Vroenfael armour redesign - concept sketch

*for anyone who doesn't know them, Vroenfael here is a male Krovendrakk, an alien-derived species of my own design.*

So, Vroenfael's external metallic parts had been in dire need of an update.
I had designed the old version ages ago, back when my designs were even worse than now, and also when Vroenfael himself wasn't yet fully developed or nailed down as a character in terms of his face shape, markings and physique.
I had redesigned Vroen himself not too long ago, and finally got his build (in all his awkward gangly glory :'D) sorted, as well as his fur texture - he is now a semi-shorthair as many of you know, with elongated accented fur on his ornamental tufts (esp. his elbows and ankles) and long sleek fur on his tail. He is of course now a Kårstatt-Renvor dual phenotype hybrid too as you'll also know.

Still, I found that not only was I less and less fond of his old armour design, but when I went to draw it onto his new look, I liked it even less - it was too clunky and awkward, and of course it obscured too many anatomical details such as joints, muscles, tendons and veins... which I didn't approve of, since I've come to love drawing/showing loads of such details on my Kroven-noodles. Also, the armour didn't work WITH his body, and some of it seemed like it would impinge on his movement, and for a critter like this that would be disastrous. :'D

Plus I thought too that there was something a bit more, IDK, childish about parts of the design... like I had just thrown things I liked at it without trying instead to focus on what complemented his design and what was believable for the species. It seemed like a case of "lets throw locks and cogs at it because I like those", even though in the end I realised that this just didn't suit him. Cogs aren't impossible for Krovens, but his were too big and covered some of his muscles and to be honest looked like they'd get in the way of functionality, plus even if they are possible (like on Reivana), they just didn't look right on him.
Not to say he can't still wear the odd bit of steampunk jewellery if he fancies, but he no longer has built-in cogs as part of his design. (plus I hopefully like to think there is still a vague steampunk look to him... just a little bit, well I guess to all Krovens a bit since they are partly biomechanical after all - haha, nature's own cyborgs! )

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So yes, I wanted to make his armour a little more original-looking, as well as making it suit him better and look right with his design, rather than just flinging stuff I liked at it as I had before... tried to put a little more thought into it.

Also, I wanted the armour to look a bit finer and to show more of his anatomy since it's fun to draw (well, of course it's inevitable that the metallic parts will obscure some details, but nowhere near like before), and I also wanted to have a bit more of a subtle alien feel to it - which I hope comes across. I hope. :'D

Another thing I wanted to address with the redesign was the fact that his old armour design was horribly asymmetrical... I swear his right side looked half blank! :'D That needed fixing... since with Krovens although the armour doesn't have to be 100% symmetrical in all aspects, it should at least look somewhat balanced - e.g. Habicht has three chains on one front leg, and three manacle-type bands on the other - not the same but it is at least balanced.
Vroen is symmetrical now and balanced in design at least, no more "everything-seems-to-be-on-one-side syndrome." :'D
Any jewellery etc. could be asymmetrical but at least now his actual external armour is balanced in looks from one side to another.

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So, bit of a breakdown...
(I just sorta scribbled here in order to design things, so apologies if some drawing techniques between different armour bits look inconsistent, this was more of an exercise in planning and design, will eventually draw him with proper shading and stuff, but I figured it's better to know the design properly first than to one day make a proper drawing only to realise that actually, I don't like that design, and have to redo it again, and the proper art would then be invalid or inaccurate. DO NOT WANT.
So yeah, messy design trial instead to save pains in the long-term. :'D)

I still tried to keep some parts or aspects of the old design, just tweaked - he still has a ring around his tendocalcaneus as before, but now has one on both legs instead of just the left. His neck plates are also the same basic shape as before, but are now smaller and finer (to go better on his scrawny neck :'D), and are jointed now so they can flex and bend*both anterior and lateral flexion/bending* with his movements and don't remain stiff and awkward like they would have before. His chest armour does still have a little section of chain as a nod to the old design, but the rest is a lot more slimmed down now and streamlined, and not as bulky and awkward(indeed, often you can't see his chest armour at all from the side depending on how his fur is sitting, but I hinted at it here just a little), plus I got rid of that cliche-as-fook lock on his chest. (I promise I'll draw his chest armour neater one day, this was just me planning basic shapes out and designing crap)

