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.

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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"

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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:

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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.

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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.