Concept Character - My steps towards a final idea(s)

Concept Character - My steps towards a final idea(s)

The concept behind this task was to create a character based around the fairy-tale "The Tinderbox". I was told to ensure that I make something along the lines of a 1700's Georgian European who could be any of the characters in the story. I chose to create the soldier figure because of his flexibility with how he could be interpreted. 

My initial idea was to go along with an idea of making a  soldier who was militarised, going along with this concept after doing research I found out many supposed soldiers turned rogue, either being mistreated or underpaid. This allowed for me to come up with the idea of making a pirate based soldier. Shown in the image below are some ideas I had for the pirate and different poses based on his movement actions. 

These silhouettes I put together allowed for me to get an understanding of what my pirate was to look like as well as the slight difference in stances, clothing and miscellaneous (i.e. the peg leg and crutch). In doing research I found many photos based around a pirate captain, not many were jewelled or even some weren't very well clothed shown in the image below. 

(Mary Read, 1690–1721)

The image shown above was research I found of a female pirate named 'Mary Read' who was a very notorious pirate during the early 1700's. I wished to loosely base my character off of her backstory but less around the look, I wished to go for more of a stereotypical styled pirate and also switching gender because most women were refused to be a part of the military due to sexist men. Using the crutch, peg leg etc. I decided to add these into a more of an in-depth character drawing them in more of a grey-styled painting shown below. 

As you can see I've wrote some parts to ensure that I have the most amount of information given to the people who will be creating the concept. Although it was a solo project I wanted to also be able to leave myself this information in case I forgot about it or wanted to either delete or add in the information given. The concept behind these 3 figures was to create a stance that allowed for me to give off the impression of a pirate in-stance or in motion who was either looking tough or looking with a exploration styled pose. I wanted to try and give off the idea of a pirate with both in the end choosing my next imagery to be something looking tough along with a strong independent pose. 

Uncoloured and unfinished this was my initial concept that I wished to proceed with and achieve some level of getting to an end with this project. I still didn't like the idea that he looked so 'young' in this piece, but with time limitations I had to add the age through his pose and his structured body. By doing this I had to readjust a lot of his body through manipulation in Photoshop. Doing so and adding detail and a background I came to make it in 3D. 

After doing it in 3D just before making my final piece I had to decide on the colours I wished to use, these allowed for me to make a colour sheet to get an understanding of what colours I'd like to see.

This concept was the one thing that allowed me to give off and understanding of how I wished for him to pose, as well as how his body needed manipulation in the final piece. The final concept shown below was the outcome. 

This final piece was the idea I had intentionally at the beginning of the project. Although the idea changed dramatically in pose, drawing style and his age. I believe it came out rather well in that sense. I'm happy with the outcome and managed to get it finished within enough time to add a proper detailed background with him being in enough detail also. 

Mary Read (2016) in Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Read (Accessed: 17 November 2016).