The first task of this week was to create characters out of blobs. This mostly challenged my creativity but it was fun!
For the second in-class task we were to use shape language to stylistically draw one of the 3 people we could’ve chosen, I chose Marilyn Monroe. I didn’t know much about her background except for the fact she’s an attractive model and actress so I just used reference pictures. I used mostly circles to communicate maturity and softness, along with curved triangles because she strikes as confident and bold to me as well. We were also told to exaggerate main features if we were done so I just made her waist thinner and her hair puffier.
I began some of my homework task during class which was designing a final character for our world. I started sketching some mutant concepts while talking about character ideas with my group to get a general idea of what they’re doing and the genre of the band. It was really helpful doing this with my group as feedback on my concepts were really helpful! The main problem I had was that majority of my designs didn’t really fit into the world so I’m planning to rework it a lot for my final design.
(more notes shown in the figure below)
I really liked the idea of a winged insect keyboardist so between the moth and the butterfly, I chose the moth because I preferred the visuals and the species are associated with darkness, death, decay which fit the band theme better.
Next, I compiled a bunch of references on Pinterest separated by the creature design, the aesthetic design (old KERA and FRUITS magazine j-punk) and our world design! I also did some research on moths to develop a personality I wanted my moth character to be.
> source 1
> source 2 (moth types)
With this the design will feature some characteristics that are timid, anxious, irritable but still bold enough to be in a punk band. An obsession or attraction to something that is their “light” is also something I want to convey but perhaps that’s something to show in a narrative instead of a design. Insects/moths are also an irrational fear for some even if they are harmless ones, I want to make the character softer compared to the other band members as we discussed that it would be cool if the characters are dressed in different punk genre outfits and have contrasting personalities.
I sketched four potential designs for the moth girl, sticking to the silhouette I had planned beforehand, making sure they weren’t too complicated designs because they need to be animatable. Majority of the shape language is circles and rounded triangles to convey that timid personality but still alternative! I took inspirations from Fear (Inside Out), Violet Parr (The Incredibles) and Kobeni Higashiyama (Chainsaw Man) and noticed to communicate anxious, coward characters, a lot of asymmetricity and soft + sharp mixed shapes are involved. My favourite detail is the decay on her clothes and wings because it really ties with the ruined world environment and makes her design just a little more menacing!
(more notes shown in the figure below)
For my final design, I settled with the second concept mixed with concept 3’s hair and concept 4’s wings + dress. It was quite a challenge sticking to the shapes and not adding too much detail but I think I didn’t do too bad of a job at the end. I think this design radiates the soft and anxious but creepy vibe pretty well (especially the big pitch black bug eyes).
I had three colour palettes in mind shown below; green (fitting with post-apocalyptic city/slums world), red (common colour in punk outfits, bold, danger) and indigo (the night, gloomy, death).
More notes!
– Asymmetrical + rigid, messy hair, bitten + decayed wings > shows anxiety, uncertainty
– Circular shapes (head, eyes, ears, neck fluff, decay) > a softer side
– Triangles, pointed edges (hair, dress, spikes, fur, hand, feet) > a bolder, scarier side
– skinny lean build > weak, timid
– big wings, neck fluff > protective of/hides herself
I ended just choosing the indigo design!
Final Design
This assignment was my favourite but heavily tested my creativity. I actually wish I could’ve developed this more but it would’ve taken way too much time.