The power of changing the posture of the body...

 Now that I had developed the design of the head I wanted to turn my attention to the rest of the body. As much as I liked these different body parts when viewed separately, when placed together a number of problems screamed at me. The upper body wasn't working but also the whole thing was too static and upright and not even close to conveying the kind of attitude or stance I was aiming to achieve. I had to rejig the posture, so I decided to start by tilting the lower half (pelvis and wheel) forward (anti-clockwise) slightly which I hoped would accentuate the diagonals and make it feel more dynamic. I also pondered over making the front part wider to match the upper body however before doing this I wanted to take a look at the chest and shoulders.

Nothing about this part of the design was working, even where I'd suggested an arm socket might be placed (next to the shoulder pad) wasn't correct. I was just about to start sketching thumbnails for a new upper body shape when I turned my head and imagined the upper body also rotated anti-clockwise and connecting from the underneath of where the energy source is placed (in the stomach). I gave it a go and also lowered the left shoulder pad and changed the shape slightly, and then to finish, I tilted the head forward....

This was a revelation! 

I hadn't redrawn a single thing but the design had a completely different feel all of a sudden and was starting to show signs of how it could finish up.

Re-inspired and delighted with my persistence and perseverance I then started to re-assess what was in front of me and where I wanted to take it. Once again the head came to my attention as I felt the bottom was detracting from the should pads, so I went back and adjusted the design...

This shorter version I felt would fit on the upper body more comfortably...

Although these may seem like small changes they were integral in helping me continue to refine the look and feel. I now had a much clearer idea of how this character might look once finished so I thought it would be useful as well as fun to loosely sketch the arms, swords and a waist to give me a real impression of a finished design...

There's still some key considerations to be made such as how will the different body parts connect and how does it look from different angles, but at this point in time (especially considering how it was looking in the last post) I'm absolutely delighted with the progress and excited to see this design finished.

The more I work on this character the more I'm learning that things constantly require refinement and little adjustments. Often small tweaks are necessary regardless of how long you've been working on something it really can be a case of relentless iteration which can be a bit disheartening after having thought you'd cracked it only to see something still needs work. But, if you stick with it and keep asking the right questions eventually you will come up with a design that really works, and that moment is glorious!

Next I'll be looking to design the arms, hands and swords as well as figure out the lower half in more detail.