Introducing Baron Samedi...


For my next character I really wanted to create a character based around skulls, when searching the internet I came across a character called Baron Samedi who I recognised from the James Bond movie 'Live and Let Die'. He was also featured on a fighting game Cameron had sent me a link for called 'Smite'. I researched the different incarnations and designs Baron Samedi has been given over the years and decided I wanted to start by creating my own reference material so using a broken brush handle, my own jacket and my partner Rach's daughter May's top hat (that was a helluva sentence!) I got Rach to take the following photograph...


Then after some more research I found a more appropriate hat, face and also a necklace and superimposed them on to the image above, then started drawing...


Here I had the bones of my design so I roughed out the following drawing keeping in mind the lesson from the last character about proportion...


I wanted him to be tall and thin, I also decided to add a snake which is in some of the other designs wrapped around the cane so drew mine wrapped around the shoulders and body...



 This was good but I felt he could be taller so I stretched the design more...

Baron Samedi is known for loving tobacco and rum so I thought it would be cool to add a rum bottle to the design...

I was very pleased with this so far, I felt it was dynamic and well balanced. Next I went on to draw a final line around the rough design before considering adding colour. I also changed the design to the top of the cane and adjusted the angle of the hat slightly...


Above you can see some of the colours I selected for the painting stage, I wanted a bright purple for the areas that are in light and a darker purple for the shaded areas. I will share the final design and more about the process in the next post.

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