Done for a "Concept art illustration" thingy class at uni.
I was required to individually come up with a product to do concept art for, we had to use the theme of "apples" as part of our concept but are allowed to make out the era and theme in which it is based.

Type of design: Character
Timeline: WW2 era
Theme: Steam punk, alternate history
Final product: Video games

Concept for “Call to Arms: The European Theatre”
Set in an alternate steam punk inspired era of WW2 Europe. A real-time squad based strategy game not unlike the Commandoes series of games, where you control a small squad of militia comprised of various people ranging from blacksmiths, grocers to even sewer workers to defend Europe against the steam powered monstrosities of WW2 era Germany.

During the invasion of France in World War 2, apple pickers in an orchard in the French countryside had nothing to defend themselves with against the invading Germans.
They had to rely only on what they had and they have a heck lot of apples, a little modification to the steam powered apple picking devices allows them to be used as deadly projectiles capable of denting even the German panzers.

This buff looking chap here is the boss of the apple orchard, a man who is extremely passionate about what he does, and that is growing apples. When he lost his arm in an accident involving an automated apple extractor, he just modified the device and replaced his arm with it. When the Germans invaded, he really couldn’t care less till the day they arrived at his orchard. The beret was placed on the man’s head not only to make him more “French” but it seemed to resemble the top of an apple. I initially wanted a helmet that looks like an apple, but he ended up looking like he has buttocks on his head.

This piece was painted in a different method, I initially painted the image with only shades of brown, using the same method as before, blocking a silhouette out for the character before adding details. Using another layer set on multiply, colour is added onto the image and more detail is added.