Twin 1 (Green Haired)
This is the part where I truly let myself create detailed versions of the character designs. This twin mainly being based on the tech-wear style and cyber punk elements e.g gauntlets. When I look at these designs it is good to start with a base. This method made it really simple to churn out many designs of the same character without worrying about body consistency or lack of consistency when removing or adding elements to the design.
The reason behind choosing this tech-wear look is because it is what my sister deemed to be her favourite style of clothing. So I took to Pinterest to find what tech-wear could look like on females and males. Since, she dresses much more masculine to me I decided to reference both genders to emulate that look. I decided on a wolf cut for the hair early on since that is also a hairstyle she aims to achieve and have in the near future so by doing this I also am able to show her style through this characterised version of her.
The hairstyles could have been far more varied. I definitely locked onto a hairstyle far too quickly and didn’t consider many other options. I should have done at least 20 hairstyle drawings and I will in the future stick to this 20 minimum since exploring many options leaves room for creativity in character design.
The designs are not varied enough. Same thoughts on the hairstyles on these designs as well with half of them featuring the same trousers they do not have enough variety and therefore the design I ended up on has those trousers. It could have been much more interesting if I let myself explore more options than just sticking with the same ones.
The good aspects of these designs is the way I narrow down what works for a design and what doesn’t. I do this by doing a few iterations then I start to remove what works an what doesn’t work in motion. This means a lot of belts and inside detail was removed. This is because these don’t change the overall silhouette and therefore was not necessary into making the design overly unique.
At some point I decided she did not fit with the other twin since they were so opposite from each other so I tried to design a more Chinese representing version of this twin. However, a tutor reassured me these twins are meant to be opposites therefore they do not have to be the same in looks. So I pivoted back to the tech-wear style and found some last minute inspiration from Pinterest for an overcoat. Overall good development but I should have explored more with designs before settling so strongly on one.
Twin 2 (Blue haired)
My style of clothing I chose for this was Chinese inspired dresses. I am much more feminine dressing than my sister so to compliment and contrast I went for a very dainty style compared to tech-wear which is generally very heavy and dark orientated. I also referenced the jellyfish haircut since it is a haircut that explains me a lot as a person. Very bubbly and round and seeming much more gentle than the other twin who has a wolf cut which is much sharper and dangerous looking. I went for dresses that mainly have the tea cup effect where the top is thinner and then widens out at the bottom for that kind of effect. Commonly found in Lolita dresses from Japan which is also something I wear.
I started with the sketch initial sketch I made and developed from there. I should have done a lot more sketches with the dress types. Since, there are many Chinese dress styles that could have worked and are much more simpler than the one I initially decided on. The one I ended up on was way too detailed and had too many elements in it which were eventually scrapped.
Another part I should have considered more carefully was doing accessories. For an already complex character adding accessories is not necessary at all. I should have realised before doing accessories that it would only clutter the character more instead of adding to them. In the future I want to become more aware when doing this and make sure that accessories are absolutely needed before exploring so many options of them. In the end none of them were used at all.
The hairstyles are all based on the Jellyfish haircut. This cut is special to me which is why I wanted to use it. However, like I said earlier this kills creativity and forces this character into a box. Next time I will consider at least 3 different hairstyles and of course 20 drawings of them in combination with each other. This gives a wide range to choose from and makes the character more unique as well.
In the initial turnarounds I found it very difficult to replicate the character which should have been the first sign that this character was far too complicated even for illustration purposes. In the future when creating especially human characters I will focus on making them visually interesting while keeping in mind how easy it is to replicate them, in this design it is obvious I got carried away so I will not make the same mistake next time.