Conjure Brief:

• Create a Conjure inspired by religious belief.
• The Conjure is to be human
  • They are to have markings/tattoos all over their body that start at their heart, and flow the rest of the body.
    • No clothing on the torso, as to show the tattoos.
    • The markings are to glow in a golden/reddish hue, to symbolise divinity.
  • The human is to be muscular, and have a beard and long hair, just to play into the stereotype and allude to Christ.
    • Face does not necessarily have to be shown, the tattoos are more important and should be the focal point.
  • They must wield a sword.
  • They must use a shield.
  • They must have a Roman style helmet, with plumage.
  • They must look unassuming - no angry expression and little indication of the overwhelming power within it.

Sketches and Ideas:

Designing Belief:

1. Over a posed model, I began developing Belief’s markings. I took inspiration from Norse tattoos for this. I opted to have the markings float above Belief’s skin, as to symbolise divine protection. The pose aims to make the focal point the heart, as that is where Belief’s power truly comes from.

2. Since the composition was a bit too wide, I bent Belief’s arm at the elbow, to help condense the points of interest and to help in terms of fitting the art on the card. I also added some glow, and began experimenting with how the hand was going to look.

3. I continually messed around with colour and effects on Belief’s hand until I ended up with this. I really like how the hand looks, and it truly comes across as though his power is being channeled into his hand. I also added a low opacity version of the markings in the background, just for some extra visual content.

4. To better the composition, I added some radial blur to the piece as it highlights the hand and heart. I also added some noise to the background as it helps to add drama and movement to the piece.

Lifeline Protocol

1. To begin Belief’s lifeline, I wanted to create a baseline for the symbol that would go around his head. I made sure that it spread out into spines, as to reference the glowing halo depicted around holy beings. I did the base for the symbol by placing equidistant circles around eachother, then adding spokes around the centre point. I then erased a lot of those, leaving some of the connecting parts, which leaves the pattern you see here.

3. My first idea was to make the piece showcase Belief’s raw power, referencing the hand once more. I felt like this was too similar to the default artwork however, so I dropped it. I also didn’t want people to think Belief’s shtick was its ‘magical hand’ either.

5. I then placed the symbol behind Belief’s head, which I think looks really good.

7. I upped the saturation of the colours around Belief to really make them pop, and I also added a layer mask that shows the symbols behind him gradating from the golden colour, back into magenta.

2. Overlaying the pattern in Procreate, making tiny little markings reminiscent of ancient languages, such as Hebrew.

4. My next idea was to use a pose inspired by Jesus’ crucifixion, which should serve to really emphasise the idea that Belief has become a holy being. To really sell Belief’s ascension, I wanted his markings to become actual parts of his body, like the tattoos mentioned in the brief. This helps to suggest that the power that was initially protecting him is now actually a part of him, he is the one dictating it. I also opted for a pose reminiscent of Jesus on the cross, to sell the religious aspects of Belief.

6. Experimenting with light rays and noise to make it look more divine, giving Belief a godly essence about it.

Final Artwork

Card Iteration History