Category: Project

This week, shading and small touch ups to the design were done. I’m not particularly great at shading to start with, though I think it turned out alright.

Though, I found it particularly difficult. Due to the colour scheme already being quite dark and learning how shadows project from a light source takes time.

Referring back to a passage from Project (6-9) Gear. Arden was based off of the Keres, malevolent spirits of violence, death and disease.

The black Dooms gnashing their white teeth, grim-eyed, fierce, bloody, terrifying fought over the men who were dying for they were all longing to drink dark blood. As soon as they caught a man who had fallen or one newly wounded, one of them clasped her great claws around him and his soul went down to Hades, to chilly Tartarus. And when they had satisfied their hearts with human blood, they would throw that one behind them and rush back again into the battle and the tumult.

Redfield, J. (1994). Nature and culture in the Iliad: The Tragedy of Hector. Durham: Duke University Press.

Though they functioned like the Valkyrie of Norse mythology – I chose to omit the wings that mythology suggested they have. Though, the final design still ended up being inspired by the bird, the Vulture.

Overall, I’m happy with how Arden turned out.

Eyes

• Top Left:
  • I felt this set of eyes was perhaps too feminine and formal to fit with the “warrior” theme
• Top Middle:
  • I liked this set, though to me I felt that it was far too innocent looking, again not fitting the “warrior” theme.
• Top Right:
  • I felt this option fit the most, It didnt look too feminine or formal, and it showed signs of a furrowed brow indicating concentration
• Bottom Left:
  • Once again this set looked far too feminine and formal for my taste, I also didnt like how close they came together in the center.
• Bottom Right:
  • I liked this set, like the top right option, it wasnt feminine or formal and it showed signs of furrowing. Though I feel like it was perhaps a little too “harsh” on the female face.

Mouth

The above shows a set of mouths I drew to appear somewhat scary/malevolent. Playing with ideas like fangs and sewn shut mouths, your typical “scary” traits.

My choice however was the Top-Left Option, as I felt it still felt “Malevolent”, and it wasnt too over the top like the others. Below is the two options together, and colourized.

The final touches to the face was the nose, as the character has been drawin in an anime-style, I chose to keep the nose simple. The design of the nose reminds me of Voldemort from Harry Potter.

Below is the complete character “designed”. The final touches are coming soon in the form of shading.

This week, I needed to decide on the weapon I would like them to use. My first attempts were based on using “feathers” as weapons.

Feather-Blade 1st Attempt

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Feather-Blade 2nd Attempt

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Wing-Blade

Claw / Knuckler

The above designs, while I liked them i didnt think they fit the “agile” look the character was developing. So, thinking back, recalling the bird aesthetic – I never did utilize the “Talons” aspect of birds. I thought this would be a good idea for a weapon, In any case the design I came up with also reminded me of Wolverine from X-Men.

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Character – So Far

Up next – the final aspect of the character design before i start to shade it – the face.

I started off with a basic, short and neat look. Though nice, i thought it was very plain.

The next iteration of the hairstyle, I decided to extend the length. This was a better result, though, again still rather plain.

The next iteration i went for a more disheveled/wild look. I liked this. Though, I wanted to revisit the shorter hairstyles.

Back to the “Short Bob” as a quick passing idea, I removed the fringe. Though this look striked me as very “formal” and not really what I was hoping for.

Third attempt at revisiting the short hair, I took the classic short, trimmed bob and made it a little more wild and unkempt, though I was happy with the backside of the hair so i kept it the same. Still not quite what I wanted.

This one, I felt was the winner. Though I wanted to develop it some more, I felt something was missing.

Doing some doodling, I came up with this. It reminded me almost of a feathery headpiece.

Running with the headpiece Idea, I refined it some more.

So, even though I originally intended to move away from long hair, adding the headpiece brought it back in. Below is the hair added to the figure, with the colour scheme to match.

The Female body comes in various shapes and sizes, seen above.

• The Rectangle
• The Apple / Round
• The Hourglass
• The Pear/Triangle
• The Inverted Triangle

For the my character design, the body types I will be comparing and picking from are the hourglass, the pear/triangle and the rectangle.

The Pear

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The Hourglass

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The Rectangle

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From the above figures, I favor the hourglass figure the most with the rectangle as a close second. From this, decision I can now start looking at facial features and hairstyles.