Sometimes when you are deciding who your character will be, your drawings may not match your expectations. You may have the budget and a clear idea of what you want, but it just doesn’t add up. That’s when it’s time to bring in the big guns. Get some different artists (affordable ones!) and pitch your concept to them. Give them images as reference: clothes, physical characteristics, personality traits, or any other characteristic that is important for you. Sometimes this is called a character bible (well, we provided a small version to the artist).
Then, let them draw a quick sketch so you can provide feedback. Assuming that artists are “Highlanders”, then only one can survive. (Note: no artist has been hurt during the production of this concept art… at least, not that we are aware of 😉 )
You may or may not like the concept provided. It is fine! You are just refining your vision. As you can tell, we had plenty of different takes on Nyx and Gonzalo had a very clear vision of how the character was going to be. So he provided a full list with information, clothes, styles, characters that are related, personality, etc. Once each artist got the idea, they provided their version and he was able to select the one that was the closest to his vision.
But wait… Gonzalo also draws…he’s been doing art for the game…why are we paying anyone?!?! Yes, he does, but it is not his expertise. In fact, one of the examples shown above is his version… can you guess which one? (and no, he wishes that it was the final version in color… but is not… 😉 )
Finally, after selecting the artist that will draw the character and requesting some tweaks, a final version is provided and approved by the team. In this case, for Nyx, Max Grecke was the artist that transformed Gonzalo’s imagination into a solid character. He is an excellent artist; however, the road was not instant and some interactions and changes were needed before arriving to the final version, but we will talk about it on another day.
We hope this helps and let us know if you have any questions.