Task 2 - Character Global Market

Character Design

Assessment Criteria - 4/11/2020

The brief is to create a character for the UK, North Korean and Iran market. I have to take into account broadcast regulations, censorship and personal taste of each culture. From the laws, acts, rights and political backgrounds of working in these countries - all these areas needs deep research and has to be used to inform my created character.

The character brief in question is a 15 year old female. They have a confident, rebellious, outspoken and independent personality and must appeal to the region in focus each week.

Stated above is the areas I must research into. Experimentation includes applying the results and design tests into my character each week. This is to be done on photoshop as digital skills is a part of the criteria. Development will be presenting the final character to my peers (getting feedback) and how it meets the broadcast regulations and requires no censorship. There will be a final reflection and analysis of professional skill development each week. Soft skills transferable skills and specialist skills need to be taken into consideration.

Finally, an evaluation will be carried out. A peer review on each character will take place to gather further feedback. Changes between each character will be identified and how they were changed to fit the demographic beliefs, values and systems. A further evaluation on professional development, working practices and employee rights will happen as well.

Shape, Colour and Symbolism

Before we delve into the specifics of each market, first we need to establish some ideas. Shape, colour and symbols play an important part in establishing a character - from their personality, gender and physique.

The first area to look at is a characters shape. Currently, there are the 3 main shapes of circle, triangle and square. Below I delve into their meanings and give examples of its use in existing characters.

Triangles

Triangles are used in character design to imply evil and a sinister personality. It is associated with energy and power to indicate direction. Angular shapes show danger. Examples in the real world include severely eroded rocks and pieces of glass. Bill Cipher from Gravity Falls is an extreme example of the use of this shape in design. His body is a literal triangle. Without any context except the image on the left, you can tell his intentions are not good. His design implies that he's up to something, a schemer. Although not a physical threat he still comes across extremely dangerious.

Circles

In a nutshell, circles imply friendly, safe and happy vibes. They are graceful due to their curved lines. They lack the same power as the sharpness of triangles and squares. It represents innocence and positivity.

An extreme example of this can be seen on the left, in the character of Kirby. Kirby is a face with stubby arms and legs on a literal sphere. His entire body is one big circle. This gives off the feelings mentioned above. He is made to look innocent and happy: as non-threatening as possible.

However, triangle have a double meaning. As well as the sinister evil of the villain, triangles can also imply clumsiness and awkward characters.

Squares

A square represents stability and strength. A character who is brawn over brain, a powerful, tough, physically strong character. Squares are found in many sturdy areas of nature, such as rocks and mountains. An example of this can be found in Gaston in beauty and the beast. This a more complex build in comparison to the previous example so I added a square below to help convey my point. He is a textbook example of brain over brawn. His head (brain area especially) is incredibly small in comparison to the rest of his body. His main bulk of a torso is huge and solid as a brick.

This shape has the same energy as a triangle

Colour

Colour and what it represents was covered in task 1. However it has a wider meaning when it comes to character design. Warm colours (red, orange, yellow...) are used for mostly good characters. Warm colours represent energy, passion and positivity. Example of this are fires, fall leaves, sunsets and sunrises. Bright colours can emphasise this energy and be used to enhance these effects. A darker red could mean anger and rage. However a lighter red could means energy and passion.

Colder colours (such as green, blue, purple...) are used for bad characters. Example of this colour in nature include the night sky and water. They are much more calming in comparison to warm colours. Dark colours are also used here to establish meaning. Many villains contrast to the hero's bright colours with their much darker tones.

Man, O., 2018. 6 Cartoon Characters That Could Beat Thanos. [Online]
Available at: https://aminoapps.com/c/cartoon/page/blog/6-cartoon-characters-that-could-beat-thanos/PJBI_muN2QNoDpWJmevJj85nemvKWN8
[Accessed 4 November 2020].

RANDELL, J., 2009. Drawing a Nice Cartoon Character – KirbyDrawing a Nice Cartoon Character – Kirby. [Online]
Available at: https://www.photoshoplady.com/drawing-a-nice-cartoon-character-kirby/
[Accessed 4 November 2020].

Otterson, J., 2016. ‘Beauty and the Beast’ First Look Tease Cogsworth, Lumiere, Gaston (Photos). [Online]
Available at: https://www.thewrap.com/beauty-and-the-beast-first-look-tease-cogsworth-lumiere-gaston-photos/
[Accessed 4 November 2020].

Dream Farm Studios, n.d. Understanding shape language in character design. [Online]
Available at: https://dreamfarmstudios.com/blog/shape-language-in-character-design/
[Accessed 4 November 2020].

Symbolism

Symbolism is what a certain shape/colour represents. For example the circular shape represents innocence and happiness. It is what we infer from the information available. Below is an example with the Disney character Rapunzel from the movie Tangled. I used the methods from above to infer about Rapunzel's personality and overall character.

The task is to identify the characters personality and role using shape and colour alone. In this case, I was tasked with breaking down Disney's Rapunzel.

The 1st thing that comes to mind is her innocence. The baby face, round huge eyes and her young appearance suggest child like innocence, someone who is inexperienced in the world. Her character shape is made with circles overall. The head is the main feature, with the hair as the differentiating feature. Circular shape have connotations of safe, friendly characters. This was a deliberate choice on Disney's part to help market their princesses.

Colour wise her main colour scheme is purple and a golden yellow. Yellow is a very warm colour, which emphasises the warmth of her character, showing the audience she's a good person. However her purple dress adds a more mysterious element. Purple is a much colder colour and represents her unknown allegiances. It gives more depth to the character and gives a hint to the audience that there is more to her than just a warm smile. This contrast of colour implies a conflict within the character. Either there are 2 opposites sides of her in conflict or maybe she's fighting a side imposed on her. There are many ways to read the conflict and all symbolism is subjective, we can only establish a common theme/trait. When breaking down a character like this, 2 people can get completely different answers, with no clear correct one.

Heroes and villians Wiki, 2020. Rapunzel. [Online]
Available at: https://heroes-and-villians.fandom.com/wiki/Rapunzel
[Accessed 4 November 2020].

Western Market Research (UK/US)

Since my character needs to be a 15 year old female, I had a look at females in the western media, specifically Disney princess Snow White. Disney princesses are regarded as the pinacol of beauty in many eyes in the west. They also have greatly exaggerated body proportions. These were studied and compared with other princesses, a trend emerged.

They have small waists and a huge head in comparison. They have big eyes to invoke cuteness, like a kitten. This creates a "baby-face" effect which makes the audience want to subconsciously care for them, a trick used by many designers. High eyebrows, small noses and defined lips are other attributes. Many have long hair (a trait with many feminine associations) and much makeup to create a perfectly smooth face and enhance the lips. Eyelashes are much more defined. The main physique is very slim and skinny, with a small chin.

These are many desired features (personal tastes) of women in western culture, although very unrealistic. I plan to incorporate aspects of what was mentioned above in my own character. However If I use too many my character will look too innocent or too soft. I need enough to emphasise the feminine appearance (or enough to show they are female) without making them too much like a Disney princess. These attributes will help my character preform in western markets, however I must consider their personality. The brief described them as confident and rebellious. So giving them the features that invoke protection isn't a good idea. I can use the long eyelashes and slender hips to emphasise the female characteristics, although not to the extent of these particular example.

So, to test how important these features are in western culture, I altered her appearance and removed these exaggerated features. This was to see how these people will look in more realistic proportions.

Snow White

Image Altering

Aim

This experiment is to test what happens when you remove all the desired traits stated above. This will tell me how heavily I need to rely on this criteria when designing my own character. If the effect of normalising her proportions has too much of a negative effect, then I will need to use more of these desired characteristics.

Method

When importing the image, make sure its in RGB format, this can be fixed by going image, mode, RGB. First use the magic brush tool to select and delete the background. Then get the lasso tool to cut out the head and arms (command x to cut then command shift v to paste onto a new layer). After go filter then liquify (a new tool). This will allow you to drag features and alter the general shape. In this case I used it to widen the hips and shorten the dress (as well as shrink the middle areas by a small amount). This can be seen in the below dress image. After we used a new tool called the 'clone stamp tool' (under brush). Select your colour with alt then draw over your selected area (in this case the eyelashes), it will go over your selected pixels in this colour. The key bit about this tool is as you move your brush, the selected pixel will move with it, giving you a more diverse range of colours when editing. I used this to remove the eyelashes, adjust the lips and increase the nose size.

Positives and Negatives

Positively my attempt on making the image with more realistic proportions was a success. The hips and head are now in proportion. The eyes are more closely resembling normal eyes of most people. The skin is now much more uneven, as the smoothness of previous was far too unnatural.

In doing the method above, It resulted in the image below. This is my second attempt at image manipulation so it was still tricky to pull off, with many frustrating moments. If not careful ,the eyes will appear swollen and important features will be distorted incorrectly. It resulted in the women becoming uglier, due to making here realistic. This made the image very unsettling, especially when comparing it to the original.

This experiment taught me a lot regarding character design. Realism doesn't always mean improvement. Proportions will be exaggerated to a certain degree to appeal to western audiences. However if this goes too far, then my character will be too far removed from my brief. They must appear human. Also, due to her being 15, I must over sexualise any particular areas.

UK CHARACTER RESEARCH

6/11/2020

There are many stereotypes in western media. These need to be identified to avoid these traps in creating my own character. In this study, I will be looking at the stereotypes of white, black, asian, male and female characters. Furthermore, I will explore relevant areas such as fanservice, neo-liberalism, cultivation theory and regional stereotypes. This will then be tapped off with censorship in the British media, ratification and what is required to work in the UK.

Stereotypes in Western Culture

In the general media of the west, certain traits can be assumed about a character based off certain key features of their appearance. Although this is not true in all cases, many characters who have the same race and sex tend to have very similar personality traits. For example white men in media are portrayed as stoic, tough, strong and very grumpy. The classic brooding type with strict morals. Although you have the flip side where they are portrayed as 'barely educated', 'redneck sub-population'. Examples of the strong, no nonsense white man include the terminator (judgement day specifically), cloud and solid snake. All great characters in their own right but share similar characteristics. All 3 are physically strong, grumpy (brooding) with strong morals. Examples of the dangerous, out of control white man (the 'barely educated redneck') include characters from the TV series Buckwild, Duck Dynasty and My Big Fat American Gypsy Wedding. All are shown to be incompetent, dangerous with backwards views of the world.

In most cases, there are to main stereotypes regarding the appearance of characters (in race and sex). There will always be an exception or a 3rd less stereotype, I am just documenting the common patterns in western media. Many black men in media are seen as either huge tanks of men (such as Barret from final fantasy 7 and Blade [ played by Wesley Snipes]) or are portrayed as untrustworthy and almost always a criminal of sorts. An example of this is Lando from Starwars, one of the few black characters in Starwars - who ends up double crossing the heroes. Franklin from GTA5 is introduced as a petty criminal who done many thefts and much bigger operations as the story progressed. Speaking of starwars earlier, another black character (Finn) was also mistreated. He had a decent arc in the force awakens, learning to stop running and stand up for what is right. However after this (in the 8th and 9th movie), he spends his entire time following and getting relegated by Rey. His entire role gets reduced down to comic relief. He got demoted to spending his entire time searching for a white women.

That brings me to my next noticed pattern in western media, this time in the personalities of women. For starters, many are oversexualised, such as Carrie Fisher in Starwars, a new hope and Cammy from street fighter. A common stereotype of white women in particular is the idea that they are beautiful, self-absorbed and shallow. Many are not presented as independent and almost take a backseat to a male lead. An example of this is Mikaela (Megan Fox) in transformers and transformers, revenge of the fallen. She was a support for Sam for the majority of the move and was extremely sexualised within the film.

However, in recent times especially, a new stereotype of women has emerged. To combat the old stereotypes, the media unintentionally created 'Mary Sue' characters. This is when a female is presented as near invincible, resourceful, all knowing, extremely talented with no weaknesses or flaws and are almost worshiped by everyone around her. They tend to be very shallow, one note characters with no flaws to overcome and are always shown to be morally superior. An example of this is Rey in Starwars and Captain Marvel in Captain Marvel. Both are extremely strong, independent and are shown to be worshiped and praised by everyone around them. However, this leads to a very bland and predictable character, with little change to the status quo.

Black women are presented to be extremely bossy in western media. Act like they know everything, they know best and are extremely brash and sharp tonged. An example of this would be Denise Clinton from GTA5, Franklins Aunt. GTA5 in particular has many example of stereotypes. To the chaotic mess of a white man Trevor, to the representation of black characters (mostly criminals in this game) to the sexualisation of women.

Every culture has a stereotype, these are the associations judged against a person based of their appearance, sex and race only. Approximations are made on their personality, interests and actions before they've even met them.

As well as sex and colour, many regional traits have sterotypes of their own. People who are asian in media are portrayed as menacing villains 'or as laughable caricatures such as Mr. Yunioshi' from breakfast at Tiffany's. That was from the 60s to 2000s. Now days asian characters are normally perceived as smart and extremely ruthless in method. Many female asian characters tend to appear on the younger side. Even asian characters have been swapped out with non-asian characters in many cases (known as 'yellow-face'). This is a case when Scarlett Johansson starred in Ghost in the Shell and when 'Tilda Swinton played an originally Asian character in Doctor Strange', known as the ancient one.

In the majority of cases, two extremes are present when dissecting common stereotypes in each example. An original and a counter to the original. However both sides are very extreme and unbalanced. Too much of either side leads to a bad character with negative influences on the audience. It could create an expectation for how similar people outside these examples also act, which lead to assumptions about others before they can even introduce themselves.

These are all stereotypes I need to be aware of when designing my character. Any one of these traits listed above could have a negative impact on their represented audience if done wrong. Also the links under the selected images also acted as another point of research when writing this up.

