection to
their characters when they when want it to look like them. It's more rewarding personally
for me when the end product makes them happy as was the case for this design
because after I sent in the sketches in the three poses that was ordered a follow up
order for high-res colored versions of her two favorite poses came immediately.
More than the five-star approval rating for the job, the obvious joy and satisfaction
for a job well done is always a bonus.

Speedlite

Wow. It took quite a while for me to post any updates here.
2015 proved to be quite a challenging year for me, one that
made me rethink some life choices and made me wonder if I
still wanted or enjoyed some things that I have been doing for
the longest time.
Anyway, new years are opportunities for new beginnings and
for an artist / geek like me there's a lot to look forward to in this
2016.
For this post I'd like to show off a little art commission done over
one of my Fiverr gigs. This one is of a concept design in color
of a character called "Speedlite", who was described by the client
as "something of a cross between Flash and Green Lantern".
The color blue and the hood he's wearing in the drawing was also
part of the request, so the decision to add that in wasn't part of my
personal design styles but I do try my best to make what the client
wants to work out.
If you would like me for to draw your own original character concept/s
please do check out my Fiverr by clicking here.
 

Captain Crossfit

One of the most challenging things I've done as a freelance artist and a comic book creator wannabe is creating characters based on a real person. It's particularly tough when you're having to do it by request or service for a complete stranger, especially when in my case, meeting the client in person has literally between very little to absolutely no chance of happening.

Since every person is unique and not a lot of his/her actual personality or distinct nuances can be derived straight from a photo, it's easy to get complaints and other negative reactions when your designs don't quite get certain traits the client is looking for. A lot of the time, though, problems like these can be solved or better yet, avoided by proper communication. You can't fault a client for sending photos of himself/herself that may look good for them but don't really help much as drawing references. Expect that they expect you to be the artist and that you know what to do with them. Asking the right questions is key and knowing the specifics that I need to get a design correctly makes it easy and sometimes it's clients who ask the right questions or have a clear, definite picture of the character design in mind.

I've been very fortunate that most of the clients I've met through fiverr have a clear enough idea of the characters they need help creating and communicate them very well and yet are very open to suggestions for improvement.
Creating Captain Crossfit for my client, Mike, was a breeze because not only have all the
details for the character like costume theme and colors been specifically laid out but a personality profile and references for background objects were all provided right away.

I'm also glad that despite a timer to get a gig done starts immediately when it is ordered, most clients aren't in a big rush to get the art done no matter how excited they are about the rough drafts that I send them for review. Thankfully, it's also these types of clients who gladly hand you a 5-star rating.