More refinement for Fatty

The shape of this guy makes it pretty easy to get some comedy out of his movement and during the feedback people said that he maybe just needs a few tweaks. I think i will use him as my pioneer character, once  have a suitable rendering style and look for him I can go crazy with the characters and just apply the same techniques. Here was me playing around with him a little.

Probably need to ask a few more people about the penis, I really do think it just adds that little bit of funny, plus tribe dudes are always walkin around with their credentials hangin' out. I really think so far the original mask is the best, like i said just the addition of a happy pose instantly makes him more likable. He does need a little bit more but hopefully he will evolve as the rendering process starts.

Refinement

So took those pages of doodles and tried to find a hand full of characters in there that could make for strong personalities. Tried to make a small selection of good, bad, male, female and animal characters based on strong shapes or poses. The idea was to produce some different looking ideas then get some feedback and focus on two or three. Heres the page I did.

Definitely have my favourites in this bunch but it was time to get some outside help, posted them up on the uni facebook page and begged for some feedback. Luckily a hand full of kind ladies and gents gave me a helping hand.

So it looks like it's definitely the simplest shapes and the strongest poses that people relate to the most. 2 and 3 seem to be peoples favourites, and mine too if i'm honest. Wondering if they can be like a duo or if they need to be refined into the same character. 7's pose stood out to a lot of people as well, from now on I need to try and make sure everyone is in a strong pose no matter how rough the sketch is.

Mindless Scribbles

Desperately had to get away from what I've been doing in my designs so far, which essentially has just been thinking of a random character then applying tribal stereotypes to it. This is always my biggest crime and it ends here!
I did a few pages of quick sketches based on all the statues and masks from the museum. Even though this took about half an hour all in all it has probably been the most important part of my project so far. Here are the pages.

A couple of great ones here I think, all of them are strong shapes and that's what i need more of in my work.

Love the circled guy in the top left, brimming with personality, not a particularly happy one but personality non the less. he would probably make for a good protagonist.

Quite like the obvious bad guy in the top left and the old woman/man in centre right.

Anyway, as I said, doing this was so important, why start from scratch when there are hundreds of great character ideas that have already been made buy these people over the years. All I have to do is adapt them to my purpose.

What Am I Doing?

Well thanks to my tutor Steve for this little doozy, also mad props to Andy for seriously getting into this photography session. Thought getting into character might help and obviously i have no reserves about making an absolute tit of my self. Crafted an amazing mask in a matter of minutes, surprising I know, considering the quality, and threw together a tasty grass skirt both entirely made from a poster tube and pizza boxes. To be honest i don't think words can really explain any of this so just have a gander.

Hey, another weirdo!

One man party

Hero pose

 Well apart from being a whole lot of fun this also reinforced the importance of poses, even with an emotionless face they can get a story or a feeling across. Also without these i would never of thought of having the arms coming out of the side of the mask, probably would of insisted on having a neck making the character freaking huge.
Next week?      I have no idea.