Major Project Character development

I began by taking photos of my flatmate from the perspective of a rat on the floor. This was to help inform me when it comes to drawing my own characters as to the proportion I will need to look at.

I drew over on of the pictures to experiment with colours and drawing styles:

 This is an example of a basic cartoony style. I thought that the lines were too clear and tidy and the colours too simple. I want to go more abstract than this. 

 In this example the line-work is more muddled, because rats dont have great focus I thought this might be a good way to show the bad eyesight without blurring the hell out of the image. But I still think it is too clear-cut and tidy.

 

The line-work on the last two is the same. I wanted to make it more of a scribble. I added a grey colour scheme to the send image to see how it might look like through a rats eyes. I'm not sure about it but I think, compared to the examples above, it is better. 

I also think, compared to the other two, this one looks more in proportion because the outside margins are a little bit looser as if the further away parts are a bit more blurry. Therefore, to me, the last image seems more imposing and powerful comparatively. 

I wanted to see if I could push the proportion by having thick, dark lines at the bottom and sketchier ones at the top. I don't know about it, but i think if I tidied it up a bit more I might like it? 

I want to exaggerate the characters a little more but at the moment I'm just drawing over top of a reference and so I'm not really changing it up a lot yet seeing as the poses are very basic.

Developing Characters

This is a post about developing the characters for my major project.

I find it easiest to come up with visuals and plots when I am listening to music because it helps me to form the visuals. For this reason I decided to begin developing the human characters by thinking of the music that they would listen to. This is important to me because I want them to feel quite authentic and I think I would find it easier to form a fully fleshed character when I have a "moodboard" made out of music.

At the moment the two characters are known as "Person1" and "Person2". I have an idea in my head of their personalities, but it isn't fully fleshed out yet.

The Music mood board for Person1 consists of:
Marinade by Dope Lemon > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ju-Qj8xFQk
Dunes by Alabama Shakes > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AI6nIJ-anYQ
The Wheel by Sohn > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AslPYSm7jfg
Hazey by Glass Animals > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOHEuhJf7nA
Everyday Robots by Damon Albarn > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjbiUj-FD-o
Feel Good Inc. by Gorillaz > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyHNuVaZJ-k
Sober by Childish Gambino > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jx96Twg-Aew
Is this Love? by Bob Marley > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHekNnySAfM
I heard it through the grapevine by Creedence Clearwater Revival > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93S_l0qZrXA
Elephant Gun by Beirut > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWSz_PAfgNc

The Music Mood Board for Person2 consists of:
Phantom of Aleppoville by Benjamin Clementine > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3m5PuSmOZYo
Madness by Muse > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ek0SgwWmF9w
Everybody dies in their Nightmares by XXXTENTACION https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ek0SgwWmF9w
Kurt Cobain by Astronautalis > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06ZU8C4YeIM
Rain or Shine by Young Fathers > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCRlA2528Ew
Welcome to the Machine by Pink Floyd > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qEsTCTuajE
Black Chandelier by Biffy Clyro > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myc_RViTHhY
Horn of the Clock-Bike by Saul Williams > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3x6pxpwd_w

I will listen to these songs to help inform each character as I draw them. It will just help me to get a feel for them and how they see the world so I can build a backstory and personality.

Face Experiments

I began to think about concepts for my character design. Stylistically, nothing is set in stone until I decide on the style of the 2D animation later. This is more important to me in the sense of face-shape and how the character looks when it all boils down to it. I like the spiraled eyes and think that this is something that I will continue to experiment with for the more stylistic side of things.

Here is my full body concept of Person1. I have some notes written to refer to that I will look at further as I begin to design it more. 

Here is the full body concept for Person2 so far.  

This is the colour palette I have come up with for now. I may de-saturate it a little, or I will leave it as is.

Full Colour design of Gary and Sullie

Short Character Bios

I wrote out imagined interviews with my characters. I found this helpful because, by imagining how they would reply to the questions, I could get a better feel for each character. It also helped me to see what they would consider important enough to mention, showing where their priorities would lie. It also helped me to imagine how they would speak, and how they would communicate their ideas, including speak patterns they might use etc. 

