Week 5 - (reading week) Character One Reference

It is stated in the brief, that we are to create 3 character concepts of three different bodytypes, these consist of Endomorphs, Mesomorphs and Ectomorphs. This reading week has been the perfect oppurtunity to try and get some design influence and search up character references for the pre production stages of creating the characters themselves in photoshop.

So throughout the design process of creating my characters background histories, I decided I needed some reference to back up the character designs themselves, and to base the actual drawings off. The plan was to create some rough poses and then import them into Photoshop to try and block out the silhouette of a pose. To do this i would need lots of different  reference, i use magazines and all sorts of different pharaphenalia to achieve the reference i need, even if its a picture cut out of a news paper. By compiling a large library of reference for characters, vehicles, weapons, environments adn props, i am able to composite different scenes and scenarios in my mind of what my designs will potentially look like.
It is rare that the Michael Angelo's of the industry, create works of art without using reference, even the most talented artists need inspiration to kick start the creative spark and channel innovative ideas through their minds. After all, everything you create and see is generally based of something you have seen before and it is stored in your sub concious.

The best source of inspiration for me, is looking up artists work that I really enjoy looking at.
A few inspirational artists for me would be:-
 Mike Nash, a talented illustrator who's work revolves around the fantasy genre.
 Feng Zhu, similar to Mike Nash, his work also revolves around the fantasy Genre, but i find it far more surreal and it applies to films and games, Mike Nash's work consists more of beautiful stills and illustrations that dont really encompass a huge story.
 Leonardo Da Vinci, who doesnt love his work, he is a pioneer and an excellent artist, not only was he a huge inspiration after inventing so many things, I find his anatomical work absolutely phenomenal, infact most knowledge that we have gained about the human body has been through peoples works like his. Da Vinci's art mainly represents the technicalities of drawing and mark making, such as the famous Virtruvian Man, it describes the methods used to create traditional art, and his artistic talent supersedes excellency.

It is artists like these who really succeed at inspiring me, and giving me a burst of creativity which allows me to search my mind for thoughts which could potentially create a great piece of art work.

My first character design revolves around a Sylph, This is a mythical creature, they are more commonly known as air elemental's  but I have completely improvised on the characters back story and i really like the design. I now need some suitable reference for creating a nice female Ectomorph design, I will compile a series of photo reference below, this will help me design the character in photoshop visually.