Cube World: Characters and Thumbnails

Characters

The characters are probably the most fun I have with this project as I like to doodle small creatures and characters. I immediately start my work by drawing the main protagonist that will be visiting the island.

Full page character sheet

I planned out the colour since the start during the mood board process so it was quite quick to do while the design of the character have to be kept as minimal as possible while looking cute. 

The boy

The main ideas for the boy were for him to have rain boots and a bucket hat to explain how he is ready to go on an adventure as kids do. The colour scheme is kept as soft pastel with a cool tone as the main focus with bright warm essence as a contrast. As the overall jeans are the biggest piece in there I keep it in a cool tone. The rest of the character is in a warmer tone so he would be in contrast to the whale which will have a blue palette.

Whale guardian

The whale concept is to act as a guardian to the character that travels with it. With galaxy and stars themes which are associated with dreams and how the boy is in one of them. Dream whale is such a fun concept to think about and I wish I could make a more detailed version of it but sadly it wouldn’t fit the aesthetic of the island. 

Sea friends

Sea friends are side characters that I planned to decorate the island with. I started off with normal sea creatures like dolphins, flying fish and stingrays. Their concept is to mix sea with sky thus they got wings for them to swim in the clouds.

The ideas are soon dismissed as there are too many characters in the scenes. Instead, I made small bubble fishes to swim in the sky along with the whale guardians. I am very happy I made the decision and try changing things out.

Thumbnails Sketch

I took inspiration from the second week of the course task to draw thumbnails and decided to make one for this project. It was for fun at first then I was encouraged to make more, and so I did.

These thumbnail sketches are made so I can visualize how the island would look like from each view and each scenario that can possibly be used as the final sketch of the Dream island.

I really enjoy making these, especially the third one where the whale swims up to the figure. This practice also improves my understanding of death and grey value.