Goblin paraplegic Spider Wrangler concept

Compiled process sketches for Taes Blackhand. The goal was to make a goblin elder who handles fantastic arachnids in a subterranean society for whom spiders are an integrated fact of life, but not take the obvious option of going spider-like. I restarted with thumbnails of various community members, and ended up liking the spidery design (1) most anyway.

To differentiate from inevitable Gollum/Sméagol comparisons, and have an interesting reason for moving on all fours, I decided Taes long ago lost both lower legs after stepping into a venomous spider nest, Taes' arms bitten and blackened while crawling to safety, earning the 'Blackhand' moniker.

After exploring poses (2) and finding an overall face design that fit (3), I worked through how Taes would move (4) and decided to bulk him up a bit to account for how physically demanding his form of locomotion and occupation are, plus remove the sense of visual frailty.

I did low poly model and partially rig the character as an exercise, but other responsibilities and losing access to Maya/3DS Max prevented completion.