My first assignment delivery at Noroff second year is done. The assignment was to create a character concept art from a pre-1960 story about gangs. This is my fist time going so in depth with character design. And although it was a fun project, I must admit that drawing really isn't my thing, and that I lose my patience fast when doing drawing. I will show you my results in this post, and tell you how I got there.
Fist of I started by finding the pre-1960 story about gangs. And when I say "about gangs" I don't necessary mean crime gangs, although that was the fist that came to my mind when the project was presented. The story had to be about a group of people that was connected somehow to be more specific. After browsing to a lot of short stories online I finally found this one: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vikings_of_the_Gloves
The plot:
Having docked in Yokohama and looking for a boxing match to raise money, Costigan and the crew of the Sea Girl find that the only fight club in town is booked up with Swedes vs. Danes matches because the whaling fleet is in port as well. Luck seems to come, however, when the Swedish sailor Dirck "The Gotland Giant" Jacobsen breaks his wrist and a replacement is needed quickly for the match against the Danish sailor Hakon Torkilsen that night.
The crew try to pass of Costigan as a Swede called Lars Ivarson. The club owner does not believe the ruse but has no other option. The fight goes ahead, although the crowd is unconvinced as well. Further complications soon arise. The first complication is that the match referee turns out to be a man Costigan knocked out earlier in the day for attempting to kick his dog Mike. He knows who Costigan is and tells him he'll reveal everything at the end of the match, at which point the crowd will turn on Costigan for intruding on a Scandinavian matter. The second complication emerges soon after the match starts. A rival captain got the Sea Girl's captain drunk and tricked him into betting the Sea Girl on Hakon Torkilsen to win and signing a contract as proof. Despite the captain's pleas, Costigan refuses to throw the fight, both for himself, for his ship mates who have bet everything on him, and for the Swedes that he is now representing.
The fight continues regardless and Hakon turns out to be an equal for Costigan. The complications distract Costigan and render his performance uneven. He is knocked down several times. The problem of the bet is resolved when the rival captain, Gid Jessup, gets too near the ring while Costigan has almost been knocked out of it. Costigan grabs the contract, the only proof of the bet, and begins to eat it. Jessup tries to retrieve it, but Swedes in the audience, thinking he is trying to interfere with their boxer, attack him. Free of that problem, Costigan decides to fight to the finish regardless of the referee's threat. This too is solved quite soon after when, in the confusion of the fight, the referee accidentally starts to count Costigan out in Spanish (having only used Swedish, Danish and Norwegian so far). Costigan realises that he isn't Scandinavian, either, and the referee admits that he is an American vaudeville linguist called John Jones who took the job because he needed the money.
Costigan and Hakon fight savagely but Hakon eventually collapses in a corner and cannot get up again. The Swedish captain celebrates with Costigan and, after the match they have seen, does not mind that he clearly is not one of his countrymen.
The stroy is about Costigan and his crew of the Sea Girl looking for a boxing match to raise some money. I could imagine that Dirck "The Gotland Giant" Jacobsen who was supposed to fight in the boxing match in the first place, was a pretty tough fellow. And that's the character I wanted to create. A huge Viking fighting machine.
My interpretation of the term 'gang' was in this setting was that the gang was the crew of the boat. A group of people working together almost every day on a boat would surely get to know each other very well. Dirck would be the type of character that is the "tool" of the gang. He is strong, feisty and easily fooled into doing others what other people wants. Making him look like he was part of a gang wasn't easy. The only real idea besides him having a Viking helmet was to give him a tattoo of some sort. But I thought it would look stupid character, and besides tattoos is more of a pirate thing.
I think that the time put into finding inspiration and researching is well worth it. When I create a kind of inspiration/research folder its easier for me to visually see what I want to create. If I save all the stuff I find interesting when doing my research its easyier for me to go back look at what I wanted this character to be like when I'm drawing. The picture below is a model sheet that helps sell the idea of the character, to me and others.
Here are som droodels. Im trying to find the shape of the head and the body of the character.
After drawing the character in black and white it was time to give my character some color. I searched the internet for inspiration again and found some pictures of wikings. What they all had in common, was that there clothes was colored in dark- red, brown and grey, "nature" like colors. I wanted to recreate the feeling of this nature colors and chose my colors accordingly. This choice of color would help sell the character as a real Viking.
I think people will clearly see that this character is a Viking. I asked some people what they thought a Viking should look like, and the helmet with horns was always the first that came to mind. Even dough Vikings didn't really use helmet with horns, I feel that if you take that element away it's no longer a Viking. All dough he is a Viking, that doesn't necessary mean that the audience will see that he is in fact part of a crew. And I think that's because I spent too little time thinking about what design choices could make him look like he was part of a gang.
My aim wasn't realism for the final character drawing. I wanted to create him sort of cartoony with borders defining him, and his size not necessary naturally correct. What I was aiming for was a comic look and feel to the drawing, and I think that I achieved that.
And finnaly there is the modeling of the characters accessories. I wanted to keep them simple keep the cartoon feeling, and I wanted to make them as low ploy as posible and at the same time making them look smooth.
Download the MAX file here...
Thats all for this time, and I will try to update my blog a blit more often in the future.
