Character concept : Tibetan mountain guide from 1940

[Monsieur OUXX]

Meet this guy (on the right). He's a Tibetan mountain guide from 1940.
You can consider that he's the same kind of guy who assist the nazi interrogator in Marion's bar fight scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark.


This is a concept art. It's not even finished, there are holes in the body and the backpack is a rough draft. But you get the idea.



[imgzoom]https://78.media.tumblr.com/d063fb94d03c5ba878cb8172cea34450/tumblr_p6oiaozfDW1tsfksfo1_75sq.png[/imgzoom]
4x
[imgzoom]https://78.media.tumblr.com/16c3390dbdb1d6183c2060323a9740e9/tumblr_p6oiaozfDW1tsfksfo2_400.png[/imgzoom]

Concept :
- his backpack is huge. Like sherpas.
- he's a cowardish villain.
- Some reference for the clothing : http://photogrvphy.com/tibet-life-in-forbidden-lhasa-1940s-and-50s/


Critics :
- I'm not sure about the scale. I don't like that he seems slightly bigger (both by face and by body) than Indy.
- I didn't design the color scheme. For now I've just copied the scheme of the other character on the left. But I don't really know in which direction I should go.

If you feel like painting over the face then suit yourself.
For the body, don't make the backpack overly complicated please, as his walkcycle will be animated.

[Funkpanzer]

I'm not sure how set you are on this character but there are a few things that I wanted to help with if possible.

First and foremost - Sherpa are a people, not a profession! A quote from Wiki: "Today, the term is often used by foreigners to refer to almost any guide or climbing supporter hired for mountaineering expeditions in the Himalayas, regardless of their ethnicity." Please don't do this!

There are some important Nepali Sherpas in mountaineering - the earliest and easiest to find information about is Tenzing Norgay. Pictures from the early 1950s show him wearing much more functional clothing for climbing. I think this might make a bit more sense as a point of reference, and it would look a lot more bad ass imo.



Regarding his pack, a lot of traditional Sherpa and Nepalese porters have a wicker basket as the base of their pack.



Here's a quick sketch using your character:

[imgzoom]http://www.charlietwitch.com/ags/porters/portersketch.png[/imgzoom]

I think, especially because you plan to make this character a villain, it's important to portray him as an individual and not a representative of Sherpas or Tibetan people, and avoid the problematic portrayals of non-white characters in the Indy movies and games. This will give you the option to make his pack comically large, or make his animations exaggerated without making him into a caricature.

Here are some other images of mountaineers and their guides from the 20s and 40s-50s respectively. The jackets and leg wrappings are really interesting in these.



I hope this helps!

[Monsieur OUXX]

About stereotypes :

Spoiler

I agree with you on being careful with ethnics stereotypes. Especially, I didn't know that sherpas were a people. I thought thta it literally meant "mountain carrier". Today I learnt something.

I'm myself very attached to racist portrayals in video games and pop culture i general, but I'm facing a contradiction here, as I'm making an Indiana Jones game. This series of movies is racist by essence, because it takes its inspiration from 1920's and 1930's colonial bullshit and pulp movies. I'm facing the same issue with its inherent sexism, even though we've found interesting leads to keep it under control.

[close]

Anyways, long things short : there are things I'm willing to gve up, and others not.

For example, the "functional" side of things. Most of the pictures that can be found nowadays, even from as far as the 1920's, were taken by montain climbers who were going to the top of mountains. These were carefully-planned, prestigious expeditions. And the mountain guides were given (mostly) the same equipment as the Europeans. I think that the people that appear on these pictures are not the "regular" moutain guides.

I think that in everyday life, for going to lower altitudes, I bet that the clothing of moutain peasants was much more traditional. Hence my choice of clothes. That said, there's traditional and traditional. I don't know if the robe is "traditional ceremonial" or "traditional everyday life".

Therefore, I think that your counter-proposition is cool. I just loved the cap with flaps (which also reminds us of Lost Ark), but it's incompatible with the basket option, which I love too. I think I'll take your version and just modify his position to make him bend forward a little more (for the weight). What I don't like with the basket though is that the forehead piece of clothe makes the sprite look like an Arabian at first glance.

Hard to decide.

[selmiak]

that's a very nice edit funkpanzer!

[Funkpanzer]

Yeah, I understand wanting to stay close to the source material.

I saw a lot of images with a thick wrap or belt over a longer tunic that might be a good alternative to the ceremonial outfit. Also, these guys are working hard so their clothing always seem a bit lighter. I think the hat is cute though, and it might also work with the headstrap. I couldn't find a lot on where that hat design comes through Google from but it definitely looks functional.

Good luck!

[ManicMatt]

His coat seems weird to me at the bottom, how it's triangle shaped, like he is wearing a skirt?

Otherwise nice art, it's always impressive how people make so much detail with so little pixels.