Initial sketches - son

 I have also tried doing the sketching exercise for the son's character. Generally I want this boy to be the most relatable character, be around 7-8 years old and be clever. I want him to be interested in mysteries and solving them, so he would be some sort of detective. I do not want to put him in detective clothes though, because it is not his job but just a hobby. He is a kid and he dresses like a child. I set the timer for 5 minutes again and started sketching. 

This first sketch definitely looks like a prince. He looks friendly but also very organized and looks like a person who always follows the rules and does everything they should. I do not think this character would be relatable for children. Young children like to see characters who rebel, who are discovering themselves, who do not fit in the given forms and look for their true personality. This character is definitely appealing, but it does not look happy or free, they look fake and this is definitely not my goal. 

This next sketch is a lot more successful. I think it looks happy and free. The nose works well with the head shape and I think the freckles only add to the friendliness of the character. He looks appealing and I think he does look relatable, because he seem to have a lot of energy and he looks like an actual child who just happens to carry the title of a prince. I think it is a really good sketch, I am happy with how it turned out. 

The next one is fairly similar to the one before, but here I am not happy with the eyes. It looks as if the character had bags under their eyes and that makes me think that the character is tired and I do not think young kids often are this tired. I like that I added longer hair, I am wondering if it would look good if the hair was even longer. I think it would work well with the message of 'be whoever you want to' that I want to incorporate in the concept. I think generally it should be normalized that boys can have long hair and girls can have short hair and everyone can look however they want to look like. I think this kind of messages should be thrown at children from the very early age because all those labels start at a very young age. Girls being dressed pink and boys dressed blue or girls playing with dolls and boys playing with cars. All those labels are put and normalized in children's heads at a very early age therefore I think the change should also start at a young age. I also decided to add an attribute to my character, which would be a magnifying glass. I think it gives more attention to their hobby, which i think is a good idea. 

This next sketch is quite good, however I think the face looks a little bit too old. If I was going to say how old I think the character is, I would guess they are around 13 years old and this age is not my goal. I like how the character looks a little bit like an elf, because of their ears. I think it looks interesting, reminds me a little bit of the movie 'Arthur and the Invisibles' I think he looks like one of the Invisibles from the movie, because of his elf-like structure. I like this sketch, but as I mentioned earlier, I think the character looks too old. 

The last sketch, I tried basing on simple shapes. I decided to make the son's head big to focus on his brain and I also really like this nose. It is not big, but it gives a lot of personality to the character. It makes them look friendly and like a little happy ball. This thought might sound funny, but this kind of nose makes me think of a little chubby character that would always walk happy and smiling, which is what I am trying to achieve. 

I think that this exercise was successful, because once again, I am exploring features and elements that can possibly make or break my design. I am also concentrating on making all sketches different to see different options I can give myself and I think this is a good practice. I am happy with everything I have created for this exercise.