Category Archives: Character Design Challenges

A few years ago I did a series of designs updating historical figures as modern superheroes and villains. Above is my design for GK – the modern incarnation of Genghis Khan. He spends his days hanging at Venice Beach, and his nights battling evil with his trusty bo staff.

Your challenge…in case you haven’t guessed…is to take a person from history and re=imagine them as a modern hero or villain

The winner this week will receive a HeroMachine rendering of my take on the same character.

Please follow the instructions below regarding the naming of entries.

You may enter up to three times.

Rules for posts, contests, and challenges: Original characters only, no copyrighted characters, no characters based on copyrighted characters, no characters based on RPG’s or other games. The characters must be your own design and not based on any character that might be copyrighted in any way. Please keep all submissions PG13: full or partial nudity is prohibited. I have the right to delete any post that I believe crosses this line without warning. Only post characters that have been created solely using Hero Machine, and that you know for certain have never been entered in a contest before. If you aren’t certain, don’t enter it, because I’m not going to go back through all of the contests and check.

All entries must be in JPG or PNG form (BMPs are too big), posted to a publicly accessible website (like the HeroMachine :,ImageShack, Deviant Art or whatever);Do not use Photobucket.

• Entries must be made as a comment or comments to this post, containing a link directly to the image and the character name;
• No copyrighted characters please – they will be deleted.
• Please name your filesas [your name]-[character name].[file extension] before you upload it. So DiCicatriz, for instance, would save his “Bayou Belle” character image as DiCicatriz-BayouBelle.png.

Please make the link go directly to the image (like this) and not to a hosting jump page (like this).

This contest will close at 9:00 am Eastern on Sunday, September 23rd.

Great job this week folks!

Honourable mention this week goes out to Sam Heness.

Very effective use of colour and shadow. Good job!

Runner Up status thus week goes to Kellkin.

Nice use of the flame effect, and the body looks absolutely molten.

And the win this week goes to...

Continue reading →

Your challenge this week is to design an original spaceship. It can be anything from a small personal travel device to a massive warship. It is up to you.

The winner this week will receive a HeroMachine rendering of my design of the winning ship’s pilot/captain

Please follow the instructions below regarding the naming of entries.

You may enter up to three times.

Rules for posts, contests, and challenges: Original characters only, no copyrighted characters, no characters based on copyrighted characters, no characters based on RPG’s or other games. The characters must be your own design and not based on any character that might be copyrighted in any way. Please keep all submissions PG13: full or partial nudity is prohibited. I have the right to delete any post that I believe crosses this line without warning. Only post characters that have been created solely using Hero Machine, and that you know for certain have never been entered in a contest before. If you aren’t certain, don’t enter it, because I’m not going to go back through all of the contests and check.

All entries must be in JPG or PNG form (BMPs are too big), posted to a publicly accessible website (like the HeroMachine :,ImageShack, Deviant Art or whatever);Do not use Photobucket.

• Entries must be made as a comment or comments to this post, containing a link directly to the image and the character name;
• No copyrighted characters please – they will be deleted.
• Please name your filesas [your name]-[character name].[file extension] before you upload it. So DiCicatriz, for instance, would save his “Bayou Belle” character image as DiCicatriz-BayouBelle.png.

Please make the link go directly to the image (like this) and not to a hosting jump page (like this).

This contest will close at 9:00 am Eastern on Sunday, September 16th.

Honourable mentions this week go out to Brons for Lightning ...

...and to Worf for Lightning Girl. Well done sirs!

Runner up this week goes to Starkillerx for Shango.

Great job SKX! And the win goes to...

Continue reading →

A few years ago, a contest series ran on the HM Forums where the goal was to design a chess set – piece by piece – so I thought I would give it a try as a CDC. (Above are my entries for the black and white pawn in the original contest.)

So your challenge this week is to create designs for both the black and white pawns. Entries may be submitted as 1 rendering or 2 – it is up to you.

The winner this week will receive a HeroMachine rendering of my version of one of their winning designs.

Please follow the instructions below regarding the naming of entries.

You may enter up to three times.

Rules for posts, contests, and challenges: Original characters only, no copyrighted characters, no characters based on copyrighted characters, no characters based on RPG’s or other games. The characters must be your own design and not based on any character that might be copyrighted in any way. Please keep all submissions PG13: full or partial nudity is prohibited. I have the right to delete any post that I believe crosses this line without warning. Only post characters that have been created solely using Hero Machine, and that you know for certain have never been entered in a contest before. If you aren’t certain, don’t enter it, because I’m not going to go back through all of the contests and check.

All entries must be in JPG or PNG form (BMPs are too big), posted to a publicly accessible website (like the HeroMachine :,ImageShack, Deviant Art or whatever);Do not use Photobucket.

• Entries must be made as a comment or comments to this post, containing a link directly to the image and the character name;
• No copyrighted characters please – they will be deleted.
• Please name your filesas [your name]-[character name].[file extension] before you upload it. So DiCicatriz, for instance, would save his “Bayou Belle” character image as DiCicatriz-BayouBelle.png.

Please make the link go directly to the image (like this) and not to a hosting jump page (like this).

This contest will close at noon Eastern on Monday, September 3rd.