Dmc Stygian process

I was asked recently to show my process when its comes to design of a creature/character, I will be a doing a few of these over the next few days, I've just been getting all of the work together and organizing it chronologically.
Its been great going back and looking at all this stuff again, remembering all the head rubbing  and frustrations, lots of late nights re- iterating designs and over coming problems,great times, anyway here goes..

The Stygian

This was pretty much the first thing I designed that went in game as we needed to give Dante something to fight against.

 So I started out filling a few pages with thumbnails and silhouettes, Alex (my Art director) was keen for me to just explore, there were a few basic parameters from design if I remember correctly, Bipedal, soldier class, slashing weapon etc

 I started to think about a sort of old dirty looking exo skeleton or Armour that housed or protected a black slimy slug inside, sort of evil primal ooze, this then became  an oily viscous tar that would be constantly moving under the hard shell,  pretty Creepy I thought?

I really liked the idea of an over sized blob head as well so went with that for a while..

I remember showing these to Alex and the team and he asked me to continue exploring this idea.
that's when we started finalizing the materials on the suit, a mix of a ceramic  or porcelain, some kind of treated wood and metal.
The second phase in the sketches saw the drone becoming more masculine a more typical warrior physique.
There was then a quick chat about proportions and we thought a more androgynous approach could work, something more unsettling perhaps going down the horror rout.
 that pretty much led to the final look of the Stygian, elongated limbs, swollen doll like head, with an occasional sticky tentacle flicking out from under the protective out layer.

and this is what we finally went with.