Ignis.

Part 1/6 - The Framing Device (The Family)

       Part 2 - Style | 3 - The Sicilian Assassins | 4 - Buttercup and Westley | 5 - The Prince and the Count | 6 - Florin Castle

Around two years ago for my final year of college, I was required to pick an existing story to imagine as an animated adaption. So to make sure it could hold my attention for a whole year, of course I chose The Princess Bride.

Let’s start with the grandson from the movie is all grown up telling the story to his own kids. 

The Dad’s design is inspired by Fred Savage, who played the grandson in the movie, combined with a softness and reliably dorky impression that the project calls for. The book talks about the author’s father and his own son while the movie depicts a grandfather and grandson. But the Princess Bride is a story that has something for everyone, it’s not just for little boys. The two children express the idea, further driving it home with their differing personalities — The Princess Bride is for Everyone.

Side note: I needed something to tie their designs together and keep them cohesive, so I thought bears might be a funny way to do it (please get the joke) 🐻🧸🐼

For the kids’ bedroom, I wanted to eliminate the barrier of bed and chair so that a growing closeness between the father and his kids could be literally depicted as the series progresses. I took cues from retro interior design (wood panelling, colours, etc.) and modern design (light wood, shelving/divider, platform, etc.) to create something contemporary but would carry with it a nostalgic undertone.

Part 6/6 - The Kingdom of Florin

      Part 1 - The Family | 2 - Style | 3 - The Sicilian Assassins | 4 - Buttercup and Westley | 5 - The Prince and the Count

The seat of power for the Kingdom of Florin is a Military Fortress built on top of a seaside cliff.

Instead of elegant Gothic spires which was popular during the 15th and 16th century, Florin Castle is a bulky and imposing fortress reflecting the Military nature of the country, its simple people, Buttercup’s prison-like experience, and its ruler — Prince Humperdinck.

One of the challenges I encountered for the castle design was keeping the colours saturated enough to match the palette of the project while keeping the emotional geography of “prison” in tact. Although a violet palette was explored, the red brick that is common in Northern European architecture gave a more militaristic no frills impression that is more in line with the Kingdom and its Prince.

After many sketches, I realised that a country celebrating its 500th anniversary would probably have a castle built far before the current century. So incorporating a bulkier Romanesque style Keep as the castle’s foundation is what finally made things come together and give it a solid direction. Since Florin is a Militaristic state, it would make sense for them to continually be making Military advances, so one of the Castle’s most recent evolution/natural progression is a towards a very early prototype of a Bastion Fort. This makes Florin castle the most advanced, secure, and fortified structures in the land while upping the stakes for the infiltration during the near end of the series.

Fun Fact! While looking for references of Danish Castles, I came across an old map of Kronborg Castle. (Just google "old map of Kronborg castle", you'll see it right away) I thought it looked super familiar and I realised that it actually looked very similar to the layout of the Map of Florin and Guilder! So I included the bonus map I was required to submit.

Harry Potter.

Another forgotten one from a year ago (2016) deep in the drawings folder.

A mini project I did based on a wedding I attended in a dream 😁

The Knight’s final design is a combination of the two versions I uploaded 😊 

Although I’m not very satisfied with how I painted the illustration, I learned a lot and the app werble is pretty awesome.

Demon Prince Kazuhiko ☄️ and Na-chan 🌠

The last two party members of the After School Demon Fighters Club.

Na-chan is Reiko’s best friend and Aki-chan’s third cousin. She has three older siblings and two younger ones. All of them, including her parents are geniuses. Natsuki, unlike the rest of her family is very outgoing and affectionate but just like the rest of her family, is extremely intelligent (although in her family they consider her the least intelligent due to her lacking a “focus”). Na-chan is very active in her extra-curricular activities often participating in school musicals and is the Public Relations Officer of the student council with her best friend Reiko, while also excelling in her academics and is at the top of her class, second only to the her hardworking best friend. Na-chan is very popular because she is genuinely nice and helpful to everyone. She loves stargazing and has a keen interest in astrophysics but also in music and dance. She is a DPS magic user and due to understanding of science (especially Astrophysics) she is naturally able to understand how her magic works better, amplified by her ability to connect with her feelings through the performing arts, she is by far the most powerful party member (After Reiko can no longer shield her from their After School Demon Fighting activities).

Kazuhiko is the final member and is one of the many children of the Demon King. His pink hair and vermillion eyes are natural while he has the ability to hide his horns at will. Reiko forges him a fake identity as her cousin. Because of his personality, everyone in school thinks he’s a gang member and is a part of the Yakuza, indadvertedly causing everyone to think that Reiko and her father have direct ties with the Yakuza, much to her exasperation. Kazuhiko wields dual swords but he always says that he wield a trident, because he considers his body as a weapon. He “keeps” his swords in his jacket and when he summons them, they disappear from the print of the jacket. He unashamedly loves it when Na-chan plays with his hair, and styles it in different ways. Kazuhiko also doesn’t understand why human men must wear pants.

The Mysterious Woman from my modern-fantasy project, George

The King.

Some vis dev of the King of the Kingdom for my current personal project, George.

Part 5/6 - Prince Humperdinck and Count Rugen (The Prince and the Count)

     Part 1 - The Family | 2 - Style | 3 - The Sicilian Assassins | 4 - Buttercup and Westley | 6 - Florin Castle

I loved Chris Sarandon's curls so although I eventually went in the direction of a shorter cut for Humperdinck, I wanted to keep some sort of waviness to his hair. I also wanted to make sure that it was clear that Humperdinck is a hunter and at the same time have an almost wild and animal-like feeling to him so the wavy hair helped bring it to that direction.

In the books Humperdinck is described as "weighed close to 250 pounds, brick hard". Although in the books he is not tall, I did not want the leading antagonists of both the first and back half of the series to BOTH be short (Vizzini and Humperdinck). Felt like I would be sending a not so good message.

For Count Rugen, I went with black so that there would be a transfer of association from Man-in-Black/Dread Pirate Roberts/Secretly Westley in the first part of the series to Count Rugen later on. Diagonal slashes on clothing was a more northern style plus it makes him look even more like death which is in line with the whole Executioner-Grim Reaper direction I wanted to go with him.

Differentiating him from Inigo was also important. So although I went towards a thin direction for both, everything else about them is a contrast. While Inigo was meant to have a flamboyance and a certain “Fencing is life and my passion” feeling, for Count Rugen the idea was that although he is a master Fencer, his purpose is death and fencing is one of the ways he does it kind of thing.

Here’s my version of Mark / the Tactician from FE7.

I know that the devs were just having fun and that there's no way Morgan from Awakening being Mark from FE7 is ever going to be canon, but it IS a fun idea to just play around with 😁

(Please notice my Easter Eggs.)

Egyptian-Mesopotamian inspired dress concept for one of the characters I'm making right now.