Finished Lineart
The lineart came together pretty early on this week. The weirdest part of doing the back view was the tail, but I think I got the overall idea of it across. I'm thrilled with how everything looks, I think it's a good blend of her old design while naturally stepping it up a few notches with things that I've learned along the way. I originally drew her around this time last year, and it's fun to see the differences and improvements I've made. I was already super excited to sculpt her at this point.
Color Palette
One thing that needs updating is the palette. In her old design, most things are fine aside from her grey purple-ish dress. It's fine, but it's a dull color that doesn't reflect her characterization at all. I think I was struggling to pick a color for her because her skin, hair, and eyes were already so bright, so I was timid and landed on a duller color to not accidentally make the palette overwhelming. When conceptualizing her new palette, I decided her skin, hair, and eyes would be the same with a few tone tweaks if I decide it's necessary. As previously mentioned I wanted to see what her skin might look like with subtle patterning. As for her dress, I was flying a bit blindly. I thought vaguely it could be green, as green wasn't used very much in her previous design aside from her eyes and it could be a nice way to tie it in more.
I landed on a tertiary color scheme consisting mostly of red, blue, and green. I also went for cool undertones to make sure things still fit together. Making the dress mostly green with a bit of blue ended up working out wonderfully because it complements her bright skin. These colors also ended up feeling much more true to who she is as a character because she's joyful and fun, and her palette now reminds me of a summer's day.
At this point, I had only laid down the flat colors and none of the patterns or trim yet so I could get a good sense of what everything would look like. The only part I struggled with a bit was the corset, as it has a pattern on it already that's meant to look like dyed leather. Finding the right brown was also a challenge. I tried adding in some yellows on the design originally but I wasn't a fan of how that looked, so I stuck to pink tones. I also had a bit of trouble picking the tones for the shelf mushrooms on her dress. I had to pick between orange and pink, and I went with more pinkish red. Her jewelry is mostly blue, pink, and green with silver metal. At this point, I think the color palette is cohesive, interesting, and reflective of the character. At this point, I added more detail.
Finishing Touches
This part took some experimentation. I originally put a floral pattern on the bodice layer of the dress, but I ended up not liking it after putting on a different floral pattern on the blue layer of the dress. I didn't want them both to just have a floral pattern, so I eventually settled on something that reminded me a bit of spores. I thought about having mushroom patterns, but she already has literal mushrooms growing on her dress and a mushroom front and center on her corset.
Adding trim ended up giving the dress a lot more visual interest. I added the brown from the corset on the edge of the bodice layer and it added a nice break between the lighter green of the fabric and the more saturated green of the grass layer. I tried adding that brown to the sleeve cuffs but I didn't like it. I like the delicate look of that light green against her skin more.
I made the ruffle on the blue layer darker and added trim along the edge. I tied in more green on the petticoat layer and I feel like that detail alone just brought the whole dress together. I added the faded red on the bottom just to add some interest and tie it to the rest of her palette even more.
I added on her scars and added in the pattern I wanted to try. It ended up being faded striping, but I thought it added a nice extra visual and even with the scars it didn't make her design too much to look at. For the frill, I thought about making it dark red, but that didn't look very interesting to me. I tried making it blue, like her hair, and I liked that a lot. I'm very pleased with how the model sheet looks, and I'm ready to start sculpting. I'm both very excited and very nervous.
Possible Setbacks
This upcoming week I will be starting a new job, and that will take up much of my time on top of my existing job. Another issue is that with it being the holiday season I do have to take time out of my schedule to make gifts. Because of this, I likely won't have much progress in the next two weeks. I'll still be giving weekly updates on whatever I do have. I want to try as hard as I can to at least get an hour of work on Vex every day if it's possible. I don't want to force myself and accidentally burn myself out.
Next Steps
I'll be sculpting this week! For this project, I want to make a base mesh. I've made them before so I know it's not a necessary step, but I can always use the anatomy practice. I would also have to sculpt her legs from scratch and I genuinely really like making base meshes. I like comparing the ones I've made to see how much better and faster I get. Plus this is a personal project that has no deadline, so if I want to spend extra time doing additional work for my enjoyment that's fine. Even when the sculpt is finished she'll need her full leg geometry and those will inform how the skirt of her dress deforms.
I'm hoping to get all the primary shapes of the body done by next week. I stated before I already have a lot going on this week and I won't be pushing myself particularly hard to get a lot done for this project, so expect my next devlog to be much briefer than this one.
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