Sabo, Take 2?

 

Sabo, take 2? I wanted to push his visual association with Toymaker more strongly by incorporating game elements into his design. I think I went overboard, though, and wasn’t able to include everything I wanted.

Cards: the forelock of his goofy mohawk forms a heart, his eyepatch represents the suit of diamonds, and his beard is styled like spades. I haven’t figured out where to work in a club element. I thought perhaps an earring, but it would have to just be a little stud because his collar is so tall. I want his half-cape to resemble fanned cards, but I didn’t quite nail the shape.

Dice: I thought I’d represent each side of a six-sided die somewhere on his form. I didn’t get them all:
1 – His iris is a rounded square and the pupil makes it look like a die.
2 – buttons on his lapel.
3 – Didn’t make it on the design. jacket cuffs, perhaps?
4 – The, uh…flap thing on the front of his pants? *hides face* >////<
5 – You can’t tell from the drawing, but there are five dots tattooed to his scalp. Kind of a weird place for them, but it makes me think of a doll that’s had its hair pulled out, and I think it’s a subtle hint to the fact that he isn’t real.
6 – The buttons down the front of his coat.

Chess pieces:
Pawn – Not represented. :/ Thought about giving him a peg leg that would look like an upside-down pawn, but he looked unbalanced, and too much like a pirate with that eye patch.
Rook – The tail of his coat is shaped like the turret.
Knight – the head of his cane (sloppily drawn, here…) is carved into the bust of a horse.
Bishop – His boots are shaped like bishop pieces.
Queen – The cuff of his sleeve is scalloped like the crown shape of a queen piece.
King – Not represented.
My first thought for incorporating the chess pieces was to give him a set of throwing knives with the hilt of each shaped as a particular piece. I may still use that idea by giving him a sword with the hilt of a king piece and a dagger with the hilt of a pawn piece, but I didn’t know where to put them on? My inclination is strap them to hip, but he already looks so cluttered…

He has very prominent teeth because I want him to recall a nutcracker or a ventriloquist dummy. I gave him the eyepatch just to work in the diamond shape, but it happens to be the same eye that Toymaker is missing, and now I’m thinking I should run with that. Maybe none of Toymaker’s creations have their right eye.

While his design still feels really all over the place, I do like how his silhouette turned out. He fits into the character lineup much better now, while not looking too samey.