7/11/2020

References to the text on the left.

Box, F., 2020. Eyes On Mikaela Scene | Transformers (2007) Movie Clip 4K. [Online]
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4Z9mtmIocY
[Accessed 6 November 2020].

Bozdech, B., 2019. Watch Out! Classic Movies with Racial Stereotypes. [Online]
Available at: https://www.commonsensemedia.org/blog/watch-out-classic-movies-with-racial-stereotypes
[Accessed 6 November 2020].

Conley, T. D., 2013. Beautiful, self-absorbed, and shallow: people of color. [Online]
Available at: https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/96379/jasp980.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
[Accessed 6 November 2020].

Connor, J. O., 2015. Street Fighter 5’s Cammy design seems to have changed. [Online]
Available at: https://www.vg247.com/2015/09/02/street-fighter-5s-cammy-design-seems-to-have-changed/
[Accessed 6 November 2020].

Deggans, E., 2013. On 'Hicksploitation' And Other White Stereotypes Seen On TV. [Online]
Available at: https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2013/05/10/178791792/on-hicksploitation-and-other-white-stereotypes-seen-on-tv?t=1604692323841
[Accessed 6 Novemver 2020].

Fandom, n.d. Franklin Clinton. [Online]
Available at: https://gta.fandom.com/wiki/Franklin_Clinton#Option_C
[Accessed 6 November 2020].

III, S. F., 2013. The Media’s Stereotypical Portrayals of Race. [Online]
Available at: https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/race/news/2013/03/05/55599/the-medias-stereotypical-portrayals-of-race/
[Accessed 6 November 2020].

Schacht, K., 2019. What Hollywood movies do to perpetuate racial stereotypes. [Online]
Available at: https://www.dw.com/en/hollywood-movies-stereotypes-prejudice-data-analysis/a-47561660
[Accessed 6 November 2020].

Wikipedia, 2020. Stereotypes of white Americans. [Online]
Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereotypes_of_white_Americans
[Accessed 6 November 2020].

Above are the websites I used to research this topic on stereotypes in the media. I had knowledge from other sources such as my tutor at college as well as these websites. There are many articles, YouTube videos, character profiles and Wikipedia. A great mix of secondary research.

john-boyega-finn-star-wars-the-rise-of-s

Warner, S., 2020. Star Wars' John Boyega criticises Finn being "pushed to the side" in sequel trilogy. [Online]
Available at: https://www.digitalspy.com/movies/a33881147/star-wars-john-boyega-finn-disney-criticism/
[Accessed 7 November 2020].

Wikipedia, 2020. Rey (Star Wars). [Online]
Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rey_(Star_Wars)#General
[Accessed 7 November 2020].

Box, F., 2020. Eyes On Mikaela Scene | Transformers (2007) Movie Clip 4K. [Online]Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4Z9mtmIocY[Accessed 7 November 2020].

Wikipedia, 2020. Lando Calrissian. [Online]
Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lando_Calrissian
[Accessed 7 November 2020].

The definitions below are areas I also need to take into account when designing my character. Too much fan service could leave a creator fresh out of ideas, constantly relying on old work. And due to targeting our character to western audiences (specifically the UK) we need to be aware of certain regional stereotypes, for example the posh brit stereotype.

Fanservice

This is when material is added to specifically please the viewer. This could be in call backs to previous material, returning characters, crossovers or even sexual scenes that add nothing to the overall plot or story. Many associate this to sexual scenes in anime on the internet, although fanservice can appear in many forms. Although relying too much on fanservice alone could lead to a lack of new ideas or engaging story. However it isn't always bad. Showing a bit of fanservice can let the audience know they the company is listening to what they want. However only showing the old stuff means your chances of getting new people on board are very low.

Neo-liberalism

A term for the political and economic policies associated with unrestrained, free market, global capitalism. It main purpose is to lower trade barriers, reduce state influence and deregulate capital markets. Now all of this is in a economic view.

If we take this definition and compare it to stereotypes in media, I'm assuming it would mean to not believe what people tell you to believe. When people are advertising that this person is like this way (with only stereotypes to support their argument) then don't believe them. To break down their associations and allow it to not influence your judgement. This would mean to abolish all current stereotypes in favour of a wider selection of personality traits. Many areas of the media have tried reversing stereotypes but end up going to extreme in the other direction - for example female characters. They went from side-lined oversexualised characters that only exist for the main protagonist to invincible 'Mary Sues' that are basically worshiped by everyone around them. There must be a balance between these two agendas.

HarvardX, 2018. Pros and cons of neoliberalism. [Online]
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t41rFqVpB1I
[Accessed 7 November 2020].

Iyashikei, 2017. Why Fanservice is Important. [Online]
Available at: https://medium.com/@Iyashikei/why-fanservice-is-important-a8a9234edc39
[Accessed 7 November 2020].

Wikipedia, 2020. Cultivation theory. [Online]
Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultivation_theory
[Accessed 7 November 2020].

wikipedia, 2020. Fan service. [Online]
Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_service
[Accessed 7 November 2020].

Wikipedia, 2020. Neoliberalism. [Online]
Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoliberalism#:~:text=Neoliberalism%20is%20contemporarily%20used%20to,especially%20through%20privatization%20and%20austerity.
[Accessed 7 November 2020].

wordnik, n.d. fanservice. [Online]
Available at: https://www.wordnik.com/words/fanservice
[Accessed 7 November 2020].

Cultivation theory

This theory examines the long-term effects of TV and how it influences their social realities. The more time they spend on the TV, the more likely they are to believe the social reality the TV presents. This theory encompasses many medias as well as TV; 'This can apply anytime social observation occurs in any form outside a natural environment'.

UK Stereotypes

As well as western stereotypes of certain character traits in the media, there are also regional specific stereotypes. For example the UK has stereotypes specifically for itself. A major stereotype of British people is that they are very posh, like tea and crumpets, stuck up and only talk to those with the same social status. On the other hand, you have the complete opposite stereotype of the 'Chav'. This is a very loud person with a much poorer accent in comparison to the posh talk of before. They are genuinely up for anything and are very stupid individuals - more associated with the south of England. Then you have the 'bromey'. This is for the north of England in particular. The average bromey works a 9 to 5 job and most likely be thrown in prison. Any money earnt is spent on bear and drugs. It originated for Birmingham but other northern cities like Liverpool and Manchester were roped into this stereotype as well.

Although most of these stereotype would actually represent a very small number of people, the whole associated area is caught in this as well, leading to incorrect assumptions about people based off their specific area within England.

It not just England, there are also stereotypes in Scotland and Ireland. A Scottish man has the stereotype of wearing a kilt with nothing underneath, carrying a bagpipe and being generally angry all the time. For example, ground keeper willie from the Simpsons is a walking Scottish stereotype of this.

Irish people have the stereotype of being potato farmers, ginger and only drink Guinness. Another british stereotype is the roadman, who only listens to grime and drill, lots of drugs, guns and is always unemployed.

these were all the stereotypes I learnt about in lesson at college. As silly as some of these are, it would be stupid to ignore them. If my character fell into one of these categories it could damage the image of those they represent. So these need to be either avoided or adapted to not be offensive.

Simpsons, S., 2020. Ultimate Groundskeeper Willie Compilation. [Online]
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUF9XJamAK0
[Accessed 7 November 2020].

Censorship of British Media

The UK has few censorships in comparison to some other countries that will be studied below. Although there are regulations in place for media so they can gauge it for the audience. An example of this will be age restrictions. There are certain factors that would deem a movie inacceptable for some audiences so each film gets tested for these traits. You wouldn't want to show a sex scene to a 12yr old.

Two sites recommended for me to research was the BBFC and the OFCOM, the BBFC was especially useful. On it is showed me the broadcast regulations for any material going through testing for the media. Depending on its contents depends on what audiences can and cant see it. Below are screenshots from their official site about what content is available in each category.

bbfc, n.d. How age ratings can help. [Online]
Available at: https://indd.adobe.com/view/edb6c04a-b984-4cd4-ab93-79ea28ac8298
[Accessed 7 November 2020].

bbfc, n.d. Parents' Guide to Age Ratings. [Online]
Available at: https://www.bbfc.co.uk/
[Accessed 7 November 2020].

Radicalisation

Radicalisation is the idea of fundamental rules and values of a society attempting to be actively changed in big ways. Extremists intend harm on others. They reject all norms and social conventions of the culture. This makes them extremely dangerous and a threat to those who don't share their view.

Many of these acts against convention are labelled as terrorism, preparing for terrorism or concerned with terrorism. 'Sections 1 and 2 of the Terrorism Act 2006 include detailed information about what may be considered encouragement of terrorism, or dissemination of terrorist publications.'

Canterbury Christ Church University, 2016. Government Definitions of extremism, radicalisation and terrorism. [Online]
Available at: https://www.canterbury.ac.uk/university-solicitors-office/docs/government-definitions-of-extremism-radicalisation-and-terrorism.pdf
[Accessed 7 November 2020].

The University of Sheffield, 2020. What is Radicalisation?. [Online]
Available at: https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/sss/safeguarding-overview/prevent/radicalisation
[Accessed 7 November 2020].

These two site linked is where I got all my information from about radicalisation. It goes over their respected definitions as well as contributing factors, those that are vulnerable to it, what kind of material fits under this definition and where it all fits under terrorism.

Working in the UK

There are 4 main items required to work in the UK. A national insurance number, passport, visa and cv. A national insurance number is used for purposes within the tax system.

'You have a National Insurance number to make sure your National Insurance contributions and tax are recorded against your name only.'

https://www.gov.uk/national-insurance/your-national-insurance-number

Passports are internationally accepted identity document used while traveling abroad. A visa is an official approval placed within a passport that allows the holder permission to leave, enter or stay in a country for a specific amount of time. CV is short for Curriculum Vitae, it outlines a person's academic and professional history which is normally used when applying for a jobs.

In the UK workers are entitled to some basic right by law within the workplace. They should be provided healthcare if needed, work in hygienic conditions, receive proper training, have their basic human rights enforced, provided help if needed, receive guaranteed payments, get payed a minimum amount of money each hour, protection from discrimination and whistleblowing and being able to work in a safe environment.

Officially this means they receive the national minimum wage, protection from unlawful deduction from wages, minimum level of paid holiday, the ability to opt out if they so choose and protection from whistle blowing and discrimination according to the government website.

They're are also 3 main categories of workers in the UK and they are...

Employees

These workers are under an employment contract. This means they have the proper job security and a secured income. If nothing happens on shift, they will be paid the same regardless. If the shop explodes in customers and the shift is extremely busy they would still be paid the amount in their contract. The downside is that you are beholden to the employer. He says jump, you say how high...

There are worker that are contracted for a certain service. They would be hired to do a certain job for a certain amount of time. This gives them the flexibility to pick and choose what work they do - basically a 0 hour contract. However, there is a huge issue of job security. The moment your contract runs out, there is no obligation to keep you on.

Self Employed

Self Employed workers are the head of their own company, free-lancers or contractors. They set their own limits and hold the option to negotiate the creative process. They can decide how many hours to work or what to take on. They have much more freedom than an employee. However, due to this, they are stuck in a 'gig economy'. They would be in charge of tax deduction (instead of a department doing it automatically), there would be no safety net to fall back on, no sick pay and you would be completely responsible for any hired workforce under you.

UK CHARACTER

5/11/2020

Character design would of came up in human anatomy during blended learning. Although it taught me anatomy of the bones and muscles, it did not teach me proportions. During lesson, we had a crash course on human proportions, for example we learnt how to base all sizes of the head. Most human adults are 8 heads high on average.

The method is to press view, show, grid

Then edit, preference, guides grids and (....).

Set it to a grid line every 50%, 5 sub divisions

After use the rectangle shape tool and draw over the lines, you can duplicate this to speed up the process (9 lines in total).

This is the basic method introduced to us to create a template for our new character.

The next step was drawing the character itself. This was where we learnt the general size and location of each part of the body. The feet are about half a head tall, the pelvis is 1 head tall and is located about half way up the body. Arms end at about the pelvis and the legs make up half the body.

However, on my 1st attempt at this method, some of my proportions were incorrect. The neck got lost in the shoulders, the hips were far too narrow in comparison to the huge frame and the arms should hung alongside with the body (not way outside it). This was particularly frustrating as it resulted in my man being incredibly ripped. I partially solved this by adding more weight to the shoulders, making the arms naturally closer to the body and thickening the neck.

However the positive to this attempt was that I learnt the rough location and size of each body part, even if some of my attempts went wrong. It taught me essential details of how to start and structure a human and gave me some key details to watch out for. It also showed me that layering and redrawing certain parts is more beneficial than constantly adapting a single layer. This way you don't erase progress and can always go back to a previous attempt if you screw up a future layer.

However it also made me aware that many changes needed to be made to my character drawings; the mistakes mentioned above were key in this.

If I was to do this again, a reference will be essential. With this, I would be able to use an existing copy of a body as a guide to help improve my proportions. It could also bring up key areas I'm not even aware off, like where the best place is to start. This is a method I will definitely attempt in my character design. The template will be a great basis in early drawings. Although I need to do some research into other methods of drawing a human frame.

In this case we started off with the pelvis and then drew the basic skeleton of a shape. It might be more useful to start with another area (for example the head) and work my way backwards.

NadTheFox Interview and Videos - 28/10/2020

This was my 1st attempt at getting my character proportions correct. I focused much more on muscle and the anatomy learnt from the blended learning. This was the stage I was at at the beginning of the interview. Although the arms are ok along with the head, the torso was very wrong. The abdominal muscles are much too long and the legs are far too short. This was my own experimentation at the start of the task.

123, T. R., 2020. 3. NadTheFox Character design Interview FULL. [Online]
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeVFfETaHzs
[Accessed 10 November 2020].

