About two months ago, I received two art tests from a small game company called
Wicked Loot. After waiting and getting permission to post the successful second art test, here it is: the entire development breakdown of designing the parody character "Sonic the Rockstar".
References
Sonic the Rockstar was once an amazing musician, top dog and known to all, but as time passed he started losing his vibe and now he relies on drugs to keep his "high".
As the ref sheet above implies, I searched all the different Sonics I could think of, looking for pose, the style of shoes, and art direction. From the get go, I envisioned the parody of this character to be human - making Sonic the Rockstar a hedgehog would just be the same as Sonic the Hedgehog... - but I included hedgehog refs anyway...
I knew Sonic had to have a mohawk - it fit with the original Sonic's hair, spiky things - therefore the rest of his design would probably be punk based. I also looked up inspiration for a unique and iconic guitar (Zakk Wylde's ring guitars came in mind). Pose was important, too - looking up dynamic, action poses of famous guitarists was fun. :D
Sketch Phase
First step I took in designing the character was costuming and colour. I messed with several ideas, even a classic rock one for the heck of it. I kept the colours true to Sonic the Hedgehog because the important aspect of this art test was to have the original influence shine through the design - people had to look at him and know he was a parody of Sonic the Hedgehog.
Next step was poses. Technically, all I had to submit was one character, but the backstory Wicked Loot provided for this guy was strong, so I felt it would be better to submit two poses: Sonic's high and when he's not on drugs. :D
These were the poses I ended up choosing. This was the cleaned lineart page and then...
Final
... this was the final!
I had so much fun designing this character. The backstory and designing a parody character in general were very amusing. :D
