Got a character design assignment for you today. My take on the Tin Woodman from L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
People tend to think of the Tin Man as a jolly children’s character. In the actual book, however, his origin story is rather dark. The Tin Man starts out as a human woodcutter, but the Wicked Witch of the East enchants his axe to cut off his own limbs. Every time he loses a limb, he replaces it with a tin one, until he has no human parts – hence the missing heart.
I took that strangely dark story as the jumping off point for a Gothic-inflected design in my initial character sketches. It didn’t quite work, so I went in a more natural steampunk and cartoon direction with the next two – the final design is a synthesis of those.
Here are a few head sketches:
And some orthos for the final:
I’m rather fond of the uncolored ink drawing too.
One Comment
Hello David, your robots are fantsastic !!!! Have you received my mail (write you on Gmail).
ciao
Massimo