Clay and Sketching...

I've been spending a lot of time sketching characters, obscure folk with no true direction as of yet. Once I have a couple of interesting profiles for these characters to go by, then maybe a couple of designs will be put forward, along with many fresh designs and styles. At the moment, I am still thinking of some entertaining people that have suffered some rather unfortunate accidents (better than just falling off a ladder into a pot of paint) so they can go ahead and sue someone. Turns out this task is quite tricky when you have to make it as clear as possible that it is a believable accident without being awfully cliché. And this is without taking the humour into account.

However, I have redesigned what would be my stock rig in the near future. It's a little more characatured version of myself, although it shan't be named 'Stu'. This should be more expressive and easier to use than a chunky-limbed figure... the skinner the limbs, the less awkward the binding will be. Here is a basic sketch...

The eyebrows should help expression a lot more, as the previous character only had a brim of the hat. For some reason I forgot to add eyebrows to an awful lot of my characters in the past. This head has also been built in clay (and good old tin foil)

He is at risk of looking a little Keith-esque, which I think is down to the bags under the eyes. I shall avoid this in development.

As well as this, I have also built another experimental head to see how a single eyeball could be used for a two-eyed human, much like Beano characters and the like. Using one of those dosing balls from detergent packets, I made a solid eye and worked round it. Overall it turned out pretty well.

This coming week I am off on holiday for a bit, so I'll take my sketchbook down on the train and have a go at designing a few more people based on the southerners there.

Stuart