123, T. R., 2020. 1 Dont start with Black Brush (Nad the Fox Interview). [Online]
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kM3zXtMbSPc
[Accessed 10 November 2020].

123, T. R., 2020. 2. Head and it features Tips (EDITED - NadTheFox Interview). [Online]
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbqTSeNyAEE
[Accessed 10 November 2020].

H, C., 2020. Interview between Callum Highfield and NadTheFox on character design and basic human proportions [Interview] (28 October 2020).

"The lines follow the overall shape but not each other"

Basically the lines follow the shape, the shape isn't following the lines. You would use them as a guide rather than to dictate the shape.

It was extremely helpful as I had no idea at the time of this interview. It broke down many areas from a completely different angle. Yes I probably could of just watched a YouTube video but this was much more effective. You could ask questions and they would respond back to any issue you specifically had. It also made me aware of how many people I could ask for advice, or learn something new from on the internet. There are many discord servers just like this one with people with all sorts of knowledge.

Because I didn't know very much about character design I done multiple bits of research over half term (before task 2 officially started). One key area was asking others about character design who had more experience than myself over the internet - specifically discord. I would of spoken to several different animation enthusiasts casually about this area and one day one of them offered to teach me the basics. We both got photoshop up and the guy (who went by the username NadTheFox on Howard Whimshurst Discord Server) gave me a crash course of character design template.

I recorded the whole session (with his permission) as evidence for this very task. I also started editing down his examples and tips into smaller videos, however (due to time constraints) I was only able to do this twice before I had to move on. So I will link the full, unedited, interview as well as the edits. Getting them onto the website was also tricky. I originally uploaded the video itself to Wix, but it wouldn't let me put them on the site. So I the end I worked around this by uploading them to my personal YouTube channel TOXIC RAVEN 123. There are unlisted so only those with this link can view the videos. This is a clear example of me working round an issue to get the job done.

The interview itself went more into the template of the character, rather than the basic bones and muscles. On the right is my attempt at character template at the very start of the task (the start of the interview). There are also references to the uploaded YouTube videos and my own interview.

The 1st thing he mentioned was not to start with a black brush and why. Traditionally, he said they used blue due to old scanning techniques. But the real reason was that when you use black you will want to fill in more detail than necessary (psychologically anyway). This was a tip I took into account when doing my own character design later down the line and was very helpful.

The next bit he went into detail about was the head. He started by introducing me to the vertical and horizontal axis. Any angle on these two vertices will decide the angle of the body - angles can be created in curves. He started off with the head rather than the pelvis. He then talked about specific areas of the head, such as the jawline, back of the head, ear placement...

Throughout the whole interview, he went in depth on tricks and tips on the arms, hands, legs, torso as well as the head. He also went into some key areas on networking. On getting your name out and doing as much as you can. Posting your work on Instagram might not be as beneficial than other types of networking, but it s betting than nothing. And there was a key emphasis on time is money.

Although I was feeling tired towards the end of the session as it was getting late, it was extremely helpful. Many of the points I've overheard or seem mentioned of in college or by others were only reinforced here.

Figure It Out BOOK SERIES - 5/11/2020

These were brought around the same time as the NadTheFox interview. Within the same discord server. Someone recommended these books to me to help me understand the human body. They are by author Christopher Hart (a leading author of art illustration books). Below are some of the pages I used for reference when drawing my character.

These were the main references I used in my attempt 1 of character design. It gave me some ideas on what is a confident body position and a few general proportions. For example, the 3 head rule. This is where the shoulders and head result in the body being 3 heads wide. This can be broken for certain effects. A male leader might be wider than 3 heads and an introvert or female character may be less than 3 heads wide. This gives off the slimmer appearance seen in women compared to the majority of adult males. The average height is 8 heads high. You can get away with 7 heads although less than that makes the character physique dramatically change. Men are normally half a head taller than women. the haft way point of the body is the pelvis (specifically the genitalia area). Open body language is the key to confidence, not hiding the body. Looking up or directly ahead also helps this.

It also gave me some ideas on the head. How to add mass on the back, concave it by the eyes and indent the jaw for the jawline

This research gave me some much needed info into my character shape and proportions, a key areas that was highlighted in the classwork template. These books, along with my character interview NadTheFox were my key inspiration in my first attempt. Although I only scratched the surface of these books. There is a lot more information that I haven't seen yet in these sources. So if I was to use these again in the future, I want to have a much closer look at these books.

Hart, C., 2009. Figure it Out! The Beginner's Guide to Drawing People. Illustrated edition ed. New York: Sixth&Spring.

Hart, C., 2014. Figure It Out! Human Proportions. Illustrated edition ed. New York: Sixth&Spring.

Hart, C., 2016. Figure it Out! Drawing Essential Poses. Illustrated edition ed. New York: Sterling.

Photographs and Experimentation of Shoulders Up

Lastly, I used myself for a point of reference. I would of used interviews, books and photographs as well as my own experimentation to help improve my character shape design in designing my western character.

Although this will help, it is much more limited in its effectiveness. I am a male with a male body shape, the brief said to design a female character. I specifically done this to get the proportions of the head, neck and shoulders correct. My last few attempts screwed this stage up so it was needed to research into this further.

I took 6 photographs of myself, 1 whole body and 5 shoulder ups. I then traced over the top of these photos, getting slowly more detailed with each trance. Finally I compared the traced lines (a simplified version) with the original photographs to see the results.

This definitely made me feel a bit self-conscious, however it was the easiest way to gather photos of the human body shape. For ethical and legal reasons, I would never do this on the brief (a 15yr old rebellious female).

It allowed me to get a 1st hand example of the human body shape. Since my previous attempts were slightly off, I wanted to get used to a correct shape. Small angles mean a lot in character position. There were only small adjustments between photos but the impact of each dramatically changed with each one. A tilted neck implied more confidence in comparison to a more uniform one. A tilted angle up made it look like I was staring into space. A slight tilt down meant made me look deep in thought. It was a direct look in front that gave off the most confidence.

Furthermore, I got an opportunity to practice the creases in clothing, something I would of never done successfully before.

If I was to do this again I would ask a female if I could take some photos and explain why. Someone of 18 or up would be ideal. Even though the brief is 15, a 15 year old cannot give legal informed consent so 18 would be the closest ethical age. This would render my research unethical if I was to do this, making it void in the process.

However, due to me being male, this particular method lacks the same effectiveness as the book and interview method. Although it will definitely contribute to my attempt, it will not be as impactful as other alternatives.

ATTEMPT 1 - 8/11/2020

These are the main internet images I used to help me create attempt 1. They cover broad areas such as confident body position, eyes, hair, legs, female attributes and how many heads tall and what the effect of them are. They were the 1st point of research I used when creating my drawing, with the books as a second point of reference.

Amazon, 2020. Black Red Cropped Hoodies Women Funny Cute Fleece Gothic Graphic Hoody Sweatshirts Jumper Teen Girls Oversized. [Online]
Available at: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cropped-Hoodies-Pullover-Sweatshirts-Oversized/dp/B07K9JCKVC
[Accessed 8 November 2020].

Craft, B., n.d. 15 Amazing Hair Drawing Ideas & Inspiration - Brighter Craft. [Online]
Available at: https://www.pinterest.at/pin/717409415624324783/
[Accessed 8 November 2020].

Fay, E., n.d. How to Draw Fashion Illustration: Fashion Figure 101 - Elena Fay. [Online]
Available at: https://www.pinterest.at/pin/477311260510417305/
[Accessed 8 November 2020].

laredoute, 2020. Pro Sports Leggings, 6-16 Years. [Online]
Available at: https://www.laredoute.co.uk/ppdp/prod-350159989.aspx?dim1=1&dim2=2&mkwid=s4WiUS9C2_dc%7Cpcrid%7C442402193403%7Cpkw%7C%7Cpmt%7C%7Cslid%7C%7Cpgrid%7C104202858938%7Cptaid%7Cpla-935690062712%7Cproductid%7C35015998900010002221820&omniturecode=Google-Shopping-P
[Accessed 8 November 2020].

Larson, D., 2014. STANDARD PROPORTIONS OF THE HUMAN BODY. [Online]
Available at: https://www.makingcomics.com/2014/01/19/standard-proportions-human-body/
[Accessed 8 November 2020].

me-Parmita, B. w., 2019. 8 POWER POSES- BODY LANGUAGE AND CONFIDENCE 2019. [Online]
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ezWaJ6z7pU&app=desktop
[Accessed 8 November 2020].

Pinterest, n.d. BNHA mémek. [Online]
Available at: https://www.pinterest.at/pin/733946070518945992/
[Accessed 8 November 2020].

Pinterest, n.d. Horikoshi Style Guide (Bodies) | Wiki | My Hero Academia Amino. [Online]
Available at: https://www.pinterest.at/pin/773985885953696775/
[Accessed 8 November 2020].

Pinterest, n.d. How to proportion the anime/manga/fashion style female body. -- Drawing tools, inspiration, tutorial. [Online]
Available at: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/425942077235834358/
[Accessed 8 November 2020].

tenfold, 2020. Power Posture: How to Convey Confident Body Language in Sales. [Online]
Available at: https://www.tenfold.com/sales-performance/confident-body-language-in-sales
[Accessed 8 November 2020].

Wattpad, n.d. Como dibujar anime. [Online]
Available at: https://www.pinterest.at/pin/414401603219522739/
[Accessed 8 November 2020].

(Fay, n.d.) (Craft, n.d.) (Pinterest, n.d.) (Pinterest, n.d.) (Wattpad, n.d.) (me-Parmita, 2019) (tenfold, 2020) (Larson, 2014) (Amazon, 2020)

My 1st attempt was looking closely at the shape and basic clothing. I done two attempts overall, so although I'm happy with the result, I could do multiple in my next weeks for a greater development of ideas. I started with the same template technique as last time, however it wasn't precise enough for my liking so I adapted the method. I carried out the same grid and shape idea. However, instead of inserting shapes in there, I drew over the top of the grid with a brush. This got my gridlines much more precise in comparison.

My 1st attempt at drawing the body was extremely rough and suffered from similar problems as my previous attempts. The pelvis was too inflated, the neck barely present and the chest too deformed. However the arm and shoulder issue was fixed, the legs are in proportion and the head is much better. I decided to use this as a basic plan and redraw over the top of this, refining the shape and line art as I went. The 2nd layer of head and shoulders are next to my 1st layer above this text.

However, I did notice the position was far too static. It was almost standing to attention, rather than the intended rebellious nature. So I scrapped the above and created the screenshot on the right. I planned the posture using a basic skeleton and re-drew the head and neck (to fix the neck issue). This was a great relief as I'm finally learning from my previous mistakes.

I double checked the top of the body to make sure it is under 3 heads wide then carried on with the rest of the body.

exper 1.5 - less than 3 heads wide, slen

I found out from my earlier research that an angled neck and shoulders also helps convey confidents and a bit of rebelliousness. So I attempted to angle the right shoulder upwards and the neck diagonal. However I was much too subtle to get the intended effect. I also discovered another issue. The width of the shoulders was the same width of the hips. Considering females have wider hips than shoulder this was a problem.

So, yet again, I redrew the whole figure (image below). The chest in the original image protruded outwards far too much, which I fixed in the redraw. The shape of the arms was re-adjusted and the legs went through some major changes. Originally they were standing upright with a slight bend, almost a mid squat. Now they were crossed over, almost playful, to signify easiness and relaxed. The calf shape had to be adjusted yet again The hips were inhumanly narrow and the thighs were definitely on the bigger side.

I ran into many issues attempting to create the right shape and I solved them as I went along. After I was satisfied with the shape I done one final new layer to refine the lines. Positively, it looked like a women's build. The body proportions were finally correct and the posture was everything I've hoped for. I particularly liked the colour choices. Although very basic due to the progression of the character. I felt like it was better to start fresh than to force this one through development. The reds convey high energy and have much more heated emotions compared to a cooler colour. Part of the brief was to make her rebellious and independent, so a much fiery angry colour will help emphasise this. This was my feeling at the time anyway. Looking back on this, I wished I developed the colour more to see what the full result would of looked like. However the frame isn't perfect. The hips are still incredibly narrow, height too big, shoulders still very broad for a women and tits an unnatural shape. Even know I have done many adjustments (not all screenshots are here) there are still many possible ways to improve this.

Another issue I had with creating this was that I spent too much time on getting the body right. What I didn't realise at the time was that most of it will be covered up with clothing, meaning all that work I did will be covered up. This is a classic example of doing too much details far too early. So time management was a major weakness, although it did teach me a lot. To try and keep the main shape I adapted the clothing. But this resulted in the hoodie being skin tight. The creases lined up too much with the muscle lines, ending up looking like muscle bulging through the hoodie. Hoodies are meant to be baggy, not skin tight.

If I was to do this again I would need much more research into clothing, as I went for stereotypical teenage clothes with very little research to back this up. Many of my research was focusing on body shape and proportions. I need to do more on clothing, style and other features of women. I also want to follow through with the design itself. I feel like I moved on too early and should of spent more time on it to finish off the colour and facial expression. At the very least it would give me an idea for if my methods were working or not. Colour experimentation really got cut short here. When it comes down to it, many of these issues can be solved with a better management of time. I spent too long on 1 area which resulted in the other parts of the character being neglected. I must solve this going ahead.

This was my 1st attempt at designing a character for the brief. And although there were many improvements, it is clear I still have a long way to go. More research must be done on clothing especially and I cant focus this much on shape alone. It is the colour, expression, clothes, setting and overall personality (as well as shape) that will bring my design together. Focusing on 1 element alone will result in the mistake above. I also need to get some feedback on this design, especially from other females. They will know much more information than me on body type and how certain areas work.

FEEDBACK - 9/11/2020

It was at this point when I had a lesson the next day. I wasn't able to finish it in a single day so I asked feedback from those in the class the following day. In the very bottom screenshot I went over many of the criticisms about the unfinished work.

