Work in Progress Character Lineup

Just wanted to post a couple characters I'm working on right now for my Character Design class. I'm supposed to do a character lineup, so so far we have Fleuder Flam (Compare to the Fleuder Flam I attempted at the beginning of the semester and you will see how far I've come!), Princess Eloinwy, Taran, and a witch whom I am still trying to figure out. 

I've already been able to get some feedback on them from class yesterday, and it was definitely helpful!  Most of it was for Taran. He definitely looks more like a she now that they mention it. He needs to some how be boxier, boy-ier... so they gave me some tips to make him look more like a him than a her. Some of those suggestions include: giving him a boy haircut instead of a girl's, making it less well trimmed (take away the bangs and give him some hair sticking up), make him more boxy and wide. He looks to slender, especially with the hourglass shape that his legs and shawl are making. They were all good ideas and I will be sure to redo him and incorporate as much as I can! We'll see! Hopefully tomorrow's version turns out better than this one, still! (Also, they'll be in color! Woot!)

Snowgirl Christmas Card

So my latest assignment in my Character Design class has been to design a Christmas card and place a character in some kind of setting. I'm not so sure how the setting part will work out (it doesn't have to be too complex, but can in fact be very simple), but here is my sketch for my little character I intend to use:

I've got her all colored up on photoshop already, but I'm not sure where I put the picture of that... so as soon as I find it I will add it too and update this post. However, it is still going to need some editing. My teacher mentioned that it looked more like a snowman than a girl and that maybe I should add some hair or something so you can tell what she/he/it is. That's a good point! I also need to stop reverting back to the anime faces I grew up trying to draw, as well as fix the funny blob on the back of her head that can be a little bit hard to read...(what is it?? It's supposed to be the ball... like on the end of Santa's pointy hat!)
Anyway, I'll update you a bit more when she is better, updated, and improved upon! Just thought I'd give you a sneak peak of the thumbnails. (Can I still call it a sneak peak, even if I'm no where near publishing it professionally? lol)

Mary Poppins!

I guess it's time to give a little update on my recent art stuff. Mostly I've just been doing things for the character design course I'm taking this semester. We've done a lot of very fun and helpful assignments so far including hand studies, head designs, silhouettes, stretch vs. squash, villians, hair, etc! It's probably been one of the most influential classes I've taken here at BYU and I fully accredit that to my amazing teacher Boston Madsen. She has only been graduated for a few years, but has been working for Avalanche part time as well as doing many other pieces of beautiful artwork of her own! I've fully been enjoying her class this semester and have been taking so much from it!  Do you remember the first assignment I posted back at the beginning of September?  Well, contrast that to my latest assignment: taking any live action movie character and designing her in our own character style. It was so amazing and fun to do this!  I chose to do Mary Poppins, and I am actually quite pleased with how the drawing turned out! Check it out!

 Isn't she cute?!  I decided to give her a more conventional way of flying. This way she can sit down and take a nap if she'd like, and also, now no one can see up her skirt as she floats down. In my imagination, the giant umbrella would shrink down to normal size the minute she set foot on land. If she can pull lamp shades out of a carpet bag and make toys go into their toyboxes by using magic (and not to mention fly) then why can't she have a magic umbrella that shrinks and expands when she needs it to? Now I've just got to figure out a way to color her and make her look realistic-like (in an illustrative-type way) I feel so proud and that my skills have certainly improved a lot over the last few weeks! I hope they continue to improve (especially since I'll be graduating soon and leaving all my professors and their helpful critiques behind.) :,(
Thank you, Boston, for all you've done to help me improve over the semester! The time you take to work with us individually has been so helpful and exactly what I've been needing. The time and effort you have put into making this class so great has been much appreciated!

Two new characters- Princess Eloinwy and Dalbein

Okay, my next assignment is due today! I spent a lot of time thinking about how I would portray Princess Eloinwy from the Chronicles of Prydain and went through many different silhouettes and character ideas. Finally I decided on something which I hoped incorporated some of her "sea king" ancestry. Unfortunately, I didn't spend nearly as much time thinking about the Wizard, whose name I even forgot. But, here are the two finished (mostly) characters which I turned in today. Needless to say, they still need some work, but that is exactly what this class is for!

  
Dalbein. I think that was his name. Also, we've been learning about straights and curves (or stretch vs. squish) and so I was trying to incorporate some of that into Him as well. Princess Eilonwy has a special glowing orb which she calls her "Bauble" that floats around and has some magical powers. I sure love the stories of each of these characters! Even when my drawings of them turn out less than ideal, I still fall in love with them!

First Character Design-Fleuder Flam

So, this semester I decided it would be helpful for me to take a character design class. I've been studying illustration at BYU for a few semesters now, and feel that my character designs have been very weak all along. I've had fellow classmates take this class and feel that there is a definite difference between their characters and mine! Ha, as you can see, this has probably been the best decision I've every made! Here is a picture of the first assignment I turned in.

 

Yeah, I've got a long way to go! These are two versions of Fleuder Flam, a character from the book The Chronicles of Prydain. My teacher, Boston Madsen has only been graduated from BYU for a few years herself, but I can tell she's going to be an excellent help to me this semester. She expresses great confidence in us, is very kind, and gives honest and helpful feedback. She's been great so far and I know she'll help me take these rather lovely Fleuder Flams and make something special out of them. 

AND YET, despite their rudimentary quality, I still can't help but love them... especially the big guy on the right. Doesn't He just look so happy? and the one on the left, perhaps a little disgruntled... his harp strings have just snapped again, right in the middle of most important part of the big story he was just telling me! They are always doing that, you see. :)