Assignment 1

Character shapes, forms and proportions

When starting this assignment I drew some rough character figures, drawing out my ideas I had for the different shapes and form my characters would have.

Choosing a female character for the owner I wanted her to be lean with long legs so I sketched out some long, narrowed ovals for her limbs. A slight curvaceous torso; leaning towards pear shaped, I drew a small-medium circle for the bust and a medium-large circle for the booty, connecting them together drawing thin curved lines to emulate a slender waist. Finally I wanted fairly big cartoon head to take further advantage of messing with usual human proportions and adding a long pony tail trail to follow.

For the pet I chose to animate an overgrown duckling because ducklings are adorable and I wanted the duckling’s cute connotations to contrast the grumpy personality I was thinking up for him. I wanted my duckling to be very big and cushion like in comparison to my skinny doll like character, making it easy for her to sink comfortably amongst his big feathers.

Preliminary Character Design- Female Owner

With my characters I wanted them to have contrasting personalities, the owner being very optimistic, energetic and nimble- the pet however is grumpy, lazy and sloth like. Wanting to incorporate their personalities within their designs I listed features I wanted to include, listing the characters age range to be between 17-21 to embody the energetic and optimistic approach to life youth has. I wanted my character to have black features and so sketched out different lips using for reference celebrities like Halle Berry, Beyoncé, Rihanna and Rita Ora.

I also looked at concept art of Tiana and Moanna from Disney's 'The Princess and the Frog' 'Moanna', getting a basic line technique to how they drew black features like noses and lips, and how to make it look realistic from different angles. Also focusing on hairlines and brows from both influences.

I drew out five different face moulds to experiment illustrating different facial features, this works well because it gives me a wide range of different options I can choose from for my final design. To finalise my decision I listed which eyes, nose, lips, brows, face shape and hairline I liked most; for me Version 3 was my favourite but found it odd I only chose two of her characteristics for my final outcome.