Today, I am happy to share the process and steps for my contribution to the Dungeons & Dragons supplement, The Wild Beyond the Witchlight. This contribution is none other than the goblin with a caramel head, Chucklehead. Chucklehead was described as a little goblin with an apple head. There was also a piece of concept art provided as a starting point for this little monster. Here is the final painting for the Chucklehead.
With the concept art and a brief description of the character, I got to work on some thumbnails. There was a lot to work with, and I was excited to do something fun with Chucklehead. He was described as:
"This goblin works in the Goblin Market, trading toys to visitors. He has a toffee apple for a head, with the sugared glaze chipped away to form a jagged mouth and eyes. His apple flesh is bruised and rotten, and he has a maggot companion who lives inside his head."
This was enough to get my head spinning with ideas for this piece and a chance to breathe some personality into this character. It didn't hurt that characters like Warduke and Zarak were being introduced in this supplement, and as they were favorites of mine from the 1980's toyline, I wanted to see if I could have some fun and combine them all. Here are the thumbnails that I submitted.
I will be honest, I really, and I mean REALLY wanted to paint option 'A.' Chucklehead holding some action figures of Warduke and Zarak would have been the BEST. But sadly, it was not meant to be. Even though the character was described as trading toys with customers, Production wanted something more reserved. They wanted Chucklehead to be more of a stern boss and not depicted holding or touching toys. As much as it crushed my dreams of painting a Warduke action figure, I knew what needed to be done and got to work on new thumbnails that better fit what I was being asked to create. Here are the revised thumbnails for Chucklehead.
While I was not thrilled with these new thumbnails, they were what was asked for, and option 'B' was selected. With a thumbnail chosen, it was time to get started on the drawings. I got some additional reference together and got to work. Here are the two stages of the Chucklehead drawing, the mid-stage line art, and the final rendered drawing.
The drawing was approved without comment, and it was time to start painting. I will be honest, even with reference, even with thumbnails, even with a drawing, I was not happy with the look of Chucklehead's folded arms. This character has weird long arms with some unique anatomy, but even taking that into consideration, it still felt off to me. Even though it was approved, I knew I needed to make things right going into the painting. This meant shooting more reference and reworking the drawing as I began the painting. You will notice the new arm arrangement happening in the early stages of the process. Here is the painting for Chucklehead taking shape.
Once I fixed the arms, the painting was straightforward. The concept art for this character was in color, so I had a lot of the work done for me regarding what color clothes and skin he should have. I wanted to make sure the entire piece had a green cast to it. It felt like it worked with this piece. The painting was approved without comment, and the arms change was never brought up. Sometimes you need to get in there and make things right because if you don't, you will definitely hear about it. I wish I had the time to have done more for this book, but if I only had one piece to do, I am glad it was this one. Here again, is the final painting for the Chucklehead.
That's all for another exciting Wednesday on the blog. See you back here on Friday! Until then...
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