Introduction to prop design:

What is Fantasy prop design?

 

Fantasy prop design involves creating unique creative concepts for various objects in the Fantasy genre whether it be games, animation, webcomics or manga; Prop design is involved in every aspect of your life!

 

Hi, my name is Saif, a character concept artist and Illustrator. In this article I’ll be teaching you about the steps involved in fantasy prop design, and how you can use prop design and integrate it into your work! I’ll be teaching you how to draw cool swords and staffs for your characters and how to add character to a somewhat boring object!

What mindset should I have during prop design?

The most important thing to do in prop design is “think!”. Pay close attention to the character or environment the prop is going to be placed in. Read the back story of each character, and look at their personalities, their likes, dislikes and their general vibe! Remember that the more your prop relates to the character the more will it feel connected and genuine! Look for specific traits in your fantasy character and try to express those through your design! For example, if you’re character has abilities surrounding nature why not add a couple of leaves to your staff and give it more of a nature vibe? The more you think the better your prop will look!

 

The same goes for the Fantasy environmental props! Look at the environment, read about its background/History and imagine the life of the people within that world, how they interact with each other and the world around them. These things are extremely important when drawing props cause the more your props relate to the environment and people surrounding it the more successful they are and the more they fit right in!

How to draw magical staffs!

The first step of prop design involves the initial sketch, This may seem like an easy step but this is one of the most important steps and you should take your time during this stage as this step will be the one directing your work and story moving forward. Constantly look at your reference whether it be the environment or characters, look for specific traits and try to draw something that feels the most natural in its surroundings!

After we have our rough idea we can start refining them and building upon them! To give you a sense of the general idea for each staff i’ll explain what each one is about and how I integrated different characteristics in them through design!

 

Going from left to right:

 

1. The general idea behind this staff was a feminine chibi character with the magical attributes of ice! I stayed away from the angular designs in this one and made the top soft and round to match the character. You can see a couple of angular shapes near the top which symbolize the ice characteristics of the character! The staff is rounded and soft in all the major areas which fits well with the chibi vibe and looks nice!

Note: Chibi is a term used to describe cute short characters that although often old are represented as having a child-like appearance.

2. The next staff was inspired by the element of fire! For a character with the magical attribute of fire. It's a bit more angular than the previous staff as the character is a dude and since his element is fire it would be more fitting to have a sharper-looking staff making it easier to fit in with the general design of the character!

 

3. The third staff is inspired by nature! This time I tried to make a staff that should fit well with a younger person either a male or a female character. I added a few leaves indicating that the character's magic involves nature and plants! Similarly, you can also try adding poison ivy patterns to the staff if your character has a more evil look. On the other hand, if I was making this design for an elderly character I would have made it a little shorter acting as a support for walking and also made it a lot thicker and mature looking (an old tree texture).

 

4. The last staff can be seen with a skull attached to the top of it, This staff was made with a specific character type in mind, A Necromancer — A character that specialises in bringing the dead back to life and fights with zombies! The pointed base is made specifically so that the necromancer can pierce his staff into the ground and bring a large group of dead back to life. The horns on the other hand symbolize the evil characteristics of the character cause often even if a necromancer is depicted as a nice gentle character he will have a lifeless vibe surrounding him!

 

This is why I'm emphasizing lot of thinking cause it's all you need to improve when talking about fantasy prop design and to be honest just design in general! The more cohesive your props and designs are with the environment the better they look!

I won’t be going over how I rendered each staff but I will show you the final version to give you a general feel for the vibe I was going for!

 

Going from left to right:

 

1. The ice staff has a colour pallet involving blues and purples which symbolize the elements very well.

 

2. Similarly I used reds and deep reds in the fire staff to indicate flames!

 

3. The 3rd staff is nature-themed and I added greens and yellows! to push the nature feel a bit further.

 

4. For the next staff honestly I could have gone either way, I could have made the staff purple and gloomy looking but I went with Golden cause the character I had in mind was a necromancer obsessed with wealth and money which is why even the handle is golden!

However, remember that you of course can go for whatever feel you like with prop design! Here, I stylized them a bit to make each of the elements a lot clearer but if you prefer a more realistic look go for it! it all depends on the story and the characters involved!

How to draw magical swords!

The process for drawing swords in a fantasy setting is quite similar to the process for staff! The general idea is the same, think about your character and its environment and try to capture that through your design! The first step as always is the sketch! This is the most important step in prop design so remember to take your time and not rush through it as of course it will determine your end product. Now this does not mean you get stressed and spend your whole life in here, try your best to capture the character and move on, The first time you try fantasy prop design, especially design involving weapons and instruments it won't be perfect and the only way you’ll improve this is by constantly trying to improve your thinking process and by constantly creating!

