Scrapped Concept Art

Before I started No Black Plume, I tossed around several ideas for webcomics. One of the ideas was a fantasy/RPG inspired one. For various reasons, it was scrapped. However, I still had conceptual drawings for fifteen characters, and today I thought "this is a good chance to practice drawing." Inked in Paintbrush.

Character Description: Rafein, the Swordmage. Proficient in melee and magic. In theory, he is the most powerful fighter by a slim margin, but so distractible, neurotic, and phobic that he is virtually useless in practice. Also, as a Swordmage, he has the worst defensive stats of any class.

Out of battle, his quirks carry over to social skills and general function. Though very bright, he lacks the ability to make even rudimentary use of his intelligence. Rafein has a True Neutral alignment, as his actions do not trend strongly in any direction.

He is in a mercenary band with Jeryk, Minari, and Lucine. As the only one capable of learning healing magic, he is mostly relegated to support.

Design notes--
As you can probably guess, I took my inspiration from Tetsuya Nomura (the guy who does the designs for Kingdom Hearts, the later Final Fantasies, The World Ends With You, etc.). Hence, lots of useless crap that looks cool.

I went with a chibi looks since these are supposed to be comic characters and they shouldn't be taken too seriously.

"Duskbringer" is a cool name. And it's based on a particular sword I own of which I'm particularly fond. He wields it backhand so he can more rapidly switch between physical and magical assault.

Oh, and "Swordmage" is basically just Red Mage, but not trademarked.

I think this turned out better than most of my earlier drawings. This time, I AM an illustrator, and I expect to be criticized accordingly so I may improve.

I'll probably post more later (since I've done such a great job of following up on that in the past). If nothing else, I'll add my original lineart.

EDIT: After mulling it over, I have decided that if nothing else, this shall be my official OC. Unless I come up with a better one. Which I won't.