Character and Object Design: Time Span

This week I had to create three characters in past, present, and future time periods. I chose my family as a theme. The Halls have been warriors in every time period dating back to the 15th century.

The Knight is either Nicolas or Henry Hall of the late 14th to early 15th century. Most likely he was foot soldier during the Cornish Rebellion. The Poleaxe was a staff weapon used by Knights, betoken on one of dignity and repute. It became the symbol for the Hall Coat of Arms. After the war, he was given land in Wiltshire where his descendants would later build The Hall, a mansion still standing to this day.

The Marine is Ernest Hall, my uncle. He's a Corporal in the United States Marine Corps. He tour in Iraq in 2003. His squad came under fire one day while on patrol, but instead of running for cover, he ran towards the fire and secured the area. He was awarded the Navy/Marine Corps Achievement Medal for Valor for his bravery during combat.

The Future Soldier. This was just a bit of fun. Years from now the Earth will travel into space and colonize Mars. When we do there will most likely be those who want to raid and plunder or just cause trouble, and those who are there to stop said raiders. This guy is the latter.

The Latin phrase "Deo et Pauperibus" is the motto of the Hall Coat of Arms and is translated, "To God and the Poor".

Had to create six symbiotic characters demonstrating mutualism, commensalism, and parasitism.

The mouse and mushroom have a mutual symbiotic relationship to one another. The mouse feeds the mushroom bacteria while it in turn offers protection.

The snake and frog have an obvious parasitic relationship. The snake lives off the frog for nutriment.

Lastly, the turtle and his hitchhiking bird friend have a commensal relationship. The turtle walks around, or swims in the swamp water, while the tiny bird benefits from the ride. The turtle doesn't gain anything in return, neither is he harmed. The bird is the only one to profit from the endeavor.

Also, I've been re-playing a lot of old 8-bit games and thought I'd give it a whirl.

Humpty Dumpty REVISED

The whole class had a great critique session this week, and I got a lot of good ideas and suggestions to improve this piece. I wish I had more time to work on it, but I at least wanted to have this much done to revise it. The graffiti idea was great! I think it really helped push the design. Thanks all!

Humpty Dumpty

This week's assignment was to illustrate a famous Mother Goose story/poem.

I wanted something weird and disturbing. Desaturated colors, strange characters, plus upside down arms/feet.

Character Design: Gene Simmons

This week I had to design Gene Simmons from KISS as a plant, animal, and vehicle. This was a fairly challenging project for me. I'm not a big KISS fan, and before this week I never listened to their music. Now I've got "Docta Love" stuck in my head, ugh. Haha!

This was fun. Tricky, but fun.

2nd Coat on Sculpture

I applied epoxy to the lower portion of the armature to secure the model down better. I'm pleased with the results so far. No more leaning/wobbling.

The upper portion is going to have armor and a cape laid on top, but I felt it was important to have a strong anatomical foundation to work from.

First Chavant application

After foolishly applying aluminum foil to all the wrong places I attempted to place clay onto the unsecured model which resulted in it shaking and wobbling about.

Armature

Building an armature for my Sculpture in Animation class. This is my first Sculpture I've ever worked on, working on it is quite addicting.

Character Design, Me at five

Character and Object Design. This week I had to tap into my inner child and pull out memories from when I was five. I had to sketch 10 heads sketches, 10 body, and 1 fully illustrated full body sketch.

This was a lot of fun for me. I just started drawing random shapes and went from there. A lot of the poses aren't exactly true though.... I didn't wear glasses till I was 19, and I never mooned anyone - Momma woulda whooped me good.

Things that I remember strongly though are things like losing my first tooth, learning to tie my shoe, and my Dad flying me around the house.

Free Sketch

Had some Artist's block today. Whenever that happens I try to get as far away from what I was originally thinking and draw something else. For me it helps to draw without thinking and see what happens. This isn't for any class, just some random sketching. Thought I'd share.

Silhouette Assignment

Another assignment from Character and Object Design. The critiques from this class are really good. Everybody speaks up, shares ideas, points out flaws that need improving, etc. Which is great, because their work is good and they definitely know what they're talking about.

On the last day of class, we will present all the pieces that we've done. We have the opportunity until then to correct errors, push the design, make it better, so ideas and criticism are always welcome. That goes for everything I do though, so please feel free to comment whenever.

Anatomy Study

Quick Monster warmup sketches

Trying to push shapes in my Character design class. The Teach had us draw some shapes out, then gave us a theme (monsters). No erasing, just flow with whatever happens. It's a good little exercise, really gets the juices flowing.

Villain Concept Drawing for Sculpture

Concept for a villain I've been working on for awhile. My sculpting class is doing villains this quarter, so I thought I try this out.

Still working on a story for this guy. I really like Greek Mythology, and anything Sci-Fi-ish (Sci Fish?). Anyway, I'll try it out and see what happens.

Character and Object Design Assignment 1

Hi all! This is a character design assignment from my Character and Object Design class here at the Art Institutes. The project was to create three characters using basic shapes and basic colors.

I chose to do three bank robbers: Bags, Tommy, and Fingers. I feel it is important to give names to the characters we create. It helps us to better envision them, plus it allows us to keep track of them better.

Bags is blue, chubby, and looks like he'd be better off rolling from the cops rather than running.

Tommy is yellow, sure of himself, and spends way too much with alone with his gun... it's a little awkward at times.

Fingers is red, picks at things - especially locks, and he's pretty much evil. He's the brains of the outfit and despises his colleagues and curses his own top heaviness.