Here I present the design and creation of Narve, a viking grave robber. A project from 2018 Year 2 of university.
Tasked with creating an "anti hero" I started drafting ideas for gangsters and minotaurs, but unsatisfied I decided to delve into my own country's history. I thought about torturers and warriors, but landed on a grave robber. I wanted to create a character who stood in contrast to the fetishized vikings of modern media. A grave robber seemed the perfect choice, for who better to grave rob than the vikings who buried themselves with theirs most precious belongings.
So I created a skinny young man named "Narve", shunned from his village. He shows a different part of the viking "image", no muscles, no double edged battle ax, and most importantly - no horns.
My creation process relies heavily on research. The first thing I do is decide what kind of "feeling/aura" I want the character to have and what narrative effect they have or are connected to. Then I start researching, I let the research guide a lot of the visual appeal of the character. Such as colour scheme, items, clothing, hairstyle, and to some extent, physique. I will of course have some preconception of what I want the character to look like, thus I tailor my research to investigate whether that would be possible in connection to the character's situation. For example, here I wanted the character to have a tattoo, but I was unsure whether or not viking actually had tattoos, so I did a lot of research, and most sources said that it was highly likely that they did, thus I started looking at what kind of tattoo and ended up with the imagery seen above, which was taken from an old Norse woodcarving. I also look at the state of the item/subject.
I start with concept art that portrays the feeling I want and then start narrowing in on details, such as colour, clothes and poses.
For a complete look at the process of creating Narve, take a look at my blog at: http://theaanimates.tumblr.com/