On social media, I asked the other college students about the hips. I attempted to correct this by making them wider. But when I asked, they actually preferred the thinner one (maybe due to the Disney princess effect).

However, when I took this into school, my eyes were opened to how many flaws were present. Although, I cant remember who said what (hence the lack of reference here), it made me realise how much left I had to do.

Internet Images Part 2

I spent the majority of my previous research on the body shape of women. This time I wanted to find the average body shape, the various types of shape and certain women fashion. Clothing was a greatly underdeveloped area in my previous research. Last time certain features (like the hips) were too exaggerated, especially due to it being 15.

FASHION FEEDBACK

I also done a vote on 6 different fashion choices. I relied too much on secondary sources last time. Now I started looking for opinions of those in that particular situation (teenage women), the easiest way to get feedback was my college mates. It was a split between 4 and 11. 4 Had a very confident stance while 11 had extremely bright colours in comparison to the rest. My new plan was to use the posture of 4 with the bright clothing of 11. I used social media as my tool as it was the quickest way to gather data. Specifically Instagram and Discord.

Although unfinished, I consider this a complete character attempt. It taught me a lot and told me the next major areas I need to improve on. I felt like to get the best result, it would benefit me to start from scratch.

Help Your Teen Now, 2016. There is No Such Thing as an “Average” Body Type. [Online]
Available at: https://helpyourteennow.com/there-is-no-average-body-type/
[Accessed 9 November 2020].

CARROLL, H., 2011. We're all 11 stone: That's the average weight of a British woman, but as these five show it comes in many shapes. [Online]
Available at: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2071870/The-average-weight-British-woman-comes-shapes.html
[Accessed 9 November 2020].

FOSTER, J., 2016. What do these women's bodies have in common? They are all Mrs Average - but feel VERY differently about looking in the mirror. [Online]
Available at: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3473789/What-women-s-bodies-common-11st-weight-Mrs-Average-feel-differently-it.html
[Accessed 9 November 2020].

google, 2020. uk average female body weight teenager. [Online]
Available at: https://www.google.com/search?q=uk+average+female+body+weight+teenager&rlz=1C1CHBF_en-GBGB879GB879&oq=uk+average+female+body+weight+teenager&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i64.8309j0j15&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
[Accessed 9 November 2020].

Wang, A., 2020. 15 Best Teen Clothing Stores to Shop Online, Now That You Can't Go to the Mall. [Online]
Available at: https://www.seventeen.com/fashion/trends/g31932109/best-teen-stores/
[Accessed 9 November 2020].

1 ON 1 INTERVIEWS - 10/11/2020

This was the first and only time I would of had the chance to do this. I had the opportunity to ask people who were very similar to my character brief (15 year old western female). They gave me examples of what females of this (or around this) age actually wore, giving me first hand knowledge in fashion for my design. I quickly learnt that every person had a very different style. There were very few patterns between them. What one would wear, the other would never wear.

ATTEMPT 2 - Western Character Design - 11/11/2020

This is a comparison between attempt 1 and attempt 2 of design a western character. Below I will go through the method and process of creating attempt 2, as well as evaluating key areas to improve/modify it. Previously, I spent far too much time on the body and didn't realise most of it will be covered up anyway. I done too much detail too early. This time I used a photograph on the internet as a direct reference for the new body position. The 1st position was made through a collection of different sources and ended up becoming too exaggerated in certain areas (hips, boobs, arm muscles, thighs...).

This particular image was voted on out of 6 possible images for the most confident female. This one was a clear winner out of my feedback answers. So the plan was to mimic this body position for my own character as close as possible. Last time I started with the pelvis and skeleton and attached muscles onto it. This time (by suggestion from one of my college mates) I started with the overall basic shape.

I actually traced over the reference image to begin with to practice the right shape. This is the basic shape on the right in the right screenshots. This was only used for practice and wasn't used any further. The rough body on the left in the right image was my freehand attempt. I found that drawing the body in shapes before applying the line art is much more helpful than going in blind. I used rectangles to construct the body to get that tough, sturdy effect form using squares.

I did use black this time, against the advice of my interview with NadTheFox, although I'm used to it so it helped on a small level. The shoulders needed to me changed multiple times due to them slowly getting too big again. Although I learnt my lesson from attempt 1. The basic line art started with the clothing than just the body shape alone. So the jeans were drawn in instead of the legs alone. What I planned with the top half meant I could just focus on body shape. This was a much greater advantage compared to last time as I was now aware of her main proportions with clothes (which make the character naturally bigger). This was a huge relief to avoid these pot holes, rather than making the same mistakes all over again.

This was the same techniques I used in the previous attempt. A hard brush for the outline (although I made it much thinner now) and various transform tools such as lasso, free transform and the rectangular selection tool. These are all very basic, essential techniques and were important for any necessary readjustments.

Positively the line art is much smaller and smoother in comparison to attempt 1 with much more realistic proportions. However she still looks as built as an ox. Although the body proportions are much more human, they are still incredibly built - especially for a stereotypical women. Although I do want to avoid stereotypes so this wasn't an issue. It just makes here look like she got out of prison, which works in my favour for conveying rebellious.

This was a far as the skills I got to when completing attempt 1. A major issue of my previous attempt was the lack of clothing research. So I went to many sites and asked many females over Instagram to learn women's fashion. The websites were for specific body shape and some possible ideas of clothing. The interview were the most help. I got first hand knowledge from female teenagers regarding fashion choice. As expected, I got a slew of choices. Many were complete opposites of each other, with baggie and tight clothing choices. A crop top was mentioned multiple occasions so I included it in character design. Limited makeup was also mentioned several times so I knew not to go overboard. Also a stereotype of a teenage British chav is using a stupid amount of makeup - so it was another stereotype avoided.

In the end I learnt that no two fashion choices were the same and women all like very specific (individual) styles. So I took a bit of all advice and created my own style. I choose a bright crop top (as bright colours were a main factor showing confidents) and some baggy jeans. Due to the tough, no-nonsense nature of the character a regular pair of trainers fitted the outfit well. Practicality over looks.

Above I went through my reason for these clothing and where I got it from. Now its time to talk about colour choice. The original crop top was bright orange, this would of clashed far too badly with the blue jeans. I wanted to create a different identity to the image I got the posture from. So the buffness played to my favour. The top was created with 3 layers of colour. I looked at the light and dark areas of the original and replicated it with many small strokes to give it texture. A base blue was used underneath to brighten it up and extra shadows were added on top to moderate this. Many of the base colours were made with soft custom brushes and harder brushes were used for texture and lighting. Many females from my feedback preferred a baggie item matched with tighter clothing item. Weather it was baggie bottoms and tight top or the other way round is personal preference.

My original attempt used red for a more powerful, angry look. However I went down this route in my task 1 and wanted to try something else. To make the character more approachable and to add more depth than just being a hulking convict, I went with a blue colour scheme. I explained the top above and paired it with some dirty, baggy jeans. A headband, an association for hard work and physical fitness, was also added. To remain true to the colour pallet without going overboard, I went with bright white hair. The hair had many layers built up upon each other with pure white and light grey added to show direction.

Dyed hair was another sign of a confident person. It tells the audience that they wont hide and want to be seen. I used a mixture of brush sizes and hardness to create the random nature of hair strands.

Below I show evidence of improvement on the face and skin especially. I added eyelashes to the eyes because of their associations with females (found out about in the Disney princess experimentation). I attempted to make the lips bigger to exaggerate the feminine side, however this just made the character look silly instead of confident. So after colouring it in, I heavily reduced the lip size. The skin base layer was adjusted to show where the light would hit. Areas that shield the face slightly (like the nose) were shown in darker colours. A smooth face was also associated with beauty in the west (Disney Princess experimentation).

The eyes were blue to match the main colour pallet. In the end I went over the pupal to keep the sizing correct. In a real eye, the colouring wraps around the pupal so it made sense to overlap it. The skin was very basic. Although I don't think the screenshot show the changes very well, there were many tweaks in Photoshop. I need to looking into export settings and use that instead of just regular screenshots. The jeans also got some more work. in my previous attempt, getting clothing creases were challenging, but with a reference it was much easier to carry out. The trick was to use lighting (light and dark tones) to show the crease lines rather than just line art alone.

Any colour that escaped the confines of the line art was quickly erased with a soft erasure to avoid rough edges.

Now that the main character is complete, I wanted to do some finishing touches and frame it in a pleasing background. Although the brief was just to create a character, you can make it much more aesthetically pleasing with a decent background. It can imply other traits of your characters personality.

Besides to some minor colour changes to the jeans and extra hair highlights, I focused more on the background. I framed the character in the centre of the canvas to immediately draw the eye and removed any rouge line from the image. Small adjustments were made to the height to match the template.

I originally tired a white glow behind the character. However, this made her too angle like and implies too much positive emotion for my liking. I didn't want to make her too soft, my target was to leave some grit and bad attitude. So I framed her in darkness and made it go lighter the further away you got from the character. This gave the jeans and overall colour an much more darker look, with lighter areas standing out even more than before. It didn't tone down any rough edges (unlike the white).

However, it still felt like she was floating in mid air. So I redone the background for a 3rd time. At the horizon line it actually gets much brighter, found this out in my beach photographs. So I done a curved line that runs down the centre of the art work and blended both sides back to the previous darkness. This at least implies some sort of solid ground beneath her feat. Although this can be majorly improved by adding something more solid or giving more details to define the landmass. Also it may blend too quickly from lightest to darkest colour, so a zoom out could solve this. I also fixed her jeans again as the background took a chunk out her leg.

This artwork is a huge step up from my previous attempt at character design in most, if not all ways. The line art is much finer, the colour choice more deliberate and the body proportion more human. Much more research was used to back this up from previous experimentation, interviews, internet images, YouTube videos and photographs (to a lesser extent).

Task 1 was lacking in research in my opinion, especially when applying it. The aim for this task is to use a much wider range and greater quantity of sources of research. Then apply it to the character designs. Feedback will be an essential method in improvement, as proven last time in my environmental concept arts. if I was to do this again, I would make the character slimmer to emphasise their female characteristic (but not as much as attempt 1) and make shadows within the character design stand out more. An issue was many of the improvements were minor or not picked up very well in screenshots. This must be fixed going ahead.

As for my next plans, I'm going to use similar research techniques when it comes to my North Korea Anime Character. Colour choice will remain as similar as possible, skin colour and overall personality will remain the same given regulations. The art style will be completely different due to the brand new market and Japanese influence. However, as I is not my home market, I'm going to have to study general norms, cultural differences as well as legal.

NORTH KOREA RESEARCH

12/11/2020

The task given to me is to adapt my western character into an anime character, while following the rules and regulations of North Korea. This means I need extensive research into North Korean regulations, laws, culture and their overall system in order to appeal to their audience. It also means I will have to research many anime techniques, cultural influences and known tropes.

North Korea - Political structure

Officially, North Korea (or the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)) is a socialist state. This means North Korea leans towards communist ideals, although that doesn't necessarily make them a communist country. They do hold elections, however there is only 1 candidate. Anyone over 17 can (and must) vote. Although I heard from one source that other parties are payed to run alongside and loose. Thus, by definition, makes North Korea a totalitarian country. Wikipedia described them as a 'totalitarian Stalinist dictatorship'. This means that although the country works on socialist beliefs, in reality it is a dictatorship. Totalitarianism is the idea for a government to ban political opposition, including opposing parties. The Workers Party of Korea (WPK) hold complete power over the country.

Unlike a capitalist country (where everyone works for wealth and individual gain), a socialist ideal means everything is made and produced for the good of the country. Wikipedia says that 'The means of production are owned by the state... Most services—such as healthcare, education, housing and food production—are subsidized or state-funded.' This means that no individual owns any of the core areas. The state owns their healthcare, house, education... Residents of North Korea are not even allowed to choose their career. It is decided by the government for the needs for the country. Failure to comply to any one of these rules usually results in forced labour at a concentration camp. The government will always try to work you first before any death occurs. If you commit suicide, then 3 generations of your family below you are punished.

Being a socialist country means that everything is owned buy the state. Houses are assigned, rather than brought. Your future career is decided for you by the government. So where you live and work is out of your control. Cars are too expensive to afford (like houses). A Volkswagen Golf costs around £40,000. You cannot legally buy a house in North Korea, it is given to you and owned by the government. Although they can be sold off on the black market by high rank military (such as generals), a house (on average costs £40,000-£50,000. No hot water is allowed in these houses, bathhouses only.

The average pay for a north Korean citizen is £3.50 per month.

Much of this information was learnt in class lessons, as well as online sources linked to the right.

They are also known for having high control over the peoples public and private life. From simple clothing choices to restriction to movements around the country to the media they consume, Korean government controls it all. Korea does have internet, although heavily restricted - more of an interact. There were about 1000-5500 sites, international website are banned and only high ranking officials can use this in the 1st place.

There are only 5 TV channels and they have to follow strict regulations. themes of war and violence are ingrained in the young at an early age through children's cartoons. Squirrel and Hedgehog is a classic example of this. There was a key emphasis on military power. The solders were super humanly strong on both sides. Most if not all males were depicted as strongly built, violent and gun hoe. Females in this show detested violence and have very generic traits of damsel in distress. The Korean representation is shown as unflinching and unyielding while American representation is shown as savage. Key Korean beliefs are ingrained in such a young age.

If you visit north Korea, no photos can be taken. You can talk to locals, although they are most likely to run as they would be put under much suspicion.

It is against the law to wear blue trousers in North Korea. There is a set list of haircuts allowed. 18 for men and 10 for women. Kim Jong Un is allowed a haircut outside these regulations.

Wikipedia, 2020. North Korea. [Online]
Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Korea
[Accessed 12 Noveber 2020].

