Illustration & animation Year 2 update - Character Design Project

This is my first post of my second year doing Animation & Illustration. I thought I would update the blog on what I've done thus far in my second year. I've completed one project (Character Design) and am part way through my Alternative Tecniques project which is a print making project.  I have also just started a narrative project where I am putting together a story following on from my character design from the previos project.

I thought I would start off by posting some images from my Character Design project and then is further posts going into what I've done so far in relation to my other projects.



I started off the project by focusing on expression and how simple changes to things like the placement of eyebrows or pupils, as well as the distance between them can effect a characters expression. I did some experimentation with taking a random head shape and then adding features to change the overall feel of the character.

For the actual character design I ended up researching and looking at some eastern mythos. I looked into Oni from Japanese mythology which are Ogre like monsters just a lot more cunning. Then for my design I ended up thinking about an old samurai who's past haunts him in the form of an Oni version of himself. This is so his reflection of himself looks menacing and demonic resembling the samurai armour he would have worn in his younger days.



I struggled on the project to get a design down from the samurai character and ended up stepping back then decided to focus more on the Oni's design which I enjoyed drawing way more. I enjoy his bright colours and how expressive I was able to make him. I overall ended up happy with the project outcomes and what I managed to learn throughout.


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