High heels/shoes in the desert?

Finding it somewhat tricky at the moment to pin point which direction I want to go in for my Acconaians, but there are banks of inspirational things scattered in both the middle east and africa to still draw from. I'm just worried my doodles are looking too messy.

So for yesterday, I looked at mostly heels. I know I want my fantasy characters of the desert to be wearing unusual footwear, as apposed to sandals. I chose to incorporate a high heel for both genders to help keep feet off the scorching sand. I was told to make and break the rules of my own fantasy world so thats exactly what I want to do!

So most sandals worn in the desert will look like this:

But I really don't want to have such basic footwear on my characters, so I want to build on this!

I begun to research high heels and discovered they were originally used by men as a sign of power, masculinity and status (after evolving from their original purpose of riding (horses) shoes), which helped solidify my personal aim of trying to make sure male and females are the same in wear in the fantasy world being designed. 

Various examples of unique heels, as well as a quick comparison in leg shape:

more...:

No doubt I'll be incorporating these moodboards into my next sketches.

Moving on to my desert & exploring the Tuareg

Now that I'm mostly confident with my Marisea characters (I'll need to tweak their clothes towards the final illustration) I'm going to move on towards my dessert town, Acconagros.

Named after two existing deserts, Accona and Monegros, the more I started looking at traditional deserts, the more I started to realize I really wanted the orange/blue palette and water, so I started looking at Oases in the desert:

I will post a finalized colour palette post in the future after I've done the Forest too, but I'm certain I'll be using the muted blue orange and yellows seen in the picture above in order to create a warm welcoming environment as apposed to usual harsh imagery and stereotype found in video games.

That's not to say the environment will be tricky. Just as humans in Marisea have to wear goggles to sea underwater and wear fabrics around their ankle to work as flippers underwater, the Acconaians will also have to be designed with the deserts hardships in mind. For now, simple sketches I've drawn to figure out a direction for the Acconians. As with the Marisea, I'm not focussing on Angelo-faith incorporation yet, first must figure out Gaian-faith design elements.

Sketches:

Again I started to struggle with not looking up existing desert tribes, which I should have learnt my mistake from the first time. I started exploring cultures of desert tribes. I was especially interested in the Tuareg people who have a lively and rare culture, with an estimated 1.2 million population. What mostly attracted me to them was their clothes, and faith. They are - like most indigenous tribes - animism, with a mix of Islamic beliefs. And they've earned the nickname the "Blue People" due to their indigo coloured clothes staining their skin. I'd love to incorporate that into my designs.

In any case, I'll begin sketching again with a new insight into this fascinating culture, and hopefully incorporate their designs better into my own...

Marisea Inhabitants Final Design 1.0

Here are both my Mermarian faiths side by side, to show how they differ. On top of this, I silhouetted them, to see how they compliment one another, both in static pose and underwater. My main concern is - in compliance with my critical framework - that:

- The characters do not look evil/good/threatening/menacing to the audience.
- The characters have the same roots, so they have to be similar, yet different. It's tricky to explain but...
- ...culture is to be separate from faith. So they share the same culture, but will outwardly express their faiths differently.
- Do they express well who they are? (faith, culture, attitude)
- Do they look stereotypical of existing cultures?

I will write up my report (analyzing my critical framework against my designs) after all 3 characters have been finalized. I am just documenting my progress in note form for myself the now.

I plan to get feedback on these characters Friday, but from here I'll be focusing now on the city of Acconagros.

Marisea Inhabitants - Angel Faith

Final concept and diagrams for Angelo-Mermarian's:

I want to redo my Gaia-Mermarian's as I'm very unhappy at how rushed and unpolished it is. I'll probably post them up tomorrow side by side to see how they compliment one another in appearance. From there, I will be doing silhouettes. :)

I also plan to make diagrams like the picture above for my exhibition, to help the audience better understand my characters styles in an abridged sense.

Marisea Angelolian Inhabitants Development

As shown by the previous post, I've been now focusing on the Angelology faith in Marisea. These individuals are called Angelo-Mermarians. I have already established a design for Gaia faithed Mermarians, so it's on top of this that I design the religious aspects. Now that my religious studies are complete and the rules of Angelology is now active, I now have to apply it to the culture. Here are some sketches:

While I was sketching, I referred to existing references for the Henna inspired art on the bodies. I made a small mood board of inspirations bellow:

I'll be uploading the final Concept, and the two faiths of Marisea side by side next :)

Marisea Inhabitants - Gaia Faith

I should be posting Marisea Angelolgy Faith sketches and final concepts (male and female) next, following the new religious guidelines I've laid down for myself. From there, I'll analysis the two faiths in comparison to each other, and be iterating any improvements on the designs. And then, I'll work on silhouettes to come up with a final shape to paint for my final piece and exhibition.

