Female Warrior Analysis|COP3

I've used my female warrior concept as a perfect excuse to ask people around me for valuable feedback. Following advice (and critique) was given to me by Sanda Duchiewicz. She's not only very interested in fantasy, but also worked on titles such Rome: Total War, which require strong understanding amour that is historically accurate.

After I shown her my female warrior concept, this is the feedback I got:

• work a bit more one the face, since nose is shaded but eyes seems to be left out;
• shoulder pad is only on one side, which gives protection only from one side; since she doesn't have shield, but two swords, it makes her right side a very easy target;
• spikes on the shoulder pad are very big, which probably adds extra, unnecessary weight to the pad and makes arm movements more difficult and tiring;
• shoes are drawn in a way that indicates heels, so I've added chunky heels to the drawing;
• really good reference for shoulder pad and spikes (can see the relation of the size between pads and spikes).

Some of those things are pretty obvious, but as a person unexperience with creation of fantasy concept art, most of it didn't really crossed my mind. Therefore chatting with someone from the industry was very valuable for me.

On the left is a piece of concept I did after the chat we had. I've gave her two shoulder pads for better protection and some more fabric that will separate skin from the steel. I've also changed her outfit a little bit. With the outer layer of clothing I tried to imitate leather, which is more durable than soft fabrics (such as cotton). I also changed belts to better match her outfit and added heels to the shoes.
It is still a pretty unpractical and historically inaccurate armour, but a bit closer to something that would make sense on the battlefield. As said before, I'm not trying to make armour that could be used in a real battle, I'm deeply inspired by fantasy games, however, it's good to know and understand how the things works. I feel like my understanding of this topic is improving with every piece.