[choo]

CharacterFORGE 2D :: ROUND 030 :: The Loa
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: Any and all of the Voodoo Lwa/Loa (Haitian/Lousianian(?)/African) are game.
Race: Humanoid, Spirit (Demi-god)
Role: The Loa fulfill many different roles. Some guide souls to the place of the dead, others ensure victory in war, good harvests, and auspicious pregnancies.
Gender: Female/Male
Age: Many of the Loa were once human and ascended to a spiritually elevated status after death and transcendence. They can choose to manifest at any age or in any guise, but most of them have a favored manifestation.

Era: Modern-day, Current
World/Setting: New Orleans, 2012.
Tools / Artifacts / Equipment / Weapons: It all depends on the Loa you chose. Baron Samedi/Ghede manifests, for instance, with sunglasses, a top-hat, and a cane. All of the Loa have their own style!

Clothing / Dress: For this challenge we're asking you to revisualize the Loa as modern manifestations. The iconography of Vodou is expansive and largely depended on where you're approaching it from- African dress is typical for extremely traditional renditions and icons. Some are depicted wearing Romanized garb typical of art showing Christian saints and martyrs. Others are shown wearing modernized dress like suits.
Physical Characteristics
Height: Variable
Stature: Variable
Hair: Variable
Eyes: Variable

Personality: Variable
Characteristics/Traits: Again, variable. Every Loa has their own distinct personality, and of all the polytheistic pantheons, the Loa demonstrate the most 'human' and 'fallible' qualities. Some are fierce protectors. Other are serene. Some are foul-mouthed, lecherous tricksters. The most important thing to remember is that they all have their strengths and failings of their mortal counterparts.
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 open research challenge. We'd like you to take the time to look into the Loa pantheon to find a character/deity that most interests you. Have fun with the concept of very mortal-like demi-gods adapting current style and culture into their costume.


Here is a list of popular Loa and articles on Wikipedia.

Erzulie Dantor (Protector/Mother): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erzulie_Dantor

Baron Samedi (Loa of Death, Life, Healing):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baron_Samedi

Damballah (Life Loa, Serpent Deity):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damballa

Ogoun (Loa of War, Weapons):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogoun

Papa Legba (Mediator between the Loa and Mortals, Messenger Deity):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papa_Legba

Shango (Rain and Storms):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shango

DUE DATE: July 8th, 2012 12:00PM EST[/color][/size]




Yes, this is the James Bond rendition of Baron Samedi, but the iconography is still true!

[D-Dinosaur]

Picked out Damballa.. the whole snake-theme seemed really cool. Looked up some new Orleans snake species.. only came up with some cottenmouths. Thew in a python-themed version, but not sure if I'll stick with it.. pythons don't usually look like the smartest of snakes. :S

Oh, geeze. After looking at every body else's images, mine isn't really that modern for the theme.. Blegh! D: Oh well, I still had lots of fun with the design. (:
Final Image! :3

[GRAPEMONKEY-]

My Baron) No refs just keep in mind Papa Shango ) Jack Sparrow and The Mask (film) ow, sorry Captain Jack Sparrow))

[brynklord]

Need to work on lighting some more but I'm pretty satisfied overall! Gonna leave it as is. Critiques welcome!

[mayanew]

Here are a few sketches to get an idea for this challenge.
Great work Brinklord.

[Ironman]

Awaken Rage
Hello CGHUB community. I am new here and this is the first time i participate in the site. Hopefully i will try to participate in every challenges in this category, and get a porifolio using these great briefing ideas. Please feel free to critize and make suggestions about my work.
Really nice idea Grapemonkey!!
My Baron is waked up from the death, searching for reavenge. Could be a tortured slave, with magic powers. His name is Voodooslave
This is what i have unil now... How can i get it better?!

[mayanew]

Here is an update to my loa ideas.

[SevnthFloorArt]

Heres a super rough on my modern take of ogoun. In the wiki it mentions of the belief that he manifests as modern day dictators and such so I'm portraying him as an african warlord and hoping to add some of the other symbolism mentions like the saint george and the dragon bleed over and his penchant for rum and smoking. Also lots of weapons and ammo piled up as he is the lord of arms. Sorry that was a super run on sentence, but I hope I get time to do this some justice.

[Edouardrelou]

Nice work all!

@Grapemonkey really like the chest on his back...great character design
@brynklord I really like the setting you placed your loa in! I hope you will clean it up a bit more!

I'm gonna try to do damballa. An albino with a white snake buying his meal in a new orleans supermarked.

[Edouardrelou]

And my finished piece

[Eljay]

Decided to give this a shot, I've never entered a challenge like this before ,win or not, it'll no doubt broaden my idea developing skills at the least. Anyway on to the actual idea-I've decided to go with Shango after researching many of the Loa (even though it he was one of the suggested Loa's), the broad double-axe and the whole thunder God thing he has going on was far too tempting. Here is what I've come up with so far, good luck guys our stuff is looking tasty.


Here is a rough head design to get a feel for my manifestation of the character.
The red eyes feature,despite being cripplingly cliched, has a reason due to Shango's ceremonial colours being red and white I've decided to incorporate them throughout his design,definitely got to counter it with some cooler temperatures obviously , but I'll cross that bridge when I came to it and probably make use of them in the background.


Here is my designs for Shango's iconic Axe, had alot of fun with this one .Mainly I've gone for the Ram iconography that is associated with Shango plus a few lightning like spokes on the blades.

Here is the WIP of the final draft.


And here is the actual final, going to let sleeping dogs rest now. Enjoy and good luck guys your works are looking particularly awesome.

[Jukka]

Started doing my version of the Loa. I chose to go with Shango. He's sitting in an old room, holding a glass of rum and a double headed axe. He's dressed in a classy suit colored after the holy colors red and white. It's raining outside and a flash of lightning is illuminating the room.
I wanted him to have a hint of a gang leader or a mafioso mixed with some blues and voodoo.

Did one thumb first that was kind of blah. Decided to change the camera angle a bit to get a little more out of his character. Hope this gets things rolling..

[Cj_Marsh]

How did I not know about this one!?!?! Im already doing a voodoo type theme in the current drawing jam!!! If I can manage some extra time I will defiantly participate in this one as well!!

[danmasso]

Hi everyone,

So this is my first time participating in one of these challenges so I hope I'm doing this right.

I did some research on wikipedia and decided to do Erzulie Freda.

This is my initial sketch.


and this is the drawing before I started painting.


I'll try to get more progress to show.

Thanks!

[SevnthFloorArt]

Love your sketch danmasso!