Having researched into characters it is now time to respond to them. Using Kim Roselier’s work as inspiration (refer to previous post) I formed some art work, whereby I experimented with her style, exploring what gradients of colour look most effective and varying the amount of detail and indication of form there was.
Kim Roselier’s work for reference
Responses
- Experimenting with different colours and poses.
- Experimenting with what detail should be within the background colour and what as the gradient colour.
- Experimenting with adding emotion to the piece, by using an image of a facial expression and matching the colours to that emotion. Linking back to my overall theme of the connection of colour and emotion.
Here I have used the image of a happy person and tried to use bright warm colours to help express that emotion.
Colour/ Emotion Gradient research
Currently I’m feeling very positive about my designs because I believe I have truly captured Kim Roselier’s style, focusing on the silhouette and colours of the characters.
Looking at my emotion experiment, I definitely feel by using facial expressions and associated colours helps to add stronger emotions to the style, which may have been lacking in Roselier’s work. Wanting to clearly connect colour and emotion, I feel I will continue experimenting with more facial expressions, to identify if this technique suits all emotions, and so ultimately determine if I could use this style as a possible influence for my game characters.
Though I am feeling pleased with my happy expression experiment, I wasn’t sure exactly what colours related to happiness and so I was making up a colour palette. Which thinking back now probably wasn’t the best idea, as I know that colours have such an impact on the feel of a piece and any slight variation in tone or hue can change the mood of it. Therefore I may not have been expressing the correct emotions through the colour I was using and so need to be more careful with my colour choice.
As I was unsure of what specific colours and tones represented different emotions, I did some research to help me. When searching Behance I managed to find the perfect bit of research (shown below) which told me exactly what colour was most and least associated with a certain emotion and also the designer had formed gradients out of them.
I thought this was perfect as it gave me specific colours and gradients that relate closely to emotions and so I can use these palettes within my next experiments.
Angry
Surprised
- I started experimenting with layering up drawings to create a juxtaposition of emotions. I did this as a way of illustrating the concept that people may show one emotion on the outside, but really they are feeling a different one on the inside. So I just thought I’d experiment with this as a different way of looking at the artwork/ research and broadening my ideas from simply looking at one emotion at a time to multiple.
- What challenges could a mix of emotion bring to a game?
Disgust