Initial sketches - Grandma

 For this post I decided to repeat the exercise I did with my first character: the mom. I decided to make a few sketches of the character to see how my mind see it and to give myself options. I set the timer for 5 minutes and this is how much time I spent on every single one of the sketches. 5 minutes is not much but it is enough to present the idea and to show some of the most important features. 

What I wanted to present was a grandma, therefore an older person with life experience. A very wise person who is a some sort of spiritual guide. A woman whose husband has passed away and she is carrying that weight on her shoulders. A woman who looks unapproachable and does not speak much but she is still a grandma who spoils her grandkids, so she still has some of the warmth in her. 

This first draft definitely looks like an elderly person because of the wrinkles. I decided to build her on circular shapes to give her a 'wise' look. Even though I have already studied an unapproachable character who was build on squares, I thought with her, the main feature I want to stress is her wisdom and I can do that by building her with the use of circles. This is why I decided to give her a bun. I think this draft is somewhat successful, but the character seem very approachable, so that is something to change. Maybe it is about the smile, maybe she should not smile. 

The next sketch I have created is definitely grandma looking and she has a little bit of the warmth and is not very approachable, however with this one I am missing the wisdom. I get the idea that here the grandma is quite rich and she definitely was like a business woman in the past, but now she bakes cookies everyday. I feel like this is not a bad sketch and it is close to what I planned but I do not think it is exactly the way it should look. Maybe there are a few features I could change in this design to make her look wiser, possibly I could add glasses. 

The next one I have created reminds me of the grandma from Little Red Riding Hood. It is a small grandma who is definitely very old and possibly ill. I can see how she would try to spoil her grandchildren, but I am not sure if they would get along. I also can see her age but I do not really see how wise her age makes her. It seems to me as if she worked hard physically during her life. I am not sure if that is exactly the kind of grandma I am looking for, but what I am sure about is that her glasses give her a lot of warmth. 

The next one is a friendly character, however I do not see a lot of the age or the wisdom radiating from her. I must say I do not think it is a very successful sketch but mistakes are good. I think the grandma needs to have a little bit smaller head. I tried to put more focus onto her brain to highlight the wisdom, but I think it did not work very well. I also think there should be more wrinkles. I have based this character on more of a square-like shapes to see if it would make my character look more grumpy, but I did not succeed. 

With this next sketch I have created I am once again not satisfied in terms of the wisdom radiating from the character. I also do not like the eyes, they give me 'Coraline' vibe which is creepy and makes me uncomfortable. I feel like when making the grandma very skinny, she immediately becomes unapproachable, therefore that is something to think about. This grandma definitely looks like she is a fashion icon for years and that she never worked physically or did much in the kitchen. I am not sure if this is exactly what I am going for, but this sketch made me realize quite a lot. 

This last sketch is once again a very friendly grandma. She looks like she spoils her grandchildren a lot and she gets along with them. She makes me think of a 'cool' grandma that likes to spend time in the kitchen. I gave her the spiky nose to make her look less friendly, but I do not think it did the job. Well, overall I am happy with this design, but I am not sure whether it is my favorite one. 

Sketching out my ideas is good to see where I want to go and to give myself options. I know that an initial sketch is not going to be the final one and in the process of creating I will still add changes to the design but this exercise helps me see how certain elements of the design affect the design as a whole. For example, making the character skinny or adding glasses. I also try to use the technique I researched in my post about Ricky Nierva. It is the technique of basing the characters on simple shapes. I think it is working quite well and it does make my characters look quite interesting.