Below, I have written a shorter bio for each character in order to create a rough outline of who they are:

Sullie

Sullie (Salinger) is the aspiring writer in the flat. He is studying journalism, but doesn't have a huge love for his degree, he only chose it because he wanted to write and his parents wanted him to study. If he was to go into journalism as a job, he would want to do investigative journalism, but he has a bleak outlook on job opportunities in that field, because investigative journalism is dying as a result of it costing too much and taking too long. Sullie's dream would be to be the next great novelist of his generation, but his staggering insecurity about his skill level makes him worry that he will never achieve his dream. Sullie is Salinger's nickname, used since he was a kid. Sullie doesn't particularly like the nickname, because he feels like he has outgrown it, but he prefers it to Salinger. Sullie was named after the novelist J.D. Salinger, who his parents both love. He despises this because he feels like he will never be able to write a book as influential as The Catcher in the Rye. He feels that, should he ever become a novelist, his name will automatically mean people will compare him to J.D. Salinger, because of the shared name. He fears that because of this, he will always be in the successful writers shadow.
Salinger was born in New Zealand to immigrant parents. His mother is Welsh, his father is Egyptian. His parents were travelling the world when his mother became pregnant, stopping their travels. They both got "boring" jobs in order to support their new baby. Sullie feels that the day he was born, his parents died inside. Sullie has a little sister, but their outlooks on life are quite different. She is 19 but returned to her parents house after leaving home because she struggles with depression. Sullie thinks she should just get up and travel and escape the confines of the safety and security she feels at home in order to overcome all of her fears about life, but his sister prefers to live with security and refuses to listen. Apart from their different outlooks on life, Sullie and his sister get on, often confiding in one another over their parents.
Sullie is quite neurotic and a bit of a worrier. He tends to overthink and analyse things, a skill that he believes helps his writing. Despite this, he often gets anxious from over-analysing things, and he often has to remind himself to keep things in perspective. Sullie often feels like there are too many things to do, and not enough time to do them all. Sullie puts a lot of pressure on himself, often holding himself to a higher standard than everyone else.

Gary

Gary was born to a young mother. Her choice to have Gary made her parents kick her out, so he spent his early years in womens shelters. Once moving out of the shelter, Gary's mother worked two jobs and managed to rent a cheap house.  Despite all of the movement from place to place in his early years, Gary remembers his childhood fondly, and thinks he had a good one. This is mostly because of his mother, who he is extremely close with. Gary's childhood gifts were art supplies because his mum didn't have much money, so she would get him things like a paintbrush/pot of paint each birthday or Christmas. When she went off to her long shifts at work, Gary would stay at home drawing and painting to entertain himself as he waited for her return. He believes that this is why he loves painting so much because throughout all the moving, the one thing he could keep with him was his art supplies. Gary loves to paint, and is studying visual art. He doesn't like his degree, only choosing it because Paul wanted him to go to third level education, or get a job. Paul is Gary's step father. He met Gary's mum when Gary was a teenager. They met when Gary's mum went to do a certificate course in psychology. Gary doesn't like Paul. He thinks he is pompous, a know-it-all and too authoritative. Paul and Gary work to get on with one another because neither of them want to upset Gary's mum. Paul is quite wealthy, and so whenever Gary needs money, Paul helps him out financially. In return, Paul expects Gary to get a degree and a job that he can support himself with. Paul was unhappy when Gary chose to do an art course, considering it a bad degree to choose. Gary's mum was on Gary's side though, because she is Gary's biggest fan and believes he is going to go far in the art world. Gary disagrees, but doesn't tell his mother because he doesn't want to upset her. Gary doesn't care about being a successful painter, he just wants to be able to paint because he finds it calming. In fact, he says that if he was to be expected to paint for a living, he would find it less enjoyable because then it would become a chore. Gary's favorite aspect about painting is, if he doesn't like it, he can just throw it away and start again. He is a relaxed person, often letting life take him where it takes him. His motto is, "here for a good time, not a long time". Gary doesn't take things too seriously. He considers life to be chaotic and absurd, but enjoys the lack of control, finding it funny and freeing. 

Gary believes that there is no point in stressing the small things. He is quite thoughtful, enjoys conspiracy theories and discussing politics and social issues. However, he isn't particularly invested in any of those topics. He enjoys musing about them, but doesn't think there is much point in getting actively involved. 

Gary has two little step-siblings that are much younger than he is. He thinks they are sweet kids, and is fond of them, but doesn't really know them. He didn't really grow up with them so they don't have much of a bond and at family gatherings he tends to leave them to play amongst themselves, happier to just spend time by himself. Gary enjoys smoking and smokes daily. He believes that he might as well smoke because he enjoys it. When people ask about whether he worries about health complications, Gary is bemused because he doesn't understand why he would need to worry about something that hasn't happened yet.