Character Design

Mondays Tasks

For this rotation we started off by using the three basic shapes; square, circle and triangle, to create just the outlines of different character designs, then we were given different everyday objects and we had to use the outlines of the objects to inspire different characters.

Main Task

The main task for this brief was to create a character design using one of the three prompts given to us

• Winter
• A scarf
• ‘Down Under’ by Men at Work

I chose the song Down Under as I felt it would give more interesting and specific inspirations to work with. One of the lyrics is “smiled and gave me a Vegemite sandwich” so I decided to make a character inspired by a jar of Vegemite which is similar to marmite and I like marmite. I started by drawing a jar of Vegemite then splitting it into its basic shapes and colours then combining these shapes and colours in different ways to design the outlines of characters. My favourite body shapes are the ones with a combination of short and long so either a fat little body and long limbs or a big hat.

I liked the designs with a monocle and a little suit but because this was my first time painting on photoshop I decided on a more simple design with just a big head and long legs. A jar of Vegemite is yellow, brown and red so these were the only colours I used as my palette. I’m guessing that, same as Marmite, Vegemite is one of those things people either love or hate so I wanted to make my character a bit weird.

I actually really struggled with the painting in photoshop because I didn’t realise its a lot easier with a tablet rather then a laptop and mouse so the final outcome is pretty rubbish but I liked this rotation as it got me out of my comfort zone and made me try something new that I would usually avoid. I will definitely keep practising drawing in photoshop but this time with a tablet.