Wikipedia, 2020. Socialist state. [Online]
Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialist_state
[Accessed 12 November 2020].

Wikipedia, 2020. Totalitarianism. [Online]
Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Totalitarianism
[Accessed 12 November 2020].

"Korea, North". Britannica Book of the Year 2014. London: Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc. 2014. p. 642. ISBN 978-1-62513-171-3.

BhabieMei, 2020. How to draw a basic anime girl!. [Online]
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIUS8Z1MRN8
[Accessed 11 November 2020].

Jeffery, Y., 2017. DICTATOR-SNIP North Korea’s barmy list of 15 state-approved hairstyles for men and women. [Online]
Available at: https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/3350823/north-koreas-barmy-list-of-15-state-approved-hairstyles-for-men-and-women/
[Accessed 11 November 2020].

Verse, F., 2016. 12 Crazy Laws That Only Exist In North Korea. [Online]
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHzhfg5TiSQ
[Accessed 11 November 2020].

On Wikipedia they say that 'Communism is a philosophical, social, political, economic ideology and movement whose ultimate goal is the establishment of a communist society, namely a social economic order structured upon the ideas of common ownership of the means of production and the absence of social classes, money and the state.'

This means that everyone owns equal amount and all essential needs are distributed by the government. No one owns any singular item or valuable recourse. It is all divided between the people through the state.

Tucci, S., 2020. The baffling life lessons of North Korea’s propaganda cartoons. [Online]
Available at: https://www.dailydot.com/upstream/squirrel-and-hedgehog-north-korea-youtube/
[Accessed 12 November 2020].

squirrrel and hedgehog hello_young_comra

North Korean Schools - 13/11/2020

Schools play an important part in teaching the next generation about the culture and beliefs of society. North Koreas, as you can imagine, is incredibly strict. High school Students attend for 16 hours a day. Many attend private schools and have maths and English skills highly reinforced. Most focus is on exam prep, drilling skills and textbooks into them. They have to go to school Monday to Saturday, although due to public complaint, 2 of the 4 Saturdays in a month are now taken off. There is an extremely high regard for teachers - teaching students to respect authority from an early age. Teachers are rotated every 5 years between schools.

Corporal Punishment is still widely used in Korea, although it is very hushed over. Some have disaplinery sticks, many employ physical discipline (like making students hold their arms out for a small duration of time). Literature is heavily censored, many story revolve around socialistic ideas. The BorgenProject said that 'students spend 684 hours learning about the current leader Kim Jong-Un, his father Kim Jong-il, his grandfather Kim Il-sung and his grandmother Kim Jong-suk. North Korea states its education system is for “students to acquire the concept of revolution and endless loyalty toward the party and the supreme leader.”' This basically means that at a young age, they are taught the countries beliefs and the drilled in loyalty of the ruling government. This allows for greater control and influences the next generation into the same worship as the current, secured loyalty.

North Korean Art, Literature and Religion - 13/11/2020

Anime Characteristics - 13/11/2020

The goal is to adapt my western character into an anime style, following the rules and regulations of the North Korean Market. This section is to learn about what makes an anime style and how I could adapt it.

Anime is known for its exaggerated physical features. The face is the most distinctive characteristic. The head, hair and facial expression are usually the most exaggerated. The facial expressions, actions and the colours used are all effected by this exaggeration.

Eyes are the most prominent feature. These are normally huge (especially for a female) and possess a few new key elements. Sloped black centres for the purple that is normally got colour on the outside edge. This is all to emphasise the emotions present. The head is also incredibly large in comparison to the normal head size. Other areas such as arms and legs can be drawn at any size, depending on what the animator is going for. My character is naturally very buff and strong, so it may work in my favour to exaggerate these traits.

Wild and unnatural hair is another anime design trope, although this will be impossible to carry out in the north korean rules. Dyed hair, although not illigal, is looked down upon by authorities in North Korea. This could be used to show my character rebellious nature - I just have to be subtle in its application. These features are all exaggerated to depict the personality and emotion at greater detail of the human body. The main goal is to reflect the personality through the design.

Korean Anime Influence - 13/11/2020

Tucci, S., 2020. The baffling life lessons of North Korea's propaganda cartoons. [Online]
Available at: https://www.dailydot.com/upstream/squirrel-and-hedgehog-north-korea-youtube/
[Accessed 12 November 2020].

Wikipedia, 2020. North Korea. [Online]
Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Korea
[Accessed 12 Noveber 2020].

Wikipedia, 2020. Socialist state. [Online]
Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialist_state
[Accessed 12 November 2020].

Wikipedia, 2020. Totalitarianism. [Online]
Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Totalitarianism
[Accessed 12 November 2020].

There are a few cases of Korean folklore and much that has made its way into anime. The Kumiho is one example of these tales. The Kumiho translates to 9 tailed fox. A fox that lives for a 1000 years turns into a Kumiho. It can freely transform into a beautiful women to seduce boys and eat their hearts.

They say it has a great accumulation of energy that gives them the power of shape shifting. It is depicted as a bloodthirstily half-fox, half human creature that wanders graveyards at night.

An example of a character based of this myth in anime is Nature from Naruto. He is a human with a demon fox sealed inside him that grants him immense Chakra (energy). It was depicted a a blood-thirsty force of evil until shippuden.

Korean Dress and my Original Dress Idea- 13/11/2020

My original idea was to have my character in a long sleeve tops and black jeans, with a sun hat to round off the design. However on further research this idea is far too western. Many North Korean women would wear a traditional dress, military uniform or almost suit clothing. It is clear that the closest fashion to my own western character would be smart casual of Korean dress. This would be straight cut (loose) black trousers with a blouse. Black is the main colour although white, purple and pink are becoming more popular. Makeup is very minimal, similar to the western character design.

Many women dress is very formal so I will have to re design my top and jeans design previously. Too western and it will invite far too much suspicion. They still need to be a part of society rather than completely rejecting it.

Blue jeans are of western decendence are are associated too much with western culture. That is the reason why it was banned. Pin must be worm by all adults of North Korea which nature either Kim-Jong-il or Kin Il Sung. It is worn over the lapel (the heart) in full view.

CHARACTER ATTEMPT 1

This was my first ever attempt at creating a Korean character. Eventually it was dropped mid production as I realised that the shape needed major changes and the outfit would be deemed illegal under Korean censorship. It was still good practice on how to get the shape and made me aware of certain mistakes not to do again. My western character is facing directly front. So I attempted a 3/4 view with messy results. Character design is still a very weak area of mine (with my first attempts in the transition work and my own experimentation). This task requires me to draw in a new (completely foreign) style compared to my own in an area I struggle at. Every now and then, I use my western character as a comparison to help me guide the body shape and overall proportions.

I started with the head. Since the head dictates the angle of the body it made sense to establish a direction. I start with a basic skeleton to decide where the body parts are placed, this was scrapped due to the overall position. So I used anatomy references to establish a new body position. The plan was to make the head look down with the eyes focusing up, to give the impression of a defiant obedience. Does what she's told with much inner disagreement. I then planned the basic skeleton again and started refining the body parts, more focus was in the muscle locations at this point.

However, I went too detailed for such an early stage. There is no point defining specific muscles when in reality, most of it will be covered with clothes. I found that just focusing on the basic shape made it easier to plan out body direction. The line art got much smoother as the artwork progressed. However, another weakness was the angle itself. Even though the head is 3/4 view, the body was getting more and more front facing again. Eventually I solved this my creating a brand new body. Due to time constraints, I had to move on. I found the body proportions difficult enough without adding the extra 3/4 view so I resumed to front after this attempt.

Very basic photoshop techniques were used here. There was some adjustments of smoothing and brush size but besides that the main focus was on creating a realistic anime body shape. I used the lasso and transform tool to adjust size and position of certain body parts. You can duplicate a layer and erase everything but the intended body part. Then erase that body part on the original layer and line the 2 layers up. This allows you to adjust the body part without affecting the rest of the body. Body anatomy was the main research piece that translated the best here. I done research on specific clothing but found out mid design that these would not work. The particular body anatomy design used has its reference below this write up in the "start of anime research" section of the website.

Positively, a passable human body shape was semi-achieved. Although the body shape had some major anatomy issues, it wasn't a bad 1st attempt. This told me where my skill currently was and what areas needed to be improved by the final design, releasing some pressure from my mind at the time. Hands and feet are still a big issue and will need some more practice. This wasn't anything new to me and is an ongoing issue that needs fixing. The head and face will need the most work. It in the shape of my art style and not of an anime character. A major negative is that the style brief was not met. This character doesn't look anime or Korean, although this could be the result of being dropped too early into de3velopment. If I was to do this particular design again, I would conduct more research in the 3/4 view, as this was the biggest issue at this stage. Overall this was essential practice and was important in establishing where I needed to improve. Much more research into the design itself (rather than just the culture) must be done.

Korean Anime Future Plan- 14/11/2020

My original attempt was to do a completely different pose with as similar western clothing as I could get away with. However this is not effective and would most likely get my character thrown into forced labour.

So here's the new plan. I will keep the exact same pose as my western character to emphasise that it is indeed an adapted version of them. The dress is going to completely change to fit the Korean culture and rules. I want to experiment with 2 styles. A traditional Korean Dress and the smart casual uniform ask design. A white blouse and black trousers.

The face is going to be enlarged and the eyes will appear much bigger. The hips can be depicted narrower to fit the anime style and emphasise the feminine traits. Hair will have to conform to one of the Korean haircuts, although highlights can be added to show some individualism. Make up will still be used very minimalistic.

Eberle, K., 2015. ANIMATION STYLES: WHAT MAKES ANIME UNIQUE. [Online]
Available at: https://showmetheanimation.com/features/animation-styles-what-makes-anime-unique/
[Accessed 13 November 2020].

Giacomo, C., 2017. Decoding Dress in North Korea. [Online]
Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/16/fashion/decoding-dress-in-north-korea.html
[Accessed 13 November 2020].

MyCrazyKimchi, n.d. 10 shocking facts about Korean schools. [Online]
Available at: https://grrrltraveler.com/10-facts-korean-school/
[Accessed 13 November 2020].

Wikipedia, 2020. Kumiho. [Online]
Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kumiho
[Accessed 13 November 2020].

These references is where I got the internet images and much of my information from. Below are example of Korean clothing styles (possible routes to design my character) and the Kumiho, the Korean legend of the 1000 year fox. This was just a taste into their culture and fashion. More must be done before my final character design. references are above for these images.

WORK IN NORTH KOREA

Kickresume blog, n.d. 10 Best Jobs in North Korea. What’s it Like To Work in a Communist Utopia?. [Online]
Available at: https://blog.kickresume.com/2018/01/09/jobs-in-north-korea/
[Accessed 17 November 2020].

There are many jobs in North Korea and they are chosen for you by the government. You could be forced to join the military, be a pr man (spreading the words of the government) or even a farmer.

If I had to do a particular job in North Korean, it will be farming. Farming will occur in the rural areas of North Korea. You will be outside everyday and the majority of your crops will go to the state. Although you do keep a share so you will never go hungry. Food is something that many cannot afford. You only get a wage of $1-2 a month and the average wage is $3.50. Most won't be able to get food so this job means guaranteed survival. many are poor and starving or just have the bare amount to get by. Your main role will be to feed the nation, give your crops to the state, tending to cows and sheep and working on the land. Your crops will contribute to the cereal rations that 16 of 25 million rely on.

You will be an essential working, keeping the main food supply to the country. The main pro is that you will always have food and will likely be in a more rural area. However you will be working in all weather and are expected to deliver high results. Most of your yield is taken away and your rights as an individual will be very restricted.

Although farming means you will be out in all weathers working, it is a lot better than the alternatives. The military is an option. It is one of the most well regarded jobs in North Korea (although I'm not one for the forces myself). However the training is highly demanding. However men have to do 10 years of service when he reaches 18 anyway. If you wanted to be a traffic warden, you need to be under 26, attractive, single and have to go through demanding training.

Music teachers are in high demand, especially the accordion. All teachers had to learn it in the 1990s. Tour guides are another job. You have extreme amounts of responsibility. You will be guiding westerners round the country (as they are not free to explore themselves). You have to show the country in the best possible light. Personally, I'm not a fan of the propaganda so to do a tour guide role or a pr man or even a sculptor is not in my interests.

BHABIEMEI - START OF ANIME RESEARCH - 14/11/2020

How to draw a basic anime girl! - Bhabie

I would never of attempted an "anime style", so not only was I doing people (a personal weakness of mine), I was trying to do it in a brand new style. This video, made by BhabieMei, was my first proper research into how to draw anime. It went over a step by step on how to draw the head. It gave me an idea on how to structure the face (eye placement, nose, mouth...) and how certain features were simplified.

Within the video itself, there were many quick tips and traps to be aware of. Setting the stabiliser to 15 was an example. Although I didn't get onto the final line art in my first attempt it was a technique I used in later designs. The neck is drawn in proportion of the eyes (making a much thinner neck than the average human). The eyes (as expected) were huge for a human face. Very curved and round. Although other aspects of the western research bled through like the thicker eyelashes.

Overall, this was definitely a help in my goal to draw in an anime style. Although much more research needs to be done, 2 videos wont be enough.

how to draw basic anime girl - part 2.pn

BhabieMei, 2020. How to draw a basic anime girl!. [Online]
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIUS8Z1MRN8
[Accessed 12 November 2020].

Hui, M. D., 2020. S. Pyongan Province cracks down on dyed hair and other "improper" behavior. [Online]
Available at: https://www.dailynk.com/english/south-pyongan-province-cracks-down-dyed-hair-other-improper-behavior/
[Accessed 12 November 2020].

Love2DrawManga, 2016. How to Draw Manga: Female Body Proportions. [Online]
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCM2BLfvyBI
[Accessed 12 November 2020].

Pinterest, 2020. [Online]
Available at: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/584482857863263903/
[Accessed 12 November 2020].

