Live Brief 4: Amaraunt & Interim Submission

I have now completed the 3 characters required for the interim submission date. The final character for this submission was Amaraunt, an elven priest. The client asked for a predominantly light blue and white colour scheme and to give the character long hair.

I decided to give him a soft and gentle feel in contrast with the other two characters, I imagine him to have a positive outlook on life and to act as the healer of the group. His look is very controlled and structured as he comes from a very regulated background.

The client liked the idea of giving him a cloak so I experimented with a few different styles, basing them off various religious uniforms, but all versions having a longer back then the front. I also experimented with the idea of him having a scarf like cloth wrapped around his waist which the client ended up really liking and was included in the final design.


Overall i'm very happy with how this character turned out and I think that he fits in with the other two well, while still having enough contrast to stand out.

Live Brief 4: Character Design Challenge

For my final live brief I decided to participate in another character design challenge as they seem to be the most relevant live brief for my industry focus.

This months theme was 'Doctors and Nurses' and I wanted to try and design something that stepped away from my usual style. I wanted to go for a somewhat dark fantasy theme with a cute twist. I chose to create a gothic plague doctor spirit as I felt that I could create an interesting design that would push me out of the box and allow me to practice with some different brushes.

Live Brief 3: Knytes and Lis'Belle

So far I have completed two of the character designs for this brief. The process I have been using for this brief involves creating a set of rough sketches to show off my initial ideas, sending these off to the client who gives feedback, and then moving forward with creating a clean version.

Both of these finished designs have been cleared by the client. So far, progress has been somewhat stagnated as I'm often having to push for the information I need for the designs. However, this seems to be good practice for working in the industry and for clients.

They have also asked for the first 3 characters to be finished by the 1st of May so I will be working to get this done as an interim submission date, as the remaining characters will be given to the client after the deadline for this module.

Knytes is the protagonist of the game and acts as the cool, calm and collected leader. He's a robot who values honour above all else and never says more then is needed, he's very straight to the point.

As such his design is very structured and pointed to match his personality. He uses a silver and blue colour scheme with vibrant blue highlights to act as accent colours. I also had to make sure that he didn't have any robotic parts showing, so I chose to use cloth in areas to hide anywhere where skin would normally show.

For Lis'Belle, she is described as a young (around 15) but highly intelligent and skilled magician, but is also exceptionally bratty. She's short tempered and has little respect for authority, but overall her heart is in the right place.

The client requested she had a darker colour pallet that was mostly black with purple details. She meant to look like she's just walked out of medieval hot topic. As such she's pretty stylish and has a bit of a goth aesthetic going on with an overall witchy vibe.

I liked the idea of parts of her outfit being asymmetrical so created a section of her skirt that uses plaid rather then the usual black fabric, as well as gave her a belted bag that falls on the opposite side. She also has a lot of lace to give it that extra edgy vibe while still being youthful.

Live Brief 3: Request Update

Since our last discussion, the student i'm working with has been informed that he requires more then initially planned. As such the brief has been updated to now include 8 character designs.

I've had to discuss how much is a reasonable amount of work for me to be doing within the time limit, and we have come to the agreement that my focus will be on getting the main 5 characters done for the deadline (beginning of June).

This was a good experience, as it allowed me to discuss terms and learn how to explain to a client how much is feasibly doable. 

Live Brief 3: Character Design for Game Design

I reached out to a Game Design student and York St John University who needed some character designs completed for his final major project. The game itself is fantasy based RPG and needs character sprites and other content related to the game. I have agreed to design 5 characters plus a few monsters if time permits it.

I feel that this will be a useful experience for me as the main characters are all men which I am less confident in designing, and will help me get used to working to a brief.

Live Brief 2: 2CUTE2FAIL

For my second live brief I chose to take part in the Too Cute To Fail challenge on Pictofolio. This challenge involved creating a cute character and posting on the Pictofolio website before the 15th of February.

I successfully completed this challenge ad managed to post my outcome before the deadline. For this submission I chose to use bright and intense colours with lots of pinks, bows and heart motifs, as it was an opportunity to not hold back with creating something overly sweet.

This was a really fun and insightful challenge that made me aware of the existence of the Pictofolio website which I hope to continue using in the future, as it is a great resource for character design.

Live Brief 1: Character Design Challenge

For my first live brief I completed November's Character Design Challenge with the theme Spirited Away. This was my first time participating in the Character Design Challenge and I was eager to take part in this months challenge since it was based around one of my favourite Studio Ghibli films.

With the most recent Pokemon game (Sword & Shield) being released last month I wanted to incorporate this as it was a recent source of inspiration. As such, I drew Chihiro as a Galar (the region which the new games take place in) trainer as it meant I could incorporate a more sporty style to the character.

This was a really fun brief to take part in and I hope to take part in more of them in the future to further enhance my character designing skills.