When creating a character the silhouette is one of the most, if not the most, important foundation to set at the start of the design phase. Through silhouette you can build the shape language and identify the key features that make your badass barbarian warrior stand out in the crowd.

For this particular exercise I wanted to make a Dungeons & Dragons PC for a new one shot campaign my group was going to play. So I started gathering references of iconic orc depictions from World of Warcraft and Lord of the Rings.

The shapes used to create them are composed of mainly large squares and hard edges. Even if you were to show no detail in the center of each image, they captured the sense of danger the character brings to the table. I’m a fan of the cartoon proportions in Blizzard Entertainment’s orcs so I’ve stolen their hilariously large shoulder pauldrons, tusks, and greatsword. Tolkien’s orcs are menacing, which is not the archetype I want my heroic D&D character to display, so I downplay the influences of the famed servants of Sauron. But I do enjoy their faces, so I try to incorporate some of their facial features and scarring into my own design.

After some revisions, the shape of my orc comes together and I can start adding detail values to flesh out his individual armor pieces and decorative spikes. In the end, I’m happy to play this gentle giant at the table!