Human Character - Final Piece

This is my final piece for the human character. I decided on a final pattern for the jumper and decided last minute to put some flowers in his hat to break up the colour. I ended up going with a really simply wood staff as I didn't want to take away from the rest of the picture. I actually really like how the hands turned out. If I could change it I might make it a bit brighter as I might have been a bit heavy handed on the shading. Also I really need to work on backgrounds as I have no idea how to make a background interesting but not so busy or dark that it distracts from the main bit.  I will work on that. This project was a push for me as it's been a long time since I've drawn a character full body and fully finished and coloured the picture. 

Human Character - Model Sheet

This is the first time I've done a turnaround of a character and usually find it hard drawing characters from the side but I think it went ok. In here I sorted out his scarf and hat and I decided to combine them together so his hat is very long and turns into his scarf. I haven't chosen a final pattern to go on his jumper but I would work that out when doing the last part. I think these look alright, I need to work on drawing feet, especially from the side. Although his jumper and shirt have different patterns I don't think they clash too much and do look alright together. I like the colour scheme as it is, it keeps the natural tones I wanted like the green, brown and tan, but also breaks them up with the brighter blues and the purple in his shirt. Colour palette is something I definitely need to work on and there are a lot of different colours in this but I don't think it impacts too badly. 

Human Character - Variations

These are some of the variations I did to decide what he would look like in the final design. I took a lot of influence from layers and forest fashion as I wanted to keep the modern look but keep it layered and like he could wear it around outside.

I starred my favourite ideas and put them into a separate picture so I could look at how to combine them. I decided to take the long scarf and put it with the jumper but I preferred the longer trousers, although I wanted to keep them blue as I think it offset the other colours brown and green and balanced it out. I thought he could have a cape when walking around outside but I couldn't decide on a colour for it. I don't think it mattered that much anyway as he wouldn't be wearing it in the final piece so I never settled on a colour. 

Human Character - Sketchbook Studies

These were some of the first sketches I did to flesh out the character and get a feel for his design and the look i was going for. The first two I was thinking whether to go for a layered look or a more feminine floral design. I knew I wanted to keep his hair short and simple as it suited his character better. I was also playing around with hats thinking whether to go the traditional wizard hat route or give him a more modern hat. 

This was a quick mock up of a small idea I had, I decided to give him the traditional hat as I had to keep some sign that he wasn't just a guy but did have a role. I also thought about giving him a staff although I would keep it simple. I played around with colours here and really liked the blue and the grey socks but I was still unsure about the coat. 

Some preliminary sketchbook studies working out face and practicing drawing him. I circled the faces I like the most.

Here I looked at more faces and started thinking about his clothes. I liked the idea of a scarf as it adds to the layers.

 I was originally planning for him to have a staff so I practiced a lot of hands holding staffs as drawing hands is a big weakness for me. The first page was done digitally and the second page was traditional. My favourite is the hand on the left in the middle row on the bottom page. Drawing these I definitely need more practice drawing hands but I think I'm getting the hang of drawing from a reference and beginning to learn the form of the hand so I can draw without one in the future. 

Here I was looking at various poses that go with staffs as once again I haven't really experimented with different poses. I like the first one, although I haven't done life drawing in a while and I need to get back into practice of drawing various poses frequently so I can get used to proportion and angles. 

Human Character - Thumbnail Sketches

These are the thumbnail sketches I started with to help decide the shape of the character. I think I was going for one of two angles, either a very tall, slender character to imitate a tree, or a short, stout character like a bush. The top few silhouettes with green behind them are based on the shapes of different flowers. I personally like the first on the top row and I think in the end I went with the shape like the first on the bottom row. Working in silhouettes was a new way to work as I hadn't really thought about working from a shape before. I did find it hard but I think it is a good idea to work from shapes as it allows for diverse design and stops all your characters from looking the same. It also means that your character will be recognisable from just the outline which is good as it doesn't rely on small detail or just hair to define them. 

Human Character - Intent

This is my intent for the human character concept brief. I wanted to do a wizard and I really like the forest aesthetic. I prefer thinking about side characters rather than the main one so I wanted to build the character into a world that can pre exist. It's modern fantasy, keeping as if we were in today's ideals but with fantasy rather than technology. I really enjoy open world RPGs when you can accept quests and build positive or negative affiliation with different factions.