BA3b - Week 8 Summary

This week I continued working on the cat prince's room design, starting with further working on the furniture to go into the room. Below is the work in progress of the furniture with a chest, wardrobe and chair design on the left with more final designs, and a tall bed which is currently a work in progress. The bed design is proving harder than the others, as creating a curved appearance to fit the other furniture may distract from the fact that its a bed, and often they contain mostly straight lines. With more references however I am starting to get a feel for what shape the bed will have. I am using lots of references, and am continuously researching to find more to inspire my work, as this area is not something I have ventured into before.

I wanted to keep the furniture consistent with the feline inspiration and also fit with the rococo theme with its high levels of detail. Cats are going to be present in most of the furniture, or parts of them e.g. paw print, as well as catnip and mice. I also wanted many curves in the design, inspired by waves, as the designs of the room are going to be water themed. Below are more references used for the furniture so far.

(x)

Also from the website the chair came from above, some history of chairs, including rococo ones -

"During the Rococo period (ca. 1730–60), the graceful movement that first appeared in furniture of the Régence period was further developed until the entire frame appeared to dissolve into a continuous flowing, curving line. High-relief carving of twirling leaves, asymmetrical C- and S-shaped scrolls, flowers, and fanciful elements resembling rocks and shells would mask the areas where the cabriole legs and sinuous curving arm supports were joined to the seat rail. The quest for greater comfort and informality was reflected in various new chair types"

(x)

(x)

(x)

(x)

(x)

(x)

That last one is especially interesting to me as it appears to be a relatively straight built bed in terms of the wood pillars, but with the movement of the draping curtains and the other elements, there is a great sense of curves in the design.

I have to keep in mind that my character is tall when creating the furniture, so for example with the wardrobe the handles are much higher than a normal one, and with the chair I did some studies of how the character would sit and what height the seat would have to be.

I decided that a tall chair would be the most logical for how he would sit, so the bottom right. I also drew the character looking at how he might have his tail when sitting.

I also worked in more detail on the room interior design for the cat character after getting some feedback from Kaleigh, as I still felt lost on its design.

(Design I drew last week for reference)

These were done fairly quickly and are very rough, because I just wanted to draw down the ideas I had in my head for the overall feeling of the room, and have a look at how it would be designed from different angles. The top left one is looking at the room from the left nearest wall (seen in the drawing from last week), so the side with the balcony, and showing the bridge and staircase changes too. I decided that perhaps having a normal staircase going up to the balcony area would work better for the space, and was inspired by a staircase in Palazzo Biscari:

(x)

The staircase is intricate, and its design reminds me of waves being blown over the coast. The colour scheme is also pleasing on the eyes, with its use of pastels. 

The top right drawing is showing the large window I had in the first design, with table and chairs in front as well as a potential placement for the willow tree. It also shows the staircase from the side.

The bottom drawing is showing where the bridge might go across the room instead of on the side like the previous design. It also shows where the door might be placed, with some plants around it.

During my research I also found furniture that had paw designs on the feet, similarly to the idea I had with my furniture designs. I don't know why I didn't think to look into other furniture with claws for feet in the first place, as its something that came to mind very early into the cats room design. I'm glad I found it out however as its something that will help me make my designs more realistic, and inspire how I work cat feet into my own work.

Below are some of the designs I found.

(x)

(x)

(x)

(x)

(x)

I think I am still struggling with the interior design part of the cat characters room, but I have more solid ideas of how it will look so I will continue to do research and hopefully visit some national trusts or other places where I can see designs similar to these in real life, and understand more how they designed their interiors. I am enjoying researching and learning more about the various elements I am putting into my project, especially as interior design and furniture design, and even environment design in general is all still very new to me.

BA3b - Week 7 Summary

This week started with the presentation, where I got feedback on my work. In terms of my cat prince character, Kaleigh was saying that I should look at making his thighs larger, especially with the trousers he has on. Someone else had said that perhaps the tail of my cat character should be more catlike, so standing higher as they often have their tails hanging up. His tail also felt too similar to the mouse characters, so I tried out a fluffier tail and worked on the legs a bit more.

(x)

I found the tail to work much better like this, it feels far more cat-like and has an elegant aesthetic. I also drew how jewelry would work with this tail. On the right is a try on having poofier trousers or bigger thighs. The problem I am finding with doing this is that this character is supposed to be tall and skinny, opposing to the mouse character with her large legs. The way the trouser area also works in these 18th Century outfits seems to be they are quite tight, so it also wouldn't be poofy.

After the presentation I felt a bit more confused about how to progress and was starting to panic, so I drew up some mind maps in my notebook to feel a bit steadier.

