The Classical Elements: Character Design - Water

For my characters I wanted their appearance to reflect the appearance of the element they represented, as I feel that this would help to portray the story more coherently to an audience. Based on the brainstorms I did on colour themes and materials that would best portray the elements I decided to experiment with different materials as I drew the character out. However, I decided that I didn't want to try tissue paper, as I thought that this would take too long to create every single time. So I chose three materials and a digital method.

Watercolour

I really like the watercolour example, as it was very quick and simple to create. I also like the link between the material and the element. I also feel that the washed out colour and the texture of water colour helps to strengthen the idea that this character represents water. This is definitely a material I will keep in the back of my mind for my final character.

Chalk Pastel

 Although I really like the texture of chalk pastels and the way the colours blend (you can't see it too well because of the image, Sorry.), the chalks themselves are very messy and it takes quite a long time to draw it out in chalk. Whilst I could use the method of rubbing out certain parts and redrawing it as I went along I'm not sure if this would work well with my story, plus it's very messy. I will consider experimenting with it to see how it appears.

Coloured Pencil

Coloured pencil is also another medium I like to use and I feel that it works really well to add colour to my character. The method is very simple and only a little slower than the water colour. However, I feel that it is something I would get bored of doing and I feel that the detail would slowly decrease as my animation went on, which is something I want to avoid as much as possible. Having said this, I'll keep it in mind for my final character, as it might work well for the background.

I like creating digital animation however, I feel that this just doesn't create the same effect as the watercolour does or any of the other materials for that matter therefore, digital doesn't seem like it will be an option for me this time round.