Sketching: The Half-Blood Magus

The Half-Blood Magus.
Also on display in my DeviantArt.

The holidays being here, I shall continue to cook this idea in my head: a grand plan for an epic story. It is the continuation of this piece done long ago, and this guy will be the main character, the best friend of the Elf-King: the half-elf, whom I shall call Leon, as the Fall of an Empire's Leon would most likely go in indefinite hiatus. 

So, this Leon: an orphaned half-elf, who joins the Magi (I won't go into detail on that). Most could only harness magic only with staves, but this guy is one of the few who could do so without. Perhaps like Skyrim's bound weapons.

I already did some planning on the first pose, when I realized that it was quite close to the Assassin's Creed one I did before. Meanwhile, I was doing a Life is Strange piece... so this sank into hiatus. Man, I would use that word often.

Two of my references: Mannfred von Carstein for the pose. I really wanted to play that game but can't... technical reasons.

And Final Fantasy XV's Noctis. Handsome guy. Used him for the looks, naturally. Also would want to play that game, though I would doubt it, for the same technical reasons. 

Thus, back to the drawing board. Several poses planned before, and I straight off chose the one closest to Mannfred's pose.

First attempt, a bit disastrous. There was also a second try after that, however as I erased, turned out my eraser was quite dirty, and I would need a better eraser. So, a trip to the bookstore was arranged, and walked off with an eraser and 2H pencil to add to the collection.

That was more like it. Thinly sketching, then detailed it. 

Basically, that was my final sketch. Crosshatched in several places that I wanted to be darker, and I was off shading, from the usual top-to bottom with the HB and 2B. The planning and sketching took longest, where the shading only took around 2 hours from 5 to 6 hours, perhaps.

Finally, the traditional part was done. I scanned it, and tampered with the contrast and tones, and vigorously edited his face.

The result? Yeah, I'm satisfied. Halfway between manga and realism. But I'll leave it to you for opinions.