Experimental drawings for character design

I want to take a look at sequential art, and create a small piece of sequential work myself in order to experiment with conveying an emotion with narrative.  

These are some of my first rough ideas for my short graphic story. The main character design and some experiments with wordless sequential narrative. I chose for it to be wordless because it will put more focus on the main character,(her body language and facial expressions) instead of ever being able to rely on text. I also experimented with style and colour.  When it comes to conveying a certain emotion through art, it is probably more powerful when there is a narrative. This is because there is time to build an emotional connection with the character(s). That being said, there are some powerful pieces of artwork that work on their own. The interesting thing about TV series/comics/illustrated books etc is that a character can develop and change over time. Be it physically and/or mentally. This can be a very powerful thing; watching your favorite character slowly change for the worst or better. I will research more into narrative later. The images below are character designs for my short narrative piece. I mainly wanted to focus on drawing my character with certain body language that makes her look troubled.

I feel that, depending on the length of the story,  the main characters appearance may change as the story goes on. This way I will be able to further emphasise how she is feeling. I will be studying how our posture and mannerisms allow an insight into how we are feeling, and will use this in my graphic story to make my character more realistic and convincing.

In this instance, the narrative itself is almost uninportant. What I want to experiment with is empathy with a character, and creating a convincing character that expresses the right emotions.

Character deign - pencil

In the sketch above, my character is at her worst. Her situation and background help to convey this and I also tried to show it through the way she is laid.  Almost as if she has passed out. She doesn't look 'peaceful' in the typical sense but she does look in a deep sleep. The way she is almost curled up, but not quite, is supposed to make her look vulnerable.

Character design - pencil

Character design - pen

The body language in each of these is supposed to convey that she is lost and alone. Distressed in some way. This relates to my final major project as it is almost a representation of some of the people I want to try to reach out to with my final major project. Although the age is slightly different.

Character design - pen and water colour

Character design. Poses - pen and water colour

Character design. Experimenting with style - pen

The drawing above is a quick experiment I did with style. I quite like this style yet I do think it can potentially effect your emotional engagement with the character. At least as a stand alone piece. The simpler it is, the less of the emotion you capture. Although I'm sure there are ways around this.

Character design - Pen and watercolour

The image above is a close up of my characters face from part of my sequential piece. It is the moment she realises she has lost her mind. It isn't very extreme and I'm undecided on whether to make it a more dramatic expression. It is seconds before she breaks down. It is supposed to convey a mixture of shock, fear and sadness/disappointment. It's hard to create a specific facial expression and I will have to practise them further.

Sequential - pencil

These are the pencil versions of my short sequential piece. The narrative is essentially that she wakes up to a lot of load construction noises outside her house. She doesn't think much of it and goes to make tea. Then there is a loud crashing noise right infront of her window, shaking the entire house. At this point she goes to the window, draws back the curtains, only to find that there is nothing there. And suddenly everything is silent. I know this may not be obvious by the way I have dcreated the story. Yet the storyline is merely a platform to experiment with my own character, body language and facial expressions in a sequential way.

Sequential - pencil

Part of sequential - Pen

Part of sequential - pen

Rough experiment with wordless sequential. Colour experiment. Blue and purple.

These are two of my first colour/tone experiments.  I quite like both, although the colours I chose above (blue and purple) just make it look as though it is night time. Which is a useful thing to know. I quite like the effect of just using black water colour (below). Somehow it seems to give it more depth, despite only being one tone not two.

Rough sequential. Black and white 1

Rough sequential. Black and white 2 

Overall this has been a useful excersise. I had to think of the facial expressions and body language instead of just recording other people's. This forced me to think about how we portray ourselves and how to convey different emotions.