Reworking into Character Design

Having looked into adjusting the final designs of my character I found that I much preferred the simplicity of my earlier designs, I think I got carried away developing the characters into something that looked pleasing rather than the best designs for the purpose. Having revisited my character designs keeping in mind my audience and the nature of the narrative I have come to a much better understanding of the style I want to produce.

These are two of the earlier designs I had for each character and they are much more suited to the audience and overall feeling I want to portray in the narrative. I am going to work on the designs a little more but I think this is much more in the right direction than the designs I finished BA7 with.

Lily

On the left is one of the final designs I had in BA7 and the right is a newer iteration.

This is the coloured version of the newer design, I made her shorter as I wanted her to look more child-like. She is older than Hugo but I don't want her to look too old. I used blue to make her look different from the other characters, to make it apparent that she isn't alive and is a spirit. I also decided to give her small wings to help convey the idea that she is a spirit and isn't anything scary. As the narrative is aimed at children I want everything to be very visually clear.

 This is the final design for Lily, similar to the previous image just a bit more refined as I felt some of the form of the figure was being lost and it was a bit unclear. I've defined the edges of the character and made the design a bit bolder and I feel that this translates a lot better. I decided in the end not to go with the wings because I felt like they had too many religious connotations. This is something I wanted to steer clear of because I didn't want to alienate any parts of my audience who may not want to portray any religious values to their children. I also thought it might be a confusing message for children to understand and she may have been confused for an angel.

Hugo

This was the design I ended up with for Hugo in BA7. I think that as a design it looks fine but it doesn't fit the kind of story I want to tell. Visually it doesn't fit with the feel of the imagery I want to create.

 

These are sketches I did to try and get a consistent idea of design and to ensure that the look of the character was appropriate to the narrative. I have begun experimenting with expressions and I'm going to put together a finalized character and expression sheet to refer back to when I am producing the artwork for my narrative to ensure I keep the designs consistent.

This is the final design for Hugo. I feel like his proportions are a lot more accurate to the age he is (8) and I'm happy with his overall look and style. It fits the visual style which I am aiming for much better than the previous designs I had.