Aquaman 2 - Sunken Citadel Pirate

I'm excited to share one of the characters I designed for ‘Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom’. Working with director James Wan was a great experience and he influenced many designs. He aimed for a retro aesthetic, leaning into the Silver Age of the Aquaman comic book.
Because James likes to see 3D designs, I had the opportunity to invest more time in creating complete 3D models. I started with a 2D drawing and proceeded with modeling the character in 3D. Each character had to be scruffy, scumbag, sea-dwelling cowboys/pirates. They had to be mean and scary looking, but the tone was fun.
During the design process, I drew inspiration from various frog and fish references, notably the Anarhichas Lupus fish. James Wan contemplated including the character in a larger scene involving the Turtle Ring fighter, but ultimately, the entire Citadel sequence was shortened for the final film.
I'm also thrilled that my model was used for a McFarlane action figure, which I have already ordered a bunch, ha!
Sculpted and textured in ZBrush, rendered in Blender, and composited in Photoshop.