I drew bunch of characters for the same project I posted a while ago.

Again, I won’t bother you with the details as that would take a few thousands words, and nobody ain’t got time for that.

In a nutshell, I was trying to imagine how characters from a game set in your usual post-apocalyptic scenario would look like. That is, without being your cliche post-apocalyptic-world villains.

To be honest my research started with what I HAD to stay away from.
For example, this or this or this.
The wastelands looter is kind of an established and iconic look, so thinking of something original wasn’t the easiest of tasks.

So, imagine that sort of environment, where civilization has ceased to exist, there are no infrastructures, no production facilities, no government.
Basically no other way to survive than scavenge what remained from the previous society and steal what others had managed to muster.

In short, a world where there is a very short life expectancy.

In terms of “fashion”, in an environment where death is such a likely event, (and being alive a source of pride on its own) I figured that:

– characters would like to wear the trophies of their past encounters. Like, you know, a don’t-fuck-with-me sign, but also as a form of showing such pride.

– they wouldn’t socialize with each other easily, preferring to keep at a distance before engaging with a stranger. That would probably entail a whole code of well-readable signs (tattoos? Body art?) for strangers to read.
Stuff like “I’m good at traps, I’m a trader, I’m groggy in the mornings, I can poison your family” and things like that.

– People would combine parts from all sort of objects into something completely different. So, a stove door into a face mask, old typewriter parts combined into a hat, etc.

– a whole lot of paraphernalia would be integral part of the character’s clothing. Carrying luggage around wouldn’t be the most practical of things in a dangerous situation, so all sort of tools-weapons-tradable items-food and whatnot would be somehow “embedded” in their clothes to be ready to use.

So, these were the first sketches.

I was kind of happy with the direction, so I drew a few portraits just to have a feel of the setting and establish a mood.

I meant them to look somehow devious, (with a hint of “kinky”?) without falling into the cliché’ of the wasteland thug who just kills you because that’s what they do.
Morals wouldn’t be a thing in such a setting, but I wanted it to be reflected in more subtle things than “I’m evil therefore I wear spikes and a Mohawk”.

Anyway, that’s where my research ended. I had a while lot of characters ideas in mind but I had to move on to other things, so this is pretty much the end of it.

Huge fun up to that point though.

by Paolo Puggioni