BA3a Creative Practice - Week 5 Summary

My Week 5

- Extended Artist Research - Body Type Concept Art

- Face Concept Art

- Hairstyle Concept Art

- Additional Armour Research

Extended Artist Research

Ivan Bilibin

Ivan Bilibin is an artist who gained renown in 1899 for his illustrations of Russian fairy tales and folklore. Although I will not be taking this art style forward within my future designs, concepts or promotional pieces—they are still a great inspiration in terms of composition and how the characters and locations look. I will be taking some influence from these drawings with how I design my characters.

Creating the Characters - My Own Concept Art

Body Types

1st - Marya (Athletic)

2nd - Ivan (Slightly Toned)

3rd - Koschei (Thin)

4th - Baba Yaga (Large)

5th - The Magic Horse (Body Base)

Facial Influences

Because I want to keep the faces on my characters looking the same on each picture/sketch, I firstly wanted to pick actors which would influence the way they looked.

Marya - Keira Knightley

I chose Keira to represent Marya because she has very defined cheekbones and a strong jawline, which adds to Marya being a character of strength and bold combat skills. (I had also just watched Pirates of the Caribbean 3 before deciding on these, and that was what prompted me to choose her!)

Ivan - Jake Gyllenhaal

I chose Jake to represent Ivan because he has a face which looks rather naive without being too child-like or young. This is particularly shown within his eyes where they are rather large with eyebrows that aren't too arched in a way that looks condescending.

Koschei - Charles Dance

I think Charles's face fits perfectly with the role of a villain, especially as he appears to be quite menacing in the roles he plays. The large nose and bags under his eyes are exactly how I envisioned Koschei to look, especially with how Charles doesn't have exaggerated wrinkles as I never wanted Koschei look elderly.

Baba Yaga - Kathy Bates

Kathy's face is exactly how I imagined Baba Yaga should look because I particularly enjoyed her role as 'The Butcher' in American Horror Story season 6, where she was a very intimidating character. I think the way her face expresses emotions such as anger and contempt really fits with an old sorceress.

Now I was able to draw some faces which would serve as a base for my iteration with their character designs! From left to right we have Marya, Ivan, Koschei and Baba Yaga (although it should hopefully be obvious now with the photo references above)!

Hairstyles

Marya

Keeping in mind the historical Slavic hairstyles which I researched, I definitely wanted Marya to be wearing braided hair around the top of her head since it was very traditional - in addition to being what married women wore. Although these particular iterations aren't so varied, my favourite is the bottom centre. I preferred this one over the others as it was quite simplistic and would fit the era very well. Even though the ribbons around the hair were also very common around the 11th century, I felt that it didn't fit with her character of being a warrior as it could easily get caught on something in battle.

Baba Yaga

Baba Yaga's hair was definitely an experiment as I wasn't sure whether to have it tied in a ponytail or rather long. However after some iteration I thought that she would really suit long, unkempt and tangled hair. As a witch, I wanted to keep some of the crone-like features within her design yet also with a Russian twist - adding a braid wrapped around the top of her head as well. In addition to this I have also given her a headdress as they were very popular in medieval Europe.

Ivan

Ivan was a tricky one to decide upon because I didn't want his hair to be too eccentric since that was my goal with Baba Yaga and Koschei instead. Instead, I opted to design some variations of medieval European hair - which looks rather Viking as well but the way it was worn in Russia was rather similar. I definitely wanted braids to be one of the main features as this is very traditional, in addition to the beard. The main hairstyles that I will be taking forward with Ivan is the far right on the second row and the far right on the third row. Men in Russia particularly wore hair just past their shoulders which was very popular in the main centuries I am looking at, however I think the ponytail looks quite nice aesthetically.

Koschei

With the beard style and hair, I am very much basing his look on Medieval European aesthetics however with a slightly contemporary twist. I definitely wanted Koschei to have a different beard and moustache style in comparison with Ivan, and think I have explored some very possible variations that adapt to what I want. My favourite is the first iteration on the second row, because I feel like the moustache is a cool shape to work with as well as long hair fitting for the long, slender frame of his character.

Additional Armour Research

Medieval armor of Russian warrior from prince's armed force. Russia. 13-14 centuries.

The Battle of Lake Peipus was a battle between the Republic of Novgorod and the Livonian branch of the Teutonic Knights (whose army consisted mostly of Estonians) on April 5, 1242, at Lake Peipus.