It's A-Live! - Live One Day Challenge

In this character design session, we were split into teams and given a children's TV show. Each of us had to create new characters to be introduced to the show; a mentor, a sidekick, and a villain. The show my team was given was 'Trollhunters; Tales of Arcadia". I was responsible for creating the mentor character. when thinking about our characters, my team wanted all of our characters to be connected somehow, so that they could all be introduced to the show in the same episode. The concept for the episode is that the mentor character is kidnapped by the villain, when the heroes become lost, the new sidekick helps them out in an unexpected way.  This meant we had to somewhat think thoroughly about our character's backstory. The character I created is called Aaliyah Hana, or Miss Hana. She is a new teacher working at the heroes school. She gains the main heroes trust and gives him advice and guidance. Below is a scan of the final turnaround of Miss Hana in her work attire. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to also draw a turnaround of her past self, Guinevere.

Miss Hana Turnaround

However, Miss Hana has a secret. Her real name is Guinevere, and she used to be a knight of Camelot. The show 'Troll Hunters' features a few characters from Arthurian Legends, such as 'Merlin' and 'Arthur Pendragon'  That were essentially the original Troll Hunters. I thought it would be interesting to add this twist as some of the feedback I got from Justin was that the teacher character was a little boring and wouldn't translate well into merchandising. Below is a scan of the first concepts I drew of Miss Hana, as well as some rough notes about her character.

Early Concepts

We had to think about how to make merchandise suited for children from these new characters, so I Sketched up a couple concepts. For Miss Hana, her journal, which is filled with activities to do with the show, and some glasses that when you wear them, the lenses are blue and when you look into the light, you see the villain's face. This is a reference to when Miss Hana is captured by the villain. The Guinevere toy is slightly more exciting, It's her glowing sword which also features a hidden compartment in the gem on the hilt of the sword.

Toy Designs - Miss Hana's Journal and Glasses, and Guinevere's Sword

Next on the 'Clients', (a.k.a Justin) list was concepts for a playset. My concept was a set that you can flip over so it becomes another set. This double-sided set would show Miss Hana's Classroom, and Guinevere's study, for when she was still a knight of Camelot. We were also asked for some action poses, so I drew her as both Miss Hana and Guinevere, to show how drastic her transformation from a knight to a teacher is.

Guinevere Action Pose and Playset Concept - Miss Hana's Classroom

Play Set - Guinevere's Side

Action Poses

Lastly, there are a couple of experimental sketches where I tried to recreate the 'TrollHunter' style and apply it to my character, But I didn't really like how the turned out. I think they took a bit of personality away from the character. I'm happy with how my character turned out though, and I enjoyed presenting all of our characters with my team to Justin and my year group.

Experimental Style Sketches

Life Drawing - Collaboration Session

In this life drawing session, for the first drawing, the whole class took turns to draw somethi9ng on each others paper, leaving some pretty interesting results.

Class Collaboration Sketches

1 Minute poses - Ink and Chalk

1 minute poses without bringing the ink brush off of my paper 

20-Minute Pose - Pencil and Chalk

15 Minute Pose - Ink and Chalk

15 Minute Pose - Pencil

20 Minute Pose - Pencil and Chalk

Jet Pack Jones Progress

Character Design - Expressions

 In this character design class, we looked at expressing emotion/ facial expression. We were first given the task to take two emotions and draw someone/something expressing that emotion. I was given 'Surprised' and 'Anxious'. These emotions are rather similar, so it was difficult for me to make it obvious that this character was feeling both of those emotions. I drew his eyebrows raised but also slightly turned up, to try and indicate that he was surprised, but also nervous/anxious. I also made sure his mouth was open but was downturned, and that his eyes were wide but slightly manic as if he has been surprised by something rather unpleasant.

 We were then asked to try and bring a still object to life using expressions and emotions. I was given a chair. At first, I drew a posh, fierce looking chair, a grumpy sofa chair, and a rather chipper armchair. I decided out of all of these, I preferred the posh chair, as I liked how I could work the facial features into the structure, rather than just draw eyes and a mouth straight onto the chair like I did with the sofa chair. 

I developed the snooty chair a little further by drawing some more emotions like surprised/shocked, disgusted, angry and judgemental. I imagine that she is a rather feisty chair that doesn't let just anyone sit on her, and is probably from a very fancy home.

Character Design - Body Language

These are some studies I drew of my classmates acting out various poses that showcased different kinds of body language. We acted out roles that portrayed different levels of status, such as a Boss firing their employee.

Character Design Concepts

I've cleaned up some of my earlier Ghost designs for when I put them into my production bible. These are developmental sketches of my Ghost character and her love interest. 

First Concept Drawings

Rough Early Concepts

Storyboard Thumbnail Sketches

Developing the early designs

Cleaned up Developed Designs

Life Drawing - Drawing Dan

 In this life drawing session the model was absent, so we got to draw out acting tutor Dan. I used coloured pencil for all of these drawings.

5-minute poses and studies

10-minute poses

10-15 minutes poses

20-minute pose

20-minute pose