Tag: character design

portfolio, SWOT/Target Setting

Concept Development – Character Designs

Chalon Joy

I have some new character designs to share! c: I’ve been working constantly on these since my last update- I feel I’ve made good progress even though there’s still so much to do!

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Young Female Character: Initial Concepts (Collingwood, 2019). 
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Young Female Character: Face Revisals/Development (Collingwood, 2019). 
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Young Female Character: Palette/Colour Application Experimentation (Collingwood, 2019). 

 

Meet our heroine of the story- she doesn’t have a name on purpose, because I want the audience to be able to relate to her and put themselves in her shoes. Since she’s youthful, naïve and curious, I wanted these traits to shine through in her character design. I went through loads of concepts (some of which were really awful, haha) but settled on a final design for her that best described her personality to the viewer. I’m sure it shows, but I was really inspired by the ‘chibi’ characters of Studio Ghibli, as well as the loose, simplistic art style of Heikala (info on both of these here from my artist research for this project).

I’m pleased with her design- she went through quite a few refinements as I progressed through my workflow! Final character board below:

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Young Female Character: Final Character Board (Collingwood, 2019). 

 

To be honest my favourite aspect of her is her ‘paper bag’ trousers- I didn’t want to put her in a skirt lest that undermine her childish adventurous nature, so I decided to go with these oversized paper bag pantaloons (which also matched her boots and cape much better… too many ‘loose hems’ otherwise!)

I really love them ^^”

 

Next up, we have our anthropomorphic deer character:

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Anthropomorphic Deer: Initial Head Concepts (Collingwood, 2019). 
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Anthropomorphic Deer: Anatomy/Front View Development (Collingwood, 2019). 
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Anthropomorphic Deer: Palette/Colour Application Experimentation (Collingwood, 2019). 

 

I designed him to both contrast and complement the young girl character, since the contrast of their environments and designs is central to the narrative journey. The palette is still natural while being different to the bright, fresh toned greens I used on the female character’s designs.

He’s very scholarly and loves a good cup of tea, I hope you can tell~

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Anthropomorphic Deer: Final Character Board (Collingwood, 2019). 

 

It was a real challenge to simplify the characters enough so that there wouldn’t be any issues when drawing them repeatedly for the animation- I think I’ve nailed this down enough, but as always there’s always the chance I’ll refine these some more in the follow-up Semester 2 project.

I’m pleased with the outcomes- targets for the next few weeks include finalising and collating all of my projects for hand in, and starting to think about the beginning of Semester 2 and how I’m going to tackle the next few months. Using my previous SWOT analysis’ will help me circumvent any problems I anticipate I’ll have, while also playing towards my strengths to produce a strong semester of portfolio work.

 

References

Collingwood, C. (2019). Anthropomorphic Deer: Anatomy/Front View Development [Digital].

Collingwood, C. (2019). Anthropomorphic Deer: Final Character Board [Digital].

Collingwood, C. (2019). Anthropomorphic Deer: Initial Head Concepts [Digital].

Collingwood, C. (2019). Anthropomorphic Deer: Palette/Colour Application Experimentation [Digital].

Collingwood, C. (2019). Young Female Character: Face Revisals/Development [Digital].

Collingwood, C. (2019). Young Female Character: Final Character Board [Digital].

Collingwood, C. (2019). Young Female Character: Initial Concepts [Digital].

Collingwood, C. (2019). Young Female Character: Palette/Colour Application Experimentation [Digital].

Heikala (n.d.). Instagram – @heikala (online). Available at: https://www.instagram.com/heikala/?hl=en [Accessed 2 Jan 2019].

 

research

Concept Development Progress

Chalon Joy

Now that I’ve signed off the Penguin Student Award and Printmaking projects, I can finally dedicate my focus to the Concept Development project- I’ve already conducted a bit of artist research late last year (my post about it is here), so this has already given me a good foundation on which to design my concepts~

For this project, I need to produce as much development/concept material as possible for the upcoming Animation Production project in Semester 2. This includes character/environment designs, storyboards, narrative info, and other supporting material that will be of use to me in the coming months.

I’m starting with the character designs, since I feel that this aspect is the most important, and therefore want to get this done first. I’ll be designing a human young female character (who’ll serve as the centric narrative device), as well as a more visually intricate anthropomorphic deer, who’ll act as an ‘opposite’ character, with contrasting design aesthetics, environment and colour palette. I’ve made two concept boards with palettes and existing artwork that mirror what I want to portray for each of these two characters… a few pics below from each board (all referenced at the end of this post):

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Top left: Figure a. Top right: Figure b. Bottom left: Figure c. Bottom right: Figure d.
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Top left: Figure e. Top right: Figure f. Bottom left: Figure g. Bottom right: Figure h.

Using these images and palettes as a loose style guide will help me to design characters that will complement these visual concepts, while also using my notes on personality and traits that I’ve written up in my sketchbook.

I always find it useful to map out key persona information before designing my character, as I often have a good idea of how I want them to act before I bring them to life on paper- this allows me to incorporate design elements into their aesthetic that support their individual personalities.

