Finally finished! Say bonjour to Remi~ My character for my animated short. Obviously he won’t be this detailed and maybe not this style either in the animation (heck, I’d die D: ) but I wanted to experiment this style of painting so why not? +1 for developmental work owo Feedback would help me a lot on this guys!
Hey guys, if you’ve been keeping track of my blog then you’d know, or even if you don’t then here’s an update, I’ve finished my character turnaround sheet~ So what now? Well there’s one last thing left of this group project before the presentation – a billboard poster ad design! I’m not much into advertising but I want to give everything a go atleast once! (tbh I don’t have much choice in this situation anyway >¬<” ) Also it seems my logo design did win in the end in our group, so hurray!! I think it’s about time to wrap this baby up – time to get cracking! (Not literally, don’t go wrapping up babies. Or cracking them for that matter. 😛 ) Anyhoo, let’s do our best for the last part of this project!! It’s been interesting for sure. :3
I finally finished the turnaround sheet! (Hurray!) 😀 Being my first time doing a turnaround sheet I struggled to get it right and measured correctly so they were the same at first, but with help from guides and grids and stuff, I got there! I took some tips from the previous blog link and took note of having one arm bent and one arm straight to help later on. I think I did okay, a lot more simple than I’m used to doing but doesn’t look too shabby if I say so myself. What do you guys think? Constructive criticism/critique is always welcome! Now…I just wait and see what my group thinks.
I figured it might be useful to post some screenshots of WIP’s. 🙂 *rages at Photoshop for being uncooperative while working*
As I was preparing to draw the turnaround character sheet for Medusa, I kinda realised that my usual style was a bit difficult for me to draw all the way around – also time consuming and I had to bear in mind time restraints. Not to mention this being my first turnaround sheet. So I considered drawing her in one of my other,simpler styles to see which worked. Although in this sketch page here, I liked both I went for style A rather than B as I think it’s more light and appropriate for the project.
Character Design Tips – Using Silhouettes
This is by the same blogger as the previous post. In this post he talked about how to use “silhouetting” for a strong pose and character design. I also remember my tutor mentioning this and I’ve heard it mention a lot on art forums and journals and the like but never really used this idea to strengthen my drawings or designs. Now would be a good time to start I suppose 😀
Character Design – Tips and Notes
So I happened to come across this blog post whilst looking for character turnaround sheet references and I must say, it was quite useful. 🙂 It gave me an idea on the whole character designing process (one that I don’t usually follow strictly) and other tips for drawing and coming up with the turnaround sheets~ There were a lot of examples from Disney movies and such so it was familiar and easy to follow!
Chester Cheetah – the mascot for Cheetos crisps – has always been on of my favourite mascots, As a kid I used to eat Cheetos partially because he was on the packet. Guess he’s doing his job well, huh? But what exactly is it that makes him a successful mascot? Up until now there have been quite a few changes and tweaks to him throughout the years but I’ll focus on the Chester Cheetah that is current.
* Cheetah > Cheetos. Easily associated and memorable
*The slogan “Dangerously cheesy” fits with the fact he is a cheetah – a wild animal
*Similar colour scheme
*Cool,suave and now intelligent, he appeals to his audience. First he was appealing to younger ages but when the company decided they wanted to appeal to the older demographic also they tweaked his design. In ads they gave him a sharp accent, he’s not mean but is cynical and intelligent – as seen in the ad where he is playing chess. For kids he had, and still has, a “too cool” attitude, giving the impression to kids that if they eat Cheetos, they will be cool. Or something.
I probably missed a lot of points but it would take a while and require going into it’s history. Either way, Chester Cheetah is a successful, memorable and cool mascot, always will be for me. :’)
After spending all week stuck on who to draw for my character design, I went off to watch Percy Jackson and Disney’s Hercules for “research” *wink wink* 😉 and inspiration. Well guess what guys? I GOT AN IDEA!! //lightbulb moment. From Percy Jackson I loved the idea of drawing Medusa and from Hercules I was in love with Pegasus. How convenient for me that the two are actually linked in the same story in the myths? Not sure if Medusa actually counts as a Greek God but seeing as it’s link edI think it should be fine. The story of Medusa (and Pegasus) that I got from this link; cut short:
*Medusa is the sole mortal from the three Gorgon sisters and vows to be a priestess for Athena, meaning she must remain celibate > however she is charmed and married Poseidon, the consequence being she breaks her promise to Athena and is cursed by her. The result is…not so pretty. > She flees and wandered around (Africa apparently?) and develops a character befitting her appearance. (I would too to be fair.) > Perseus comes along and kills her and upon her death her snakes/hair become Pegasus. The End.
Now wasn’t that a cheerful story kids? Either way it gave me a great idea for the ad banner/poster and character design. It also fits well for this week’s task – Thinking about memorable characters for other brands and also listing cliché /opposite traits for our own.
For Medusa, and also Pegasus, it works pretty well and is straightforward. The Medusa everyone knows:
*Has snakes for hair
*Is evil
*Turns others to stone with her gaze
*Skin doesn’t look too great..
The opposites of these would in fact be Medusa’s original form wouldn’t they? Those being:
*Lush, gold locks
* Pretty Skin
*Is loving and kind
*Has bright blue eyes (ones that seduce a God 😉 )
So whichever version of Medusa I create, I would still be able to use the opposite and would still be Medusa anyway? Sounds good.
As for Pegasus? Not sure what the opposite would be for a winged horse but I would assume:
*White > black
*Feathered wings > bare wings
* Brave, confident posture > cowardly or perhaps more sinister pose??
Not sure what else to do there.
I’ll keep thinking of ideas and sketch once I finish the logo design! 🙂
After meeting the group in class, we had discussed about what steps to take next. I mentioned my idea for using the delta letter as part of our logo and everyone seemed to approve of the idea. We agreed to come up with sketches and our designs, the best will be picked in the coming week. We also talked about character designing. According to the brief we need to design a character, explore a few ideas. Working as a group isn’t easy and we had to brainstorm a few ideas and agree on one to be on the same page. As I mentioned earlier it seems everyone was more interested in the Greek mythology idea as it was familiar and the most obvious. Having been against the majority I went with the flow and we are all to design characters based on 1) a greek god/goddess and 2) any other greek mythical creature. At this point I believe it necessary to make a note on the fact that although some people see these beings as mythical (i.e. not real, only in stories) others believe in them and are real to them. This means that it’s not actually seen as “mythical” to everyone. Even so I’ll go ahead and research and come up with some designs.
Rimakuma Illustrations 