Charactober : Mushcrown

Hello Hivers and creative community,

This is how I interpreted the character prompt : Mushcrown

Lore
Oshkrenn the rot-born mushcrown king
The mushcrown king is the forest’s watcher, the quiet king who never left his throne of roots. His crown is made out of the red poisonous kind of mushroom that was dried and shaped to fit his head. The white specks of which shimmer with a dim, breathing glow. Along his shaelva, the vestment of decay and renewal, fresh fungi sprout where the damp air touches. This robe remembers, for it grows from his own breath and feeds on his resilience.

His gills hold the memory of every cycle that what has fallen, decomposed and came back again. When the forest grows too loud, Oshkrenn stills it. When the rot deepens, he whispers light back into it. The soil answers him in silence.

The King of the Fungi Bloom. Among the roots, his presence is felt like a promise of a tomorrow that glows.

The process of designing this character:
I really like the mushroom dimora kind of character that I had designed previously it has been the template that I had been going back to when I make a new one. This keeps all the characters coherent in shape and form. I hope that does not sound boring and one dimensional.

Two things I wanna nail from this stage of the drawing process is one make a crown of mushrooms and two renewal and decay must be evident. That thing on its head is a big mushroom that looks like a hat rather than a crown and it did not take me long to immediately revise it. Those protrusions on its vestment are the stems of mushrooms that will eventually grow and glow and thus proves the decay and renewal. I placed them neatly in a random way for an organic look. The vestment is fraying at the seams to give that decaying idea.

Instead of a crown with mushroom outgrowth I pick just one mushroom that kind with white spots and carved it to look like a crown. I worry the crown with mushroom outgrowth will compete with the ones already sprouting from the vestment so I had to revise once again. I also started shaping the brown mushrooms sprouting from the brown vestment, the colors speak of decay and richness of the soil that gives life to new organisms. I forgot to add texture to these mushrooms they should resemble the morel mushrooms those with nice texture around them.

Here I already started adding some shadows on the face and vestment. The mushrooms are now glowing faintly. I introduced this fluffy grayish trim on the brown vestment to give it that kingly vibe.

More details added like the luminous blue shoes to echo the biolight of the fungi around. That same blue color is used on the small luminous mushrooms in the background.

I tried to make the background not compete with the character by making its opacity low this is an alternative look.

Hope you like it