In Class Activity
Shapes to faces
Exaggeration study
I picked the picture of Merlyn Munroe for this activity. I inspired my work off of 1950’s fashion magazines exaggerating her face and body.
Concepts based on any character/creature
This character design was based on a siren, a mythical creature with a voice that could lure sailors into the sea. As a group we agreed the lead singer would have siren aspects with the ability to control a crowd. Her most defining features are her ears and gills on her throat. I wanted her skin to be an odd colour trying to connect her more with the ocean and the idea of a siren without needing to give her a tail. I did rough sketches which were greatly inspired by my mood board taking some facial expressions and poses for reference. I felt her silhouette didn’t define her enough and this was something I wanted to fix for my final design. I kept the colours simple for this sketch wanting to use it as a colour pallet reference later.
Concept two is very different to my other idea, for this I leaned into a more punk aesthetic. Characters like spider punk from into the spiderverse and Holt from Monster High were characters I took huge inspiration from. I used reference images I found on Pinterest to create a mood board for the character.
This is a thumbnail I made previously for the world (he’s the one with the guitar) showing early design of this character inspired by Hobie from spiderverse and the concept art of him using a guitar as a weapon which is something my group wanted to explore with the characters instruments.
I wanted this design to resemble the post apocalyptic design but I felt it neglected the mutant aspect of the world. I also included some sketches I did. I leaned into a more human design moving away from the siren character but I didnt feel she fit the world we were trying to build. We wanted the lead singer to have more control over the crowds and put her into a position of power and with a world of mutants and humans her character design felt boring. I liked the mask and I decided I wanted to include something like that in my final design.
More Concept Sketches:
I did some basic sketches to explore the idea of mutant character design playing with shapes, expressions and accessories. This was to explore more ideas with the characters such as hair, defining features and accessories.
I liked these designs especially the ones covering the mutants faces. I felt this was something I could include in the story with mutant characters being outcasted or just generally treated differently. This would mean accessories like goggles, masks or hats could be included in their designs.
Final Design
I wanted to include some aspects of all of my concept drawings and mood boards to create my final design. I created a mood board from pinterest of pose references, expressions, and design concepts. This character is a lead singer in the band. Her voice is powerful as she is based on a siren. She uses her voice to control the crowds. I new I wanted her to have siren features so I made sure to include that in her design.
I included shape language in my mood board also. I wanted to explore triangular design with my character. In many shows triangular character design represents strength, aggressive and sharpness. I wanted to include these aspects of personality in my character.
Face Study:
Final Design:
Tone and Value
Sketch
I was inspired by
Alberto Mielgo, an artist who worked on “Love Death and Robots” and who is behind a lot of the Spider Verse concept art. His characters are full of detail and colour which is something I love showing in my own work. He uses bold vibrant colours with visible brushstrokes creating a creative and unique portfolio of work. I researched his art using the Spider verse concept art book I own and also looked at his work in love death and robots.
