Pearllight prototype design pages

Getting back to you from my last post, where I mentioned about my newest project at the end, the Pearllight Prototype drawing. But before I post the official pieces of work, I'd like to share the sketches made during last week's early stages of design.

I started off with the helmet first, since that's the most important part. In the upper right corner is my first design, made quite some time back. When I designed it, Pearllight was still considered a bubbly, somewhat childish character; so I drew what seemed to fit my mood at the time. But later when looking back on it, I felt she needed a few adjustments, leading to the final results, (bottom right corner in the above image).

 Going on to her hair blades. 

I'm not normally one for weapons design, but it was fairly simple drawing the hair blades. (based off the gold and blue blades from the Bionicle Tarix set). The first design had little thought involved, and didn't fit the style I was going for; so I thought about it a little longer, and drew up the second design (possibly going to be the official design). A quick tip, the handle of the blade is retractable; it shortens to clip into the bun holders on either side of the helmet

I had to think a little harder about what the torso would look like. After taking reference from the Iron Man suit, and a few Gundam models, I managed to wrap my head around it. Designed with my shape in mind, I did my best to design a suit that fit the human structure; and agreed with natural movement.

The arms came out quickly; I based them directly off the leg designs of the suit, and added compartments for holding whatever you want. The arm compartment (activated from inside the suit, but Pearllight prefers using the hidden buttons on most occasions*) is actually an idea that came about over time. My character always carried something useful with her in story line, so the arm compartment was an instant invention for where she held pretty much everything.

Hands were a no big deal design. The sketches may not be official either, though I've come to like the second hand design most. The hands have plasma disks built in the palms, and like the feet, they close when not in use (see shoe sketches below). All plasma disks are used for flight, and as weapons.

I had to go through many sketches before making a final decision on shoe style. I wanted something both fashionable, and useful. I had to make it some type of platform high heel since the shoes function is to let Pearllight run faster, and jump higher without hurting herself. After designing for awhile, I came up with an ergonomic looking platform shoe; with a spring loaded heel and toe front (spring loaded toe front isn't noticeable in the design). 

On the bottom of the shoe (lower right corner in the above image) I show the plasma disks and stabilizers.

The toe front, and heel itself have a plasma disk that can be activated from inside the suit. As I said on the last paragraph, they're for flight and fighting.

   

 I looked at Gundam models to mostly help me with leg shape. After viewing a few pictures on Flickr, I got the clew what they should look like. At first I gave the ankle cover a point, but decided against it, since it restricted natural ankle movement. So I tweaked the design, and made a more ergonomic ankle cover (lower right corner in image above).

On the back of the calf, there's a compartment that can either hold a weapon, or serve as a flight stabilizer at certain speeds. Again, this function is activated from inside the suit.

The thigh armor was relatively simple, with added thigh compartments; an extra that I've always included with my character. The most common thing held inside these compartments are plasma guns on either side; that can stun, paralyze, or kill (they're always set on stun). There's even enough room in these compartments for small blades, and bombs. 

Unlike the arm compartments and calf compartments, the thigh compartments can be activated by pressing the eject button. A little note though, since there is dangerous material in these compartments, they're set on lock mode from inside the suit; only Pearllight can open them.

*One final note on compartments; the calf and arm compartments can be opened manually if needed, but you have to know where the special buttons are located.

Sketch positions are pretty self explanatory from what I wrote on the design pages. After sketching for awhile, taking a break for a day or two, then sketching some more, I settled with what I felt was a good introduction pose for Pearllight.

Hope you enjoyed the walk through of my design process. Stay tuned for the official proto Pearllight. ^-^