CHARACTER DESIGN
Fictional characters have fascinated me for as long as I can remember, especially when those characters are animated. Humans have a long history revolving around telling stories, creating narrative arcs, and imagining fictional heros. I think of characters in terms of Jungian archetypes. They represent a collection of conscious and subconscious associations and assumptions we make about the people and things around us. Understanding the way archetypes can be interpreted helps in creating diverse, unique, and subversive characters for entertainment.
D'Morte - The Macabre Macaw
I had just finished reading some essays on the concept of the death of the author, when I woke up that morning with the phrase "macabre macaw" stuck in my head - no particular reason other than macabre and macaw share the same first syllables - but then the concept of a colorful, Day-of-the-Dead kind of plague doctor jumped out at me. I wanted to make a character that would travel fantasy lands laying to rest adventurers who couldn't survive the dungeons or monsters they encountered. I started with a rough list of things I wanted this character to visually portray and tried to give form to the blurry image forming in my head, but I was ultimately unhappy with it. I started just loosely drawing again, paying more attention to overall silhouette and shape language. I found a look that felt more cohesive now, and played with several different color palettes. Pulling inspiration from macaws, they come in some very bright, but varied colors species to species. It took some back and forth before I settled on the colors that I did. I ended up naming him D'Morte - a distortion of 'mort' Latin for death. After D'Morte felt fleshed out, I established a family who work within the same coven as D'Morte, supporting his role as a festive, but morbid priest.
Clarissa the Swamp Witch
This was a project aimed at creating a character intended for entertainment from scratch. I loved the idea of mixing visuals from witchcraft and deer because both are often symbols conflated with the feminine. Starting with a moodboard and developing some ideation using 3D models, I began to sculpt Clarissa. The belt she wears exaggerates a thin waist and helps push that feminine connection a bit more. The most fun part about this character though is her hair. Hair is often cited as the source of a witch's power, and to play up that fact I thought of Clarissa and her hair as two different characters, each with their own silhouette. You can see this most in the animations. The swirling of her hair is reactive to Clarissa's movements, yet adds an entirely new shape to Clarissa that she wouldn't have on her own.
B.O.B. the Bear - Riverside Canoes
Riverside Canoes is a tube & kayak rental service in Traverse City, Michigan. They have a large black bear statue in front of their shop and wanted to start incorporating B.O.B. (or Bear on the Bridge) as they call him, into their branding. I was tasked with transforming B.O.B. from a lifeless statue into a living breathing character to be used in their social media posts, engagement, and digital signage. I primarily worked from photos Riverside provided of B.O.B. on location. I created assets for B.O.B. that would allow him to be used as a puppet, flexible for whatever media he would be used in.
Taco Mascot - The Roadhouse Mexican Bar & Grill
Created as a simple little character that could be used on promotional social media posts and sold as merch at a local Mexican restaurant. We aimed to create a taco character that would appeal to children, potentially appearing on placemats, as well as something cute that people may take home as a sticker.
Other Character Designs/Character Art
