Count Olaf

Count Olaf as summarised on http://snicket.wikia.com/wiki/Count_Olaf#Physical_Appearance

Olaf is described as tall, thin, unkempt and often dirty. Olaf's poor hygiene is frequent and Olaf mentions that he often goes ten days without a shower. His lack of personal hygiene worsens although Sunny Baudelaire is shocked to see that Olaf has bathed and changed into a new suit.

His other distinguishing features include shiny eyes that frighten the Baudelaires, pale skin, a unibrow, and a tattoo of an eye on his ankle which is a mark for members of VFD, the organization to which Olaf belonged before becoming what he describes as "an individual practitioner." He is depicted with white, receding hair, a goatee beard and a hooked, prominent nose. 

I didn't really need to do that much development on Olaf before I had a decent idea of what I was doing. I looked up a lot of how he looks in the original illustrations and as I read somewhere else that A Series of Unfortunate Events is set in a timeless place that is both victorian and the 1930's, I looked up suits of the 1930's to see how I should draw it. I kept the suit high on the ankles as it makes it look both too small on the leg and too big on the jacket, it also allows you to see his distinctive tattoo. I wanted to make him recognisable but not copy the illustrations so I took into account how he is shown in them and used a similar way of drawing the  eyebrow. I also drew a receding hit but not quite so exaggerated. I added his little moustache as I felt it was appropriate and it made it seem more like he was once looking after himself but doesn't anymore. My main inspiration for him was a cross between an alcoholic supply teacher and a well to do but down on his luck 1930's gambling man. 

I did his hair in grey but with paler lines to try and give the impression that he's getting greyer. I also spent a while making him look sickly, I chose his skin colour to be pale and a little bit towards the yellow/green. I also chose to do the bags under his eye a bruised kind of colour to really in force that he doesn't look after himself.