Ghost Pirate Character Design

.👻Ghost Pirate Character Design👻.

ILLUSTRATION concept characterdesign fantasy pirate ghost spooky Medibang Paint characterconcept

.👻About the Design👻.

This is an ongoing project as I haven't fully realized the idea that I have in mind. The original goal of this character concept was to create a vtuber (Virtual Youtuber) that had a unique backstory and design. The story behind them was that they were forced to become a pirate and unfortunately died young. In the afterlife, they decide to finally have their fun and take revenge on the living. Once they get bored they are introduce to the world of gaming and streaming and they become a streamer. Every once or twice a week, they would go back to the ship where they died to rest and recoup their ghostly essence. That would be when the person behind the character would have their days off streaming. I really want this character to be something special, however they have gone through a redesign and they aren't hitting the mark.

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.👻Sketches Part 1👻.

These are the original concepts I had for the character. It showed what I wanted their body to look like and what they might wear. This looked fine until it didn't. Something about the hair or just the way the body looked? I'm still not completely sure but I went on to coloring.

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.👻Colors Part 1👻.

Coloring was fine up until I put everything together. I had colored the hair first and then the clothes but they don't look right together. Then I tried to colors the eyes and still nothing. I added a gradient to the spectral hair but it made it worse. I wanted the colors to be complementary but they weren't looking right at all. At this point I gave up working on this concept for a few months.

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.👻Sketches Part 2👻.

A few months went by and I came back to the design. I felt like the old design was irredeemable so I tried to sketch out new designs. Keyword "tried." I could not for the life of me draw a sketch that I enjoyed They all looked stiff and terrible and I could not think of anything. I gave myself a couple hours to think about what was going wrong? I assumed it was that I had high expectations for this character so I tossed everything aside. I forgot the whole story and just kept the general idea that I wanted. A ghost pirate. So I came back in with a new mindset and got something done.

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.👻Colors Part 2👻.

This was the idea I had I created an entirely new sketch and took bits from all the sketches to create the character. From there I was satisfied and I went on to coloring. I went on to this website called "Coolors" which generated color palettes you could use. For this first palette I wanted to have mostly cool colors with a pop of warm somewhere. To be honest I absolutely love this color palette. It seemed very ethereal and fit the ghost vibe.

This second color palette was generated with mostly warm tones with a pop of cool. I didn't use all the colors in this palette and even added my own color in there. I adore these colors too but the character seems too "alive" to be a ghost which can be a good thing depending on the story. But now I'm stuck. What do I want to convey? That's a thought for another day.

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.👻Character Sheet👻.

Drawing the expressions was very fun, some of them even came out really cute! I tried to convey their torn up side to show that they are undead. I also wanted to show how the ghost in their hair changes depending on the expression. That's them finish for the time being. I'm sure I'll come back to this project and revamp it all over again.

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.👻References👻.