Analysis
For this rotation, I wanted to explore beyond my usual artstyle while designing a character. I generally opt for more detailed designs, however, I wanted to imagine a character in an animated environment. Overly-detailed characters can suffer in animation and be tedious to draw, so in order to create a simpler one I thought about basic shapes.
I wanted my character (based around the season ‘Winter‘) to have a roundness to them, so I used basic shapes with harsher edges and softened them (for example, the coat of my character is just a simple triangle with around edges). I aimed for my character to be like this as I consider Winter a childlike season, and thus, I wanted a childlike character. I also wanted some type of animal motif (a deer) that represents Winter, as I believe that a fantasy-type character matches the ‘magic’ of the season.
The colour palette I chose makes the character stand out in perhaps a snowy environment, with the darker blues and purples, and I wanted a pop of colour on the design with the slightly yellow fur. I also included a texture on the clothing, to emulate that thick, warm feeling Winter coats have.
Overall, making a character that I wouldn’t usually make was both challenging and rewarding. Learning about how to make interesting characters from basic shapes was helpful, as I was able to make an eye-catching character without thinking too heavily about details early in the design stage
Below are just some basic outfit choices I was considering when designing the character (moodboard in .pdf file).
Before I started the project, I also did a warm-up exercise.
For this task, I had to create five different characters that comprised of different shapes. This was a challenge for me, as I am more used to drawing humans as opposed to characters that have human traits, but are not. Overall, it was a fun exercise, especially adding finer details to the characters to make them unique in their own way!
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