Barbarian Male by troysmithart on DeviantArt (original) (raw)

This is not a specific character, but rather an example of what a random barbarian *might* look like in the fantasy book I'm writing. The glowing gems he's adorned with are a pretty important part of the lore, as they're shards taken from a meteorite (and seeing as this is a rare substance, only an accomplished barbarian would be wearing them). I'm not too sure about this color palette, it looks like something is missing. Designing this guy was very tricky. This is a fantasy world, not a historical fiction. I want distinct looking characters. Because of this, I tried to pull from different cultures. I looked at Native Americans, Africans, Greeks, etc. and tried to make my barbarian look like its own spin on the trope. I'm going to do more research of actual ancient armors and come up with something I like. I'm sticking with the idea of glowing meteorite, but I'll incorporate it in a different way. I'm also going to make sure this material stays rare, as it ruins a rare material when you make it too common within a story's setting.

Note that "barbarian" in the context of this world is essentially any human that lives south of the border. These humans live in warmer climates and thus wear less clothing. Barbarian is usually not an offensive term in this world, as it also is seen as someone that is physically impressive (barbarians are buff is what I'm saying).

I'm definitely going to go back to the drawing board on this one, but I feel it's important to post some of my art that I don't love because I can still figure out what I do and do not like about it and learn from it. I know better than to chase perfection, but I'll know a character is done or close to being done when I can at least look at them and say, "wow that looks pretty cool."