Illustration & Visual Narrative - Task 1: Character Design

Illustration & Visual Narrative - Task 1: Character Design

WEEK 1-4 (23.04.2025 - 15.05.2025)

Felice Lee (0381272)

Illustration & Visual Narrative / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media - Taylor University

____________________________________________________________________

INSTRUCTION

____________________________________________________________________

TASK 1

1. Mood board

2. RATIONALE

These 3 characters that I created were inspired by 3 of my main personality and characteristics: vulnerability, bold, and soft side. After I did some sketches and brainstorming, I came up with 3 characters named: Bubblegum, Nyxa, and Berrybell.

CHARACTER 1: Bubblegum (vulnerability)

Bubblegum is a teddy bear like character that represents my soft , affectionate,and vulnerable side. He was inspired by my own childhood plush toy and a character named Gloomy Bear created by Mori Chack. Even though he’s inspired by the violent Gloomy Bear, Bubblegum is designed with the opposite vibes to feel friendly, warm, and comforting.

Instead of using pastel tones, I choose a more vibrant playful color near to bubble gum pink to show a playful and childlike personality, which makes me decide Bubblegum as his name. I choose to design him in a roundish shape since I want to achieve a familiar and friendly visual. Scarf tied in a bow and heart on his chest help show his caring and gentle companion. The pink cartoonish boots add a unique and fun personality to him, making him look different and more like a lively character from childhood memory than the average teddy bear character. The mood board shows soft and playful visuals of his emotional warmth. He’s designed to be the kind of character who feels like a safe hug which is perfect for kids and anything designed to make people feel loved and comforted.

CHARACTER 2: Nyxa (bold)

Nyxa is a fennec fox shaped character who shows boldness, mystery, and independence. She

was inspired by many characters such as Wolverine (X-men), Death (wolf from Puss in Boots), and Nyx (Greek goddess of the night and dark). Her name was then taken from the fusion of Nyx into something more edgy and modern “Nyxa”, since both of them shared a similar vibes: dark and mysterious. Her design is mainly built with a triangular shape and a slim sharp silhouette. She wears a long dark cyberpunk jacket, edgy boots, and long like X-man claws that give her that powerful dangerous look. Her pale skin and bold style give her a futuristic and rebellious characteristic. The mood board shows dramatic edgy styles such as bold eyeliner, earrings, and her other fashion details that match her silent but strong energy. She’s designed to be suited into game worlds, alternative fashion branding, or any character driven story that needs bold, mysterious, confident, and stylish characters.

CHARACTER 3: Berrybell (soft)

Berrybell is a bunny character that shows my softer and playful side. She is inspired by Jellycat bunny plush and Strawberry Usa from an anime named Sugarbunnies. Her name Berrybell” comes from the combination of “Strawberry” and “Belle”, which fits her fruity, dreamy aesthetic and soft vibes. She is designed with a heart shaped strawberry head and gentle rounded lines. Her simple outfit chosen in design has a slightly childish but flirty vibe, and her sleek shoes add a nice and cute finishing touch. The strawberry leaf acts as her hairpiece is a small detail that connects to her fruity soft dreamy theme. Her color palette was inspired by soft coquette pastel colors, and sweet desserts: cake and marshmallow.

Berrybell is designed for teenage girls, pastel stationery, kawaii merch, plush, or any design that focuses on softness and cuteness.

3. SKETCH

I consulted to Mr. Fitri about my sketch and he approved it, so I can proceed to digitalize

4. LINE ART

For the line art, I mostly used shape to help me build my character base, and each shape also talks about their personality. Bubblegum was shaped mostly by using the circle and oval because he brings the sense of familiarity and soft. 

For Nyxa, she was mainly constructed by the triangular shape since triangular shows danger and aggression suitable with Nyxa who have bold character. Lastly, for Berrybell, It's almost the same with Cottonblush but she used more freeform long rounded shapes which makes her looks soft and kind.

5. COLOR & FINAL OUTCOME

Before I color, I combined some big shapes or overlapped line by using the shape builder tool. After that, I use the live paint bucket to color my character base color.

Lastly, I add shading and highlight to make them look interesting. I separate the highlight and shadow layers. Highlight layers mostly used a bright color of yellowish and I used the soft light option so it will blend with the character well. And lastly, for the shadow, I mostly used a dark color and the option overlay. And I'm done !

6. FINAL OUTCOME

Line art

 

Rendered

____________________________________________________________________

TECHNIQUES APPLIED

I learn how to use shape to help speak their vibes and personality of my character. Also learn how to crate shadow and highlight color for rendering, and lastly, the most helpful are the shape builder tool and live paint bucket tool that I learn from class tutorial.

REFLECTION

What did you like the most in this assignment?

I like the process of creating my own character so much, since I was little my hobby is to draw original character of mine. I also, like the freedom to create my own character with my own theme and mood board, which is more creative and less technical. 

What can be improved based on your submission?

Based on my submission, I think I could improve more on some shading and, since now I realized there are some space that looks a bit flat like, and I feel I could have improve more on the character details, so they have more personality with it.