Doctor Who Bust

I have now completed the Doctor Who Bust and taken some good photos of it.  I really enjoyed doing the bust. The face was quite challenging and not as good as I wanted it but I have to remember that I have never sculpted a clay bust before and that I didn't use high quality clay.  Although I enjoyed the character design project I don't think it would be a field I would concentrate on for the future.  It was good though to have a go as it was something I was very interested in and I feel that my 3D skills have developed and that I should remember to use them a bit more for other projects. 

A very basic start of the mask

Yesterday, in the afternoon I started on the mask.  It was a public holiday and very hot so at first I wasn't going to do any work but in the afternoon I just felt like having a go :D  I on did the base, it's basically the shape the will fit over the face.  The next step will be to papier maché the bulk shapes onto this base.  Then I will add the hair followed by putting a layer of clay over the top to create all of the details.  Then the painting and fur attachment. I think that's the right order, I'll probably will be able to tell a bit better when I'm further down the lign.

It may see quite deep, but I really want it to slot right over the face so I can position the ears correctly and have room to add the mane. 

Lions and Tigers and Bears... Oh My!!!

...or maybe just a Lion :D

Tuesday and Thursday, 15th and 24th of May

I continued with the character last week trying to get the general body proportions right.  I had had the problem with the shoulder blade.  It strangely looked too much like a wing.  At first when I drew him again he was too enlongated, the whole body I mean.

 

So I shortened the body.  I had a quick look at some dinosaur pictures and decided to make the back bones more like the Stegosaurus plates that run along its back.  The shoulder blade still didn't work when it was enlarged though.

  

Naturally the next step really was to get rid of the shoulder blade.  Instead I enlarged the general shoulder area.

  

 

It still not being quite right, I rounded the shoulder off more, made the back legs less fat and made the chest bigger.

 

Being a lot happier with this design I coloured that one in.

 

I then did one of it running just to see if the legs and so on would work.  Apart from having drawn the head too small I think it's fine.  

 

I also did a front view.  It looks like shyte so I'll have to redo this as some point.  I don''t know it looks like it's really old and clapped out.   I'll have a better look at anatomy of a lion front on, that should help.

Then Yesterday, Thursday I drew the side view on an extra large piece of paper.  I did this one really big so I could get all of the details on one picture.  Also I have been working on tiny little picture with a lot of detail recently and it's driving me slightly insane, only slightly... so I drew a nice big one :D

 I still need to add an extra front leg at the moment because it looks like he's only got three.  When I've done that I'll add a better picture.  I think Gizmo on the left looks pretty terrified.

Mr Liony Wiony

Thursday, 10th of May

After feeling pretty depressed the previous week about this project and just really not getting into it, I had a lot of fun on Thursday.  After having decided to use a skeletal theme I did a quick study on the general skeletal anatomy of a lion.

I felt the body was too long so I shortened it in later pictures.  I decided to sketch in ballpoint because it's a lot faster than pencil as I don't sit there rubbing everything out and being really bloody pedantic about everything.  I was about to carry on down another bad track with drawing and quickly stopped myself.  I quickly grabbed my portrait from last week that I did at the end and set out to fix this.  When I had drawn it with ballpoint I really wanted to see it coloured.  So I could do this quickly I used ecoline and indian ink.  I had a lot of fun :D The paper was crap so it puckered because I couldn't be shagged to stretch the paper. 

I think he looks really cool.  I then carried on doing different angles and expressions, not loads but enough for now.  I mainly did this to check that the face still worked, which I think it does. 

I also had a crack at the body this day.  I tried a couple before I had done the side angle.  I just removed bits of the flesh basically for now to see what I got.  

 

 I then wanted to figure out the feet because as I had mentioned right at the beginning, I think they're visually important.

 I then had another crack at the body.  I wanted enlarge the shoulder blade but it didn't work it just ended up looking more like a wing.  When it this small the head looks bird-like which is weird.  The back legs being exposed it not good at all, he looks like he'd fall over if you nudged him slightly. I will carry on this week by combining all the different bodies I've done and changing a few bits here and there to get it right. 

As final designs I'll be doing two A1 illustrations (on thicker paper), one front on full body- the other side-on full body.  I'll probably do a few more smaller portraits as well of different facial expressions and photoshop these all together to make a sheet.

Along with the bust, which will be done in the summer holidays I've also decided to make a mask of the creature.  After having done the first portrait I realised it would be a real shame only to do the transformation bust.  I did some research on materials and found a website that sells loose hair in numerous colours so I'd be able to make the mane out of that.  I've found some fur for the fluffy bits but I'll keep looking just in case.  For my Birthday I got a seriously cool book from my parents and brother, "The Alchemy of Mirrormask".  Mirrormask is a film created by Dave McKean and is one of my favourite.  Masks are one of the themes :D, so there are loads of images of those.  They said that the bases were mae out of paper maché and clay, which I think left them with this amazing raw feeling.  I'll be doing that as well as I think it will be suitable and of course I have no knowledge of prosthetics.  The mask will be wearable but not something to be worn in the rain :D Really looking forward to making it in the holidays.

A Lion-Like Creature

Friday, 4th of May

I had to look up a few Lion Source pictures in the morning because I realised I hadn't done that yet. After that I did my usual study drawings.  I had a look at lions from different angles with different facial expression.  I also drew to lion portraits from the photos I took at the British Musuem, the large Assyrian Lion and the seated Egyptian Lion. 

