The Reel - Character Colour.

As previously mentioned there were some concerns that the skin tones of the characters would get lost in the background due to the neutral/brown tones of the rocks & stones. So I was asked to experiment with bold colours in keeping with the character details & designs of the masks. So these are examples of the colours on the characters, I personally feel like the colours are too bold & will contrast the backgrounds too much & will appear out of place - so it's been decided that the skin colour will be revisited once the scenes have been completed with colour & texture, as then the characters comped into the scenes can be assessed more easily & therefore changed to fit the scene more effectively.

Underworld - Characters.

Secondary character designs & additional character poses for the character of Leucia & a more detailed & developed design of Charon.

Again using block colour mainly with less of a use of texture & dramatic shadow which need to be added in accordance to the background & background design/lighting.

Leucia illustrating her penchant for alcohol...

The annoying hippy, ultra positive new neighbours...

Aunt Persephone.

The old lady maid.

Leucia's pimp-like boss.

Thina's gay best friend..

Underworld - Concept Art.

The beginnings of concept art for the characters! There are no backgrounds included in these designs as of yet which will come later in addition to more dramatic use of shadow for the characters and a development in texture.

The backgrounds needs to contrast the characters in order for the characters not to be lost in the backgrounds so I am considering only using the black outlined style for the characters and simply using texture and colour for the background style. 

So these are initial poses and character interactions for the pieces of concept art, background incorporation and design to come...

Underworld - Character Poses & Expressions.

Basic character colours for turnarounds & expressions! Intending to add some more defined shadows & possibly textures, however as I want the characters to stand out from the backgrounds regarding the animation I think I'll involve less texture with characters. But pro markers, gel pen, pencil & ink.

Leucia - the mama Siren, a loving hard working character but with an aggressive streak & an ever increasing enjoyment of wine...

Thina - the power hungry teenage Gorgon daughter.

Charon - the Daddy ferryman of the River Styx.

Xander - the introverted son in training to be a helper of Hades with the dream of racing Pegasus.

Yet more procrastination...

I saw this guy driving the bus the other & felt I had to draw him...

& yet more pro marker & gel pen drawings on toned paper.

Underworld - Character Colour...

Character colour experiments yet again, still unsure as to how to add colour to the characters... so more experiments & more to come...

Left: Watercolour,

Right: Pro marker & gel pen.

Digital colour & texture.

Underworld - Expression Sheets.

Initial expression sheets for all four characters! Conveying what I hope to be a variety of emotions & facial expressions...

Leucia the Siren mamma.

Charon the pappa.

& Xander the son.

Underworld - Secondary Characters.

After a pre production seminar it was mentioned that I needed to consider secondary characters... as generally sitcoms have more than just the family. I had already thought about them briefly but have now created a few concepts for some secondary characters!

Top left; Xander's girlfriend (currently nameless).

& the next door neighbours... based on Greek mythological creatures the Satyr & Empousa.

Also nameless. Let's just assume that all these character's have no names as of yet...

Bottom left; Leucia (the Siren's) boss man. Like a sea pimp.

Bottom right: the maid, an old lady human.

Top: Persephone, the disliked Auntie.

Underworld - Initial Character Turnarounds.

Initial characters for the other three members of the family! Only rough & initial as I'm aware some adaptations may need to be made regarding animating & the style. Also I am aware that one side of them is armless... just to show shape & detail etc they're not just a one armed family...

Charon - the Papa destined to take people across the River Styx.

Xander - the younger son in training to be a minion of Hades.

Last pose is a liiiittle bit off weight wise, take two!

Leucia - a Siren, in love with her job.

All will need to be neatened up & coloured & inked in such anyway...

Underworld - Character Colour.

Water colour with fine liner hatching similarly to the backgrounds so as not to juxtapose the style too much...

Underworld - Redesign Character Colour Experiments!

More playing with ideas for colour... decided a more muted, limited palette would be more ideal for the darker nature...

Watercolour with gel pen & pencil detail.

Pencil on tracing paper.

Fine liner.

Underworld - Character Redesigns...

Character redesigns! Again! Practice Makes Proficient.

A little more angular, a little less 'sexy', slimmed down limbs, more creepy & odd looking... More fitting of the description! Still some work to do to work out the movements & how they will look from different angles. Also to make some minor changes to certain details...

Getting rid of plaits! Unnecessary addition which doesn't really add anything to the design...

Going to add a hammer or weapon to his design...

Need to add something to his t shirt design!

Underworld - Character Colour Experiments.

Started to do a few brief experiments with colour - or lack of colour - on the Medusa designs.

Played around with a style of outlines, more cartoony style & then a purely black & white design. I like the white lines on the block black to add detail.

Then experimented with basic Photoshop block colour - again in a cartoon like style. Relatively simple.

& then I decided I wanted to redesign all the characters again... Still too generic after staring at it for a long time. & I also want to take a different route for the colour...