I was writing about both the environments and the characters, trying to get a feel for what I had left. I also wrote about the 'important items' which is something I haven't gotten into yet, so I'm not sure if I will have time to get to it or might have to push it aside to finish this project.

I also got some feedback on the anatomy from Kaleigh, as there is something still off about the way the characters leg work/how he stands, so I continued working on the leg anatomy.

I started with trying to silhouette again, thinking about the legs. I found that to be difficult when I was already pleased with the characters shape, so I silhouetted over the top with the third one. I tried to work with the thighs thickness, but they felt off with the general body shape of the character. Also tried with a side view, to get a better feel for how the legs work in general. I felt a bit lost with what I was doing by this point, so I got up some anatomy references and started sketching the legs again, thinking about the muscles and how the feet would work. The bottom sketches are the ones that I used anatomy help for, and they feel a lot more full and logical. I also did a full body sketch, thinking again about how the feet would work. 

With a better grasp of the anatomy of the legs, I continued working further on how they would work for my character. I also found a drawing someone had made of the leg anatomy of a wolf person, which is similar to the anatomy I am working with, so I drew it myself thinking more about my characters anatomy to get a feel of the shapes, and then drew it again thinking about my cats outfit from that angle. 

(x)

I also worked again with the leg anatomy, seen on the bottom sketches. I was thinking about their weight and how I wanted them to look. I also was trying out their positioning, thinking about the bend the leg parts should have and how the weight would be distributed.
Until recently I had been trying to remember what the word for animals such as cats or dogs that stand on their toes, like what I am working with, and its called 'digitigrade'. Wikipedia describes it as "A digitigrade is an animal that stands or walks on its digits, or toes. Digitigrades include walking birds, cats, dogs, and many other mammals," (x)

In the presentation I was advised to also make some callout sheets for my characters, to show areas like the materials/fur etc.

These will help with finalising the various elements of the designs for the characters, and reminded me of visual elements I hadn't thought about such as them having animal-like teeth.

I was given some advice about the cat characters hair, as they are blond but their fur is more grey. I wanted this character to be blond, as to me it brings across the royal rich prince aesthetic. I may either add some gradient to the hair, for example ombre it from blond to grey etc, or change the colour of the cats fur slightly to match the hair shade.

After feeling a bit more stable on the character designs, I went back to working on the environments. I got some feedback about the overall design of the cat characters room, and how I should be getting more overall room designs for reference. I was told to try to go to some museums etc, to photograph and see some interior design to help me with the designs I am making, as well as other photos to bring across the theme I want in this room. I haven't yet been to any museums, but using pinterest I found reference images to use to help me.

(x)

(x)

(x)

(x)

(x)

(x)

(x)

(x)

I've been feeling a bit overwhelmed with the environment designs, especially the cat character as his room is going to be bigger and more detailed. I think finding more references and trying out different ideas will help me, and I want to try to find some tutorials to guide me a bit in environment design as its something I'm still not familiar with.

With a clearer idea of the room design I wanted, I started sketching out an idea. I wanted to look at having some sort of balcony design, and have the water underneath. I also wanted lots of windows and/or big windows, to give light to the plants.

The left is the very rough sketch, and the right is the polished design. I was trying to get a good look at how a balcony would work with a spiral staircase and a large, stain glass window being one of the main focuses. I want there to also be a big willow tree somewhere, perhaps near the window so that the eye isn't drawn to two different areas immediately. For someone who doesn't know interior design or environment design, I'm proud of how this came out. I also didn't use a perspective grid, even though I probably should have, so I will try to use one next time. The shapes are trying to show where the different furniture might be. I want to keep working on this idea, as I feel it has a lot of potential.

Kaleigh showed me something called 3D floor art, something I had often seen before outside but it never really occurred to me that it could be used inside as flooring etc.

(x)

Its something I could perhaps use in my project, even just as inspiration as I am having a room filled with water.

I found out during some research about Rocaille, something that seemingly started the Rococo movement, described by Wikipedia as "Rocaille was a French style of exuberant decoration, with an abundance of curves, counter-curves, undulations and elements modeled on nature, that appeared in furniture and interior decoration during the early reign of Louis XV of France." "[...]it was usually symmetrical and not overloaded with decoration" (x) I also found many artists who worked on Rocaille designs, which included their sketches/designs.

Nicolas Pineau

Gilles-Marie Oppenordt

Germain Boffrand

Germain Boffrand  (Salon de la Princess, Hotel de Soubise)

Juste-Aurèle Meissonnier

I decided to work on the furniture designs to more detail, like the artists' work listed above. I have some ideas for how to design the furniture based on the characters designs. It would also be a nice way of showing the details of the designs.

