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TeraSArt — Apollo - Character Reference Sheet
Published: 2014-03-23 11:08:27 +0000 UTC; Views: 5574; Favourites: 66; Downloads: 0
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Description
He's known by many names, but the Muses tend toward Apollo.I wanted to design him back when I was doing the character sheets for all the Muses, Cupid, and Arachne, but let's be real, Apollo is kind of a jerk. He couldn't be assed to let me know what he looks like until about two chapters before he finally made his appearance in my Rise of the Guardians fanfic .
When I was researching for my story and working on the Muses, I learned that Apollo was their leader, which provided such a nice opportunity to work them into the RotG universe. The entire premise of my story revolves around the Muses, who follow the sun while the Guardians follow the moon.
So, in my re-imagining of the Muses, Apollo decides who becomes a Muse or not. Each Muse was an inspiring mortal woman who died a death that caused enough of a stir to warrant immortality. The stories that kept her spirit alive created enough magic for Apollo to bring her back as a Muse if he so decided.
While the Muses see each other as sisters, Apollo is seen as something of a father figure. But everyone's got daddy issues and to say his relationship with his "daughters" is complicated is an understatement. Largely, the Muses believe Apollo has their and the world's best interests at heart, but his actions are questionable at times. He can be cold and downright dismissive of his "daughters" at times, and does not take kindly to his authority being questioned.
So yeah, Apollo! I tried to subtly incorporate aspects of Ra and the lotus is for Surya. The circle within a circle is the astrological symbol for the sun. He usually wears sunglasses, I think, but I felt like obscuring half his face was counter productive to a character sheet. I imagine his skin is actually a bit harsher than I have depicted here (only so much I know how to do with flat colors), he's spent too much time in the sun, obviously.
(oh, yeah, and I'm tagging this image with my new website URL before anyone tries to say "but these URLs don't match up")
My other character sheets:
Rowan Sawyer
Calliope - Clio - Erato
Polyhymnia - Melpomene - Thalia
Urania - Terpsichore - Euterpe
Cupid - Arachne
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Comments: 14
I really like the design, but overall he just seems a bit too...Orange. I know it's his skin tone, and probably my monitor, but the tone is just a bit off.
Other than that, the look is really amazing.
Now if only we could get some of the New Years Eve Ball outfits..^^
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I tweaked his skintone a lot, he probably is on the orange side, I think I'm okay with that, lol. But the difference between monitors is jarring sometimes.
Thanks though!
Oof, yeah, I'm gonna try to sketch some out after graduation, I'm much too busy to even think about it right now. But I do want to do at least some shitty doodles of the ball outfits.
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I don't see Apollo as a father figure [even for the muses], I see him as that guy that hits on 20 year olds at resort bars. Is that weird?
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I could see him enjoying resort bars, haha.
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Hi, sorry it took so long to comment. Been avoiding DA fr a while because... nevermind.
I like him! He kind of reminds me of Haymitch from Hunger Games, but with a tan.
I know I ask a lot of random questions(let me know if I ever get irritating), and a few have crossed my mind since I stalked your art tumblr. I noticed even when you zoom in to the face on your character sheets, the image isn't heavily pixelated, or at all, really, and it made me wonder what canvas size/res you used for the sheets versus a singer face portrait, or something huge like your Muse portrait.
I'm also curious who you use as face models for these people. I remembered some random tidbit where you had Winona Ryder as Mel in your head and I ran across a picture of her the other day and realized she kind of looked like her, and then it dawned on me you probably used her face for a reference. I was just curious, and was wondering if you had any good suggestions for both male and female people between 16 and 25, because I'm having a hard time keeping features consistent for my OCs, except to main one, whom I use Jennifer Lawrence. It's not that I really desperately need them, because I don't usually use refs but it's starting to bother me how one drawing's features look slightly different from another.
