Sunday, July 4, 2010

Character: Rosie the Necromancer


Meet Rosie, the most powerful, ruthless, twisted soul on the Obscura Academy of Dark Magicks. Befitting her vile profession, she uses her macabre talents to make the dead her puppets, defile the sanctity of the last repose, and...

...Aw, I can't do it.

Basically, there was another nice CHOW contest over at conceptart.org, and while necromancy is certainly a more than trivial social issue, I didn't really want to go the dreadfully serious route...

Click for full image and huge "Making Of" article!


click to enlarge

So this is Rosie having a chat with her secret tutor, because to be an ace necromancer, you have to know the right people... Like, the people who know a thing or two about being dead.

Anyway, these two seem to get along well together (expect more saucy details further down in this article), but this wasn't always the case. In fact, Rosie might have been the sweet, bookish type all along, but originally she thought differently about our reanimated friends:


This was her first sketch, and while the personality seemed quite right to me, the whole necromancy aspect seemed to begin and end with the one prop she has under her butt.
In fact, the color sketch was so-so, and pretty boring, so I didn't even bother to finish it:


Ready to give up, I sat down another time (grazie mille per incoraggiarmi, Ambra!) and tried one last approach - which came out surprisingly well. Not that anyone'd be able to tell from this messy scribble here:


Yet the whole thing looked actually not bad. Here's a quick run-through of the various coloring/shading phases:

(click to enlarge yet again)

And the rest is history :)

Oh, and one more thing.
While this image might seem perfectly harmless and cartoony (hell, it even seemed that way to me until the final stretch), don't try to think of the unfortunate implications this image might or might not have. Don't overinterpret the context, and most of all, don't go around looking for any seedy innuendo that might or might not be hidden in this image.

Because there is none. I'm not a weirdo or anything. Ahem.

Anyway, I really like the Rosie character and will certainly use it again, maybe in a different context. I have at least one composition waiting to be done with her in it. Stay tuned!

And I hope you enjoyed the read. Comment if you like it, I'd appreciate it a lot!

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