Finished Character Poses and Bio

Meet Tashenamani (Moving Robe)

She is a fierce warrior from the Lakota tribe. Once described as ‘pretty as a bird’, at the age of 11 she witnessed her own brother One Hawk a brave warrior, unceremoniously killed by a man, Custer, from the United States Army. He had snuck into the village in the night, with the intention of taking the tribe’s coveted jewels, spices and other such wealthy possessions. From that ghastly and heart-breaking moment, she swore revenge on her brother’s death and trained relentlessly to become the best warrior of her time. She has already lead and won four battles with minimal casualties, resulting in glory and high honour for her from her tribe.

Although still a young woman, Tashenamani is highly regarded and has great courage. She has little tolerance for disrespect from anyone and will only go into battle leading the best fighters in the Bighorn territory. She is nimble and quick; her choice of weapon is her brother’s old spear. She looks forward to the day that Custer tastes the sweet irony of his own blood, caused by his victim’s own spear.

Third Pose

For this one I wanted a different angle again and in a crouched position as though stalking her enemy. It was really difficult to find reference for this and so I had to combine to images to create the pose I wanted. One reference was from Pocahontas; her first encounter with John Smith which I took a screenshot of, and an image from posemaniacs.

I was really excited to do this pose. I wanted her head turned away for a change and therefore the visual attention will be on the figure. The hands were very tricky as the reference was drawn disney style, which I didn't want. I therefore took pictures of my own hands to help me and I'm really happy with the result. I also had to keep altering the length of her left thigh as the reference had very long limbs and it seemed a little odd. Hopefully the proportions seem quite correct now.

The clothing was quite difficult to add here as she's bent over and the skirt would be creased onto the floor. I altered this several times to estimate how it would look and for it to appear natural and believable.

Overall I'm very happy with the result. I have however realised that her forearms are somewhat longer than her other images; it was because the reference image has very long limbs and I had to adjust this for my character's proportions. It's unfortunate and I'm annoyed that I didn't spot this at the earlier stages but I believe it isn't noticeable.

Second Dynamic Pose

I spent the rest of this evening working on my second dynamic pose for my character.

I drew this pose with the help of 'posemaniacs' where there are 3D human figures in various poses. I wanted this one; it was a challenge, it showed the character from the back and I thought the angle was interesting to try and give the suggestion of movement with. I spent a long time getting her proportions right and matching up with my original design of her.

It was really difficult to envision how her clothes and hair would be in movement as she twists. I couldn't exactly find accurate reference for something I've completely made up. However, I think it works quite well and it is visually quite believable.

With colour, it really comes to life. I didn't add shading as it would have taken up too much time when I have so much to do with not only this module but others too. I'm really pleased with this piece. The spear was particularly difficult to get right, for it's angle is a little tricky. Hopefully though, I've pulled it off.

Weston Park Museum

Today we went to the museum and a room was kitted out with stuffed animals on tables for us to draw. It was interesting to take a close look at the various animals. I went for the squirrel first as I have a squirrel in my main project animation and thought it could be useful for me.

I took my time with the shaded drawings and I think they turned out well. I also tried experimenting a bit to give myself a break by drawing a bird with my wrong hand. As it's been a while since I've tried this technique, it felt quite refreshing. It made me observe the figure with much more concentration due to the discomfort and abnormal use of my left hand. I quite like the picture.

The others were a couple of line drawings; trying to be more confident with my lines. I'm pleased with the crow as it was at quite an awkward angle I challenged myself with. For the Rhino, I made a quick pencil outline and then drew it with continuous line in pen.

Muscle Structure

This was probably the most difficult task to do as it was hard to find clear reference for the different areas of her body. It was also difficult to judge how much detail to include; could easily have spent several days on this. However I decided to simplify what I could whilst allowing it to look quite realistic with some shading of muscles to tendon/bone and two different shades of red to differentiate the muscles rather than shade each individual one.

A downfall here was definitely the hands. I felt it unnecessary to try and put all of the tendons in as the focus here is on muscular structure; however this is the weakest area of this piece I think.

Finalising and Skeleton

I finalised my character with finishing touches of shading and adding shadows. I also wanted to add war paint to her face, however I decided to do something subtle and small so as not to obscure her features.

I'm really happy with how she looks; I feel I can see her personality.

I went on to create her skeleton which was quite a challenge and took a lot of time to create but it was really enjoyable to draw something quite accurate and scientific for my character which is completely fictional from my own imagination.

I'm quite happy with this representation of the skeletal form. I struggled a little with the feet due to their angle and I spent a while looking a different images for reference to make sure that everything was as accurate as possible. I have simplified it but I feel, to the right extent where there is still plenty of detail. I also discovered that her body isn't quite symmetrical whilst doing this; her left hip stuck out through her skin and I had to correct this.

Developing the Body

It took quite some time to create this. I wanted to really take my time with her features, tone and shading. I wanted to produce a really professional appearing piece of concept work; similar to that of Antoine Rol. I'm quite happy with how she turned out although the arms gave me a lot of trouble as they're each at slightly different angles, as well as the feet, I believe it looks quite convincing and the proportions a quite believable for a fictional character.

Continuing from this I experimented with different colours for her costume and asked lots of people of their opinion about which one suited her best.

The general consensus was that the red and beige one was preferred; traditional but appealing. There were a few who preferred the blue as it was different, however that colour scheme was inspired by one of Antoine's designs and so I didn't want to copy it.