designing Mansa Musa

My character for my folded format narrative was Mansa Musa, a 12th century King who ruled over the Mali empire, and was also the richest man to have ever lived. designing his character was particularly hard since because he lived so long ago there aren't any photographs of him for reference, only artist depictions.

Even though there are artist references out there they are extremely far and few between which again means I had very little to go on.

Before seeing these depictions I had a rather different idea of what Mansa may of looked like as you can see by my initial impression sketches. My first design for Mansa Musa came from looking at these references and you can see that initial sketch below.

This sketch tried to take into consideration clothes that he may have been wearing based on environmental factors like being in humid environments such as deserts and cities in Africa.

The next iteration aimed to simplify this design so that his character was easier to replicate or redraw.

This design was the one I went with and was better suited for my character going forward. what I like about this design is that it was what I imagine Mansa Musa may of looked like based on regional factors and environmental factors. His design does slightly change when I get to my character sheet but before I show that I want to first show an alternate design for Mansa which is completely different in style and direction.

I personally love this design and I wish that I had found some way to incorporate this design into a project. I think designing this I really put myself out there and stepped out of my comfort zone but unfortunately it just didn't fit in with what I wanted my project to be.