When it comes to narrowing down the design of our main character, I decided to look at wildlife as a visual reference. Originally I looked at b-movie monsters/costumes as that's a theme that Norma Green is inspired by, however I felt to get a more original concept I should look at primary sources like animals and nature.
Tentacles
 |
Julien had suggested that Norma's hair could be tentacles, as it fits with the sci-fi theme and also saves us from using nhair in Maya. Also we had thought about tentacle legs for Norma, and she would move around almost like a snail, maybe with the tentacles moving at the same time however this is something we plan to speak with Alan about, so nothing is concrete quite yet.
 |
Eyes
 |
To fit in with Norma's alien look, I imagine her eyes to be very dark. Though I'd like to narrow down on the patterns her eyes have, as I think that completely black eyes can sometimes look a bit dead. I focused mainly on nocturnal animals and creatures when looking for visual references.
 |
Hands
 |
Seeing that this character has tentacles for legs, it may look a bit strange for her to have human hands. When sketching her hands I referenced from tropical breeds of frogs and amphibians. One of the most well known b-movie monsters of all time, the swamp monster, was heavily based off from amphibians. I also didn't want to reference from generic alien drawings as that may result in the character designs looking generic.
 |
These sketches are all very rough, nothing is set in stone yet, so it would be great to have some feedback.
all sane, sensible ideas here - eyes-wise, you're right, if she's completely black, she'll look either evil or as if she's been possessed or replaced by an evil sexbot...
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_0y_BGIZSU
big dilated pupils are an indicator of sexual arousal, so maybe that's a clue as to where to go in this regard. As long as her eye-colour is suitably 'alien', I think you could keep them on the human-side of some your examples here.
Hair-wise - love the little detail of the suckers on the underside of her hair.
In terms of her frock, the tentacles just seem like a must to me because they allow you to give her that hour-glass shape. I don't know if you're fans of Mad Men, or if you've watched it, but Joan might be a great additional reference in terms of old school sex appeal and curvaceousness - what a sex siren!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNSawUi-vUA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWn1TFFgsxE
I guess Norma Green could sort of 'ripple/hover' across the floor - a sort of sexier version of the mushrooms and/or the floating twirling flowers?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzCUEQxOT3U (at about 3 mins).
but all of that said, I do think she needs to be 'b-movie' enough so not soooo sophisticated that the joke isn't there anymore. You may know this already:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKPLQbl44as