I'll be doing the same thing for both my Terra-Feuille (forest) and Acconagros (desert) environments. These steps will lead to the final artifacts of this project.

Gaia & Angelolian Faiths - Rules

While my fantasy faith "Angelolian" is down in basics, I've not explained the rules or indepth descriptions of my research. This post is mostly for me, it may be boring for fellow Comp Artists that follow me :)

While the dominant kind of faith in my world is inspired by pantheism, wildlife totemization and neopaganism, Angelolian is inspired by most organized religions. It's created as an alternative from worshiping Gaia/the earth. But all religion has rules.

At the core of Angelolian, is the belief of a higher being, in the form of winged beautiful human-like creatures called Angels. As with any organized religion, there is a central focus on a divinity by different names (God, Allah, etc) who is essentially the same being. In Angelology, there is no 'one' divinity, no hierarchy, but all angels are equally Holy. I've scrapped my own hierarchy I created. This is purely to cut my time as my project is not story based.

After a study into the different rules of hair in faith, I've decided this is a tricky one, what with every faiths variations. For instance, in the Christian and Islamic religions, it's frowned upon for men to have hair resembling a women's (length), while most women are discouraged from getting their hair cut, and Monks both male and female shave their hair for renunciation of worldly things (it's seen as vanity to maintain hair), to emulate a sense of slavery and poverty, and to follow in the steps of the Buddha, whom cut off his hair which symbolized royalty. And many faiths, encourage women to cover their hair. For my Angelology, there is NO differentiation between male and female rules (in hair, clothes, prayers, etc). I have drawn some pieces in my sketchbook already, but it is a sign of an Angelolian to shave parts of their hair off, but to leave some hair remaining. It is crucial for an Angelolian to embed feathers into their hair, and it is often this symbolism that will communicate their faith. The hair, and tattoos.

In India, it is often traditional in celebration to ink skin, nails, hair etc with Henna. Drawing inspiration from this, the symbols from angelolian scripts - said to be written by the Angels and left on Gaia for the people - are often written on the faces of Angelolians using Henna inks from plants.

Amulets; Many symbols are worn religiously, such as the Cross by Christians, and Islamic texts in Muska's. The Angelolgians follow something similar. The Nazar boncugu (also known as "the evil eye") is a well known symbol in bead form from Turkey, and is pinned on babies at birth, in businesses and home entrances and many people wear it as jewellery, in hopes of warding off evil or unwanted spirits and luck. Muska Tasimak is to write out a passage from the Qur'ran with personal wishes (I wish for my child to be healthy) and to fold this piece into a triangle, and to carry it in a triangular pendent. It's not uncommon to find Muska's with a Nazar boncuk. In a similar fashion, the Angelolians will be wearing a triangular amulet made from the natural elements of their environment.


Recap rules/beliefs of Angelology:

- Angels are divinity, they created the world and themselves.

- To shave off some hair is a sense of spirituality and affirms their slavery status to Angels.
- To place feathers in your hair will bless your mind with knowledge and wisdom from Angels.
- To write a prayer/Angelic symbols  in Henna on skin is a physical sign of devotion.
- Wearing holy amulets in the shape of a triangle (containing prayers?) is a sign of devotion, and wards of evil spirits.
- Angeloligists must always cover their shoulder blades/back. It's seen as the Holiest part of the body. This is due to Angels wings sprout from shoulder blades, and they cover the embarrassment of not having these appendages.


Some references for my religious studies...:
http://www.dinimizislam.com/detay.asp?Aid=4797
http://www.nazarboncugu.com/Evil_Eye_History.htm
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/7874274/Irans-Islamic-hair-catalogue-a-guide-to-religious-hairstyles.html
http://www.religiousforums.com/forum/buddhism-dir/54372-why-monks-bald.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonsure
http://www.rupalpinto.com/mehndi/one.html

Week 26 - Final Crit Feedback

Today was the Final Crit. I was extremely happy with my feedback, I finally feel like I'm 100% confident with my project direction, over the past 4 weeks I've been happy with progress from Pitch. Especially as my aim has had many iterations.