 After that I really wasn't too sure what to do to be honest.  I doodled a bit and nothing too productive came out.  I had liked the look of the sketch of the Egyptian Lion so I traced that and changed it a bit so it was less stony and added a headdress. Result: too bloody Narnia.  None of it was scary and I ended up with a range from beetle-lion to camp-lion.  I hate having to put some of them on here but ah well...

Right so the lion wasn't working out.  What is scary and something to do with creatures.  Well when in doubt.. draw skulls :D.  Keeping Eddison in mind ("If I find 10,000 ways something won't work, I haven't failed. I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is often a step forward...."), I went back to the drawing board.  First of all I drew two skulls as a base to start figuring out a creature. 

I then traced the top skull and added some bits to it to make it bordering on alive.  It's actually quite terrifying when I look at it like this, I might need to tame it down a little bit for Doctor Who.  That put aside I would say I'm definitely a step closer here than the earlier sketches of the day.  The mass underneath his left eye is supposed to be chain mail by the way not frog spawn, quite tricky to draw actually.  Anyway I thought it would be quite cool to do a kind of zombie-ish monster lion. Only appearance-wise obviously, it can still run like the wind.  Although the eyes look really scary like this theyy do have that I'm so insane and will never hestitate kind of look.  I made the pupils human because they kind of looked like breasts otherwise, but that could just have been my mind playing tricks on me :P  I'll carry on with this concept next time.  The mane really doesn't look like it's coming out of his either more like it's behind him.  

Here's a cool head I found at the good old British Museum by the way.  It was very cool, can't remember if I have posted it already or not so will post again now.  I mention this as I was thinking about the head when I thought the lion could be more skelletal.  I could add more flesh to my lion face like this head here, it wouldn't be so terrifying then.  As this head is quite close to the LOTR orcs and my nine years old brother loves LOTR that should be closer to the correct Fear Factor Level.

Doctor Who Character Concept and Drawing

Thursday and Friday, 18th and 19th of April

I started out by writing out the general character descprition.  This was the first one:

"The alien race is originally in form a lion-like beast which can walk on legs or all fours for extra speed. When it lands on another planet it changes into the same form as the local dominant species. It can still change into its own form at any time. In the episode only original and human forms will be shown.

The race is an aggressive conquering race and have sent numerous people to Earth to plant parts of a massive attack weapon on the planet. When the weapon is completed and activated the human race will become uncapable of own-thought and turned into a slave race.

When the Doctor arrives on Earth with his assistant there are headligns everywhere warning about animal sighting and the possible dangers connected to them. The Doctor is contacted by the main Army base about one of the creatures (the race in lion form) having been seen in the base. This is how the Doctor is introduced and confronted by th race"

I had a look at the existing Doctor Who Characters to get a general idea of what they're aiming at.  For comment on age-gap and fear factor see image below:

I then wanted to do a more general research of creatures in film.  This was more to look at how designers tackled concept design in different ways.  It really does differ a lot.  There are pencil sketches, highly detailed digital paintings, quick sketches, watercolour paintings etc. The Concept Deign can be tackled just as much in your own style as any thing else and certainly doesn't nee to be sacrificed.  Looking at the clay models or maquettes to use the correct term, these are either painted or unpainted probably with the majority unpainted.  Colour seems to be tackled more in the 2D element.  I don't really think it will be necessary for me to paint mine either as it's more about the forms created by the transformation but we'll see.  I discovered a really blog/website while doing this research: http://characterdesignnotes.blogspot.com/ It's got loads of interviews with designers on it and loads of tips and tricks for character design. 

I then did one of my mind-maps: 

I then did some portrait sketching to see what kind of look he would have based on the different indeas in that came up in the mind-map.  The first I thought too ancient and wooly.  I really wasn't sure about the second and then when I drew the third one I thought that was probably about right.  Of course it has something to do with the lighting I used in the picture but I think a more gaunt look would be good for the human form to make him look a bit more seedy.  I don't really feel I need to perfect this as it also has a lot to do with casting in Film/TV but this was just to get the general idea of what I was aiming at.

After having drawn these portraits and reassessing my mind-map I had a rethink about the character. I was mainly thinking about what time it should be set in due to the link between the lion theme and Richard the Lion Heart.  Also the idea of the character disguising itself as a Knight's Templar interested me more than any old random person.  I decided to rehash my original character details to combine it with these historical characters:

"Second Version – Additional Description

The creatures come to Earth during the time of the Crusades, Reign of King Richard I (r.1189-99), a.k.a. Richard the Lionheart. The alien disguises itself as a Knight's Templar fighting alongside the King. (The Knight's Templar did assist King Richard I in battle, I looked it up.)

When the Doctor arrives he is excited and wants to show off to the assistant and manages to speak gain an audience with King Richard by using the Psychic Paper. The King tells him about a strange beast prowling the camp at nighttime. He is getting nervous as a lot of the men see it as a bad omen, some demon premonition of what's to happen in battle. The Doctor reassures him and says he'll help to rid them of the beast." 

I did sketch out a Templar Knight but I haven't done it in colour yet.  I'll just do that when I get a free moment.  I feel I can use my time a lot better working on the lion creature.  The project was meant to be a creature design project and the templar is more of a job for a costume designer as it has to be historically accurate.  I will make a colour version and tidy it up a bit later to make it a general illustration :D