I’m wanting to use AlphaBooks as a way to really push my character designs and part of my disappointment with this drawing is that it’s pretty squarely in my character design “comfort zone.” I initially explored a more Olive Oyl-esque design (right, below), but sort of naturally drifted back to more familiar territory:<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.benzilla.com\/uploads\/2012\/05\/Brienne1.jpg\" "\\"Brienne\\"")
<\/a>In the book, Brienne relates being mocked by a group of knights who would present her with roses, ostensibly to woo her. She never actually lops off one of their hands–but she probably should<\/em> have. While Googling to find passages from the books that describe her, I was pretty stunned to find that the actress who plays her on the TV show is a model<\/em>. There’s obviously a lot of room for interpretation when it comes to visualizing a character from the book, but there are two things that are 100% part of Brienne’s deal: she’s big<\/strong> and she’s ugly<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<\/a>I also am wanting to use AlphaBooks to work on exaggerating pose and gesture. This pose isn’t terrible, but it’s still a bit stiff. I managed to get the shoulders and hips at opposing angles–which is a “must have” for most good, dynamic poses–but she’s got a pretty stiff spine which lends her a fairly static “line of action.” I struggled a lot with this gesture for sure, as you can see here (progressing left-to-right):<\/p>\n<\/a>Additionally, I had to tackle chainmail, which I’ve never really dealt with (well, other than goofy childhood D&D drawings anyway). I found this great tutorial online <\/a>which helped a lot. Curiously, the most successful chainmail in this drawing is my very first whack at it, under her arm:<\/p>\n