The shin guards are pretty simple plate metal. I like to come up with interesting designs for the knee areas in my armor because I feel like it's a good midway point between simple areas (the upper and lower legs) that frame it nicely. I didn't want to do something crazy and out there like skulls or demon face motifs because I don't think these goblins would be really into that kind of thing. So I went with something more natural, a sea shell. It has a nice flaring effect to make the armor look bulkier and it was a good way to controll eye movement. I'll probably have to push it out some more since I have to have the leather straps n stuff to hold it onto the character.
Now that the metal armor was blocked in, it was time to move onto the leather materials. I wanted to include multiple materials other than flesh and metal because one, you would always have some sort of flexible material to cover animated spots.Otherwise, imagine if you were in a full body plate armor set and dropped your keys on the ground, there's no reaching over for those. Especially if it was really cold out, just imagine A Christmas Story but in a much worse area...
Also, when I was imagining this character, I didn't want to make him too feral like some fantasy artists like to do with goblins. In this goblin's world, they are more than freaky looking green monkeys. They are capable of working plated armor so I don't think it's too much of a stretch to say they would know leather work as well, though it would be much less refined. Their society doesn't care much about intricate craftsmanship, make the damn thing and lets go eat something's face off. So with that in mind I tried to keep the patterning to a minimum but still allow the creature to move. I still might have given it too much detail but I think it's pretty good for now.
Next I'm going to give him some sort of pants or kilt or something. I haven't quite figured out how to get it to work so some research will be done.
