A deep dive into my original character named James, a lone wolf-dog living in the city of New York.
About The Project
This was a self direction final project, meaning I had free range to do whatever I wanted as long as end result was a digital illustration deliverable. With this information, I decided to dive into the universe of James the Wolf-Dog by creating various informational illustrations introducing his character to the world. Because James is a character I had created way back when I was younger, this project allowed for me to create in-depth illustrations detailing more of his personality and appearance.
Project Goals
The purpose of this self-directed project was to provide us with the space to explore our creative goals in digital illustration. This means it was our opportunity to focus on any area of digital illustration that interested us, therefore I wanted to focus on expanding an already existing character I had created. The main challenge was creating and sticking to the schedule I had laid out for myself during the course of the project.
Final Deliverable Goals:
• 1 full body + details character sheet
• 1 facial expressions character sheet
• 1 full environment drawing
Early project schedule example
My Experience
Because this was my first time ever doing a character sheet of any kind, my first priority was a lot of research. I took a lot of inspiration and ideas from past character sheets from Walt Disney and other wolf-like characters that I felt were similar to my own.
When starting out with the first sketches, my main focus was including everything that I knew I wanted in the character sheet. After reviewing with the professor, she helped with organizing my scattered information by giving me tips, such as including different angled views of James main body (front sitting, side sitting, full body), and then proceeding to use the extra space to include and describe other important details and accessories that were apart of his character. At this point, I had decided my sketch was ready for the digital stage, so I transferred my sketch into my digital workspace and started adding color and other minor details in order to bring James to life. Using arrows and text I was able to describe each important aspect of James and provide a breif backstory that familiarizes him with the viewer
I ran into some challenges when creating the six facial expressions sheet. I had never drawn different detailed facial expressions consistently before, so focusing on the research played a huge part throughout this step too. I wanted a variety of different facial expressions instead of six closely similar ones so that I could really portray the different sides of James. After picking the six that stood out to me, I roughly began sketching my ideas again before scanning those digitally and finishing with the digital illustration. The original idea in the schedule was to create a spread that included a longer backstory for my character, but because this was a digital illustrative focused project I wanted to focus on expanding the artistic side of my portfolio more. Instead of the story I went with an environmental drawing of James sleeping on a make shift bed with an old pile of blankets and other things you’d find in a city alleyway. I really wanted to emphasize the fact that James in a carefree street dog who survives on his own.
The Outcome
Overall, I was very proud with each ending deliverable from this project. It was a great experience being able to see a character I’ve held near and dear to my heart for many years finally be able to come to life as a digital form of artwork. The environmental illustration especially exceeded my expectations because it was the first time I ever did an illustration that included any kind of self illustrated background.