Digital DND character study - Cal Irestorm

[acecadet]

I've posted the progress for this character on my art thread, but I decided I want to try to make this a long term project in character design and *UGH* digital painting.
I love character design. I hate painting. Hopefully by marrying the two towards Cal I can actually improve at art.


The character -

Cal Irestorm

Real Name: Calypso Falk
Disgraced captain charged with treason for refusing an immoral order. This also broke his paladin's oath.
After escaping custody he makes his way into the Aetherial Expanse, where he joins up with the current party as they do a lot of mercenary work for his former alliances.
He is lying about who he is from the moment he joins, pretending to be a smuggler.
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The Falk family have spent generations operating a metal business, one that has made them rich supplying the empire's armoury. The advent of rail has cemented the family into the nouveau riche for the last generation or two.

After three boys in a row, Cal's family was surprised by twins. His sister, Caspian came out first. The mixup wasn't discovered until much later (The twins were a surprise, period. The family had superstitious reasons for wanting to stop at three kids) but by then, paper work had been filed and people already /knew/. And Mr. + Mrs. Falk couldn't really be assed to change it either way, pretending they had meant to do so all along.

As the fourth son and fifth child, Calypso's life was one of 0 expectations. Cal was kept away from the family business and spent his youth/early adulthood sneaking off into pubs, theatres and coffee shop, under a false last name. He managed to keep a low profile when some unexplained trouble wound up causing a scandal in his home city. Calypso was given two choices- become something other than an embarrassment and make something of himself or make his home in the gutter.

Cal decided to take the first option to the extreme. He joined with the military, primarily patrolling borders and disputed territories as a means of getting as far away from home as possible.
Calypso found a real purpose in the military. He was recognized for bravery under fire, holding an important post against impossible odds with nothing but a hammer. This feat garnered much recognition. Calypso served for ten years, taking an oath of protection, justice and obedience to the soverign-general. By his own grit and determintation, Calypso became a captain with a 10 year military record that would make any man proud.

Until the order. Captain Falk was ordered to march on a small fishing village and raze it to the ground for the crime of harboring rebels. Cal arrived at the place but found nothing that would suggest any kind of insurgency. The village was small and populated by a desperate population. Cal ordered searches and interviews with the locals instead, finding nothing that could suggest they were doing anything more than surviving their day to day lives. The Captain ordered his men to return home, leaving a small garrison to support the village instead. He was prepared to face the consequence of his refusal, but treason went beyond anything he could have expected.

Cal's oath breaks for his disobedience. But Cal knew slaughtering a village of innocents would have broken it anyway.

The story finds Cal months later. Fugitive of the law. Wanted for refusing to commit slaughter. Oathbroken, pissed about it and desperate to find some way to reclaim what he sees as stolen from him.

Or a story in two pictures: Before and after

Critiques are welcome. There's still something wonky in his jawline to my eye.
Also I hate lips, why are they so hard to draw.

What's weird is that the close crop looks way better.
That's a face you can definitely trust! (probably)