Megan Castleton

| Learning Journal | ANIM1004: Character & Characterisation |

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Peer Assessment.

I did not recieve any peer assessment as I was ill on the day it occured.

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500 Word Reflective Summary.

In this assignment, I was tasked with choosing a character from a book and coming up with a design for said character. I did not want to have any preconceived concepts from films or tv series, so I chose to use a character from a book which has not been used in either. The character I chose was Luthien, an elf from J. R. R. Tolkien’s “The Silmarillion”.

Most of the research I looked into had something to do with dancing. I needed to know the ways in which a dancer would move around as Luthien is described as having a love for dance. When I began initial concepts for her design I looked into the way a ballet dancer might move around. I drew out different poses to see what they would look like and to see if they fit. However, I began to see that ballet moves could be conceived as quite stiff, whereas I wanted to show the character as having more of a flowing quality to her movements. Because of this I then looked at figure skating. The way a figure skater moves around is much faster and the way they move has a quicker transition. For this reason, I then started looking more into body types of figure skaters, or just athletic builds in general. I found that the way I was drawing the figures for my character were slightly off in the way that the body was thin and waifish, whereas an athletic person generally has a slightly muscled body over all. I looked at videos of figure skaters, and went out around campus to do some general life drawing.

As well as research for the body of Luthien, I also looked at dresses worn by elven characters. It seemed fitting to look at dresses worn by elves in the Lord of the Rings films as both books are by the same author.

After drawing different iterations for the dress, hair, and face, I decided to stick with an overall elegant style. Her hair is pinned back, the dress is flowing with a low back (this seemed a reoccurring theme when I looked at elven dresses), and her features could be deemed as conventionally attractive, as most elves are represented as such.

For the final design, I chose to do a digital piece, rather than a traditional drawing. The main reason why is because I thought it would have a cleaner end result, and It would be easier to see the pigments of the colours I chose.

When it came time to make the clay model for my character, I was nervous about making it because I am not very good when working with clay. I feel as though the end result turned out better than I thought it would in the beginning, however it still feels a little bit clumsy.

Over all I enjoyed the assignment, as it allowed freedom in choosing the character and then going away and developing your own design for a character which another person may have seen differently.

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Final Design: Luthien.

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Finished Model.

Front -

Back -

Side -

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Applying clay onto skeleton for model.

For this part I struggled quite a bit with the smaller details of the model, as I wanted to face to be more distinct, however it ended up looking quite clumsy. I am pleased with the hands and dress though I still think they should look more elegant than I eventuslly made them.

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Skeleton of model.

I found it difficult to try and make the parts come together, as I wanted to use as little clay as possible, so tried to get the foam close to the shape of the body as I could.

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Character Turn around

Front, back, and three-quarter view of character.

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Enviroment

Because the extract from the book says the character is dancing in a kind of forest enviroment, I chose to do a drawing of an open piece of land, and also a drawing of an area more overgrown, with a small pool of water.

I feel like the second drawing would be more appropriate for the scenario as the forest would be dense.

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Face & Hair concepts.

First of all I drew out the face shape and differed the shape of the eyes and nose and mouth, also altering the ear shape slightly.

After drawing these initial designs I looked at different styles of hair I could use, planning to come back to the face later once I had decided on the hair style.

After going through the process of looking at different hair styles I eventually ended up combining a few of the designs into one final concept.

After I had decided on the hair I went back and looked at faces again.

I decided to draw my final character with large almond shaped eyes, and a slanted, pointy nose.

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Back design of Dress

Further designs for the dress. I only drew out a couple of concepts for this part because I had a clear view in my mind of what I wanted after I had already drawn out the front design for the dress.

I want to go with a sort of combination of the first two images, the low back of the first design, paired with the short sleeves of the second. I think they would be complimenting features. Also, the character is an elven princess, though she is not a snobbish or up-tight character. I feel that the low back gives off a graceful charm, but the short sleeves also afford her a friendly vibe.

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Development of Character Work

After I finished fleshing out the body type for my character, I began to look at dresses that a character such as mine might wear. I researched costume concepts from The Lord of the Rings, as there are a lot of characters that are elves in the movies. I found a lot of the clothing to look as if it would flow, and the materials usually looked as though they were made from something light.

I drew a few different designs but I like the longer length idea more so than a knee length dress, as it is more common to see an elven character wearing a longer dress, as I believe they look more elegant and graceful.

