Assignment #8 - Props

In this Assignment you will be designing any Halloween-themed character of your choice - with a prop!

The points of this assignment are the effective use of a prop, and using value to organize and define the shapes of your character. and Prop design.

Prop - design 3 variations of the prop used by your character - Design it so that it "lives" in your character's world
Value - Use shading (pencil, digital, marker) to define the shapes of your character. pay attention to material types, highlights, shadows etc.  Use the values to Organize your design.  Pay attention to the tone of your background as well.  I would recommend scanning and then printing your line drawing so that you don'e mess up your original. Post both your line drawing and value study

Due Tuesday, Oct 29th.  Bring a Hardcopy (on paper) of your character with you to class.

Props - even more!

 waiters - look for the differences in attitude, personality and story

Croods - cavemen weapons

Phones

other

Examples of individual prop designs

“The styling of the film, backgrounds, props, etc. must be appropriate to the character design. Norally you wouldn't want to design a complex, realistic environment for highly stylized, flat, cartoony characters, and vice versa. Every character and element should feel like it lives in the same world.

Maurice Nobel (The Nobel Approach pg 85)

Props

Props have meaning and they deserve to be dealt with in a meaningful way.

Props - Build your gesture around them, because they tell what the pose is all about - the "story" of the drawing.

"A model using a telephone should spark some kind of a response in you; perhaps it's a call for help, or a social call, or an unwanted call from a former spouse, or a salesperson.

- Walter Stanchfield (Drawn To Life, Vol 1, pg 345)

In other words, if you are using a prop in your design, you should be asking yourself, WHY are they holding it, HOW are they holding it (experienced, fearfully, unskillfully, nervous, eager etc.).

 Also, You should draw any props with the same attention as your character. a Prop Becomes Part of Your Character!  it's not a throwaway - so make sure it fits in your world.  Remember, if it's not strengthening your drawing, then it is weakening it.

Remember the important things about designing the props is that they fit in your character's world and reflect their shapes, design, linework etc.

There are different types of prop design

Props to fit character or environment - shape, emotion, purpose etc. - this is the one we are focusing on.

story props - brainstorming and exploring possibilities and options

Props for rendering - usually from multiple angles for building purposes