2D Character Project Part 2 - Sketching character parts

I decided to draw the front, back and side views of the character first, as it would be easier to redraw it posed, than to draw the different views using a dramatic pose for reference. I also decided to design the different parts of the body in sections, since the character is essentially armour and would be divided up into various parts.

I liked various parts of these designs and was able to incorporate them into the final design for the character.

1. I wanted the armour to feature some parts that would seem unmistakenly mechanical, such as wires, pipes or bolts. Having piping lead into the characters head, to resemble a breathing apparatus achieved this and also made it more aparent that there was something "living inside" the armour. 
2. I liked the idea of a very thick, muscle support structure for the characters head/helmet as well at the sinew like supports on the armour's mid-section and the shape of this designs chest armour. I felt the wings on this design were to bulky and the shoulders didn't form an interesting shape.
3. This design was supposed to be more streamlined and simple, but didn't have that alien sense of menace that I wanted to achieve. It did however, give me some ideas for the characters back, which I used later.
   
4. This design was focus on making it asymmetrical and think of an interesting/unusual way for the armour to form around it's host's body. Unfortunately, it was to much of a bizarre shape but I did like the spiked shapes ate the armour's base, which again, I expanded on later in the project.
5. This was another simple design, and like the last one lacked a sense of menace to it, but contributed to the shape of the characters shoulder pads. It also gave me an opportunity to try a different organic design, instead of the more chiten based designs in the other sketches. 
6. This final design, contributed the idea of the armour literally feeding off it''s host, by biting into it. This also created a way for the armour to lock together around the host.

When designing the wings, I wanted a hybrid of insect like wings, and skeletal wings, that would be capable of a high speed maneuverability. I took the basis of a bat's wings and changed it to be made of chitin, and replaced the membrane/fingers with segment bone in the shape of a dragonfly's wing. The wings can move entirely at the joint for powerful wing beats, but move at high frequencies at the "wrist" for when the character hovers.

The head was supposed to resemble some kind of alien head piece, similar to creatures like the xenomorph with angular or elongated proportions. It could also include some features that I've used earlier, such as the organic tubing and parts that resemble breathing apparatus. I also liked the head tails in designs 2, 5 and 6 since they add more flow to the characters head in movement.

I decided to have the arms be different on either side, allowing for different attacks and abilities. However I still wanted the arms to have some unifying qualities, such as the shape of the elbow or he number of spikes on the arms top.

Looking at the initial designs, I decided to number 3 primarily, but sharpen some of the features to make the arms look like aggressive natural weapons. I also added facial features such as eyes and teeth to the arms, both to make them look like they were feeding on the wearer and to feed into an idea of the arms being the armour's offspring.

Given the shape in which I pictured the character, I imagined that their legs would by quite thin, but very long and bent, much like a mosqitos. After a few sketches, I settled on a 3 part leg ending in a clawed foot, with organic cables running between the different segments. This cables lead to organic boosters which would aid the characters flight