Thursday 16 November 2017

Minor Project: Mr Polo Continuing Design

Fig 1: The Two Designs that were most popular from the Second Character Concept Post


From the feedback provided for my previous post about Mr Polo, these two designs were the most popular, however I got feedback in that while these two concepts are the most successful in understanding the description given for him, they still weren't that creepy or monstrous. 

From being giving this feedback I went back and looked at how could I make this character look scary while keeping the round features that were key to the character. I looked at some Popeye the Sailor cartoons featuring the character Wimpy, one of my influences for this character and found that in the short movie "Shiver Me Timbers" that Wimpy's eyes open when scared which is in some way a bit disturbing. How skeletons and ghosts are portrayed in 1930's cartoons also picked my fancy due to how the "eyes" on those characters appear to be empty by how they apply black to the circle of the eye, similar to shading the end of a cylinder at a 3/4 view. 


Fig 2: Characters that helped influence the creepiness in Mr Polo
(Wimpy from Popeye the Sailor (Image from the animation "Shiver Me Timbers" 1934), Skeleton from the Tom & Jerry animation "Wot a Night", 1931, and a ghost from the game Cuphead)


With these ideas I got to making some designs, based on the 2 original designs from the previous post, and started to mess around with this idea of empty eye sockets and just complete large black eyes in general and seeing how they look with the character. I feel like number 2 I was more happy to play around with his body but I also like number 4 for the fact that only certain expressions would show that concept off however my only concern would be about how expression would he be to allow him to show emotions like surprise or anger to allow for his eyes to show fully? 

Fig 3: Continuation of the Designs including Addition Notations

3 comments:

  1. I like the bodies on 1 and 4, but the faces on 2 and 3. The 3/4 ones you've drawn for 2 especially.

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  2. It's somehow a bit thrilling to see you developing this character, Katie - I like No 1 too - but I love those emptied eyes - for me, that's capturing something 'true' about the unknowability of this strange man. I'll say it again, Katie - you're really nailing these characters in terms of the early animation style :)

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