My friend and fellow artist Bianca Olson designed these twistedly beautiful characters called Sisters of Sorrow that have always fascinated me. Her artwork (seen on the Left) is the particular sister that I chose to bring to life (seen on the Right). There was just something about how creepy and unique they looked with their elongated necks, torso and arms that that made me wonder how I would interpret these design choices.
One decision I was conscious of very early on was that I wanted to honor the decisions Bianca had made with the proportions of her character. While I would ultimately end up making a few adjustments here and there, I felt it was important that her core vision remained intact.
Bianca loves tattoos and has many of them herself. So I wanted to give her character several tattoos. I placed one on her chest, one on her lower stomach and one on her left arm. Now this proved an interested challenge because her arms are comprised of bone. Then I was reminded of the amazing game by Tim Schafer, Grim Fandango. In that game all the characters are skeletons and there is a tattoo artist that seems to inject the bone with ink. I took that idea and went a step further by having the tribal design actually carved INTO the bone itself.
As far as the other cosmetic choices, I felt my interpretation was a progression of the character. Where as Bianca's design was the starting point of the character, my design found her many years later where the world had turned into a much harsher place. It was a really fun project.
