Thursday, 7 February 2013

EXPRESSIONS: Character Development



At first I started with a simple tiger, who was human shaped and sized, drawing from The Beast in his hunched over, beast like posture. I think I got the weretiger look correct here but I felt that the character needed more that could give him more of a personality other than wild animal so I decided to give him a pipe, which led me to make him into an old sophisticated Victorian gentleman.


At first when I drew him with a pipe and clothes, he lost the hunched frame I had achieved in the first sketch which I really liked and wanted to get back if I could so he could maintain weretiger status. I eventually managed this after a few quick sketches and by looking back at my references. I was really happy with this look, however I still had the problem that he looked too much like Shere Khan, and it would not be original at all to submit a character that looked practically identical to such a well known character. I want Jasper to be a completely different and distinct character from Shere Khan, with his own look and personality.

I quickly painted him however in watercolours to get an idea for his colour palette which is strictly greys, brown, white and orange. It was here I also began planning for what I wanted my lines in my final animation to look like, black and bold but varying in size.



As mentioned before, along with further reflection, I decided to go through a stylistic change for this character, as he continued to look too much like Shere Kahn to be considered original. I gathered inspiration from my favourite illustrator, Lous Wain, who was famous for painting cats, especially cats in Victorian settings and clothes.








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