Nausica Ferrova

CHARACTER PORTRAIT

This project involved the creation of a high-fidelity character portrait for a private TTRPG commission. The objective was to visually manifest Nausicaa Ferrova, a 25-year-old steampunk mechanic, through a portrait that communicates her technical expertise and intense, obsessive personality. The final piece serves as a primary visual reference for the client's role-playing sessions, blending industrial aesthetics with a high level of character-driven detail.

WORK PROCESS

Moodboard

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Brief

The client requested a character with an obsessive and hyper-focused personality, characterized by short messy hair, brown eyes, and asymmetrical mechanical arms starting from the shoulders. The steampunk-inspired attire required an oversized off-the-shoulder cropped jacket, a halter neck tank top, and round mechanical goggles. Key narrative elements included a "fierce" attitude and a pose that felt natural to her trade, such as pushing her hair back while holding a symbolic wrench to emphasize her role as a professional tinkerer.

Design Solution

The process began with eight initial sketches exploring various poses and goggle placements to define Nausicaa’s attitude. During the transition to clean lines, we identified a loss of the "fierceness" present in the original sketches, which I resolved by narrowing the eyes and adding defined pupils to restore her killer instinct. The final phase focused on material rendering and color balance; I warmed the skin tones to avoid a pasty look and integrated realistic oil and grease stains on her face to ground her in her environment. This iterative feedback loop ensured a final result that balanced technical precision with the character’s gritty, mechanical soul.