Character Design for Moonlings - The Other Side

I have begun character designing for my moon aliens. To get inspired for their appearance I looked at meteorites and sketched the outlines of the shapes I saw:

Some Meteorite examples:

 

I then sketched out some character designs and I was happy with the appearance of this guy:

Thinking about the conditions on the moon, there is nothing to sustain life like water or oxygen, so I decided my alien to be an organism which has been brought to life via bacteria inhabiting a rock form. The arms and legs of the character are just chains of interlocking bacteria, and their eyes are just craters. My character looks quite scary and sinister yet the big eyes make it look harmless, cute and quite pathetic. Big eyes were also vital because these characters live in the shadows for all their life.

I then began to create digital renderings to get a feel for them in colour:

Render development:

I started off with this colour render:

I love the soft brush on the eyes and the almost "glowing effect it gives". I also love the squiggly line effect inside the body to give a rock texture.

I tested him against a tester background to see how he situates within it. I wasn't 100% happy yet with him yet, he needed something extra.

So I gave him some shadowy eyes, but the squiggly lines seem to be a tad distracting in this rendering, I still wasn't happy.

Using the blending brush I tested a moon patterning on the surface of the rock, but It didn't really look very effective, he seemed to flat as a character.

Taking it to the other end of the scale I used an intense shadow effect on the edges and under the eyes layering the opacity, but I felt this was far too dark.

These two developments only include shading on the outer edges of their body, which looks effective and not overpowering.

So I developed on this idea of simplifying the rendering process and I am happy with my results.

And decided finally that this was how I would render my alien. There are squiggly details on the edges to make the surface of the rock and enhancing this creepy sinister feel. Yet I like how the centre is all one placid colour, its more aesthetic to look at, and more professional in appearance.

Layer development: