Life Drawing 3

Self Portrait Design 2

This is basically another variation of my previous design. It has the same humanoid from but I have added more earwig like elements.

Portrait of Joseph Merrick

This is a portrait of Joseph Merrick (also known as John Merrick) who was a severely deformed man who lived during the Victorian era. I first saw this photo on a TV program when I was a little kid and it terrified me, I even had nightmares about it. My Mum had to comfort me by explaining that the man in the picture was actually a kind person. She also explained how he would have been mistreated by the people around him because of his unfortunate deformities. After that my reaction to the photo was more sympathetic than fearful. There is just something about Merrick’s blank expression that is slightly sorrowful. This is something I want to try to replicate with my self portrait/character design. I want to create a creature with all the grotesqueries of an insect but that is still fundamentally human and relatable.
Merrick was also a lover of music and poetry. This gave me the idea of depicting my creature drawing, painting, listening to music or playing an instrument just as a way of humanising him no matter how grotesque it ends up looking (although this idea could end up just looking silly).

Self Portrait Design 1

This is my first real attempt at creating a creature design. What I am attempting to do is to create something that is not just a generic bulky monster with big earwig pincers (like my previous Photoshop created design). I want to provoke a more sympathetic response to the creature (if that makes any sense). I am thinking about characters like Edward Scissorhands and real people like Joseph Merrick who I want to talk more about in a separate post. I am planning on painting this drawing in Photoshop.

Head/Face Studys

I don’t like these first two head/face studies at all. They look goofy and I don’t think I have captured my likeness.  

These drawings are better in my opinion but still don’t look right to me.

Photoshop Concept 1

This is much better than my first Photoshop drawing attempt (I could not upload my first attempt because of technical problems). I am still not very comfortable drawing in Photoshop, so next time I will draw by hand first then paint it in Photoshop. Also I stupidly saved over most of the earlier stages of this painting.

Life Drawing 2