Original character design: Namea the Lioness

This character was created for a monthly project set by Patrick Brown over on his Patreon. The brief was to draw an original character, and having a background in computer games art, which covered character design and concept art in depth, I was so excited to dive in and create some unique character artwork.

My fiancé suggested I create a character based on her zodiac sign, Leo. I thought it was a really interesting idea and after some Wikipedia research I was inspired by the signs history in relation to the Namean Lion from the Greek legend of Hercules. The lion was said to have unbreakable skin and incredible strength, and I thought it would be great to try and create my own Wonder Woman like character, with armour based on Ancient Greek warriors.

I decided I wanted her to have a unique weapon, and after watching Marvels Shang Chi I loved the idea of a rope dart, with a lions head weapon at the end. I decided to include a nod to one of my favourite games, the Witcher 3, with the design of the weapon being based on the school of the cat medallion from the game.

I also wanted her to have a stand out feature to give her a more iconic silhouette, and so by drawing inspiration from some fantastic art I found on Pinterest of a female daredevil design, I gave her a huge lions mane hairstyle, it really added to the mystique of the character.

In order for her weaponry to match up to her unbreakable skin and super strength, I thought it would be cool for her rope to be braided from her own hair, giving the rope incredible strength. I also gave the lions head bludgeon a mechanised jaw, so that it can be used as a grappling weapon to scale obstacles or even a deadly weapon against her enemies.

I had so much fun designing this character and can’t wait to design some more!