Venus Project: Character Design and Concept Art

I'd like to start posting works in progress more, as that's something I've never done in my many years as a freelance artist. My latest commissioned gig seems like a good opportunity to post some early stages of the animation process. Hopefully some will find this interesting and I'll do my best to keep the updates flowing and share anything I can.

Project only has working title right now, so I'm just going to refer to it as The Venus Project. A longtime client/friend of mine got a budget together to make a little animated short film based on a book by his friend. I was humbled and quite honored to be involved in a piece of work on this level. Lots of creative freedom- so I find myself at a good stage to share some of the development process. I've been working on character design/possible style choices and seeing how well it mixed with the futuristic city I built as the setting. Mostly just playing with color, light, and style. Most of these will not be the final look. I tend to do this sort of experimentation before attacking a storyboard, as I like to understand the limitations and strengths of the chosen style. I plan to animate this character frame by frame and combining it with the pastel 3d imagery. Lots of ad hoc playing around happening for now.

Testing the extremes of lighting/shading with the city and train scene: