Initial Thoughts and Ideas II

As I added details to the sketch, it changed quite a lot. Instead of being a queen, I wanted her to look a bit stronger. As a character, Noelle evolved into someone who defies gender roles and constricting traditional values, so I wanted her to be something other than a sterotypical princess type. I was playing around with different design ideas when the shadow/ reflection idea came up. I was thinking of ways to express the ideals that Noelle was breaking away from and this seemed like a great way to do this. I refined the Noelle in the frontground into a slightly more powerful, untraditional version of herself, and I liked this version batter than any of the others.

Initial Thoughts/ Character Background

The piece was initially going to be featuring Noelle and her partner in crime, Jayme. The idea was to be a major contrast to show how different they are- Noelle being a princess and Jayme being a pauper. However, I changed my mind on this idea when I noticed the lack of impact. The idea had no main objective, no real focal point.

My second idea, which I worked off of for most of this project, was to show Noelle as a queen. I liked the idea because it made her a powerful individual, which is what she's striving to become. At this point she had no clear background, but I really liked the idea, so I stuck with it. It did evolve quite a bit throughout the process, but the original idea of individualism and independance remained mostly the same.

Initial Thoughts/ Character Background III

The character featured in the piece, Noelle, lives in a steampunk inspired time period., and is a princess about to become a queen. The gender roles of the time are strict; women are expected to find a husband as quickly as possible and submit to him fully. As a princess, Noelle is especially confined by these values. However, she has no desire to submit to the roles of the time period. She wants to have a say in what happens in her life and in the ruling of her people. This is reflected in the piece through Noelle's reflection in the piece in comparison to her actual self. It also is shown by Noelle's posture, clothing, and expressions. I tried to draw her as a strong, independant, in control individual. I also used contrasting colors to make Noelle stand out from her reflection. Her goggles, top hat, coattails, and the numerous buttons were to help her fit with the time period, though women would usually be wearing dresses. The bubblegum was to give a pop of color, and to represent the color pink on Noelle. The pink in this picture seem to be mostly associated with her more feminine reflection, and I wanted to bring some of that into the central figure. In this screenshot, the piece isn't finished, and her reflection is basically a floating head, but this is the basic idea.

The Corkboard

I created a digital corkboard to organize my thoughts, ideas, reference images, and influences. I have a few pictures here that are no longer relevant to my final project because my ideas have changed greatly over time, and the board has grown a bit since the screenshot was taken. However, most of the images have been really helpful in designing my final painting.

New Bust

I've been needing a break from the other head that I've ben working on, so I decided to start another that I've been planning for a bit. It has a lot of curly hair, which I'm not very experienced sculpting, but I'll try my best. I do have some reference pictures that may help.This bust will probably end up being a rough draft for a much better one, but that's alright.

Grey Scale

This is a basic blending exercise. Nothing too difficult, pretty basic stuff. The blending was very simple, and the hardest part for me honestly was getting the ruler lines positioned correctly.

Detail Work

Lately I've been working on the smaller details regarding the Mudbox heads that I've been working on for the past few days. I've been working on what I hope might be the final head for my project with a lot of work. I've got the basic structure down, though the nose needs some work and there are no lips. I also ned to work on my painting skills because it's very unrealistic. However, I'm pleased with my progress thus far.

Update

I have been working on learning how to sculpt clothing with little success. However, I do hope to get better with some practice. I also returned to the head from the first test run and added quite a bit to it. It looks pretty nice so far. It's not perfect or complete, not by a long shot, but I am pleased with the progress that I made.

Test Run #2

Today I made another model, and at first my goal was to give it lips. I watched several videos and then tried it for myself.  That ended badly, and I need to do more research to reach that level. I also watched some tutorials for designing hair using mudbox, and got a basic grasp on it. However, I didn;t have enough time to try it out. I did do quite a bit with the paint feature today, though. I managed to sculpt the basic eye shapes (progress!) and painted them. Considering it's my first try, I'm pretty satisfied with how they turned out.

Digital Painting Practice

Today I also experimented with my digital painting skills. It's quite a bit harder than I was expecting, but I'm getting the hang of it gradually. I started with something a bit simpler than a face, and it isn't quite finished yet, but I'm learning. Hopefully I'll get better at this with practice.

Test Run!

Today I watched a few Youtube videos about how to sculpt using Mudbox, and then I tried it for myself. I mostly experimentd with head close ups today, and the results were quite a bit better than what I thought they'd be. I'm hoping to expand on my skills in the near future. I'm thinking that maybe this will be slightly easier than I had previously imagined. This is my favorite so far.