CHARACTER DESIGN
IN-PROGRESS: LOUISE (THE HULKING MECHANICAL GENIUS)
Meet Louise. She’s a mechanical genius and your coolest rock and roll aunt. Her enormous stature means that she’s a bit of a klutz, but she doesn’t let this stop her from inventing new gadgets. A fan of meditation, animals, and all things caffeinated, Louise is friendly and frantic. But don’t let her nice exterior fool you: Louise has a temper as big as she is if you cross her or her friends.
In-progress components: adding details to the colored figure and adjusting the perspective of the posed drawings.
Designed using Adobe Photoshop software.
These photos show my design process, from compiling research images into a reference sheet to making my initial sketches, revisions, and shading in the finalized line work.
IN-PROGRESS: SWAMP CREATURE
This swamp creature is all about camouflage. Spending the bulk of its life floating on the swamp’s surface, the buoyant outer hood of the creature helps it blend in and stay afloat. Its underbelly is light so that the creature blends in with the sky above. Pectoral and anal fins allow the creature to swim slowly and gracefully. Possessing no eyes, the creature senses the movement of prey unaware that it has floated overhead.
In-progress components: adding details and dimension to the colored figure and adjusting the posed drawings.
Designed using Adobe Photoshop software.
These photos show my design process. The reference images are largely inspired by fungi, swamp fauna, and camouflage suits. After compiling a reference sheet, I made my initial thumbnail sketches and selected drawing #1 to refine. After coming up with two refined drawings, I combined elements from both to create a final version and then shaded it in.
BLACK WIDOW
For this prompt, I was challenged to design a “monster”. My first thought was of those people who are monsters in society: serial killers. After several chilling hours of research, I settled on the theme of women who kill their husbands for financial gain, a.k.a. black widows.
Given that the woman in this image is a killer, her face is cold and uncaring. Large, bug-eyed sunglasses obscure any emotion her eyes might give away, but also relate to the glossy black eyes of real spiders. The abundance of red in this image relates to the deadly nature of this person who — clothed in black — is likely in “mourning” for her latest kill. The spider background and hourglass of her necklace overtly relate to the namesake of this piece.
Designed using Adobe Illustrator software.
SET HER FREE CAMPAIGN
A fictitious non-profit, Set Her Free aims to educate the American public on the nature of sex trafficking in the United States and educate intervention specialists on how to rescue underage victims. When designing this campaign, I wanted to create impactful images that were also sensitive to the fact that children are the main subject. To do this, I created a simple child icon and used it as a unifying subject for each poster. Chains and the red, yellow, black, and blue color scheme are other unifying factors.
Designed using Adobe Illustrator software.
