Re design - Hunter + egx visit

Here's a few line works for the Hunter character/look. I started this project not knowing what direction it would take. Early on in the project I created some designs of 'Musket Knights', however after having a really helpful chat in the Creative Assembly section at egx I realised that the early designs lacked the story telling that my later work has that I use to to help everything fit in the world I'm creating. This was clear once spotted but had gone unnoticed until then.

 
Here are the designs that I'm working on re creating. This project started out as just a simple idea of 'Knights who have muskets', so that's what I painted. But from there I've created a somewhat of a story and history to what I've been painting as I've kept in mind previous concepts and thought about how these designs would translate into a game. This thought process and wasn't around at the time of painting these characters as my idea hadn't fully developed yet meaning the designs lack. They no longer serve their purpose in my opinion as they don't look like hunters who are about to venture into the woods to track down witches and other mystical creatures. They're just knights with guns.

So re design. I know know based on the world I've created so far that-
1. The world contains very deadly creatures
2. Hunts can last a long time, so you'll need equipment 
3 The main character will have to know his stuff so they might look older
4 Hunters of mystical creatures is a profession in this world

Keeping these points in mind I've started to create designs that have more thought of who the character is put into them.
The character won't be young and already has experience in hunting deadly creatures. Meaning he has some battle scars and his clothing/armour wont be in pristine condition. Evidence of his former battles can also be seen in items such as charms made out of creatures teeth attached to his bag or feathers from possibly fighting a griffin like creature in his hair or tied to his sheath.
As Hunting creatures is a job I've also though about possibly having factions that can be displayed through the badges the hunters wear or sigils on clothing.
I also cut back on the armour. Armour is tricky to put on and limits movement/ sight so a full set of armour would get in the way when trying to track down creatures. However armour is 'cool' and it's alot of fun being able to upgrade and change it in games so I'm working on creating a believable look that is the best of both worlds.

I've been exploring some ideas with three iterations of the character so far. When talking with Rebellion at egx it was mentioned that they like seeing these varieties that come from using the same initial sketch but duplicated and altered. This obviously saves time for myself and allows me to do more design work.
As I want to show these starting sketches possibly in a portfolio, I put some effort into figuring out a presentable way of displaying them.
The final display of the sketches are at the top of this post but to show the extra steps that I took to make these sketches pop a bit more I've added in the version below that has no thought to presentation below.

The designs are the same and would still serve their purpose as a sketch to start painting on but without adding in the background and gradient overlays they just don't stand out as much. I've learnt this semester that presentation can really help sell an idea and it's worth putting time and thought into. It's another aspect of my work that has continued to develop as I've kept trying to push it further and further. It's something I'll continue doing as it could help my portfolio stand out and then once hired it would help my concepts stand out and hopefully be picked.