Arboricus Discovery Maquette
This is a maquette created to answer a prompt for a superhero concept, and the character that came to be depicted shaped up to the roots for my character in other later concept work. He is a botanical counterpart to Aquaman with a prehensile, living beard. I explored his beard not only is his primary visual distinction but as his mode of accelerated locomotion verses the source of his power (like the Biblical Samson and his hair). This maquette was made with a combination of sculpey compounds.
I made a jumping figure with the idea that he certainly doesn't fly by that he might either leap along or slither around with his beard as a snake would.
There was a version of this character that would have been a double amputee and his beard was going to provide his way past being wheelchair bound and act as his incredibly suped-up prosthetic limbs.
Setting him in a leaping motion established for me that his beard bears his weight but his neck and attached body would need to be considered practically in terms of what they could reasonably bear on a real person in that situation.
I imagined that his plant like nature would either protect him with the mobility of his beard or by having physically tough skin that would have been akin to tree bark in durability if not necessarily texture or appearance.
It seemed fairly natural to reason that his beard would mimic roots or behave on an expedited time frame like them and would be stable for holding his body aloft by 'planting' into the ground as he went.