Personal Development and SWOT Analysis: Mushroom Character - Poses

Continuing on with the development of my mushroom character I decided to investigate two of my targets which I’d previously set which were to 1. Explore the use of colour and 2.Invetigate the use of a more dynamic pose.

In order to create the pose initially I decided to use the same colours as I had utilised within the previous design, I felt this would help me practice the placement of my shadows with a design I had already created to help me improve this element. I also felt by completing this design using the same colours initially it would allow me to reuse them as positions for the original character as well if I chose to use them in future.

Seeing as my initial design was a standing pose I chose to explore having the character sitting down as though listening intently to a conversation. I felt this worked really well and my choice of placement for elements such as the arms really helped boost the cuteness of my character which I liked.

While exploring different colour options for my mushroom I wanted to maintain the mystical component of my design by using unusual colours. Seeing as I was interested in developing these characters within a series I felt it would be appropriate to have the mushrooms based around similar colour palettes and body shapes, which could help develop different communities within the story based on natural factors such as heat, location and moisture preference in order to help develop the opportunity for a much deeper storyline.

SWOT Analysis:

Strengths:

• I absolutely love the new colour palette I explored for this character. I feel it works really well with the storyline I have in mind of creating a fantastical mushroom land.
• I feel I managed to achieve a much more realistic use of lighting within this second experiment which I am happy with as it means my skills are hopefully developing the longer I work on these characters. I made sure to pay special attention to how the shadows were placed on the arms considering this was an area I had struggled with previously.
• Something I really liked from my original experiment was the shadow I incorporated on the turnaround of my character, so I chose to incorporate this again on the completed version of this character development.

Weaknesses:

• I feel I could have definitely extended the area in which the shadows are present along the left hand side of the character. I feel they are in the correct position but do not extend as far as the lighting would cause, making it look slightly unrealistic.
• I feel I could have perhaps enhanced this design further if I had explored the use of different eye shapes more; it creates the same generic expression as the first character I designed which I want to try and avoid so that the characters can all remain recognisable alongside one another.

Opportunities:

• I really loved the use of a different expression for this character to help develop a separate personality to the original character. I feel I could develop a wide variety of characters and individual personalities by utilising expressions more which is important considering they will all share similar forms and colour palettes to identify as a community.
• I enjoyed exploring the use of different colour palettes for my designs as well as having them developed using the original colour scheme for reference. I really like the way I could utilise colour to form narratives within this concept and I would be highly interested in exploring this further.
• 
  I feel the blue colour palette feels a lot more magical than the original colour scheme and may work well as a character that lives deep within a magical forest. I could give these characters a dim glow around them which is how they glow against the dark. I was inspired by the current game I am playing for this colour choice and glow idea, the location of Blackreach in Skyrim was the inspiration, with its bountiful giant glowing mushrooms which I found stunning and wanted to reimagine in my own design.

Targets:

• Following on with the concept of developing personalities it would be interesting to explore this further in my next investigation. Perhaps I could explore the introduction of a villain? Due to this I will begin working on the development of a villain character next, who could be the challenge faced by the other mushrooms of the village. This would help create a sense of purpose and narrative to my explorations which would be extremely interesting to investigate.
• I also want to make sure I explore the use of varying expressions to enhance the personality and appearance of each character.