Pearl Diver

Challenge #12 : One of Some

Got a few more of these illos that I'm working on which I probably will post on my blog, not necessarily here... but here's the first of a few.

Challenge no. 12: Part 3

April 15-26, 2013

Part 3 of Challenge 12 is pretty simple.
Now that you have your design and maquette:

Create an illustration using your character.

All submissions due by midnight, Friday, April 26.

Japanese Pearl Diver, Sort Of...

Hm. I think we'll have her be the cousin visiting from a neighboring island, or maybe even Indonesia. I could use her for general character reference, but I'll have to keep working on the likeness. Hooray for brave attempt no. 1!

Her hair happens to be the same value as her ear in the top image, fyi, which is why it looks like a big club ear.

Disembodied Maquette

This has been great Marti. I'm glad your assignments have been fitting well with the projects I'm working on right now. It's really helping me with some pieces I was having trouble figuring out.

Japanese Pearl Diver in Training

Bologna, am I ever so late, but here's a character I've been working on for a mock magazine spread about a Japanese girl who's training to be a full-fledged pearl diver.

Challenge no. 12: Part 2

April 1-12, 2013

Alrighty! On to Part 2!

For this segment we're continuing on with character design using our character from Part 1. 

Make a maquette of your character. 

It can be either a head maquette, or a full figure maquette.

James Gurney, and other illustrators seem to mainly use Sculpey or Fimo polymer clay. Feel free to use whatever you would like, although I'd say some kind of craft clay, especially the kind that never dries, would be the easiest to work with. If you want something more permanent that you could paint, be sure to use a clay that will either air-dry or harden through baking.

Go ahead and use whatever you like though---mashed potatoes...vegetable shortening...homemade play-dough...

James Gurney recommends in his book, Imaginative Realism, "to economize with the polymer clay, and to make the maquette stronger...use a crumpled ball of aluminum foil formed over a loop of armature wire that can anchor the head, [if you're just doing a head maquette], to [a] wood base and take up some of the volume of the head" (pg. 68).

Inspiration/Examples

James Gurney

Head maquette for Arthur Denison, a character of the Dinotopia books.
From this post.

James Gurney has a lot of great blog posts on various maquettes, etc., which you can find under this link (there are several pages worth).


Adam Rex

Character maquette with plastic whale toy for Billy Twitters & His Blue Whale Problem. (link)

(Link.)

Made from a kneaded eraser.

For this illustration.

(Link.)


All posts due by midnight, Friday, April 12.