More main protagonist designs

Today, I have been trying to develop the character of the main protagonist which I still have yet to name.  I have done several drawings of this character to try and develop him.  Here is the first drawing that I did today.

In this one, I tried to see what the character would look like without a helmet and with a hairstyle, and to see if I could create a greater balance between the caring nature of the character and the warrior that he was designed to be.  In this design, I also made him more butch and in proportion compared to my previous design.

After looking at the work of comic book artist Bryan Lee O' Malley, best known for the Scott Pilgrim graphic novels and also the novel Lost at Sea, I decided to draw the character in his style.  Largely because I like his rigid and linear drawing style and his very stylised character designs.

In this design, I decided to display the character's eyes for the first time to see how they could effectively convey emotion.  The drawing was left incomplete but the curvy line in his left hand symbolises a possible weapon.  I decided to draw him holding the potential weapon fairly loosely, to show that he is not quite at one with this weapon or the violence that it was made for.

Here is the third drawing that I did of this character and my favourite one so far.

This drawing follows a similar style to the previous one, but in this, I decided to further develop the innocence and possible naivety of the character.  I actually based this character on an image of the character Atreyu from the first Neverending Story film, pictured below.

I decided to base my character on Atreyu, because Atreyu is a very youthful and boyish character; however, he has a few very strong warrior traits.  I also chose Atreyu as a reference as like my character, he innocently lives his life, before he is summoned to fight against a force.

I am probably going to develop the protagonist and the villain character as very youthful characters with strong warrior traits.

I have also been looking at possible arcade games the could be the basis for the game that these characters exist within.  I do not want to use a game that already exists, obviously for copyright reasons, but it would be useful to look at arcade games that have been successful and popular, particularly in the 80s and 90s.  I have come across this compilation on youtube that may also prove useful when coming up with a style and colour scheme.