[choo]

CharacterFORGE 2D :: ROUND 029 :: The Tarshian Ambassador
Important! Please go over Plagiarism and other FAQs for these activities.

And..check out the The Challenge RULES

How to Attach Images
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Name: O'oro'te ''She-Who-Speaks''
Race: Tarshian (Amphibious Humanoid)
Role: Grand Ambassador of the Tarshian Empire, She Who Speaks
Gender: Female
Age: Ooooooold by human standards, though Tarshians that are in excess of a thousand years old are still able to breed and perform all the duties of their younger counterparts.

Era: Space-Age, Space-Faring Futuristic
World/Setting: Galactic Confederacy: A highly evolved system linking inhabited planets together through huge space stations and faster-than-light transport vessels.
Tools / Artifacts / Equipment / Weapons: A staff of office. Partially/fully hidden water-circulation apparatus.

Clothing / Dress: Tarshian ceremonial dress is lush, detailed, and expansive, with designs and colors that are reminiscent of their swampy home planet. Multiple layers of brightly colored fabric are typical, usually heavily brocaded and embroidered- sometimes with simple designs, other time with full tapestry depicting their ancient stories and sagas. The clothing is neccesarily huge to hide/accomodate the fact that Tarshians are forced to wear water circulation apparatuses to keep their skin cool and moist at all times when they aren't on their home planet.
Physical Characteristics
Height: 7'0
Stature: Thin, Willowy, with pronounced secondary sexual characteristics (The amphibious equal to large hips/breasts in human females.)
Hair: None
Eyes: White

Personality: Serene
Characteristics/Traits: (ENTP - Extraversion/Intuition/Thinking/Perception) The Tarshians are a majestic, ancient race of space-faring amphibian humanoids. Through careful regulation and diplomacy they have grown to become one of the most powerful races in the Galactic sector, made wildly rich by their trading know-how and the inexhaustible resources of their lush home planet. Ambassadors are elevated almost to diety-status in their culture, so O'oro'te has all of the aspects that required for her job: intelligence, erudition, serenity, and wisdom. She carries herself well, fully aware of the importance of her position.
More on the Briggs/Meyer personality types:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myers-B...Type_Indicator
and
http://www.myersbriggs.org/my-mbti-p...mbti-types.asp

BACKGROUND NOTES: This is a multifaceted challenge, in that we are asking you to come up with a cohesive character design that both illustrates your take on an amphibious humanoid AND a cohesive cultural 'look' for her costume.

DUE DATE: June 13th, 2012 12:00PM EST

Please note for the ''inspiration pictures'' - I picked these images not because they show you -how- her costume needs to be constructed, but to perhaps give you a few ideas on types of robes/designs.

[Amaakir]

Definitely in on this one, awesome character brief, Choo, it's the jolt my brain needed to get working on some creative character design

[system404]

Cool topic, and great character brief. Here's my initial sketches, just playing with shapes and silhouette. I was thinking of making her dress a mix of Abe Sapien/Dune's stillsuits with some very "airy" fabric.

[Lotsaluvin]

@system404 - diggin the long neck and costume so far. I like image 2 the best though its a little stagnant. Maybe a more dramatic angle? just my 2c.

[system404]

Thanks Lotsaluvin! I like 2 also, I like the symmetry of it though. I would change the arms a bit to break up the balance and she definitely needs more of an s curve to the body to not look so stiff.

Started working on the head and trying to define the character. The initial head sketches were done just as an exploratory test, they came looking too close to the mass effect character. Not a big deal since she will have a giant headress/helmet. I gave the eyes some puffines and slanted them to give her a more alien look. The color is very temp, I came across an awesome toad reference and wanted to try the colors on her.

The headress/helmet is not quite there yet, I like the different surfaces but I want to push the ornamentation a little more. I like the idea of the pipping to be the conduit for keeping her wet.

[maxdav]

system404 - Your designs are great! Especially the head-piece variations. Really nice blend of organic and artificial.

I've done some quick rough sketching. Just playing around with shape and how she might appear in her role. Not incorporated the sci-fi water elements yet. I plan on keeping them pretty subtle - the odd pipe here, an LED light there. We'll see. Also, she'll have to have water trickling down her face from a rail on her forehead or something, I guess.



Oh yeah, and a couple of studies for when it comes to painting her -

[choo]

Great start on these concepts! Very excited to see what you come up with.

System, please check your PMs.

[nylelevi]

System 404- Your painting skills are awesome man

[Lotsaluvin]

Interesting that no one has tried to tackle the secondary sexual organs other than assigning human ones. I was curious to see how that would be handled.

[maxdav]

Originally Posted by Lotsaluvin

Interesting that no one has tried to tackle the secondary sexual organs other than assigning human ones. I was curious to see how that would be handled.

To be honest, I was wondering what the frig they are :P When I see frogs, er, getting it on in a pond, the only difference I can see is that the female is bigger.

http://www.eoearth.org/article/Amphi...d_reproduction summarises what I can find on the internet. Just external fertilization yada yada... no physical characteristics that could be transferred to a design. Any pointers would be great! :P

[choo]

I could've been clearer for that part of the brief and will do a bit more to 'open up' that aspect.

There's several ways you could approach it. The use of 'humanoid' sexual characteristics could be seen as a appropriate and the easiest option- simple stuff like hip/waist ratio, symmetry of features, etc.

In the animal kingdom there are lot of different evolutionary approaches to expressing health and genetic viability- size, color, display (feathers, scales, discoloration of sexual organs.)

Getting vague at this point, but there's no saying that the Tarshians didn't evolve into a matriarchal society where its the females that actually display the colors/organs/patterns usually reserved for males. For example, some male frogs and toads have a vocal sack that inflates and can be used for display and calls. Nothing saying female Tarshians can't have something similar to this.

TL;DR- The sky is really the limit on what 'secondary sexual characteristics' you want to go with, but don't let the 'amphibian' part of the brief limit your options.

[Tsayar]

Great work so far! This is a really interesting challenge, so here comes my initial sketches. I'm going for a pretty ethnic, diversely patterned and embroidered look, with many layers on her robe. I think that it might need some more sci-fi elements, though. I'll see where it goes.

[Aeronik]

Ah, the taunting glisten of partially concealed slime glands...

[C0nker3]

hermmm... my progress....

[choo]

I won't be officially entering the challenge, but I'll be doing some work alongside you guys )

first sketch trying to establish the silhouette i liked most out of my thumbs, with noodly detail work trying out different ways I could break up the details of the metal 'cage' and misting machine.