Semester 2 Conclusion

  This semester took a very surprising, yet fun direction that I hadn't anticipated at all. Character design was always something I had wanted to do, yet thought I had nowhere near enough talent to even attempt it. This semester however I have fully pushed myself to learn as much as I can, about stylisation, realism, and anatomy to put together multiple small pieces. While I feel content with the progression I have achieved this far, I still wish to push myself as much as possible to refine this newfound skill, and so in the next semester, I plan to continue my anatomy studies with James as more of a side project, while focusing on creating full body ( possibly rigged) stylised characters. Going forward with the stylisation idea, I wish to create between 4 and 6 full-bodied characters of varying heights and builds all belonging to the same 'universe'. Genres I have thought of to create these characters from are; outlaws and lawmen, a band of pirates, a band of mercenaries, or a set of secret agents. In each of these categories, I will aim to have a main 'hero' type character, a short, stout side character, and an unusual or ill-fitting character, such as a baby in an over-sized suit as the lead operator for the agents, or a very obviously female pirate with a fake beard.

For my next set of anatomy studies, I will be looking into the rest of the body, with the torso, arm, and leg studies alongside the facial anatomy sculpts to keep me in practice and further my knowledge and skillset in the area. James has recommended to me some anatomy books that he uses all the time to achieve correct forms with his sculpts, so I will be buying those too to make sure I can achieve the best results from my studies possible. These studies will also greatly aid in bringing my stylised characters to life, as proper knowledge of how the human body is formed is essential for knowing what parts to exaggerate when approaching stylisation, for example on a tall skinny character, which parts of the body to exaggerate the length and width of, and what that would look like.