This week, I finished my final design for assessment 1. Instead of modelling a windmill inspired by the Weasley’s burrow, I decided to model a wizard staff inspired by the day of the dead in Mexico. I have always found this tradition very interesting, and even based part of my Art GCSE on the tradition. I created 4 concepts, using a skull model and flower images. My first idea was a skull being held up by a twisting vine. I loved the basic idea, however, felt it didn’t look much like a staff. This is why, in concepts 2-4, the staff itself is straight with a handle made of either flower petals or a long bone. As flowers are a very significant thing for the tradition, as they represent life and the souls of Mexican families loved ones, I wanted them to be included not just around the skull, but throughout the staff. For concept 4, I only included one flower as I wanted to figure out whether I wanted to focus more on the living or the death side of the tradition. I included the human spine in this concept, making the staff much thinner than previous concepts, which I didn’t like. I felt as though 2 and 3 looked the best, however, I wasn’t sure if either would be too hard as I am still fairly new to Maya.
Both Mike and Henry said that all designs would be very achievable, and after talking to them, I decided to go with concept 3. Henry suggested I add more flowers to the staff and make the vine thicker, as it didn’t look thick enough to support the skull. After making these adjustments, I thought about colour. Red, orange, and yellow all have different meanings in the tradition. Red symbolises the blood and life of the dead, and orange/yellow are happy colours, which hep guide the spirits of the dead to their loved ones. I felt as though these 3 colours along the green vine would flow well together.
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