Character Design concept work

I've been looking towards this since our introduction to year 2 of the University. Once I found out that we'll have a unit fully based on our individual skills I was happy. While I like to work in teams I really wanted to make something by myself.
We had few choices to what we had to make. The project consisted of character design, urban and natural landscapes and weapon / vehicle design. Each of those had an option to branch into 3D project. I myself have chosen to create a character design as a first part of the project. At first I didn't really know where to start. I have been thinking of producing something non human but with all the humanoid features. I've started to look around for references in my art books as well as in the library.

I had quite a lot of things to go through but I have quickly started to produce random sketches of what I had in my mind. These sketches were very random and had only a purpose of serving as a initial idea of how my character could look like

Here's  a goblin character. At the time I was heavily influenced by "Styx" a video game based around goblin rogue who's a well known thief looking for revenge. I though this was a  cool idea but it definitely did not match what I had in my mind. 

This sketch came out randomly, while I was at the theory lesson I saw a guy from my class sketching, and while I could only see his drawing from far away and upside down it gave me a new idea to create an African shaman. I really liked the idea but I really came to a conclusion that this wasn't what I wanted my character to be.

This sketch here and two below were heavily influenced by Dark Souls. At the time I was very inspired by the dark setting of the game as well as the unique art style and character design. While I liked the designs I still felt like this wasn't really what I wanted to have in my final outcome. 

After producing few of those sketches I still wasn't satisfied with the outcome. These characters were fine for exploring purposes but they wouldn't serve me any good as my character. I really wanted to make my character feel powerful.
With the release of the new game Lords of the Fallen I quickly fell in love with the bosses show there. Big, bulky, strong and fast. This is what I wanted my character to be. I quickly started to explore new idea and I came up with this. 

The idea of a massive guy with a helmet covering his face really appealed to me. I wanted him to wield two swords and be really tough to kill. I quickly fell in love with the idea. I started to explore different armor sets, weapons and body proportions. Everyday I would go back to my character and try out different things. Sometimes even going over the top. 

I am very thrilled to think where this project is heading. I have a very solid character to work with and I have quite a lot of options to expand on it. I am still to create different variations for the Fallen and I'm really looking forward to experimenting with armors, weapons and poses.