I’ll post next week with some character development sketches ♥

References

h. Heikkala, L. (n.d.). Pond [Ink].

e. Jansson, T. (n.d.). The Moomins concept art [Graphite, watercolour].

a. Ma Van As, Y. (2018). After School Violin Lessons [Digital].

c. Mountain Lumber. (n.d.). Reclaimed Antique Hickory [Photograph]. Available at: http://www.mountainlumber.com/portfolio_page/reclaimed-antique-hickory/ [Accessed 1 Dec 2018].

d. Rockefeller, M. (n.d.). Paul’s Cabin [Digital].

f. Studio Ghibli. (2010). Concept art from The Borrower Arrietty [Watercolour].

g. Studio Ghibli. (2010). Screen capture from The Borrower Arrietty [Animated feature].

b. Studio Ghibli. (2010). Concept art from Kiki’s Delivery Service [Watercolour].

inspiration, research, SWOT/Target Setting

Concept Development – Project Beginnings

Chalon Joy

This new week means the start of a new project- quite the relief! As much as I enjoyed the riso project, it was very overwhelming learning literally an ENTIRELY new process, from the design basics to the niggly little details surrounding printing and technical issues. I’m not completely done with riso printing, however- I still hope to use it more actively in the new year, especially for print editions to sell at final show.

Onto the new project- Character and Narrative Development! As much as this represents its own set of experimental challenges, I’m hoping it’ll be a little more of a gradual learning curve, rather than the ‘throw myself in the deep end’ approach of the riso printing process ^^”

Thus far, I’m deep into the research portion of my workflow- since this project has been on my mind for a very long time (read: years), I already had quite a good vision of what the aesthetics of the environments and characters will look like. As such, my list of existing artist inspiration is long! To name a few, Nicole Gustafsson, Taryn Knight and Heikala are some of the most influential people I’ve looked at (examples of their work below.)

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Left to right: Heikala, 2018. Gustafsson, 2018. Knight, 2018.

More on this in my artist research file, but I especially love Gustafsson’s work with anthropomorphic characters- this will be a big source of inspiration for my deer-man character. A similar simplified art style like Heikala’s work would work well for the animation, as I must always be mindful of the level of detail in the imagery- while I’ve timetabled quite a few weeks to realise the project, I don’t want to overwhelm myself with detail in the work.

I want the piece to have a warm, familiar feel with a woodsy colour palette for the most part- with warmer, organic tones for the deer-man and more youthful, fresh colours for the centric female character. More details on character, aesthetic and the more technical side of my project are documented in my initial mind map:

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My initial mood board for the project- gathers all my thinkings into one place! (Collingwood, 2018).

For the rest of the week, I’m aiming to make some mood boards that can portray my intentions for aesthetic, colour and character design in a very strong way- I often struggle to find faith in my initial ideas, especially when pitching them to other people, so I’m hoping a few mood boards that are well put together will aid me from the outset. (…did I also mention that mood boards are an excellent prop to hide behind during formal presentations…?)

In addition, I often like to fully flesh out my characters with MBTI personalities and trait lists… all part of my process to feel more connected to my characters. This will be the main focus of next week.

More soon ♥

 

References

Collingwood, C. (2018). Personal Project 2: Initial Mind Map.

Gustafsson, N. (2018). Shiba Spellcaster [Acrylic].

Heikkala, L. (2018). Astrochemist [Ink].

Knight, T. (2018). Untitled [Watercolour].

inspiration, research

November Update – Reflection and Target Setting

Chalon Joy

It’s been a wee while since I wrote the last post… it’s been a weird few weeks with only a little bit of progress unfortunately! I’ll hopefully be back into the swing of things now, with updates at least once weekly.

In terms of the riso project, I’ve finished everything bar the actual printing of the artwork… so yes, I’m slightly behind. I’ll correct this during this coming weeks while I work alongside the Character Design Development project so I don’t fall behind- I can’t afford to lose any project time this year.

Additionally, the list of book titles for the Penguin Student Award has been released- initially I was torn between Wonder by R.J. Palacio, and Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami. The current iterations of the cover art for both titles are very minimal and follow a specific theme throughout the rest of the author’s novels. Below are the two most recent covers released in the UK:

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Left: Palacio, 2014. Right: Murakami, 1987.

Ultimately, I’m marginally more partial to Wonder, especially as I think some of the key imagery and thematic elements that are featured in the narrative lend themselves towards my style and interests slightly more than Norwegian Wood. More on this next month when I start production on the project~

I’m also due to start my Character Design/Animation Development project this month- I’ll do an update soon about my initial research and where I’m going with the characters and storyline. This is a project that I’ve had in mind for *years*, so it’ll be nice to finally bring it into realisation ♥

It’s been a rough few weeks but I’m excited for what lies ahead and for the upcoming projects I’ll be working on- but for now, I’ll be mostly focusing on finishing the riso project (e.g. doing some initial test prints while we wait for the new ink colours to arrive)- at present I’m in the dark as to what the test prints will yield. It could be that I’ll have to completely re-do my artwork, or alter some of the design, or a number of other things. I’m worried about it, but I’m also too excited to start the next project so my mind is all over the place! Hopefully I’ll be able to have some closure with the riso project soon.

Targets for the following month include finishing the riso project very soon (in order to leave ample time for the other two projects), as well as continuing to promote ‘radial thinking’ in my process, particularly as part of the experimental nature of Semester 1.

 

References

Palacio, R. (2014). Wonder. London: Corgi. p. Cover Artwork.

Murakami, H. (1987). Norwegian Wood. London: Vintage. p. Cover Artwork.