During the first class of week 5, we were introduced to character drawing. This is something that I was never very involved with as I used to draw still life and objects. However, it was very interesting to try out something different. I feel like it was a very informative and valuable knowledge that I gain as I was not aware of some things we were taught in this class.
How useful are human proportions in my subject area? In product design, human proportions are very important when it comes to designing a product. Having average measurements of females and males can be useful to determine furniture measurements such as chairs, beds etc. Additionally, having average proportions will allow the designer to have a basic understanding of how their product will look compared to the measurements. I am very interested in furniture design and during this semester I will be creating pieces of furniture. I can use these measurements to estimate how an average person would look compare to my products. I will be using these measurements in a later stage in my project. It will help me estimate the height of my products and all the measurements for greater accuracy.
I am happy we completed such task as it will definitely come in handy with this project.
FIRST TASK
For the first task, we were assigned to create a character and the basic proportions of a figure. We were given a guide for our proportions and then chose a figure to develop. I was very fascinated when I found out that people use heads to measure the bodies proportions. This was new information to me and it was exciting. The average proportions are 7.5-8 heads for adult males, 7-7.5 heads for adult females and 4-5 for children. We addressed the basic principles of proportions and then started sketching out our own.
I decided to draw out a man as I wanted to try out a more masculine approach. I drew 8 lines on a piece of paper, each had 3.5cm spacing from the next one. I started off from the head and worked my way down the body. I decided to spend some time on this as it was brand new techniques. I find it extremely difficult to draw bodies and proportions, therefore, I wanted to take my time with it and follow the guide correctly.
This is how I broke down the steps which I completed:
1) Head
2) Chin to Chest (nipples)
3) Chest to Navel (belly button)
4) Navel to bottom of hips or crotch
5) Mid-thigh to knees
6) Knees to mid-shin
7) Mid shin to bottom heel of foot
This is how my sketch looked like:
Although I haven't added any colour or accessories yet, I feel like the figure does not have a lot of muscle. I might go over and intensify or exaggerate some features to ensure that the body looks more stable. Additionally, I feel like the hands look very elongated, even though I tried to follow the guide precisely. However, as I am not familiar with figure and character drawing, I am satisfied with the outcome. I made sure to make him less curvy and more masculine as I was portraying a man.
SECOND TASK
For the second task, we were assigned to create a character that we wanted to. I decided that I would do some research before this task to make sure that I am interested in what I am designing. I wanted to research the type of character I would create.
In the first task, I created a male, therefore, I wanted to design a female for this one. I wanted to promote female empowerment and create a superhero for this task. I could elongate some features to make them look more powerful. In this task, I want to represent my mother and grandmother as they are considered my own heroes. I want to showcase their strength, bravery, courage and support that they've shown over the years. I had to find a suitable pose to represent this well.
Before creating the pose of the character, I decided to check out some existing female superhero signature poses to see which one is the most suitable.
Even though this is a pose seen in a lot of movies, I feel like it would not be suitable for this task. I really like it as it shows how on edge the character is and that they are prepared for anything. It is a very heroic pose that is also seen in many marvel movies.
The proportions of the body are not clearly seen as she is slouching. Therefore, I think this post is not the most suitable for this specific task. I want to choose a pose where the body is more exposed so I can clearly study it in more detail.
I really like this pose. Even though it is simple, it shows a lot of power. It shows that she has both feet on the ground and that she's ready for everything. The hands on the hips is a universal gesture to show that someone is ready for assertive action. It can be seen as a gesture for taking control and action which is something a lot of heroes portray in movies.
Looking at the proportions of the body, she has her body slightly tilted to the side which will be very suitable for this task as I want to draw something that is not facing directly straight to make it different from the previous task.
Even though this is a pose many heroes do, I would like my own pose to be on the ground. That way, I could also add some surroundings that relate to the person. Additionally, the body of the character is still facing straight which is not ideal as I want it to be tilted.
Therefore, I decided that the second pose was the most suitable one as I really like what it represents and how it looks. I feel like it is a very empowering, yet simple gesture a hero can do. After deciding on the pose that I would recreate, it was time to sketch it out.
Comparing these two tasks, I really enjoyed creating this one. I feel like it was easier to draw and I used more shapes to create the body. I feel like it stands a lot better and it is an improvement from the previous task. As I was drawing a female this time, I made sure that there are more curves involved and that she is not as muscular. I really like this sketch and I feel like it can be well developed with the accessories and colours. The pose I choose for this task is ideal as it enabled me to explore the proportions using a more powerful figure. I am very satisfied with the outcome of this design.
These are the sketches of me adding colour:
After creating my initial sketch, I used a 0.3 fine line pen to outline everything.
I started by creating shades of skin tone and adding an even thicker outline to make it more cartoonish and create more depth.
It was time to add the clothes and accessories. For the accessories, I added a heart necklace to represent my love for these people. I added tight clothes as most heroes wear tight clothes for them to not interfere or get in their way. I added the symbolic blue and red colours as these are the ones associated with heroes and passion.
The next step was to add the cape. As I wanted to create a hero, I had to ensure that there is a cape included. I decided that I would maintain the blue and red colour scheme and make this one red too. I added some foldings and some shadows for dimension.
It was time to place my character in an existing space. I wanted to place my character in a house initially as I associate my grandmother and my mother with home. They are my safe place and my shelter. However, I decided to place my character in an open space with grass and sky. The sky is in a dark blue colour as I wanted to represent that even when they are sad, they always try to cheer me up and they're always very strong whatever happens. Nature from a spiritual viewpoint, represents love, respectfulness which is what I feel towards these people in my life. The colour green represents luck which shows how lucky I am to have such people in my life.
I wanted the background to have a strong connection to how I feel about them.
Looking at the proportions now, I feel like the waist is too small compared to the thighs and the shoulders. Additionally, the right shoulder (looking at it from the picture) should be more elevated.
I am satisfied with how the body turned out, however, I feel like the face characteristics do not look nice. I tried to magnify the eyes as they are the windows to the soul and I tried to create a smile, however, I do not like the outcome of it as it looks kind of scary. I was very frustrated by the end of this so I rushed through the face characteristics and did not draw them first. I went straight with the pen which was a big mistake. Next time, I need to dedicate more time on this.
Looking back at this, I could have spent more time on the sketch and making sure that the proportions are perfect, however, I will not be too hard on myself as I have never drawn a full figure in proportion.
Even though this is not very related to the project I am doing this term, I do feel like it was very valuable and informing. I enjoyed looking at proportions and finding out interesting facts about them.
This was a good effort, for the first time drawing proportion and a character in this way. Of course it is important to be aware of figure proportion as a product designer, particularly in this terms project - you are designing an object that will be used by young men and women, you need to think of scale in terms of how your prospective clients will use what you will design.
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