2 Character Expressions - Final

We were prompted to try something new with our coloring. Typically I am far less sketchy with my final lines so I let myself use loose ballpoint pen sketches for the final image. I also worked with flat colors and a relatively limited color palette. Also I was granted permission to featured both of their occupations in one image.

2 Character Expressions - Process

Little write-ups I did to get a feel for the character's personality and to clarify their occupations.

An Example of whimsical taxidermy.

Amelia's Expressions

Jace's Expressions

Comparison

Expression practice for the final piece

Thumbnails and cleaned up thumbnail

3 Styles - Drawings

Character drawn in my own style. Her casual/at home look.

Character drawn in Adventure Time style. In her work uniform.

Character drawn in Studio Ghibli style. Outdoors outfit.

3 Styles - Process

Initial Character Assignment and my scribbling a plot together. I had a pretty solid idea what I wanted this character to look like from the beginning but I did some variations and tried to figure out how dragons work.

Played with different layering of accessories and with different outfits.

I got distracted with some thumbnail ideas for illustrations involving this character. In the first one they are working on a cyborg and in the second one they're in their work lab overlooking the polluted city.

Final step in the process was to start sketching the actual 3-Style images

Character Background:

Li lives in the pollution-ridden 22nd century. They have always lived modestly but enthusiastically - they love their job and they love learning. They've studied in various branches of science but focuses in biology and has a hobby interest in technology. Li lives alone and is successful in their career, not the most interesting life but a good one, or at least that's how Li looks at it. That's why when they first read about the Nano-DRA virus infecting cyborgs they were completely drawn in. Fascinated by how the digital virus could somehow manifest (and in such a form) they studied this phenomenon in secret and eventually figure out the virus evolves from reading digital binary (01) to DNA code (GTCA). Their research and knowledge is under scrutiny from not only their peers in the scientific community but by the government - which is typically not a very oppressive force but for some reason very interested in this particular subject. Their life becomes more and more dangerous and they try to figure out the source of this virus and what to do with the tiny dragons once they are born.

(tie in with char/sidekick/vehicle assignment)

Li meets up with [] while trying to evade security trailing them, Li gets in the back of her icecream truck and tells her to keep going and that she's being followed. Because [] has been looking for adventure she goes along with it and helps Li on their mission. Trust between the two is rough at first but [] comes to care about the cause just as much as Li.

Zodiac Design - Character Rambling

Archiving my thoughts on the roles I was assigning to the characters and why.

Zodiac Design - Finals

Zodiac Design - Process

This page is all the notes I took for this project. I tend to get very into the research stage, especially when there's a starting point as interesting as the zodiac. My problem was that I accidentally made a story to go along with them that I got pretty into developing. My thought was "I need something to put them all together" and fell down the worldbuilding rabbit-hole.

This section specifically gives a good example of where I was going with the 'plot'. The basic idea for the story was that the characters are in an all-girl gang. I used the Trines to break down the gang's hierarchy and also used the sign's yin/yang alignment to decided on a more masculine or feminine personality/presentation. In the image above I showed how that broke down along with each character's role in the gang, chosen based on the sign's personality (the roles are bit more what got reflected in their character's poses than purely the sign's traits so that's why this is important)
I'm hard to read so here's what it says:

1Yang
Dragon, Boss
Monkey, Heist Planner
Rat, Schemer/Hitman

2Yin
Snake, "Madame"
Rooster, Interrogation Specialist
Ox, Sniper

3Yang
Tiger, Hitman/Generalist
Horse, Banker
Dog, Defense Squad/Lackey

4Yin
Rabbit - Shop Owner
Goat - Hacker
Pig - Freshmeat/Small Crime

As for the actual drawing process here is an example for how I approached it. I scribbled a few gestures until I found what I wanted, as well as sometimes doing a headshot to get a feel for how the character should look. I tried to draw quickly and a bit more simple than I usually do.

See the Final Designs here!