Character Brief: The Captain - Research and Concept

For the captain project brief, I decided I wasn't going for the basic 17th Century pirate Captain. The theme the brief offered was too open ended and gave too much room for interpretation and creativity to not take advantage of that. 

Being used to and pasionate about history and fantasy, I had never really tried something sci-fi or cyberpunk themed, so I decided that this is a good time to experiment with it and hard surface details as well, since it can't be missing from a cyberpunk character, right? I also decided to make the character stylized, since I enjoy it and the last year character project didn't allow me to go all out with the sylization and show my own style.

I first did some general research to get an idea of what I wanted to do. I thought I would take something familiar -  a pirate -  and place it in a context where it would normally be odd: the future. How would the environment affect him and how would the concept of a pirate change in order to fit the new environment? 

The story of my new character gradually took shape in my mind as I worked on the concept: In a future where the social classes have returned in the shape of conglomerates versus the normal people, I young orphaned boy steals to get by every day. Until one time he is caught and beaten almost to death by the authorities for stealing an insignificant amount of money from a rich man. The boy barely survives and is left disabled: his right leg is broken and gets infected, so it has to be removed and his eye.. let's just say it's missing. He makes up fot these through prothetics and cyber enhancements and as he grows up he becomes a pirate in order to steal more than a few pennies from the rich. 

I did a bit of research into prosthetics and got some references to make sure my design is accurate and functional.

I also brought into my moodboard one of the characters I began sculpting during summer, to use her as reference for the type of stylized I wanted for this character and maybe this way showcase my signature stylized art style. 

I wanted to keep the basic shape language and visual symbols of a pirate: The tricorn hat, the longcoat and the peg leg, while completely reimagining them in a cyberpunk context. 

These were the iterations I came up with:

I chose the last one, a mix of the second and third one, as I think it brinks together all of the best details from the other iteration while conveying the visual image I want. 

I also detailed the face, to have a better idea of how I was gonna sculpt it. I chose some photos of a guy from Pinterest that I thought fit the vibe of my pirate captain and observed his features in order to exaggerate and stylize them. He had to look young, maybe a bit too young for a pirate captain, yet still demand respect. 

This is the final concept: