Makintosh Weyant - Webfolio
Makintosh Weyant (they/them) is a 20-year-old nonbinary visual and audial artist with a considerable social media following, particularly on TikTok and Instagram. They are currently working to earn a Bachelor of Arts with a focus in Animation and Illustration.
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The Green Knight/Lord Bertilak - Character Design Study
The Green Knight and Lord Bertilak as Character Designs
The Green Knight, when first introduced, is described as a tall, intimidating figure with a beard and a stern glare; however, when he disguises himself as Bertilak, he appears very differently. The most obvious difference is his human skin tone, something the Green Knight did not have. Bertilak is also known to be a strong man who hunts for sport.
I gave The Green Knight flowers in his beard for a few reasons: Firstly, from a design perspective, it varies his color palette. It was pretty difficult as-is to find enough shades of green that went well together, especially considering the amount of rendering in this particular piece, so I thought adding a bit more color on his face would help draw attention to the important part I mentioned before—his stern glare. Secondly, The Green Knight is known to be connected with nature—he rides in with animals all around him—and nature isn’t entirely green. I chose mostly shades of purple for the flowers because purple is often associated with magic. (ironically, it is the color found the least often in nature, but I still thought it was fitting in this instance)
I gave Bertilak a lot of hair all over his body, mainly because he was described in the reading as a very masculine-looking dude. I made sure to give him a more “masculine” frame (at least as much as I could with this particular art style) along with a beard and happy trail. I made him pansexual and genderfluid because he takes great joy in the kisses he gets from Gawan, and being a nature spirit, I imagine his gender is mostly performative.Bertilak is wearing a fairly skimpy outfit, mainly because I thought it was funny. I gave him a lot of Christmas influences, such as holly leaves and berries on his shirt and poinsettia leaves on his skirt. I went for a more “traditional” Christmas look rather than the modern red-and-white Santa Claus style outfit, considering this story takes place in the medieval era. He kind of ended up looking like (DaVinci’s version of) Jesus (pictured left) with his light brown hair and beard, as well as the sandals and friendly disposition. I actually didn’t intend for his hand to be up in a similar way to DaVinci’s portrait, but it is interesting to note the similarities.
