Venomspawn - Preliminary

The newest contest at Seventh Sanctum [link] is called Evil and Company. The goal is to portray one villain and his/her/its minions.

I have never tried to draw "villains" and "evil" before, so this contest is truly a challenge for me. I envisioned a sinister yet suave villain shrouded in shadows flanked on either side by his sinister minions... but how do you draw that? I had no idea how to draw evilness!

Well, after many a-go at the Evil Name Generator [link], I finally found my ideal villain. His name is...

Venomspawn the Hunter

Here is the preliminary sketch of Venomspawn. I did not want him to be one of those hideously deformed, monstrous creature that just screams "villain" on sight. I see Venomspawn more debonaire... if he wore fine clothes you would mistake him for a refined gentleman ...and yet there was something slightly menacing about him.

So I started drawing his body, and I really liked this pose. (This is actually the second pose I tried for him.) Then I started on his face and hair, which was very, very slightly inspired by Orochumaru from Naruto. After I got the basic details of his head done, I began working on his clothings.

For some reason with guys, I always start with their pants. Weird, huh? Anyway, I wanted to drawn on his title as "the Hunter", so I gave him a belt that was mostly inspired by Gauthicus from the webcomic True Magic. [link] Suddenly, "the Hunter" seemed like the way to go, so I gave him a tooth-necklace, added fur-thingies (protectors of some sort) on his arms, added fur trim to his boots, and changed his boots more to moccasins. But he did not yet feel "evil" so I added a fang and tattoos down both of his arms.

Now I have no idea where to go. I tried to give him a shirt, vest, armor, shoulder-guard... but nothing looks right. I have spent five hours on this sketch! And I still do not think Venomspawn the Hunter is finished...

HELP! I would love suggestions! Maybe he will be finished when I color him? I will use lots of dark shades to get that evil, sinister look.

Oh, and his minions? They are the Combat Hunters from the Legendary Sphere, which I will be drawing when I am finished with my darling evil villain here.

Other Preliminary Sketches:
Minion 1 - Capt. Saldoro
Minion 2 - Lt. Zalika

Coloring:
Stage 1

Edit: I've browsed DA for some references on various Anime-villians, and I noticed that sometimes the evilness is all in how the eye is drawn. So I have re-done VS's eye... made it a little narrower and bring the ride-side up in more of point. Fix the eyebrow a little, too. I think it helps to give him a slightly more smug and "sinister" appearance.

© Jacquelyn Fisher. 18-19 February 2008.