Charles Manx - concept art/Character Design

At this point in my process, I feel like Charles Manx is one of the main images in my title sequence, hence why I have done further visual research compared to my other images.

My aim with these sketches were to create a dark character, and attempt to capture the features of the character by paying close attention to the characters description. 

I feel like because it's just the characters face that is seen, I don't feel the need to create full character designs for the whole character. I feel like I should priorities my time and mainly focus on the imagery that will be seen in my animation and the features that are relevant to my animation.

I used various reference photos that I had accumulated using Pinterest. I closely referenced the famous character that Charles Manx is loosely based off to have a starting point for the shapes of the facial features. 

Because the eyes, nose and mouth are a constant visual focus throughout the novel, I decided to detail these features the most. The description for this character mainly focuses on the wrinkled and dark eyes, and the crooked and old teeth. Cracks all over the face is also a key feature.

I tempted to sketch the face in the shape of a moon, because this image is part of a key scene in the novel. One of the other main, psychotic characters has a dream and looks up at the sky and sees Charles Manx's face in the shape of a moon, which is the image I want to capture and have in my animation.

I attempted to develop the image further by using fine liner over one of my larger sketches. I quite like how the features themselves turned out, but the shape of the moon needs further development. Maybe by adding craters to the moon would give it texture. 

Because I'm still unsure as to what medium I want to use for my animation, I'm trying to keep my concept designs simple so I can work over them at a later time. I'm going to stick with creating designs using either pencil or black fine liner because I can create depth and stick with the dark themes.

My next step is to develop my sceneries and figure out what medium I will use for my animation. I also want to look over my storyboards, because I feel like they're still quite complicated given the timing of the animation.