Below is the design I have so far for the chest. I wanted to incorporate feline elements to the designs, due to the royals all being cats. The first idea I had when I was thinking about Rococo furniture was the little feet that all the objects had would make great cat feet. I also wanted the mice to be part of it, as in the natural order of things mice are lower on the food chain. Often plants and other delicate, curving elements are key designs in rococo/furniture designs, so I thought of using catnip as it is something that cats are a fan of, and is an interesting plant to draw.

(Catnip)

I also have a design showing a cat with a short-haired tail, the original design I had before I decided that it would work better with a fluffy tail, especially as the cat character has one himself.

I felt more panicked than usual this week, due to not really understanding environment design or where to progress from what I had. I think after doing more research and figuring out a vague path to work on, I am feeling slightly better about the project. I still think I need to do more research on interior design perhaps as well as go to museums and get pictures of existing royal rooms, but I feel like I am progressing relatively well. I'm not sure in terms of the important item side of this project if I will have time, it may have to just be if I have time.

BA3b - Week 6 Summary

This week I wanted to focus on the environment for the cat character. I decided to try out a water themed room for him, as I felt it would be an interesting challenge and also ironic as cats often hate water. I started again using SketchUp to create the 3D base for the room. 

Below are the results, with different angles so that I could find a good one to use to draw over.

I decided to use the last one, as it had a good angle where you could see almost all of the furniture/room. I decided, instead of colouring over and trying to figure out what I was creating as I was going, to create a sketch over the 3D room and use that for a more polished lineart.

Sketches

Lineart over 3D room

Lineart

I want it to be a rococo inspired room, to connect with the characters design. I also wanted the water to be a prominent feature in the room, almost over the top, something that only someone with a lot of money could achieve and keep up. I decided to have most of the ground be water, and have stepping stones etc to get around. I am proud of the design so far, especially as I am very unfamiliar with environment design and this is all new to me. I think I may have however messed up with the sizing of different elements, as the bed is supposed to be overly large but it seems to be very average as I seem to have made other elements relatively big. I think for the next drawing I make for this, I may try to use perspective grids.

Below are some of the furniture reference images I took inspiration from to draw and create the general shape of my designs.

(x)

(x)

(x)

(x)

(x)

(x)

(x)

I then started to colour the environment, thinking about the how the colours would compliment the watery aesthetic of the room, and how I would later add plants too. I wanted the furniture to be relatively dark, as I will be having gold accents similarly to the characters colour scheme and those are more prominent against a darker background. Below are some images from the process behind the first coloured design.

Trying the pillars with blue and black, thinking 

about each colours consistency in the room

I chose blue for the bed originally because of the characters colour scheme, blue and gold, however it seems to not connect well with the other colours, and in general this colour scheme feels somewhat thrown together. I tried to adjust the colours scheme to create a more connected aesthetic, seen below.

For these I thought more about the room as a whole, and how the colours felt against one another. The rooms still felt somewhat bland, and didn't bring across the aesthetic I wanted, so I found some water inspired colour palettes and made some thumbnails.

I also tried the ones that worked with the actual room design I had made, and put them together to compare.

Some I found worked well, despite being different from what I had originally planned. I started working further with some of them by adding plants and more details. I wanted to have a giant weeping willow, or other tree that hung down into the water, and I wanted lily pads and other life around too.

Blue weeping willow tree and green lilypads and reeds

Green weeping willow tree 

No reeds

This colour scheme I found pleasing, and although the original palette did not include the darker greens, it did have the very light shade of green used for the water areas so I used darker shades of that green and I think it worked well. However I think the very light water against the blue for the rocks can create confusion about what the ground is, so if I do go further with this colour scheme I will have to be clear with the rocks and water so that it is easy to comprehend what is happening in the scene immediately. I tried it with both a blue tree and green tree, and without reeds as they may clutter the scene. I found the green tree helped bring the green of the other plants across better than the blue, which seemed to fade with the rocks.

I tried with a very different colour scheme too.

Pink tree and plants

No reeds

Green tree and plants

This colour scheme I chose due to its royal appearance, deep and rich purples and reds/pinks. I enjoy how it came out, and it helps the scene pop out more. Due to the water being this deep pink/red, I thought that it would be as if the prince wanted it to be continuously dyed so that it would remain that colour. After all, he is rich. I tried with the plants being green and pink, and found that I liked both for the different aesthetics they brought.

I want to continue experimenting with the colour schemes I have made, and I want to add more details to the designs, as well as fish and other elements. 

We were also told about a presentation so I made one, showcasing what I have made so far.