REDBUBBLE, n.d. Roman Numerals T-Shirts. [Online]
Available at: https://www.redbubble.com/shop/roman+numerals+t-shirts
[Accessed 12 November 2020].

The Guardian, 2014. North Korea's fashion police. [Online]
Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/24/north-korea-fashion-police
[Accessed 12 November 2020].

The Guardian, 2015. Whispers of dissent in North Korea suggest waning loyalty to Kim Jong-un. [Online]
Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/04/north-korea-kim-jong-un-popularity-waning
[Accessed 12 November 2020].

IMAGES AND EXTRA RESEARCH FOR ATTEMPT 1 -

14/11/2020

The references above are for these images and the anime YouTube video tutorial. These are the sites I used for information and references on my attempt 1. Although this was dropped at an early stage, it was still valuable. Much practice is needed to perfect the body. Many of the images below are for clothing and what is and isn't allowed in North Korea. My original idea was to make her wear a top with roman numerals on it, a sun hat and black jeans. However, after more research, I found out that this is too western of a fashion choice. Although not technique illegal, any clothing that looks too "foreign" will immediately raise red flags. Most of these acts will be stamped out and will likely result in forced labour or a disciplinary. Summer hats re very suspicious in North Korea as well as roman numerals. Combined with the jeans, the western influence will be too powerful. Although this will meet the rebellious brief, it will never meet North Korean censorship. That is why this was dropped so early into development.

Also in these images, I watched another video to help me with body shape. Although I will go into more detail about this in the future, it still had an impact on attempt 1. The reference is above.

Unpaid members of the government enforce the ideal clothing on the public. Clothing is the easiest way to establish someone's political affiliations without breaking any major laws. Although anything too exotic will result in a public scolding or forced labour in the worst cased scenario. If women's trousers are under heavy scrutiny at most times, then the outfit described previously will never work.

One of these new sources of information about the restrictions of Korean clothing came from Daily NK. They said that:

'North Korean authorities in South Pyongan Province have recently stepped up crackdowns on young people and students over dyed hair, clothing and other aspects of their outward appearance, Daily NK has learned.

“The provincial Youth League [Kimilsungist-Kimjongilist Youth League] recently issued an order on ‘proper’ hairstyles and clothing,” a source in the province told Daily NK on Aug. 19. “The authorities are cracking down on dyed hair, earrings, jeans and clothing with foreign lettering.” '

Although not illegal, much of a teenagers individuality is being controlled. North Korean citizens are loosing the right to choose what to wear. Many are not outright laws, many "western concepts" that are not of traditional Korean culture are being snuffed out. The article explain how dyed hair, ear rings, jeans and clothing with foreign letters are being disapproved off greatly. Authorities are stepping in to snuff out these fashion choices. If I'm to use any of these characteristics on my own character, I'm going to have to be careful on their extend. Too many of these traits will mean it never get through Korean censorship.

CHARACTER ATTEMPT 2 IMAGES - 15/11/2020

anime_neck_shoulders_step_by_step_drawin

Anime Outline, n.d. How to Draw Anime & Manga Arms Tutorial. [Online]
Available at: https://www.animeoutline.com/how-to-draw-anime-arms/
[Accessed 13 November 2020].

Anime Outline, n.d. How to Draw Anime Neck & Shoulders. [Online]
Available at: https://www.animeoutline.com/how-to-draw-anime-neck-shoulders/
[Accessed 13 November 2020].

AnimeOutline, n.d. How to Draw Anime Girl Body Step by Step Tutorial - AnimeOutline. [Online]
Available at: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/702069029389596626/
[Accessed 13 November 2020].

Ayvazyan, S., n.d. How to Draw an Anime Girl Body. [Online]
Available at: https://www.drawingforall.net/how-to-draw-an-anime-girl-body/
[Accessed 13 November 2020].

Bright Side, n.d. 16 Things That Are Prohibited in North Korea. [Online]
Available at: https://brightside.me/wonder-curiosities/16-things-that-are-prohibited-in-north-korea-403760/
[Accessed 13 November 2020].

Charles Tyrwitt, 2020. Classic Collar Non-Iron Twill Grid Check Shirt - Royal Blue. [Online]
Available at: https://www.ctshirts.com/uk/classic-collar-non-iron-twill-grid-check-shirt---royal-blue/FON0413RYL.html?utm_term=FON0413RYL168S&gclid=Cj0KCQiA-rj9BRCAARIsANB_4ABsARWev0JXemmeuaourOLtDmi16KEAIxPVkPwCnS-O6HHXFisbHcAaAjchEALw_wcB&marketing=true&utm_campaign=
[Accessed 13 November 2020].

KindPNG, n.d. Cartoon Girl Body Png - Anime Girl Full Body, Transparent Png. [Online]
Available at: https://www.kindpng.com/imgv/mxbiRm_cartoon-girl-body-png-anime-girl-full-body/
[Accessed 13 November 2020].

White, P., 2015. How to Roll up Your Sleeves with Style. [Online]
Available at: https://mullenandmullen.co.uk/blogs/news/18483012-how-to-roll-up-your-sleeves-with-style
[Accessed 13 November 2020].

These are the main images I used for reference when drawing my attempt 2. There was a much greater focus on human anatomy, as well as what fashion was allowed in North Korea. I looked at anime expressions to get a more confident look. The previous facial expression of attempt 1 was too basic for my liking, too random. I was experimenting with 2 main body types, the previous body position from my western character and a new hand on hips position (previously attempted in western attempt 1). It gave me a new method on how to plan out the body position. I also looked closer at specific features (in an anime style) such as the head, shoulders, neck and arms. Research showed a casual Korean style was a blouse with a skirt (it this or military uniform, traditional dress or work uniform). This is all to briefly explain how these images translated into my next character attempt.

ATTEMPT 2 - CASUAL KOREAN WOMEN - 15/11/2020

Attempt 2 was carried out with much more purpose. I used the references from attempt 1 as well as these new ones for attempt 2. I would of attempted this body position once before in my western character (showing more connections that this is the same character adapted). The brief is to make my western character for a Korean culture (following Korean censorship) in an anime style. Similarities will be key is showing that this is the same character.

I sketched the basic body (as shown on the right) and refined the shape and line art. Originally the torso was far too narrow and the boobs misshaped. The arms and leg were much thinner - a more feminine physique and the character was resized to 7 heads (rather than the adult 8) to represent their age of 15 better. This gave the overall appearance of a 15 year old female much better than the western, which could be mistaken for an adult.

Although a weakness of this line art was the cloth creases. They were much too random and don't make sense. The arm scrunches had no reason for their placement except chance, resulting in a to that looks almost scratched up. This, in my opinion, make the character far too tatty and roughed up. Positively, the line art is much smoother (sketched lines is not the anime style).

When creating this piece, I had a lot of mixed emotions. I was relieved about the vast improvement to the previous attempt. But I still had doubt in my mid due to the many smaller errors in the design. It feels like the body is a flawed version of the western position. Although I used the same position to show a greater connection between the characters, it may be better to try more varied position in the future.

Now it is time for colour. I found out in my research that black was the most common colour. Although in recent times, white and pink are coming in fashion. So a white casual blouse with a black, 3/4 skirt was the most casual appearance I could get. Even that is very formal, many women in North Korea appear in either uniform or dresses. I used the same colouring method as the western character to convey light and shadow. using a mixture of custom brushes, I was able to create the design to the right.

Although the many changes of opacity lead to a more "unsolid design". The clothing looks smoky, less solid than it should. It also resulted in the character looking "less anime", after further research, I realised that many of the colours are done in blocks, rather than shades. The colour style was more my normal style, not the anime style. All of my current anime research was on body shape and anatomy, not colour. This will be a topic I look at further in the future. Furthermore, the head shape was way off an anime style. Once again, I slipped into what I'm used to and it resulted in the character not being anime enough.

The ripped dress and rolled up sleeves were my attempts at rebellious. I heard about the stamp down of dyed hair so I opted for only the tips to be dyed. Although it would of helped if I committed to the dyed hair to show more rebellious. Confidents can clearly be seen in the pose and face, although it conforms too much to the Korean culture. In trying to avoid ideas that will get it censored, it lost a lot of its rebellious aspects, which is a bit annoying looking back.

ATTEMPT 2 FEEDBACK - DISCORD - 15/11/2020

Overall, this was a much better attempt at designing a anime Korean character based off my western one. The pose establishes the greatest connection between them, although I want to change it in the future. The colour choice needs changing as well as much of the anatomy. In getting too involved and not paying enough to my research, I slowly fell back into my own style of character. This resulted in the anime style getting reduced. If I was to design this particular character again. I would pay more attention to the style to avoid the same mistake as last time.

My research so far is lacking primary evidence. So I decided to get as much feedback as I could. This is the biggest virtual slap in the face I have received so far regarding my artwork.

Most of my feedback comes from college students in class A and B.

In this case, my character got completely broken apart. It wasn't anime enough or Korean enough. The structure of the face needed much improvement. The eye alignment was off, the head was too big, the chin was huge, the pose was critiqued for being used again (I got mixed responses there) and I got flack for her elbow not touching her palm. Many changes to be made in a nutshell.

ATTEMPT 2 FEEDBACK - GOOGLE FORMS

For feedback ,I planned to use as many sources as I could. So after discord I went on google forms for the 1st time and created a survey. The questions and results are shown above. Confidents was definitely present to the 3 responses, one even through she was a teacher. The pose and facial expression (especially the smile) was the main causes of this. However, when I explained the task (adapting western character into North Korean Anime girl) and asked how effectively this was done I got good to satisfactory. I used a mix of qualitive and quantitively data methods in this survey. Apparently she did not look Korean, only anime. Another suggested about the colour being too different from the western counterpart. When I asked for how to improve (in their opinion) they said to make it more anime and rip the clothes more to show more rebelliousness.

This feedback was extremely helpful and only strengthened what I learnt from discord. However, a weakness would be a lack of responses. Only 3 people got back. Next time I need to plan a good time to announce the survey to get more eyes on it. Advertise it more and introduce it to more people. This is a method I will definitely do again in the future, it just needs to be more optimised.

ATTEMPT 2 FEEDBACK - INSTAGRAM

Like google forms, I was recommended to do more research on anime and their forms. Focus more on anatomy and plan it out before creating the major parts of the character. The face was brought up yet again, clearly needs the most attention. Position was also an issue. I was originally recommended to use the same position to create a stronger tie with the western character, although this has been a major issue when it comes to feedback. In my next character I must change this in order to establish a unique identity for the artwork.

ATTEMPT 2 FEEDBACK - GOOGLE TEAMS

This is the one I had the least responses to, therefore the one I have the least to talk about. I uploaded it to the enrichment art club looking for feedback. However no one commented. This was the least successful method out of the 4 used - with discord providing the most feedback.

I heard rumours there were discord servers specifically for answering surveys, I want to track it down and use it for future feedback if I can.

ATTEMPT 2 FEEDBACK - BOOK RECOMMENDATION

Hart, C., 2015. The Master Guide to Drawing Anime: How to Draw Original Characters from Simple Templates. Illustrated edition ed. New York: Sixth and Spring Books.

This was a book recommended to be by one of the people who gave me feedback. It was done by the same author who created the figure it out series, Chris Hart. It acted as another point of reference for my research. Much of the feedback was to improve the shape of the head and overall anime appearance. What better way to learn than from a book about drawing anime.

However, if I ordered the book myself, it wouldn't of arrived in time for me to use it before the final character design. So the person who owed the book sent me some photos that I screenshotted and uploaded to my wix website.

This was yet another method to drawing anime characters. It was a more structured version of what I was attempting before. These were professional examples of what I tried to do before. It broke down the basic skeleton, followed by the basic shape then the final line art.

I'm going to incorporate a version of this method

into my own final character design. It also showed

me some common traits in anime character design,

for example how the females all have thinner chins.

ATTEMPT 3 IMAGES - 16/11/2020

leo-vixx-haruka-iwatobi-free-swim-club-2

kim-himchan-b.a.p-ichinose-tokiya-uta-no

Bang-Yong-Guk-B.A.P-Taiga-Kagami-Kuroko-

setalight3D_High_Power_Low_Power_Poses_a

women-in-traditional-dress-pyongyang-nor

These were the final images I used with the help my design. My casual design was perceived as not Korean enough. So to combat this, I am going for a traditional Korean dress to highlight the characters origin. Many spoke about issues with the face so I also researched into many example of Korean faces. Most had narrower eyes and smaller noses and thinner mouths (in the anime styles).

I also found Korean Celebrities that looked similar to anime characters to get a better example of how to translate these features into an anime style. I also got a new reference for a body position to use instead of the western one.

admin, 2010. How to Draw Anime Lips & Mouths with Manga Drawing Tutorials. [Online]
Available at: https://www.drawinghowtodraw.com/stepbystepdrawinglessons/2010/01/how-to-draw-anime-lips-mouths-with-manga-drawing-tutorials/
[Accessed 15 November 2020].

alamy, 2009. Women in traditional dress, Pyongyang, North Korea. [Online]
Available at: https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-women-in-traditional-dress-pyongyang-north-korea-38745582.html
[Accessed 14 November 2020].

AnimeOutline, n.d. How to Draw Anime Characters Tutorial - AnimeOutline. [Online]
Available at: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/340936634290705148/
[Accessed 15 November 2020].

Anon., 2012. The rise of fashion in North Korea. [Online]
Available at: https://www.dazeddigital.com/fashion/gallery/20174/3/the-rise-of-fashion-in-north-korea
[Accessed 15 November 2020].

aroundtheworld, 2015. I Photographed Women In North Korea To Show That Beauty Is Everywhere. [Online]
Available at: https://www.boredpanda.com/woman-portrait-photography-noroc-michaela-north-korea/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=organic
[Accessed 14 November 2020].

