Creating rough ideas for character design

Creating rough ideas for character design

Daisy Jackson / 04/03/2022

In order to create successful final character designs, it is important to know roughly what I want to achieve within each piece. I went through every rhyming phrase that I created and drew a variation of Marie Curie based upon this. 

However, it was not as straight forward as I originally hoped as I found the lower half of Marie Curie to be quite boring. The design involving the head was exciting to look at but everything else was rather bland...

I decided to change this by altering the colours of her dress. This was not the greatest change but it made the piece more visually pleasing. After this, I added props onto the torso to make the design even more interesting. When it came to the feet, I left quite a few as they are as I thought the different colours of the dress could appeal to the child more.

I do acknowledge that by doing this, I drifted away from the initial character's attire and may not be historically accurate in regards to what Marie Curie wears. However, I think this is more beneficial for the child and will be more visually stimulating. 

Here are my rough ideas:

"I want to sleep, I'll be counting sheep!" - tired

For this, I added sheep jumping over a fence above Marie Curie's head, as well as adding bags and making her facial expression look quite fed up. The addition of the sheep relates to the common phrase to count sheep when sleeping. I feel like a child could easily understand this. I also altered the colour of the dress as well as making the hair very messy (however this is a consistent factor throughout my character design). 

However, after creating this design, I decided to adjust features:

I decided on the element of adding a face mask and maybe even a dressing gown as this will be a useful connotation so the child can associate everything with being tired. 

However, like before, it does drift away from the historical attire but I want the child to form an emotional connection with the character and I can do this easier if I add interesting props that may interest the child.

"I'm getting rather pale, I'm the colour of a snail!" - pale

This was my initial idea as I thought it would be interesting to change the appearance of Marie Curie completely so it may interest the child more. However, I then decided that it would be best to actually use Marie Curie but include snails amongst the design. By doing this, I am able to make each part of Marie Curie (head, torso, legs) more interesting.

"I'm easily bruised, I look like a used pair of shoes!" - bruised

For this design, I tried two variations of bruises. I found the design on the left more interesting as it exaggerates the bruises and makes them more dramatic, The design on the right side seems to have more realism whereas I want to keep the childlike/animated appearance. While creating these designs, I am still altering the colours of the attire. 

"I'm scratching at my skin, it's starting to hurt within" - rashes

After consideration, I decided not to use this rhyme as I felt it may not come across the way I want it to visually. Due to this, I skipped past it.

"I'm dizzy all the time, ill soon be forgetting how to rhyme!" - dizzy

After looking into various representations of being dizzy through other cartoons, I decided to settle on including birds and stars. This is visually pleasing to the child as often including animals helps with learning! With this design, I experimented with ideas for the attire as well as thinking about what else I could include. I did not include this in the design but I thought that maybe drawing the bird throughout would be a nice touch. 

"Now my headaches...what rhymes with aches?" - headache

This design is very odd to me. After researching other artists' representations of headaches, I stumbled across one similar to this. Since I am mainly relying on the head being the focus point for the child, I wanted to make it as visually pleasing as possible. I am quite happy with the appearance of this design as I think it communicates the intended message very well! I also colour matched the dress to the head design.

"I'm getting extremely hot, I don't know how much more time I've got!" - fever

This is one of my favourite designs due to how unique it is. I love the rubber band as well as the blending of the red and the skin tone. I also love the addition of the sweat. I also love how strange the design is as why would somebody be willingly wearing a dress in a rubber band in such hot weather? To further support the heat, I decided to add white highlights to create the illusion that the hair is wet from the sweat.

I chose to focus on the idea of being hot in the sun as this is a visual representation of having a fever (I acknowledge you can be fluctuating from hot to cold but I decided to focus on the individual being hot).

I could have used a thermometer which I may or may not change in the future but I personally feel like this drawing is more visually appealing to the child especially due to the bright nature.

"Now my days are over, I really have to say, to always have an x-ray, it's safer that way!" - death

This design is another one of my favourites due to how unique it is. I thought it would be interesting to include an x-ray version of Marie Curie through each section of her body as this keeps the child interested. For this, I kept the original dress as I wanted it to link back to the beginning.

This was a particularly difficult rhyme to come up with as of course I still want to mention how Marie Curie unfortunately passed away, but death is quite a morbid topic. Presenting this in a child friendly way was definitely proven rather difficult. To be less scary to the child, I subtly told them to always have an x-ray if in doubt. Of course an x ray isn't something you can just randomly have but has became a large part of the medical world due to Marie Curie. I wanted to educate the child on this part of her life and focus on the positive. I also presented it this way as the child may not actually understand the intended concept - death.

What is my plan of action?

For my next task, I will officially create these ideas which will form my book. This way, I can print these out and make another prototype which will be more accurate.

I also want to create a front page as well as introduction pages that essentially explain the book. In these pages, Marie Curie will be introducing herself and speaking directly to the reader - the parent/child. After this, the child will then be able to mix and match features of Marie Curie.

I have purchased book binder rings (coloured) to help form the book and keep it professional.

As well as this, I have also ordered this 'mix and match' book:

A major feature that I am unsure of how to present, is the rhymes themselves. I do not want to detract the focus from the drawings to the text too much, but instead, want to create a balanced read. I will use this book as a reference. The age range is 3 years which fits into my target age range which is 2-5 year olds.