He now has BACK AND TAIL SPINES too. Couldn't help myself, and I must admit that I kinda love them. <3 THOSE ARE STAYING. PERIOD. :'D Though I didn't really colour anything here, his spines do darken towards the tip to near-black. His spines are also mobile, and he can raise or flatten them like a crest. They could have some self-defence purpose, but actually, they're not ideal for that - Adler's spines, though much shorter, are sturdier and also a bit sharper, and are non-mobile so they could withstand a lot more force if driven into someone. Vroen's are a bit too... wibbly... for that, for want of a technical term. (that said though, they're sharp enough and would still make most potential attackers think twice... not that Vroen would fight much, preferring to use those stilt-legs instead to avoid arguments.)

Little rib-snips of metal now too, for shinies... and also it shows the angled Kårstatt-type rib shape quite well too. Bluh, you can see the rest of the stuff without me really needing to describe it...
And heh, you don't even want to know how long it took me to come up with the armour on his front leg. So many failed doodle attempts until something looked right. :'D Still maybe not 100% set there - I may play around with the exact lengths, thicknesses, proportions and angles, but I'm fairly sure I have AT LEAST decided on the basic shape I want for his lower forelimb, which is a big thing at least because it literally drove me crazy for days trying to figure out something. :'D But yes, if tweaking occurs it will be more of a minor thing.

Also, I think his new armour is actually EASIER TO DRAW, believe it or not. And it looks better from different angles and poses, something the old design kinda failed at. But yes, I find it easier to doodle now (partly too because instead of just looking glued-on like the old armour, it corresponds to anatomical landmarks which can be a handy guide for placement of the new armour).

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ALSO, A NON-ARMOUR SURPRISE!
You may notice something is up with Vroen's mane. Well, I was just scribbling about and playing around absent-mindedly when I made an accidental black streak in his mane, and the streak looked good. So I added a few more, and I must admit that I liked it! See, I think it may have been missing from before since his tail now had more black on it*plus he now has the black markings around the base of his claws too unlike his old look), and since I shortened the extent of the blue on his mane and desaturated it a fair bit, it may have made his mane look a bit pale (it is supposed to be a bit less heavily marked than his tail anyway, but maybe a bit too much before). I think it goes nicely with his tail, and also with his dark ear tips and dark pigmentation smudges around his eyes.
I am not sure whether to make this a permanent or an optional feature (like a glitch in his marking regulation that sometimes shows up - Vroen retains a tiny bit of the colour-changing abilities of his ancient ancestors, but it's limited to black markings *hehe, automatic corpse-paint too - need to draw that*, so this may be a glitch of that - the other black markings like his tail, ears, claw-bases and eye rims are permanent though of course - but I may well make this permanent since I like it so far and think it makes his design look more complete, like adding the black-tipped goatee did for Valke, heh... sometimes it's the little things.)

AAAAAAAAANYWAY, I hope you guys like this, since so far I do!
If there's anything you really hate though, don't be afraid to say, since if I can see what you mean, it's not too late to change it since this was of course a trial-doodle and is recent, so not yet set in stone, so to speak - no proper ref made yet so no harm done if something needs changed.
I will admit though that I do personally like it, and he now feels much more like my alter-ego again, and what I'm really glad with is that he's now turned into a design I WANT TO DRAW again, I had neglected his full Kroven form for a while as he was undergoing tweaking, but now I actually want to draw him, and he's started appearing on lecture-note doodles again. <3 Hope this is a big step in the right direction then! ^^

"Art" (such as it is), character, species and concepts belong to Vannjaren