Aquatic Humanoid Character

Last Saturday's life drawing session led to a series of caricature and character design studies based on our model. It took close to 30 sketches ranging from 2-minute poses to 20-minute ones. I started the session with the usual ten small ink pen sketches, followed by four 5-minute ones. After two longer poses, I felt comfortable with playing with proportions and searching for a character design.

A key advantage to working small in my sketchbook has been the ability to take on the overall stance, proportions and other details multiple times during long poses.

This final design was completed in Adobe Photoshop using the original sketch as a foundation. Imagined her to be a muscular swimmer with plenty of insulation and buoyancy. Something about the model's profile and facial features made me think of someone proud and somewhat aloof. (That might also explain her nudity.) The name just popped into my head as I wrapped up the digital phase. Fun study.