Absko Design Concepts

My newest character, Absko, was long in the making, even before my other latest characters �kos and Azulon were submitted. I'm not entirely sure when exactly I started working on him, but I remember working on him a little after Amir was submitted, so around early January I think..

Let's get started shall we?

I always asked myself why the bad guy always had to be darker in looks so I grew quite fond of the idea of him being lighter than his good brother. I ended up going for a lighter design in the first image so he would also resemble his mother more. She was rather pale after all.. He also had unsheathed claws like a typical Outlander would have. It made him look more demented as well. I wanted to give him a nice mane as well, but that didn't work out too well.

I ended up not liking it and scratching the design for a while.

Then I came up with a new concept - a darker one. I gave him the same bruises and scars because I liked the placement of them and also because I already stuck to his history where a water buffalo attacked him and gave him the scars.. but it looked too sloppy and boring. His expression didn't suit his character as well - he was supposed to come off as powerful and indifferent, not depressing and dead, so again, I scratched the concept and took another break designing him.

Yesterday I finally wanted to finish this character and have him officially up on AS so I looked for some clipart and screencaps that I could throw together to form the perfect pose for this guy. I took Amir's pelt color and darkened it and added some other colors for Absko. I then gave him darker and additonal features such as the beard, black mane and thick, fuzzy eyebrows. Instead of resembling his mother, Absko now inherited most of his looks from his father who had a thick build as well and looked more like an Outlander instead of a king if it wasn't for his build and Pridelander features. I decided to give him a rather regal mane that would suit his personality. I scratched the idea of him having scars on his face and only gave him the big scar on his left hindleg which was still given to him by the water buffalo. I fell in love with his expression as it made him look stuck-up like his brother, unimpressed and unmoved. This described him perfectly. You can see how much he's changed if you compare his previous concepts above and I'm honestly proud to have him done.