Alien Fisherman - Concept

As the title suggests this is the first instalment of a series of developmental blog posts chronicling the conception, refinement and finalisation of an alien fisherman.

I've been needing a concept to develop into a 3D sculpt for my research assignment and showreel and this is he. I knew I wanted a classic alien-looking character and I was gathering images from Star Wars and old kids shows like Plasmo for inspiration. Despite presenting my eyes and brains with such delicious eye candy I really wasn't getting any good ideas so I fell back on my method of just drawing shapes until something is spawned upon the canvas and voila! it worked once again - I was given this as

a starting point:

Click to embiggen.

I was really liking the design at this point, he was unique and simple. Now, I honestly don't know what lead to the next stage of this guy's design but I decided that I wanted him wearing wading trousers. Wading trousers are hilarious, the image of huge pants hanging off a slim frame by means of only two shoulder-straps has always tickled my funny bone and it makes for a distinct silhouette so, go time.

Click to embiggen.

Obviously drawing baggy trousers is not one of my strong points but he was starting to look more like a character, and that was all I wanted at this poi

nt, I knew I could stress over drawing good-looking wading-trousers once the concept had been finalised. Of course, now we have a fisherman without a fi

shing rod which is... unprecedented to say the least. I knew I didn't want him to have a humanoid fishing rod as I feel like I'd just be placing an alien head on a redneck fisherman which would seem more like a shallow punchline than an interesting character.

Click to embiggen.

Regarding the fishing rod (which I'm referring to as a "rod" purely for my own ease), the mechanism works as such; the end of the rod emits a force which holds the bait in place and also emits a light which shines a spotlight on the bait attracting the fish. Once the bait has been bitten the indicator lights on the shell of the rod signal as such and a button is pressed which projects the harpoon out, piercing the fish.

And so, after a few more minutes of colouring and about thirty or so minutes total, I present the concept of the alien fisherman:

Click to embiggen.