Feedback from Crit from Lectures:

- Breathe!! I sped through my presentation.
- Good progress, good direction, my project is interesting ( :)!!)
- "Critical framework is beautiful. But explain; what did you learn?"
- All my case studies are Japanese. Most relevant to me is FF X. Maybe look at Fable 3.
- "I don't want to offend anyone." "There's always going to be someone who's offended... Don't be afraid."
- "It's your world. You make the rules. Break the rules, justification!"

The final presentation is all thats left. I've begun building it like a skeleton and add to it when I can. Lynn has mentioned she'll be sending out an email asking for whats expected in it, so I'm waiting for that before I start detailing it.

Just for friends and lecturers reading my blogpost, to lighten your day: - notes taken for me by Robin G and Judy V (they wrote feedback lectures gave me so I wouldn't forget):

- Who has the bigger hat?
- The pope is fabulous!
- Ask why!?!
- TELL US WHAT YOU KNOW! You are da expert! TALK! YOU GO GRRL.

Thank you guys :)

Indepth Marisea Town

Following my last post with sketches of Mermarians, I got prompted by fellow Computer Artist Robin with some questions I really didn't have answers too. "How do they dye their clothes?" "Where did they get the wetsuits from?" "Colour scheme; Are there predators?" And the fact that I was so stumped showed how weak my current concepts are.

Following our conversation, I turned to my notes from my mentor meeting last week with Robin Sloan, and he had told me to begin researching secular, cultural anthropology, and tribes. From here, I realized I had made a mistake with my current concepts; they were based off of existing fantasy media, rather than influenced by real life close-enough scenarios.

Today, I researched areas of religion/faith which worships the land. I narrowed the broad area down to Pantheism, Wildlife Totemization and Neopaganism. I also believe deeper Cultural and Social Anthropology studies will benefit me greatly when discussing my project in my dissertation.

Here are ares I've looked at today for my Mermarians. There will be many many more days of research into existing tribal and secluded cultures to see how things work:

And I can now answer those questions, Robin G! Sea silk! :)

My fantasy towns and faiths names...

A post to clear up confusing language I use. I say culture and faith often, but need to give them names so I can better communicate what I mean sometimes... :)

Seaside - Marisea Town 
Resident is called a Mermarian. Religious individual called Angelo-Mermarian.

Desert - Acconagros City
Resident is called an Acconian. Religious individual called Angelo-Acconian.

Forest - Terra-Feuille Village
Resident is called a Feuillian. Religious indivdual called Angelo-Feuillian.

The Religion - Angelolity - Worship of the angels, to believe they are higher beings who created and govern the world they live on. Faithful are called Angelolian.

I will probably iterate this post often.

Seaside character sketches

Just to follow up from my mood boards, I've been sketching away what my ocean inhabitants might look like in my sketchbook, so I've taken some photos to upload and explain:

- All characters have goggles and underwater respirators
- Mostly wear thin colourful fabrics, that float like fins underwater. Some wear waterproofs underneath.
- They wear gold chains and jewelry for two reasons; 1) So they shine underwater and can be found if lost 2) To offer the sea the gold for luck, for respect or if their lost.

Now that I have a feel for what the seaside inhabitants will look like, I'm going to go to Photoshop to create silhouettes. I'll then upload some onto Facebook and ask for peoples opinions before I go further.

Digital painting is an iterative task, especially if I want it to be a high quality and part of my final showcase. So no doubt with the feedback from Facebook these characters will develop further.

Next:
- Silhouettes of Seaside inhabitants
- Upload onto Facebook, document feedback in blogpost.
- Begin sketching what the religious residents would look like
- Come up with names for the towns and the religion, to clear confusion...document in a blogpost.

Environment and Culture: Mood boards

As seen from my last update, I've been looking at clothes and faith, but feel like my sketches are going no where, and are story-less. And they sort of are. So this blog post is dedicated to some research into the kinds of environments my faithful characters will be living and worshiping in...

I want to showcase 6 different characters for my final project. 3 different environments, that encompass 2 different faithful groups in one culture. e.g. One faithful group will worship the Angels, while the other, the land/environment they live on. I will be focusing on Forest, Dessert and Ocean environments.

