5. Explore, critically evaluate and implement the appropriate skills relevant to the creation of character design

Looking at my character art produced prior to writing this blog entry, I realized there is a relative stillness, as if the characters were posing. This collided with my driving idea for the main character of the Excelsior brief - Joeb. He is supposedly a very active persona -  a warrior monk. The suggested certain level of agility had to be communicated through my character art.This is why I decided to explore a different painting techniques in oerder to represent the active quality of the character. 

My main inspiration to achieve this effect was the character art for the 2008 Prince of Persia game. The way the artists used rough, painterly brushes to convey the idea of flowing movement was ideal:

 Prince of Persia (2008) official character speed-paint:

 Prince of Persia (2008) character concept art:

Having already produced the initial sketches, I proceeded straight to researching staff fighters and the way they move. Then I came up with a pose:

Joeb character design sketches:

Movement Research:

What I failed to do though, was to conduct the necessary level of research for a piece of artwork that is so different from what I normally do. Thinking that my series of sketches were enough to do my design justice, I did not look for photographic references of the type of clothing I wanted to convey and the way it looks in motion. And as a result a failed to communicate my idea properly.

Initial character design:

The character art I produced above still looks stoic as if the character is posing with his staff instead of being caught in motion. The loose cloth around his waist looks more like a propeller than flowing fabric in mid turn. In my mind the outfit was meant to look as visually interesting while moving as a belly dancer's. So after realizing my mistake,  I researched how the skirts of a belly dancer look while spinning:

   

I produced a couple of rough sketches to resolve my issues, combining these references with my previous painting. And then I produced the final image:

Final character design:

In summary, it needs to be pointed out that although there is a series of appropriate skills relevant to the creation of character art, (response to brief, anatomical knowledge, perspective, use of appropriate colours etc) without satisfactory preliminary research, those skills are not enough to produce a convincing piece of character design. Sadly initial research can often be underestimated due to an artist's excitement when starting a new design project. The learning outcome of this experience is to avoid the common mistake of diving straight in a design without sufficient knowledge on the subject.