BWallpapers.com, 2014. Korean New Year. [Online]
Available at: http://www.bwallpapers.com/wallpaper/korean-new-year-3284/
[Accessed 14 November 2020].

elixxier, 2020. HIGH POWER POSING VS. LOW POWER POSING – HOW BODY LANGUAGE INFLUENCES YOUR PICTURES. [Online]
Available at: https://www.diyphotography.net/high-power-posing-vs-low-power-posing-how-body-language-influences-your-pictures/
[Accessed 14 November 2020].

freegreatpicture, n.d. Korean women Wallpapers 8065. [Online]
Available at: https://www.freegreatpicture.com/korean-women-cartoon/korean-women-wallpapers-8065
[Accessed 14 November 2020].

freegreatpicture, n.d. Korean women Wallpapers 8625. [Online]
Available at: https://www.freegreatpicture.com/korean-women-cartoon/korean-women-wallpapers-8625
[Accessed 14 November 2020].

Hart, C., 2015. The Master Guide to Drawing Anime: How to Draw Original Characters from Simple Templates. Illustrated edition ed. New York: Sixth and Spring Books.

Huston, E., 2016. 15 K-Pop Stars That Are Basically Anime Characters In Real Life. [Online]
Available at: https://www.soompi.com/article/854141wpp/15-k-pop-stars-that-are-basically-anime-characters-in-real-life
[Accessed 14 November 2020].

iStock, 2013. North Korea DPRK: Flower Vendor in Traditional Gown stock photo. [Online]
Available at: https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/flower-vendor-in-traditional-gown-gm479581917-36761496
[Accessed 14 November 2020].

Manga, W., 2020. How to Draw Faces for Beginners | Anime Manga Drawing Tutorial. [Online]
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgI8pqezB-c
[Accessed 14 November 2020].

Pinterest, n.d. 네이버 블로그. [Online]
Available at: https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/743164375981199413/
[Accessed 14 November 2020].

smalls, n.d. "difference between boys and girls in manga" drawing the body techniques and tips.. [Online]
Available at: https://pl.pinterest.com/pin/438960294902772534/
[Accessed 14 November 2020].

Snellac, R., 2011. North Korea. [Online]
Available at: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/504473595731347914/
[Accessed 14 November 2020].

Swaggers, F., n.d. The Secret of Angel. [Online]
Available at: https://www.pinterest.co.kr/pin/536843218081421127/
[Accessed 14 November 2020].

yandex.ru, n.d. [Online]
Available at: https://pl.pinterest.com/pin/159877855511049618/
[Accessed 14 November 2020].

ATTEMPT 3 - FINAL CHARACTER DESIGN - 17/11/2020

YOUTUBE AND FEEDBACK

Manga, W., 2020. How to Draw Faces for Beginners | Anime Manga Drawing Tutorial. [Online]Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgI8pqezB-c[Accessed 14 November 2020].

A major issue with my previous attempt was the face. This video was recommended to me to help improve this. Without the discord feedback, my work wouldn't of nearly improved as much as it had. It taught me the basic template to draw anime faces. You start with a circle then carry on with the chin - females have sharper and smaller chins. Then draw the ears (from eyeline to jaw). eyebrows never go above the top of the ears. The y axis barely curves, x axis cuts mid of head (where the eyes are), nose lines up with bottom of ears and mouth just below circle. This gave me a concrete method on creating an anime face and allowed me to greatly improve my head design.

My attempt while following this tutorial can be seen on the right along with the failed attempts. The heads below are the heads used in my final design. They would of underwent much change tell the final shape. It was especially difficult to pull off and definitely frustrating at times, the slightest wrong angle could convey a completely different expression. Too wide eyes will look like shock. To low of a mouth will look like sadness and not scalding disappointment.

Overall, this helped greatly as it completely changed my method on how to draw faces. It provided more control on important features in charge of dictating the main emotional state of my character. Without it, my character would look completely different.

FEEDBACK 2

However, the difference between this attempt and the previous one was I was getting feedback as I went along, rather than just at the end. I was getting tips on the head and body in mid production. The line art is roughly the same as the previous attempts, no changes in method or tools. Yes more research and tutorials were done in preparation but the biggest impact was from feedback.

For example, the head shape was too round, the forehead too small and was a bit lop sided. Also the chin was far too big, making my character both male and female at the same time. So I reacted midway to fix this. The top of the head was redrawn, the chin shortened and the sides had a reduced curving round the eyes.

It was through these mid feedback that I was able to make small changes to fix any overall anatomy mistakes as I went along.

Although, the feedback did make me angry at times. I had to learn the hard way to get used to it (it tested my patients to the limit). They did not hold back and every minor detail was brought up and ripped apart. It did help my art progress greatly in the end but I was definitely not used to this much harsh critique at once. This happened in attempt 2 as well.

I need to let my emotional state not effect my art so personally in the future. It is an essential skill that was brought up as one of my weaknesses in task 1 - so this definitely help be improve on it. So although at the time I was very annoyed with how my art was being torn apart, it benefitted in the long run and I was able to improve on a much needed soft skill.

I had multiple attempts on getting the body shape correct before I started on the clothing. There was a very rough body to get where the parts are located (can be seen on a low opacity layer in these screenshots). I then focused on the torso especially to get the right proportions (while drawing the skeleton for the arms and legs). I went for an hourglass shape (the main shape triangle) to convey a sharpness to the character - someone you don't want to mess with.

The facial features themselves were sharpened as the artwork progressed, with the eyes becoming narrower (but still big because the anime style) and the lips more curved down in disappointment. This had the effect on giving the character a hardened surface appearance. She looked like she is fed up and taking no nonsense.

I didn't spend too long on the basic arm and leg shape as they will be covered up when clothes are added, learning from my previous mistake of adding too many. Using the method of duplicating layers and erasing certain body parts, I was able to readjust the shoulder to be narrower. Finally, I went over the existing line art with a smoother brush to tidy up the line art. This case be seen especially in the clothing.

After the line art of the body I started with the clothing. The only main issue with the body art is that the legs end too early (the tip of the triangle shape was cut off). However this isn't an issue as most of it will be covered by a dress.

The clothing was created using a mixture of the images above. Several dresses were used in making the dress for my final character. I done the main base for the top half and was very careful where I added the crease lines. This was developed as the line art became more complex for the clothes.

Personally, I was feeling very content with this. Everything was slowly falling into place. The character was looking much better than its previous attempts and there was a much greater emphasis on the anime aspects and Korean characteristics. Not to say that it was a sunshine and smiles, receiving feedback was definitely a smack in the face.

Positives

Positively, much of the anatomy is now correct with minimum errors. Much of the body shape in previous attempts had many major faults. However, due to the on going feedback, I was able to fix these errors and make a roughly complete sketch. The line art is a lot cleaner and thicker due to size and smoothness changes. A hard brush was used to keep the colour more whole (rather than many shades of opaque lines).

The colour is very block like to stay in line with the anime design. My normal method consist of blending up many colours upon each other. However, anime characters have a base colour with darker block colours. This makes the colour much simpler, yet more effective. The anime eyes are very effective at conveying emotion. The slightest change of angle can completely alter the emotion present. Anime eyes are deliberately huge for this very purpose. I got just the right sharpness and raised angle to look unfriendly and harsh, without looking like a complete rage.

Negertives

Although there is still room for improvement. Much of the line art is still to sketchy, with lots of smaller lines rather than large flowing ones. Lines are still the main factor for deciding the shape. I need to move away from this by using light and shadow to define body shape, as real objects and people don't have outlines. Although, it is the anime style to use these so in this specific case, I can get away with this. More shadow areas can be added for the colour section - especially the dress. Lighter shades of grey should of been used for the hair to make the lighter areas stand much more from the base colour. Darker shades could be used instead of just line art along to establish creases and tears in the dress. Also there are still some small body error regarding the arms. One arm looks too curved, lacking a elbow. The legs also had some errors. The top of the triangle shape was cut off, however the dress covered this up.

Future

The aim was to get her as stern as possible without making here look too angry. The body position was previously researched and then scrapped in the western character. The open body language shows confidents, arms wide to show that she has nothing to hide. If I was to do this character again in the future, I would refine the line art and deepen the colour. Planning the body could also been refined. Right now, it still feels like trial and error and I keep getting major flaws in essential anatomy. I would also want to attempt a view that isn't front facing, as it is my main body perspective to draw from. I want to push my drawing ability and improve on my character design. Hand also need to be improved. More research and practice needs to be done in order to fix this - it will get better with time.

Conclusion and Future Plan

Overall, I am pleased with how the final North Korean character turned out. In my opinion, I have achieved the objective of her looking confident and rebellious, whilst conforming to Korean censorship. The anime style is much more prevalent in the final design. An issue with the previous design was that it not only looked not anime enough, it also looked not Korean enough. This new character solves both of these issues and improves on what is already there.

The plan moving ahead with Iran is to cover a greater ground of research and to apply it to my character. I feel like that my research on the North Korean character wasn't applied as well as it could have. Context is a key area of the learning criteria and was my weakest area on task 1. I want to strengthen this skill moving ahead from this stage. I feel like that doing 2 complete characters was the right move here. I could get feedback to highlight any major flaws and completely change this in the new one.

IRAN RESEARCH

19/11/2020

To begin research on Iran's history and cultural values, I watched an French animation called Persepolis (2007). This animation was based off an autobiographical series of French comics by Marjane Satapi. It revolves around the life of Marjane 'Marji' Satrapi as it shows how she grew up before and after the Islamic Revolution.

During the plot of this animation, it shows events from the 1979 Iranian Revolution (against the Shah of Iran), the Islamic fundamentalists election win and their impacts on law and oppression, the Iran-Iraq war and how the country evolved after the war ended.

It covered many areas of Iran's culture at the time, with their view on women, religious behaviour, political views, overall country management and social norms of the time.

Using sources like these, I can get a good grasp on Iran society before and after the major political changes. This will tell me any red flags in creating my character and how to show rebelliousness without taking it too far.

The URBAN SCHOOL of San Francisco, 2007. PERSEPOLIS. [Online]
Available at: https://vimeopro.com/urbanschool/english-1b
[Accessed 18 November 2020].

Wikipedia, 2020. Persepolis (comics). [Online]
Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persepolis_(comics)
[Accessed 18 November 2020].

Wikipedia, 2020. Persepolis (film). [Online]
Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persepolis_(film)
[Accessed 18 November 2020].

What I learnt from this animation

The film makes it clear that British meddling for oil, in exchange for power was a major linchpin. This created the dictatorship and although the country was oppressed, the country prospered. This would be the stage of western influence and the expansion of education and women's rights. However his son took over and was much worse and ruled through military power. Not much is shown about life before the revolution. It is essential that I learn about the history and culture of Iran to benefit my character study.

This lead to the many riots and protests of the Iranian Revolution of 1979. Prison were know for many torture techniques and held many protestors and political opponents. Eventually the dictator was overthrown and a religious frenetic was elected in his place. It was at this point that many changes happened to Iran's culture and law. Women were forced to cover up the head and body with a veil.

What followed was the Iran - Iraq war (lasting from 1980-1988), which lead to much bloodshed. Many emergency laws were passed to oppress the countries citizens even more. Women were further oppressed and a greater focus on war was created. Iran became a patriarchal society. Western influence was considered abominable and was stamped out by the new government. Any new western items, such as illegal trade and music, had to be smuggled in and brought on the black market. Booze was banned, although that didn't stop citizens smuggling it in or making their own. Many illegal parties also took place.

Movement in and out the country was closely monitored and banned unless you had the governments approval. Much passport forgeries took place, although if discovered they would be shut down and arrested immediately. The government controlled the school system, making the teachers feed student lies on how great the new society is and how they should be thankful for what happening. Many escaped abroad into European countries like France, Austria and Turkey.

How it will effect my Character design

Post war Iran was still heavily controlled, if not more so than during the war itself. It will be this era where the main censorship focus will be for my own character design. However, it is important to learn about how the country got into this situation in the first place. Although the people are clearly influenced by the west (with drink and music and western ideals like less oppression), these will be a strict no in the governments eyes. So I need to design a character in accordance with the governments ideal women, while showing the rebellious sides that the government wont approve of. Small changes can be made to the ideal gov approved outfit. The major emphasis will be on the face as most of the body is covered up. I want to show hints of western influence in the design without breaking censorship policies.

Pre 1979 Iranian Revolution

Between 1941 and 1979 , the ruler of Iran was King Mohammad Reza Pahlavi - aka the Shah. He ruled through a dictatorship and had many restrictions on politics. Those who did not support him were repressed. However, he did push the country to adopt more western values and modernisation (which lead to a degree of cultural freedom).

Women didn't have to wear hijabs by law. Although many did, there were also a lot who preferred to wear a western style. Tight jeans, skirts and short sleeve tops were in fashion. Activities such as picnics and shopping were very popular.

Due to large amounts of oil, how close it is to India and the border with the USSR, Britain and the US were fully backing the Iranian government at the time. However, this was one factor that lead to the revolution, much of the country didn't like the western meddling.

The Iranian revolution wasn't the 1st coup. The PM in 1953 (Mosaddegh), was overthrown. Many regarded him as the main 'resistance to foreign domination' according to Wikipedia. This meant that he was the main protection between other countries meddling with Iranian affairs. The PM wanted to limit the control of foreign powers like Britain on the countries oil. Britain and America did not take kindly to this. They created a world wide boycott of the use of Iranian oil to economically pressure Iran, he was forced to resign and was eventually placed under house arrest. The west were directly responsible for his removal (although the action was carried out by Iranian Military).

By getting rid of the PM, the Shah's power was only strengthened. He relied on US support to maintain his power. After the events of 1953, the Shah created many new changes and reforms. This included the expansion of women's rights and the much suppression on religion and political opponents.