Forest Moodboard:

Desert Moodboard:

Ocean Moodboard:

As I was compiling these mood boards and looking into towns/cities, I decided to keep forestry (over a village), ocean to a seaside (at first I was thinking remote island, now I'm thinking seaside/beach/fishing town) and a desert city with some water source and interesting building shapes with a new colour palette.

Next: Practice-based research/development/sketching & Colour Palette

Personal Development: Pose and Sketch

This week I've been focusing on my technical skills while sketching. I've started a new sketchbook for creating fantasy characters for my world, and I try to use reference for 90% of my drawings. It's amazing how much of a difference it can make; poses get interesting, the characters gain a sense of attitude/life, and most importantly, every time I draw from posemaniacs.com I learn something new. A twist in the muscle I didn't know, how certain muscles actually sit, subtle changes made with tension, etc.

Photos of afew sketches from my sketchbook from this week, don't mind the quality please!:

Digital painting I've been working on. Again, 3 - 4 references used, one being posemaniacs. Created it in a day and a half, uploaded it to my Facebook and received some great feedback, so worked on it further. It's now at a level I'm happy with:

 facebook uploaded version (above) final iterations and feedback version (below)

Next steps: Focus on producing work relevant to the project...Crit Week presentation ready...

Final Case Study: Ni no Kuni

Humans in different geographic's in Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch

Ni no Kuni - Wrath of the White Witch (first released in Japan 2011) follows the tale of Oliver, a resident of Motorville, who loses his mother after she dies saving him. Oliver's sad tears bring his soft toy to life, a gift from his mother, and the toy reveals himself to be Mr.Drippy, a fairy from the Another World. With the guidance of Drippy, Oliver travels into the Other World, becomes a practicing wizard and journeys the new land in hopes of finding his parallel world mother, and meets several friends (both new and parallel to his world) along the way.

"Another World" - Oliver's first encounter

The world of Ni no Kuni (lit. "Another World") is beautifully crafted and contains many natural beautiful locations varying from forestry, volcanoes, oceans, islands to deserts. Many of these areas are populated by humans and varied local species, and have their own cultures and monarchy/government. None of the areas seem to be negatively engaged in relations (this could be due to a powerful evil that lurks and threatens them, rather than neighbours going to war), and it's interesting to see humans in different fantasy environments adapt to their surroundings.

World Map

The various geographics are home to species other than humans, but for this case study the center of focus will be on humans. Visually, those from Ding Dong Dell vary greatly from those in Al Mamoon, as well as the city of Hamlin. The inhabitants of Al Mamoon live in bright and abundant dessert lands, full of Islamic, Persian and Mughal architecture, and the inhabitants often have their hair and body covered in colourful cloths. It's easy to see the fantastical cartoon spin inspired by the middle east. The citizens of Ding Dong Dell wear medieval-style garments, and the city is a warm setting of luscious greens and nature, with European and Ottoman-Empire style architecture. And finally the contrast with Hamelin; a city of industrial and steel, it's a dark environment lit with warm lights. The inhabitants are human, but wear armour in the shape of pigs at the order of the Prince. Hamlin in comparison is initially much colder, hostile, and uninviting than the other cities, but the townspeople are just as kind. As part of this study, a link between the visuals and the judgement of good or bad is crucial, and Hamelin is a key example of how visual design can be misinterpreted. The warm welcoming glow of Hamelin's night lights expel some negativity and becomes inviting.

Towns of Ni no Kuni: Al Mamoon - Ding Dong Dell - Hamelin

There are clear tones of a pure good and a pure bad when the game first begins, but with most Studio Ghibli films, there's no such thing. The game instead has a deep connection to Aristotle's view of Virtue Ethics. It follows the formula of 'balance'. For example, with too much of a virtue e.g courage, a person can become rash, but with too little become timid. So in this sense, good/bad is the spiritual core of the game.

Oliver's locket stores different virtues, which he takes using the spell "Take Heart"

Ni no Kuni's recent release in the West has inspired online debates about it's originality. As a JRPG, it's subjected to be compared to a very stale genre, but this case study focus' on the visual style presented. Again it's a debatable issue, for example the world map while gorgeous, has mimiced Tales of Vesperia and Dragon Quest VIII. It is however, ultimately captivating with beautiful much-loved Studio Ghibi stylization and designs.

Results as compared to Critical Framework: