King James IV (I)

More Guido Designs

Guido Fawkes Facial Expressions and look

In these early development and research stages I think it is good to imagine his facial looks as these re very important for emotion and being recognisable. I have used a technique that I heard from Splash Damage when they were designing Brink, characters faces and heads were combinations of celebrities features. These features were exaggerated due to the game style and created the faces. In my case I won’t be exaggerating however I will be changing facial hair and faces. This design I have done is a painting to see what it would look like, I really like the look of Andrew Lincoln off the new Walking Dead and so used him, the other person I tried to use was Johnny Depp due to his crazy facial expressions. I feel the end result leaned more towards Andrew Lincoln but I like the look!

Guido Fawkes designs

Here are three more detailed designs taken inspiration from a few of the things I have talked about and seen at the armouries. I am going to create more of these as they take about 10-30 mins each and so can be designed quite fast and they show enough detail to go on from. I was also thinking more about my rendering in this one, I started from a human template from the art book I have taken from the library. In this sense I could design Guido in different body shapes, from skinny and toned to full out bulky toned and big boned. I also am yet to explore colour.

Transport and Ideas

The major transports around this time era was ships as the naval was a big thing,and of course horses which contributed to nearly all land transport either carrying goods and people or pulling carts or carriages. These images were just to have some more reference of horse poses and positions and also a ship scene. As I am thinking of design some modes of transport, I felt these good to get me started to thinking.

Mask and Helmet IDeas

Earlier I was looking at creating a character mask for Guido Fawkes much like the on in V for Vendetta or Dishonored. As a rough source of inspiration I thought of taking pictures of strange metal masks or helmets, the ones in the pictures are Dutch helmets that I felt had a more dangerous and different look about them. The really strange helmet is one of Henry VIII’s jousting helmets for tournaments, I might see what else i can find as I am sure there will be some more strange helmets in that as the jousting was to show off and perform to the crowd and other royals.

 

I like the shape of the helmet with the almost wavey shaped top but it is given the sense of dragons scales or of similar. The large eyes holes meeting low in the face give the effect of an angry look in the shape eyes make.

 

Henry VIII’s helm just gives a sense of discomfort with its strange wide eyed expression and strange glasses and horns. However this is the kind of thing I want to see to give inspiration for a mask that looks scary but also discomforting. The grin and smile also gives the same effect the mask of Guy Fawkes does, a face without emotion.

Clothing Details

These images show items I believe are important, especially the boots in which I like the details I they have and they are a large portion of design for the legs as I am designing high boots, I will look as slippers as well as they were popular in this time, with both the Spaniards and English. I also focused on taking pictures on things such as has the greaves and knee armour joints connect and work or how the materials are layered. One interesting thing I saw has how the sward was holstered on the hip with a scabbard and how the scabbard looked, items like these give me greater inspiration and ideas.

 

I really like the boot on this soldier, I think he was either Spanish or English, the soft decorated cloths and lace behind the heavy armour create a nice contrast. The boots folds and crease are very nice and I like the idea of spurs on the boots, after all Guido Fawkes might need to be ready to jump on a horse. The reference is greta for me as I always struggle with rendering clothing and so when it comes to more final designs these images will help greatly.

Swords and Shivs

These are weaponry mostly in the 17th century however the crossbow slightly before and some weapons in the 18th century. Of course swords became less and less used as a weapon in the late 17th and 18th century due to guns and cannons, but a swords essential to my character, quite often mercenary assassin type characters are depicted using sharp implements due to the fact they are silent and also the point that it takes more skill to kill with them, especially to get up close to someone without them knowing. I believe Guido Fawkes needs a sword and so I have taken reference for the patterns and details of sword handles, hilts and blades. There are also various shapes and sizes to consider, curved or straight, small or large. Quite interestingly they had a small exhibition on the making of the Lord of the Rings swords in which they talked about sword design and hw the blade balanced, while it wont be a physical prop it would be nice to consider details like these.

One item I saw which I felt suited my character well was these small knives, they are the early bayonet ends used on the end of the guns but they looks like really interesting knives due to the shape of the blade. They look very much like arrow heads and it gives the sense of a great stabbing instrument.

Guns and Gadgets

The majority of guns I found were 18th century, the 17th century had guns but they were huge and literally had to be rested on fences or barricades de to the size and kick they gave off. In the 18th century guns became much more smaller and refined, pistols became possible as well as double barrel guns. The images I took were focusing on the triggers, stoppers and barrels to see how the guns look and use these design in my owns gun designs. Despite not being developed to this extent in Guy Fawkes’s time I want him to have a gun such as these that at the time is a revolutionary gadget that is within reach of technology in the time making it more believable.

 

Below are a pair of double barrel pistols, still huge and long but I feel that could be quite an iconic and cool design having a gun that perhaps is too long wielded in one hand, much like Terminator 2 and the shotgun.

 

I like the busy and interesting firing mechanism in this picture below, I could play on the fact the weapon would be top edge technology and have it a bit more bodge jobbed with tape and rope and  cheap items holding it together.

 

This rifle is decorated all the way down its barrel and shaft, the firing mechanism also has lots of decoration on in engravings, agan I feel this could be used to make him and his weapons stand out from the crowd.

Here is the image of an early 17th century gun, this has a hook/stand to balance of fences or such items to reduce kick, the weapon is huge and impracticable.