Propercorn: Character design

I started to develop and refine my ideas for the character a bit more, trying to see if I could use a gnome like character for the final outcome. I began my designs with fairy like characters as at first we debated about using a gnome character but after drawing the fairy creatures, which I felt didn't really differ from a normal human as we didn't want to use wings, I felt that I needed to try to use the gnome creatures as a development in style at the very least. I felt that the fairy like beings would have worked if the wings were added or they continuously floated just to show that they were a supernatural being, referring to how small they are in relation to the popcorn and the crazy world that the popcorn is made in. 

Drawing the gnome designs were extremely fun, drawing the beards and noses were different compared to what I would normally draw which made it a challenge but also enjoyable. I began with a full normal figure before squashing the proportions and the length of the limbs which I felt worked successfully on the first page, last design. I felt that I could develop this further as the placement of the arms didn't look like it worked as well as the rest of the proportions, the arms needed to move back slightly. I continued to draw different body shapes and styles, using designs from Bob the Builder as influence for some of the noses and shapes of the limbs. I liked the head and shoulder design on the second page on the right, I felt that the use of not being able to see the eyes worked quite well; with this I took it further and added different styles of beards to the design. I really liked the different beards and felt that any of these designs would work well to the point that each of these could represent a different flavour or simply just another gnome character in the ident. I took these designs to Alex and she agreed with the last page of beards with the body from the first page of designs that I had made. 

From this I began to add colour to the designs using Photoshop, for the ease of the tools and workspace for drawing. After adding colour to the designs I felt that these were successful as they worked with both the target audience through the use of the character and the colour used, as well as the theme that we had originally intended. I purposely coloured the beards in different colours as I felt that it would be interesting to match the gnomes with the colour of the packet, for example the green beard would relate to the sour cream and chives flavour. Even though I believed it was a good idea I wasn't too sure if it would suit the target audience; it would suit a younger audience through the use of the vibrant colour. Using feedback from Alex, I coloured the full figure of the gnomes with different tops in which the colour would refer to the packets, using the grey beard gnome head as a basis. I quite liked the idea of the tops being a different colour however after considering if the top would be seen well from a distance or for the short amount of time it would be on the screen, we decided that the hard hats could be a different colour as it would be easily seen.