Like those that came after him, he controlled religion through the state. Veils were actually banned from being worn in public (a complete opposite to post revolution Iran). The banning of religious wear and suppression of religion in general was another reason for his downfall. Women were encouraged to attend school. Women and men could mix freely and educational opportunities were being pushed. Much of western clothing and social norms were creeping into the Iranian population.

However, in 1975, the Shah abolished the multiparty system in Iran. The only legal party now in Iran politics was the Rastakhiz party. This meant it became illegal for any party to be formed to oppose the leading government party, further strengthening the power the Shah had over the country. This was the major reason for the Iranian revolt. A mixture of religious and political oppression created the revolt that changed the country forever. People were tired of western interference, the governments brutality and the suppression of rights.

BBC NEWS, 2019. Iranian women - before and after the Islamic Revolution. [Online]
Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-47032829
[Accessed 19 November 2020].

Britannica, n.d. Mohammad Mosaddegh. [Online]
Available at: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Mohammad-Mosaddegh
[Accessed 19 November 2020].

Fadaee, S., 2012. Social Movements in iran: Enviormentalism and Civil Society. illustrated ed. s.l.:Taylor & Francis, 2012.

Robinson, J. B. a. M., 2020. 25 photos show what Iran looked like before the 1979 revolution turned the nation into an Islamic republic. [Online]
Available at: https://www.businessinsider.com/iran-before-the-revolution-in-photos-2015-4?r=US&IR=T
[Accessed 19 November 2020].

Wikipedia, 2020. 1953 Iranian coup d'état. [Online]
Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat
[Accessed 19 November 2020].

Wikipedia, 2020. Mohammad Mosaddegh. [Online]
Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammad_Mosaddegh#References
[Accessed 19 November 2020].

Wikipedia, 2020. Rastakhiz Party. [Online]
Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rastakhiz_Party
[Accessed 19 November 2020].

Wikipedia, 2020. Ruhollah Khomeini. [Online]
Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruhollah_Khomeini
[Accessed 19 November 2020].

Below I used these sample pages to inform my research above about Iran before the Iranian Revolution. All the references and websites I used for this information is below the sample pages. The images also came from those same articles.

In summary, The previous ruling provided greater education and rights to their citizens. A greater focus on encouraging women in education and other opportunities was present. There was much western influence from the US (who was supporting and had a lot of power in Iranian government) and the UK from clothing to ideals and culture. Disputes over oil caused much tension between Iran and western countries. The people were getting fed up with the west interfering (especially UK and US). Tight restrictions on religion and politics was the main cause for the Iran Revolution of 1979, which led to the mass change of Iran through the elected Islamic Government.

These images show the life of women before the Islamic government imposed laws and regulations as well as historical events leading up to the Iran Revolution of 1979.

Post Iranian Revolution

At this point, any citizens of Iran were sick of the west. They had a damaging influence on the old political system (helping keep a dictator in power) which was one of the reasons the revolution occurred in the first place. This was backed up by the BBC when they said that ' Revolutionary students took dozens of US embassy staff hostage while thousands of anti-US demonstrators surrounded the compound. "At this time it was normal to see different types of people allied in their absolute hatred of America in Iran," says Prof Afshar. "The Americans and the British have a long history in Iran of attempting to both influence and take over oil in Iran, so this deep-rooted mistrust of the US and UK goes back a long way."' However this led to the mass changed caused by the new Islamic Government. Yes, the western influence was eradicated and was no longer legal, but it led to the mass political oppression and oppression of women. Religious clothing was once banned, now it is mandatory. As time went on, more and more restrictions emerged for women.

The film showed the mass control and power of the government over the citizens of Iran. Like the film, many protests took place after the Iran revolution of 1979. BBC New gave me an example of in regards to the changes in women's rights. They said that 'Soon after taking power, Iran's new Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini decreed that all women had to wear the veil - regardless of religion or nationality. On 8 March - International Women's Day - thousands of women from all walks of life turned out to protest against the law.' Women were against the changes from the start. The old government banned religious wear in public while the new powers made it mandatory. Although a lot of protests were going on around the country, this did little to change the new government and the power they controlled.

The photo on the left showed an average family going out for their morning prayers. Women now have to cover up their head, neck and shoulders in public. Forearm is allowed to be shown. The clothing must fall down to the ankles at a minimum. Although hair can be shown, it is the social norm to cover up as much as possible. The Chador is the most common of clothes to wear at this time, as it covers a women from head to toe with only the face exposed. This clearly means that a more rebellious individual would stretch how much of their body can be shown without breaking the law (if you want it to go through regulations).

The image on the right is from 2005, way after the Iran - Iraq war. Head, neck and shoulders are still covered up even this far into history. Many prefer to wear headscarf's instead of chador here. This is an example of the small rebellion women show in their clothing choice. Pulling back the head scarf as much as possible without breaking the law, show much of the face and hair.

Censorship - 20/11/2020

Internet Info

Iran controls its people through the control of information. Like North Korea, it heavily monitors the influences and sources of info that their people consume. Foreign Internet connection is throttled at politically sensitive times between June 1st 2018 and May 31st 2019 according to The Iran Primer. This would be to reduce as much online influence from outside the country as possible, especially in times of political unrest. Women's clothing is incredibly restricted, as well as any image of their bodies. Much of the internet articles on Iran's censorship focus on their tight restrictions on social media. However, I found one that focused on women and their appearance. 'Iran’s cyber police force, known as FATA, announced on 13 May 2020 that women, including both public and private figures, are in breach of Iran’s laws when they appear without a hijab (Islamic veil) on social media. ' This was said by Article 19 on the page titled 'Iran: Policing women on social media'. Basically, a breach of dress code is classed as a "moral offence". It stresses how there is no difference if these acts are committed on the Internet or in Public. Internet wouldn't of been as prominent (or even existing) during the political unrest and the Iran - Iraq war. However, now that it is 2020, many censorship laws are being passed to restrict internet use.

According to the Human Rights Watch, 'Iran is one of the world’s biggest jailers of journalists, bloggers and social media activists, says Reporters Without Borders. It’s the kind of place where even a Facebook post could land someone in jail. Iran has unfairly imprisoned the Washington Post correspondent, Jason Rezaian, who is still behind bars. In Iran, people go to jail for “insulting” the supreme leader, president, or other government officials – something that should never be a crime.' This means that freedom of speech is heavily restricted in Iran, in public and on social media. It is established below how many social medias like YouTube and Facebook have been outright banned in Iran, this is further proof of that statement. You don't even need to do any rebellious acts against the government to get landed in jail, just merely disagree with the governments philosophies and ideals.

Class Info

Below are a list of facts we learnt about in lesson about censorship in Iran. Much is censored in TV and Movies. Beforehand they outright banned media that don't approve off, however the people just pirated off the internet. So they decided to release much more restricted version of the same things in hope they stop. Areas of these films and shows were edited to conform to Iranian beliefs, anything that was deemed offensive or immoral was censored.

Alcoholic beverages were banned. Sorcery was banned, men and women who sat too close together were edited to move them further apart. Close up of women's faces were removed. Clothing such as low necklines, bare shoulders and essentially too much shown body were strategically covered up. Whole people were edited out and dialogue in foreign films were edited. And this was all in TV and movies alone.

Books and Magazines, CDs, Music ,and audio tapes are all banned. Men and Women are not allowed to dance together.

They also control much of the social media. Sites such as YouTube, Tik Toc, Twitter and Netflix are all banned. Why? Control. All new media has to get approved by the governing party before being shown to residents. Any social that can upload their own content without going through their system must be banned in their eyes.

They did try and create a alternative to YouTube called Apparat. However this was scrapped when the CEO was jailed for 10 years. This was because he showed a video for 1 hour that he shouldn't off. In it he asked children "do you know how you were born". Apparently this was enough to get him arrested, which is a clear example of how strict regulations are.

How it will effect my Character design

All the information above, as well as what has been discovered in other sections, all point back to an importance on control. If I am designing an Iranian character for the Iranian market, I will have to be strict on following the guidelines of what is allowed. Much individualism is heavily discouraged and women have far more restrictions than the men. If I am to show changed, small sign of individuality will be the key to show rebelliousness. Torn clothing (like North Korean character design) wont cut it here. The main sign of rebelliousness will be on trying to push clothing regulations to the limit by showing as much as legally possible.

ARTICLE 19, 2012. Islamic Republic of Iran:. [Online]
Available at: https://www.article19.org/data/files/medialibrary/2921/12-01-30-FINAL-iran-WEB%5B4%5D.pdf
[Accessed 20 November 2020].

ARTICLE 19, 2020. Iran: Policing women on social media. [Online]
Available at: https://www.article19.org/resources/iran-policing-women-on-social-media/
[Accessed 20 November 2020].

Human Rights Watch, 2015. Women’s Rights in Iran. [Online]
Available at: https://www.hrw.org/news/2015/10/28/womens-rights-iran
[Accessed 20 November 2020].

MacLellan, S., 2018. What You Need to Know about Internet Censorship in Iran. [Online]
Available at: https://www.cigionline.org/articles/what-you-need-know-about-internet-censorship-iran
[Accessed 20 November 2020].

The Iran Primer, 2019. Report: Internet Censorship in Iran. [Online]
Available at: https://iranprimer.usip.org/index.php/blog/2019/nov/05/report-internet-censorship-iran
[Accessed 20 November 2020].

Political System Comparison

Much of the history and culture of the country informs censorship. Below, I'm going to talk and compare example of many political structures, as well as the Iranian political structure.

You have the Feudal system (the old English system). The God reigns on top and chooses the king, making the king rule by divine right. You go against the king, you go against God essentially. The king elects nobles to distribute land and money and manage the peasants. The Peasants have basically no wealth or control of their lives. If they were to go to war, the peasants wouldn't have a choice and be forced to go.

Then you have the Democratic System (the new English system). Civilians elect a member of parliament (MPs) to represent them in the creation of laws and running the country. The PM will be in charge of ruling and maintaining parliament. The PM has to be accepted by the Queen, making her the top of the system. Although she has never ruled against a PM in history.

Thirdly, you have the Dictatorship. This is when one man or party rules the country with absolute, unchallenged power. North Korea is a dictatorship in an illusion of a socialist country. The Dictator elects generals and they manage the shoulders. The civilians are at the bottom with little to now power or wealth. What the dictator says, goes.

Theocracy

Iran works on a Theocracy. This is when the ruling power is god and religion. They give Devine guidance to humans on how to manage the country - meaning the rules and laws are interpretations of the religious teachings of the country. This would allow the government to pass any law they want and call it God's will. To go against the government will be to go against God. Supreme leader is the next rank up, followed by councils he appoints and finally the civilians that obey all orders.

Due the theoretic regime in Iran, religion has somewhat adapted or evolved. The nature of faith is more personalised to the individual, rather than organised to the masses. 'Emphasis is placed on belief rather than practice' according to Wiley Online Library. This means there is more importance put onto what you believe rather than how you go about practicing it, uniting everyone under the same ideology (regardless of their individuality). A theocratic system will produce legal systems based off legal rules and ethical demands. Iran has always had strong ties with Islam, so an Islamic government will be heavily influenced by their religion. Laws and practices (such as dress code) will be passed as laws and decide what is socially acceptable for the people. How women dress and what's acceptable for them was told in the Islam religion and made into law by the corresponding government. This is the main cause for much of the women oppression in travel, clothing, education and basic rights. With religion having powerful impacts on how the country is run, its teaching will bleed through the legal system to the people - forcibly making people follow the islamic beliefs and practices.

To emphasis the points above, I will do more research into Iran (women in particular) and find more examples of how religion has impacted the law. It will also be good to see how this has affected animators in Iran, how it has impacted their works. This will give me a general idea what is classed as socially acceptable for Iran culture, the work produced specifically targeting the Iran market.

June Starr, J. F. C., 2018. Constitution-Making in Islamic Iran: The Impact of Theocracy on the Legal Order of a Nation-State. In: J. F. C. June Starr, ed. History and Power in the Study of Law: New Directions in Legal Anthropology. s.l.:Cornell University Press, pp. 113-128.

Kazemipur, A., 2003. Religious Life Under Theocracy: The Case of Iran. [Online]
Available at: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1468-5906.00187
[Accessed 20 November 2020].

Wikipedia, 2020. Theocrasy. [Online]
Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theocracy
[Accessed 20 November 2020].

Women and further Oppressive Laws (Censorship part 2)

For starters, girls can get legally married at the age of 13, while boys can at 15. The legal age can go even lower with the consent of the father and the courts approval. There is strict women wear in Iran that has to be followed by local and foreign females, they have to wear a hijab in public at all times. These clothing regulations are enforced by police and are brutally upheld. Neck and shoulders must be covered by a head Scaff of sorts. The head also must be covered, although a degree of hair is allowed to show. Legs have to be covered down the the ankles. Forearms can be uncovered.

Also according to the Human Right Watch, 'married women can't even leave the country without the husbands permission'

Women are not allowed to watch mens sports in stadiums. Anyone (including women) will likely end up in jail if they 'openly criticise the government' according to Humans Rights Watch. This means that it is not just women oppressed in Iran (although they have it worse for men in regards to oppression in Iran) but everyone. Once again, we are back to the government making itself the main power. Any opposition or criticism will end up in getting you jailed or worse - just like before the Iranian revolution of 1979 that got them into power in the 1st place.

Although not all of them are prominent in Iran, these are the 4 main types of headgear worn by women muslims:

Chador: They are long gowns of clothing that covers everything but the face of its wearer. It is open at the front with no hand openings or buttons/clasps to hold it together, resulting in it needing to be held together by the wearer. This is worn by 1/3rd of Iranian women in Iran. While the Chador is a common sight in Iran, it is not mandatory unlike the veil (to cover the head and shoulders). Although it is regarded as the most socially acceptable item of clothing. