Initial sketches - dad

 Next character I decided to create sketches of is the dad. As I mentioned in one of my previous posts, I wanted the dad to be a champion, like a sports champion. To make him strong, I wanted his shoulders to be very wide. This is something I have learned during the proportions task we did in class. I am glad I am able to use the skill I have acquired, in my project. With the dad character, I decided to make just 3 sketches, because I did not have many ideas of how to change him around. I thought about his face a lot and what I thought would look good, is a very strong jaw line, a little bit like the main character's from adult swim called American Dad. 

American Dad: Stan Smith

American Dad is a highly inappropriate show, however the characters are just normal cartoon characters. I think Stan, has some features that are interesting for me to look at: wide shoulders and big jaw. Generally his proportions are deformed and there is also a perspective problem, because his mouth looks like he is standing sideways, but the viewer can see a lot of the other side of his face. I generally see that as a mistake and try to avoid making them, however I can see how those 'mistakes' work and I must say that in this case it does the job and I think this sort of mistake is done on purpose, since the entire show is a little bit ridiculous, the proportions and the perspective can me changed as well at this point. 

I decided to once again set my timer for 5 minutes per sketch, and here are my drafts. 

This first sketch is alright. However, I personally think the head of this character is too big. He does not look very sporty and the hair I gave him here is not helping. He looks like a cuddly teddy bear, not someone very athletic. I like that the shoulders are wider than normal, however they seem not wide enough when paired with a really big head. After looking at those mistakes, I created the next sketch where I applied the things I thought about. 

This sketch shows my idea more, I accidentally bent my sketchbook page, it is why there is a fold on the page. Even though there is this fold, it is still possible to see exactly how i approached the sketch. I made the face with more focus on the jaw, and made the shoulders extra large. I also added a lot of muscles to highlight his sporty manner and made his hair very messy as if he just left sports practice. I made the feet quite big to create balance in this sketch. I also made his whole body on the shape of a triangle, once again, using the method of simple shapes to create interesting characters. 

In the last character I sketched out, I decided to stress all the features that I thought were good in this sketch and make them even more, exaggerate more. 

I think this sketch is very successful, because the character looks very appealing. The jaw line is really strong and it takes the viewer's attention. I also like how i used the rule of placing curves against the straight lines to create a bone-like structure, it is visible in the arms and the way they are built. I think it looks really good. I think the shoulders are wide enough and I like that the whole character is built on a simple shape - a triangle. I think it looks really good and the sketch is generally very appealing. 

I am very happy with what I have created in this practice and with how I started to notice how certain features change my design. I am also glad I started to recognize things like straight against curves rule, in the past, I used to use it unconsciously, now I recognize them and use them appropriately, I am really happy about it.