Character design - Lesson 3 - Research and location drawings

In the lesson today we looked at location and how the weather and other things within the environment can effect the atmosphere.

At the start of the lesson each person was given a well known land mark. We then had to use caricature to alter the land mark. I was told to look at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City.

The Guggenheim Museum, New York City

I looked at the curvature of the building and extended both the curves and the height.

After showing him what I had drawn, Justin suggested looking at the building as though it was a slinky.

I much prefer this design as the building is still very similar to its original structure but has more character due to the curvature of it.

We then moved on and spoke more about how weather can effect the environment's atmosphere. We were each given a character and were told to show the character's emotions through the surrounding environment. I was given a World War 2 solider as a character.

I looked at a variety of World War 2 trenches images to help create the image below. 

After showing him the image, Justin suggested creating another image which was more personal to the character, for example, he suggested sketching a scene after the war had taken place. He said about showing perhaps a family photo or letters that are in tact, surrounded by broken glass, bodies, etc. I then started to draw the scene.

In the afternoon we then looked at our own projects and how we could think about the influences the character could have on how the location looks as well as the location's atmosphere.

Looking at the reference images I had collected as well as additional ones I began to draw this scene. I spoke to Justin and told him that I was struggling with the idea. He said that he liked how I used the cactus to show the size of the town but I needed to look more into how the town would be constructed by the bugs.

Justin drew two images showing how buildings could be constructed and how the size of the town could be shown further.

Justin's drawing on how to construct buildings

Justin's drawing to show how to suggest size

Justin also suggested to look at desert plants to look at how the plants could be used to create buildings.