Archetypes

 Back when we were given the archetypes project I started developing ideas for a series that would focus on female vs male archetypes comparing their opposites, equivalents and etc. I was very much influenced by Joseph Campbell's 'Hero With a Thousand Faces' which I was in the middle of reading. I had to put it aside for other projects but I came back to it just recently. Please keep in mind I've been trying to get accustomed to digital media for years so frankly I've been quite pleased with what I've been learning from this particular project.

'The Ingenue'

The Ingenue is a type of character, typically female that portrays great childlike naivete and is often meant to be greatly admired/sought after for her other traits sought in a woman: youth, beauty, unconditional love, dependence and perfection overall. One of the key issues with the ingenue is that no such person of such 'purity' and innocence can live in the real world and therefore this  character constantly relies on the protection of (predominantly) male guardians who risk their lives to save her from evil. It's a very old archetype and it essentially stems from the prejudice that women are are really no better than children. Characters which arguably fit this archetype are Ophelia, Daisy Buchanan of 'Great Gatesby', Cosette of 'Les Miserables', Blanche of 'A Streetcar Named Desire' and most fairy tale heroines. I find Snow White particularly suffers from this role so I wanted to hint at that character in appearance (ie, focus on using the colours of white, red and black). The daisy she holds is a very well known symbol of youth and innocence.Her eyes are closed as her mind to her surroundings. Above her are three circles that with contain depictions of the three possible destinies of the ingenue. To the left she is surrounded by a wall signifying resignment to the role which may or may not be to her satisfaction (Daisy could be an example). To the right is the result of when the ingenue cannot except the reality for what it is resulting in insanity (Ophelia and Blanche are excellent examples of this). And finally above represents self realisation, acceptance of reality and thus breaking free of the restrictions of this archetype.

It's not finished, I still need to work on the lighting, add the male + female figureheads on the chair and do something with the background. Originally I was simply thinking of doing...a pile of bodies bathed in a red light...with blood seeping up her dress...too much? So since I possibly have to tone it down a bit I will nevertheless explain why this background. The issue with the Ingenue complex is the fact that she would have to be completely blind to anything not considered 'wholesome' but everyone suffers from this in the end. Men are expected to die for her and women are made targets by her example.

'The Princess'

Beauty in BD

I've come across a lot of Bande Dessinée artists who really know how give a sense of dramatic scale. Alex Alice for instance comes to mind because I have the Seigfreud books.  I've noticed it in the fantasy, horror but particularly in the action/adventure genre because knowing just how to use perspective to create a strong sense of impossibly tall buildings, mountain or even monsters makes all the difference. And there are a number of artist's whose work I've been meaning to pick up. Here's one of them:

François Schuiten
Belgian artist. He comes from a family of architects and judging by his art it really REALLY does not come as a surprise.

Incredible use of perspective. And from what I've been able to find online I've noticed he seems to often but not always utilise a very limited pallet that primarily uses oranges and violet-blues especially in series 'Les Cités Obscures' (which I definetly plan on getting my hands on).

There's an post on visual news which has a lot of good examples of his work. And bedetheque.com has a very up to date list of his work.

BG Re-design

In my minds eye I see her as a creature that attempts to follow typical attributes considered beautiful yet ended up sticking a toe into the uncanny valley.

In earlier concepts I think I relied more on having something as ordinary as a girl dressed up as a cheerfully naive butterfly feel completely out of place in the Dark Woods. You can take a look at the old pages from around 2006:

Looking back I realised my ideas for the Butterfly girl didn't come though in the design. And then I though, why settle on a mask...

...when a face full of butterflies would do...?

Side note: I was fiddling with the colour and was surprised by how this colour change impacted me. Maybe it's because I'm so used to the orange but for some reason I find the blue version to be extremely...unsettling. So much so I'm actually tempted to completely change BG's colour scheme (I am reluctant to do so for several reasons but I'm still considering playing with the colour after a final design)

The Butterfly Girl

I'm going to start with the characters in order of their appearance in the original pages. That means Butterfly Girl comes first.

Butterfly Girl is a background character at best. She doesn't play a key role in the story's events and nor does she really actively engage with the other characters. Nevertheless I find her essential and I couldn't imagine not having her in the tale. The reason she is important is firstly how her presence sets the right tone for the Dark Woods and secondly how she is a key indicator to the true nature of the Dark Woods and what the story is really about. Her conception was very much based on two people I used to know one more in the way of appearance and the other in terms of history.

Here's the old designs that I'm going to be working with. The first is from around 2006 and the other 2010-11.

...Yes it's terrible but in my defence I was just starting to figure out digital art

Character Design- Gravity Falls

I'm quite a fan of Gravity Falls, Disney's newest animated series (finally children have a new series that's actually good-- Yes, I care a lot about what it is children are presented with for entertainment, I wouldn't be doing what I do otherwise). I could go on about the show's abundance of creativity and good humour but I'd rather focus on character design for the time being. The following belong to Brigette Barrager and were the very first character designs.

If you're interested in animation you'll notice character design more or less follows this trend : rough basic shapes, pencil sketches, character expression and productions sheets. The Living Lines Library ( a site which I recently came across) is loaded with concept art and I think their collection on 'Paranorman' (very fond of this one) is the perfect example.

Please go ahead and click Brigette Barrager to check out her blog or here to go straight to the Gravity falls character designs.