Elven Dress research images:

https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/377387643747359109/

https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/14707136257959630/

https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/356136283011895429/

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Character Work

This week I started to draw some more basic figures for my character design. As the character is an elf as well as a dancer, I thought they should have a long, thin body, with elongated limbs.

However, after receiving feedback on my initial drawings, I searched up the way someone’s body would look if they were a figure skater or a ballet dancer. Generally, they have strong thighs and the small of their back tends to concave in, and their ribs will usually stick out more than is typical. 

I went out to the study space on campus to see if I could draw anyone walking or sitting in the area. I did manage some life drawing, however I also referenced images and tried to capture the way a dancer’s body moves.

Referenced Image:

http://www.mcswright.co.uk/sculptures/wire/ballerina-pointing-up

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Life Drawing Task

This week we drew peers in the class, as well as going out and drawing people on campus. Whilst in class I drew the whole figure of the person, whereas when I was out on campus I become focused on the portraits. I am not sure why I started drawing portraits specifically. Next time I will try to do more of the posture.

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Character Design

We were asked to find a passage from a book describing a character, then to begin the design process for said character. I chose Luthien (sometimes referred to as Tinuviel) from the story Of Beren And Luthien from the book The Silmarillion.

The passages from the book:

“It is told in the Lay of Leithian that Beren came stumbling into Doriath grey and bowed as with many years of woe, so great had been the torment of the road. But wandering in the summer in the woods of Neldoreth he came upon Lúthien, daughter of Thingol and Melian, at a time of evening under moonrise, as she danced upon the unfading grass in the glades beside Esgalduin. Then all memory of his pain departed from him, and he fell into an enchantment; for Lúthien was the most beautiful of all the Children of Iluvatar. Blue was her raiment as the unclouded heaven, but her eyes were grey as the starlit evening; her mantle was sewn with golden flowers, but her hair was dark as the shadows of twilight. As the light upon the leaves of trees, as the voice of clear waters, as the stars above the mists of the world, such was her glory and her loveliness; and in her face was a shining light.

There came a time near dawn on the eve of spring, and Lúthien danced upon a green hill; and suddenly she began to sing. Keen, heart-piercing was her song as the song of the lark that rises from the gates of night and pours its voice among the dying stars, seeing the sun behind the walls of the world; and the song of Lúthien released the behind the walls of the world; and the song of Lúthien released the bonds of winter, and the frozen waters spoke, and flowers sprang from the cold earth where her feet had passed.”

My beggining concepts:

Because the character I chose is an elf, I thought it would be appropriate to look into the way a ballet dancer would move.

Reference: http://s743.photobucket.com/user/likemomandapplepie/media/2014_Tutorials/ballet-positions-cecchetti_method_zps6a0c67b3.jpg.html

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Second turn around: Bi-peds (shoebill)

Update: I was not present for this session as I was ill, so was unable to do the clay making practical.

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Turn around Task

This week we were each given an animal to do a turn around for. I was given the rhino.

Illustration by Brendon Wenzel.

Here is my turn around:

After drawing the turn around we made the inner “body” for our clay models of our animals. When we had our foam cut to shape we started adding the clay.

Though I never finished mine as there were a lot of parts which I would of liked to go back and change, such as the cutting of the foam so I wouldn’t need to use as much clay, therefore I wouldn’t of had such a heavy model.

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Character & Enviroment

This week we looked at an extract from The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch. After reading the extract we talked about what we thought of the two characters which are involved, Chains and the Thiefmaker. Though there was not much to be said for chains other than maybe he came across as strict and sarcastic with a powerful aura, the Thiefmaker had a lot more revealed about the kind of character he was.

After reading the segment, we then listened to the audio book version, only this time there was the inflection given to the characters by the person reading it. The audio also went further into the story than we had originally and revealed another of the characters that had been mentioned by the Thiefmaker, Locke Lamora.

The Thiefmaker came across as being selfish, harsh, smarmy, and that he thinks highly of himself. He refers to the children in his charge as “my loves, my jewels, my newlyfounds,” this may be so that the children are more susceptible to him? He was described as old with crooked fingers, after having them broken.

Thiefmaker:

Thiefmaker/Lamora:

Thiefmaker silhouettes:

As I did not want to make the same mistake as I did with the previous character drawings, I went from the basic body shapes to the silhouettes of the characters, instead of focusing on decisive details.