Designing the Antagonist (Using theme and shape to craft character)

Referring to my Initial research I did into Character design, as well as my initial visual research, I created some thumbnail sketches of potential character designs, I felt that it was important to start with a broad range of ideas from which to select from.

Initial Tumbnail Sketches

My initial thumbnail sketches

To begin the designs of this character, I began with thumbnail stick figures and silhouette drawings, focusing on tweaking the anatomy and giving it a distinctive and striking statue. I used bold and sharp shapes to help try and create an intimidating silhouette. Once the initial sketches were done I created another set of sketches, taking bits and pieces from my favourite thumbnail sketches and combining them into character while trying to keep that shape distinctive and unique.

Refined Character Thumbnails

Once I had created 6 final silhouettes I selected 4 and went back into them, adding some very basic details, trying to work out how they would look beyond just the silhouette.  Designs 1 and 4 immediately took my interest, and a quick pass around and feedback session revealed to me that these two designs were, in fact, the favourites. I plan on doing several variants based on each of the two final designs, focusing on things such as facial features, clothing, colour palette and other such things to create a final design for these two characters. 

Before I began with the detail I did some research, not only into samurai armour but I also did some brainstorming into WHAT THE ANTAGONIST MEANT to the main character. I decided that this character should represent our characters fears, both literally and metaphorically. The character I have in mind is very strong-willed, however sometimes doubts herself when feeling overwhelmed, she is also not the biggest fan of spiders or kabuki masks. To bring these fears to life, this character will be very imposing and large, and in addition, contain her worst fears. This will give our character a foe that is genuinely scary and in order to defeat it, she must develop internally and find the resolve to win.

My visual research began with technical research involving how samurai armour is created, and the anatomy of insects so I could more accurately portray my character. One thing I noticed was that often Samurai Helmets had large antlers, usually inspired by an animal of some sorts. I did some research into some Japanese animals, keeping within the theme and decided that my character will have their horns inspired by a Japanese Stag beetle.

I also researched various types of kabuki mask, the white version I feel would make for a more intimidating foe, so I decided that the mask that this character will be wearing will be in the vein of that.

Final Character Turn around

Design 1: The first concept for this design involves 12 appendices. I really like the design of this character, his appearance will make him stand out in a crowd, ensuring that he doesn't get lost in an instant. the armour and clothing is a nice blend of Practical while also retaining a somewhat mythical element to it. One thing I think that holds this design back is that it has too many arms and legs and would be too impractical for an actual fight.

2nd Character design

Design 2 also has a very distinct look and would be recognizable from a distance, this design is much more armour and samurai based that the other, which is more of a blend with the mythical side. While I still think that this is a good design, I am certainly leaning more towards the other design, as it fits the brief I set better.

Time taken: 4 hours.

When I had decided on the main design, I went back into the design and created and a full-colour piece depicting how this character could look. While I think that colour is important on a character, as it helps convey they character better, I didn't want to go overboard and have a character with a bold and saturated colour palette as it would detract from the main character and also why this character was designed this way for. This is why besides the armour being in a traditional red, the rest of the colours are muted. I plan on creating several variations in the colour and then picking the most appropriate then, I will also go back and tweak this character's design in the future, as well as doing various character pose, expression and detailing sheets to help bring this character to life.