Lastly, I was wondering if it would bother you if I used things you've drawn a a base for colors. I know that sounds weird, but you've probably been through a ton f color theory classes, or something, and I have a hard time figuring out varying skin tones. I can get the generic peach,and a couple of different tanned versions, but beyond that, it looks really weird. I'm asking, because I noticed how you would make Mel's skin a more... ashy(?) color, versus Thalia's having a yellow undertone, or Erato pink. I just thought I should ask, before I save stuff to my computer because it would save me time and embarrassment to be able to pull the colors from there until I figured out how do do it myself the correct way. I'm not asking to really use your art, just the colors of the skin of the people in it. I respect your decision if you say no.
That's pretty much it, but I;m happy to see some new stuff from you on here! I also saw the WIPs of your grad pieces on tumblr, and I have to say, despite my intense love for your story and Rowan, Phantom is my favorite. Just.. that eye, man.
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Eh, no worries, I haven't been on dA much thanks to graduation coming up and just not having the patience for it recently!
I haven't read/seen the Hunger Games, oops! I'll have to consult my sister later, lol.
I always work at 300 dpi. It's pretty much the standard if you plan to print something and anything less than that seems so small now. Maybe what you're noticing with the character sheets vs the portraits is that these use flat colors and shading?
I pick someone as a starting point for all of them and modify from there. Winona Ryder is actually my face reference for Jack! Winona's voice is what I imagine Mel sounds like. I use Anna Speckhart as a starting point for Mel. Apollo started off as Clint Eastwood but idk what happened there; Cupid was supposed to be young Leonardo DiCaprio. As far as people in that age range go, I mean, I just hoard pictures of people I think have an interesting look or features and make sure I save their name in the file to reference back later. Musicians, models, whatever. Or even, sometimes I just know I want them to have a heart-shaped face so I'll google that and see who comes up. Don't be afraid of references. They're not a bad thing.
Use the colors all you want, that's totally okay. I don't own the colors, lol. I mean in my last computer illustration class, my professor encouraged us to take images with color schemes we liked and just take the colors directly. I take skin tones from pictures of people all the time.
Yeah my dA page has been pretty quiet since I don't want to post up my grad pieces until grad show actually goes up. And thanks! I don't know who my favorite is, maybe Nicolette.
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Stupid, non-working internet...
I noticed it when you zoomed in on Apollo's face for the ref sheet, but even then, I couldn't see the pixels of the sketch(which also made me wonder what size canvas you used). I mean, I usually can't see the pixels in my sketched on Photoshop, either, but most of them are portraits, because that's what I'm best and and I'm trying to use stuff I know I can do easily for earning digital art. But the ref sheets are 5 fullbody people one canvas, so I just wondered(unless the shots are of the face close-ups you put on the sides. I just realized that would make a lot more sense -_-).
I can see what you're saying, but you wouldn't believe how picky I am when picking a face, because I have a distinct image in my mind of what I want them to look like, almost right off the bat, so I've spent hours looking through faces before, like using Ashley Green for an OC I've had since I was 13, or Anne Hathaway for a pirate OC who was my imaginary friend when I was little(my god, she was such a badass. I haven't done anything with her in ages, but I had an idea for a short story, and she's pushing back.)
I liked the red in Nicolette's, and I have always loved her clothes, but I stand by Phantom.(actually, I made on of the screenshots of her my desktop, because love the picture so much. People ask all the time who she is, and I immediately direct them to your DA and tumblr.)
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Hi, excuse me. I hope i am not bothering you. Will you put other Greek myth figures like Artemis(she was mention in you story), Medusa, Hades, Persephone or maybe some from Egyptian mythology like Nut or Atum? I am just curious. I really adore your story and art.
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No bother! Thanks for your comment, glad you're liking the story/art. For now, the characters I've designed thus far are the ones I'll be sticking with, I think. I don't want to get too out of control and end up wanting to design all the gods, you know? There's so many! My strategy has just been to introduce more as I need them.
Artemis has been a bigger part of the Muses than has been revealed thus far, though.
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