Character development & media testing.

For the next stage i chose a good selection of my animal characters that i felt had potential to be developed. - i didn't want to narrow down ideas too much yet as I'm still unsure of which are my favourites.
- At this stage i feel i need to develop characters through media testing. i missed out on including this in the initial ideas generation stage, so it important i experiment now. - I think experimenting will help inform my decision of which to take further.
- I found that in the use of different media and tools really helped bring my characters to life. I have become more interested in them as characters, and am beginning to think more about context and tone of voice for each.

Simplifying information - still recognisable

Hedgehog character. - playful with proportions/poses.

- testing a range of media has allowed me to loosen up. sometimes working with new, or more unfamiliar tools, can force you to work differently, for me, it gave more motivation and sped up my generation of drawings. - particularly paint, and ink - find i can be more expressive and spontaneous than when drawing in pencil.
- this varied application of media had a big impact on the development of the characters, - i found it helped push some ideas such as my sloth, from being quite generic, to being a more personal and unique character.  - media can inform the tone of voice, - help express an emotion.
- With the different media, i found it easier to manipulate characters - their features, to more extremes. - looking at the subject from different viewpoints, in different positions. - feel that this was important in the development of each character.

- Felt the more I drew my character, a personality started to develop.  -  found it useful to play around with expressions, and positioning.

- Repetition was really useful - drawing the same thing, but switching media, or changing slight details is a good way to really evaluate what you like and dislike, and which are the most successful.
- It feels good when you exhaustively draw an idea in different ways, because i feel I've then reached a conclusion instead of rolling with the first idea i come up with.
- i feel i have started to do this to a certain extent but time has limited me. - i found this experimentation useful, but do wish i continued to push it further. feel i had more to give. however i am please with the progress i have now made, - i feel more prepared and informed about my characters for storyboarding.

Really like sloth - one of my strongest characters;

potential in dry brush application - develop

Media i used;
- Paint - using a bit of dry brush with acrylic/watercolour. - adding to think paper to create some nice textures.
- cutting up media, - stencils and patterns into shape of the subjects. - good way to be expressive, but form into the shape of the subject.
- colour - relevant colours, exaggerating tones.
- dry brush line.
- manipulating proportions and size, interesting how far you can push this until it simply doesn't look like the animal it should. - i.e. the polar bear face, the penguin, hedgehog.