OUGD505 - Studio Brief 2 - The Hero Character

For the book I wanted to have a main character to guide children through a world where animals aren't eaten. I thought that a pig would be best because pork is quite a popular meat especially in the UK and I feel that they are under represented as an animal. After doing some initial sketches I decided to go for quite a simple design using geometric shapes. This will make the book seem more contemporary to represent the contemporary ideals that are vegetarianism and veganism. 

I started out with something more detailed but I decided that the simpler the character the better. Using geometric shapes with little detail gives a contemporary vibe while giving a cutesy feel to the character. 

I played around with his face in illustrator having got the basic shape of his body down. I found that a bigger snout and medium eyes gave for a more friendly looking pig. 

I really struggled on coming up with a name for him as there are many famous cartoon pigs like Peppa pig from the tv show and Percy pig from M&S. Whenever I came up with a name it seemed to sound similar to the other characters. I ended up going with Perry because it is simple. 

I decided to start playing around with colour schemes and palettes for the illustrations of the book. Giving a certain colour scheme would set it a part from ordinary books where they use true to life colours. Also the colours can influence the mood of each page too.

I really liked the warmth of this colour scheme. Using these muted purple and orange hues really compliments the colour of Perry himself. This palette gives a relaxed sort of feel to the illustration.

Where as this colour scheme is a lot more summery and feels more true to life. The contrast between Perry and the background is also a lot bigger than in the previous colours. 

This colour palette feels like a twilight sort of colour palette when the day is coming to an end. I also fear that the heavy use of purples and pinks may be a bit too feminine for boy readers.

I feel like this palette is a lot blander in a way than all the others that I have tried so far. I don't know whether this is because of the off white sky or because the colours are so opposite to each other that they don't really meld together to make a cohesive colour scheme.