Once we have our initial sketches drawn the next steps are relatively simple! In the next step just like before, we will start defining our ideas and bringing them to life, In this step, we will be polishing our initial sketches into something a lot more complex and interesting, again I cannot stress this enough, in the beginning take your time and imagine the props being used and interacting with the environment/characters. To give you a sense of the general idea for each sword I’ll explain what each one is about and how I integrated different characteristics in them through design!

 

Going from left to right:

 

1. The first sword is inspired by another character with the element of nature, The general idea was that the character uses vines to bind their enemies and defeats them! The vines surrounding the sword represent the binding vines of the character and the elegant design represents an honourable character for example a famous character from a big guild or a beautiful character defeating their enemies with nature.

 

2. The next sword is inspired by a muscular huge dude with the elemental form of fire, or a lead female warrior during a battle wearing thick armour and defeating her enemies! The angular shapes in the middle of the blade are there to show that the weapon is something special, maybe it's from a magical cave and there is only one like it in the whole world or maybe it's made by ancient techniques that are unknown to the modern world. Similarly, the fire symbol is there to instantly indicate to the audience the elements of the character and also give some breathing room to the rather huge and bulky weapon!

 

3. The third sword is a standard fencing sword, the idea for this sword was that it would be used by a special division of royal knights/guards or by a female character! Since the thin appearance of a fencing sword won't look right with a very muscular and ripped individual the sword would look best in the hands of someone who has an overall lean body structure and falls within the average weight class.

 

4. The Last Sword was honestly inspired by Berserk — a very popular manga(discontinued) where the main character has a huge sword strapped to his back, worth the read. This sword was designed keeping in mind very specific characteristics, Someone who is tall, muscular, has broad shoulders and overall a huge dude! A huge weapon like this would fit best on a huge character rather than a scrawny character. The weapon was designed keeping in mind that it's double-handed. Similarly, the notch on the side of the blade is made so that the character can rest the sword on his shoulders (this was inspired by Naturo — another very popular anime).

 

Just like I have here, over time you too will pick up things from the movies or shows you watch and start to integrate them into your design! Prop design doesn't just involve drawing all day, it also involves learning new aspects of life, adjusting to new environments and imagination!

Again, I won't be going into how I rendered each sword like before but if you guys are interested in learning that let me know in the comments! I’ll make another tutorial on it if enough people are interested.

 

The last step of course involves rendering and bringing your concepts to life! If you’re interested in why I chose these colours, keep reading.

 

Going from left to right:

 

1. Since the sword was nature themed I chose greens for the vines surrounding it, This seemed like a bit much by itself so I tried to balance it out by making the hilt (handle) of the sword Black in colour and added some golden accents which made it seem a lot more cohesive.

 

2. With this sword there were, of course, reds to symbolize the flame properties of the sword but I added the colour golden into the pockets of the blade to symbolize the ancient artefact vibe I was trying to reach, I didn't try to be fancy with the handle as that would completely overpower the already bright feel to the blade so I went for a more mature wooden (or bronze since it's ancient) handle and added a small crystal at the bottom to balance it out a bit from the bottom to the top.

 

3. The third sword was pretty simple I kept mostly standard colours but added some golden accents to express the royalty/prestige feel I was trying to achieve.

 

4. The 4th sword was the most fun for me to be honest! I decided to give the sword a black blade (it's dark purple I know but in real life, there is nothing like absolute black; The Colour black tends to shift a little towards the dark purple or dark blue hues) I added cloth at the hilt (handle) of the sword to make it feel a bit rougher and match in with the character I was going for and also added golden accents to the pommel (The butt end of a sword that acts to secure the hilt parts as well as provide a counterbalance to the blade for better manoeuvrability.) to balance the overall dark vibe!

End + Bonus sketch

Once you get comfortable with the idea of drawing props you will be able to integrate them into your drawings just like I have done here! This is my OC (original character) Klive holding the last sword I showed you guys in a badass pose looking down on the city! Just remember that you won't be amazing at this instantly, Prop design is a very vast topic and it's just not a topic you can master by just watching a few videos online and reading a few articles, I hope that reading this small article of mine inspired you to design some props of your own and learn new stuff! I hope it helped!

 

Bye bye!! take care, folks.

Check out my socials and tag me in the props you made, would love to see them!!!!!

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