XEN ALYX - COMMISSION PROCESS

On march of 2022, Amilee asked me "what if Alyx had a Xen Trigger, like DMC's Devil Trigger", as it evolved, it branched into its own thing. Here's my first really crummy doodles based on what Amilee gave me. We we're really inspired by using the creatures of xen like antlions, bullsquids, tentacles, to really shape and make up alyx's form. We we're also really attached to the idea of making alyx's jacket longer to resemble antlion wings as well as a carapace to resemble her headband.

This is when things begin to tun. some of these choices just felt too on the nose, but this *was* more or less the proposed concept. But i kind of wanted to take it a little further.

i started to hone in on the carapace and detailing on her body, mainly inspired from bullsquid/anlion markings.

I really simplifed things down in this drawing, removing the carapace and moving it to her torso as jacket/armor. this was the sketch i also showed Ross, writer of A Place in the West. He liked it but it didn't feel like half-life to him. well, yea it really isn't very hl is it? it's not of HL but it's a commission. He thought she looked like a villian, and i had to agree, but i couldn't live with that idea. i didn't want her to look evil like a Kerrigan Queen of Blades type. I told Amilee about Ross' feeback and she agreed and was on board to change it. So! i went back to the drawing board.

first new drawing. I piece of info i took from Ross' is to think of the locale, more than the creatures of Xen. I really started to look more into Xen's environent; super weird and gross but beautiful and cosmic. He referenced Swamp Thing and it really clicked for me there. Swamp thing to me, *is* the swamp essentially and i took that over to alyx here. we talked about giving her lighteing vort powers but i think we'll show that in a different piece sometime.

back detail: also discussed was Xen crytals to use for teleportation or a fast jump/phase. I needed to fit the crystals in somehow so i thought this was a good resolve. this was the last exploratory sketch i did before i moved onto the *final* sketch.

other prelim drawings

process gif!
This whole process was pretty challenging but i think the wait was worth it all. Amilee really allowed me to do whatever i wanted and was super patient with all my changes and ideas. It really strayed far from the original concept and evolved into it's own thing but we're both happy with the final result.