12-30-2016, 06:33 PM
(edit) The earlier design iterations, I made before the below post, for reference
Here is my continued progress in the character I'm developing, for reference here is a loose idea that this character is based on: An ancient sorcerer king, that has awoken from death.
I've realized that the base design I was making iterations to was flawed enough that I should start from scratch, once the new base shapes that make up the character have been found, I can refer back to the succesful parts from the earlier designs and draw from them if needed. By flawed I mean that the visual impact of it was low, infact one of the iterations that I kept going with lost even more power, since the base shilouette of it looked even more boring. Thus looking back at the earlier shilouette I felt that it was stronger. Upon more detail designs on the earlier shilouette(with minor alterations from the base design) I finally realised that I need to start over, because of this corner I've backed myself into with the base design(in essence a neutral pose with arms hidden and not a lot happening).
I believe the mistake I made was, being too attached to the first draft and the work that went into it, to start over from scratch. Essentially I had the knowledge of how to proceed(from "The skillful huntsman"), but I believed that the base design shape was good enough, likely enough I decieved myself to believe it was good enough, because it was the easier way to proceed.
I write this in hopes that some of you notice, when this sort of situation happens to you, to take a good look at the base shilouette of the character. I would also like to mention to trust your feelings and try to investigate and articulate why you feel that one design is better than the other.
The 3rd design below has a very dull basic shape(might work for a background statue, but not a character that conveys power). Even though the details can pull their weight(variety/some rhythm/fit the character, they are heavily hampered by the bad base they are on. I didnt even noticed it until I looked back to the earlier designs and saw that they were better at parts. The 2nd design is in my opinion the best one, due to subtle triangular shape, with lines going towards the focal point, "face".
Thus, I went back to the 2nd design and iterated it again, until I realized that I'm not going to get the best depiction of the character Im going for from this base design.
So I went back to the start, even though it was somewhat of a hard decision to do so, I found that ultimately it should pay off.
I would like to mention that I did not go with some very promising looking designs from earlier due to the fact that they did not convey the character I was going for. So the challenge is to make the best possible depiction of the said character, meaning that not only does the shilouette need to look good along with the details, but the character must give the feel of an undead sorcerer king(so it has to hit these attributes, for example: power, elequoance, wealth, the aspect of death. Not only does it have to hit them, but it has to be a right balance of those attributes.)
Here is my continued progress in the character I'm developing, for reference here is a loose idea that this character is based on: An ancient sorcerer king, that has awoken from death.
I've realized that the base design I was making iterations to was flawed enough that I should start from scratch, once the new base shapes that make up the character have been found, I can refer back to the succesful parts from the earlier designs and draw from them if needed. By flawed I mean that the visual impact of it was low, infact one of the iterations that I kept going with lost even more power, since the base shilouette of it looked even more boring. Thus looking back at the earlier shilouette I felt that it was stronger. Upon more detail designs on the earlier shilouette(with minor alterations from the base design) I finally realised that I need to start over, because of this corner I've backed myself into with the base design(in essence a neutral pose with arms hidden and not a lot happening).
I believe the mistake I made was, being too attached to the first draft and the work that went into it, to start over from scratch. Essentially I had the knowledge of how to proceed(from "The skillful huntsman"), but I believed that the base design shape was good enough, likely enough I decieved myself to believe it was good enough, because it was the easier way to proceed.
I write this in hopes that some of you notice, when this sort of situation happens to you, to take a good look at the base shilouette of the character. I would also like to mention to trust your feelings and try to investigate and articulate why you feel that one design is better than the other.
The 3rd design below has a very dull basic shape(might work for a background statue, but not a character that conveys power). Even though the details can pull their weight(variety/some rhythm/fit the character, they are heavily hampered by the bad base they are on. I didnt even noticed it until I looked back to the earlier designs and saw that they were better at parts. The 2nd design is in my opinion the best one, due to subtle triangular shape, with lines going towards the focal point, "face".
Thus, I went back to the 2nd design and iterated it again, until I realized that I'm not going to get the best depiction of the character Im going for from this base design.
So I went back to the start, even though it was somewhat of a hard decision to do so, I found that ultimately it should pay off.
I would like to mention that I did not go with some very promising looking designs from earlier due to the fact that they did not convey the character I was going for. So the challenge is to make the best possible depiction of the said character, meaning that not only does the shilouette need to look good along with the details, but the character must give the feel of an undead sorcerer king(so it has to hit these attributes, for example: power, elequoance, wealth, the aspect of death. Not only does it have to hit them, but it has to be a right balance of those attributes.)