Moving into new territory...

 Next up I re-watched part of Randy Bishop's online Character Design course on '21 Draw' to see what he said about creating an expression sheet and I referenced some of his work on facial expressions when creating them for Briar. This was one of the most challenging but also enjoyable pieces of drawing I've done for quite a while! I found myself making the expressions as I tried to draw them which took me back to drawing as a child, it was tough trying to keep the facial feature recognizable and on key but very satisfying when I'd finished one that I felt expressed the correct emotion. Here is what I came up with...

 Then I went on to use the initial front-on head-design to create a sheet of varying mouth shapes incase this character ever needed to be animated talking. Again this was something I haven't drawn probably since I was last in University 15 years ago and was very enjoyable because of this. I Google searched some mouth shapes then incorporated them into the following sheet of lip-sync...

I was very happy with both sheets however Eve wasn't as keen feeling she perhaps misjudged her decision on which head to choose, so she is now contemplating what changes she'd like to be made. I learned a lot from these exercises and look forward to redesigning the face. It was a good test in non-attachment and remembering that you are not your work and when working with someone else (which I plan to do) especially when it's their own personal ideas, if they don't agree or don't at first like what you do, it's not personal. Something has either got lost in communication or you've maybe allowed your work to slip out of character and away from the brief. 

It's ALL good, you're drawing and creating worlds and characters at the end of the day, it's a blessing to be using your skills and imagination in this way. Nobody has died and things can always be redrawn or designed again :D 

Eve and I agreed that not all was lost as she still really liked the full body pose so I went on to try adding colour to that while she took some time to consider the facial look she wanted for Briar and will come back to me over the next couple of days. I'll share my first attempt at painting Briar in the next post...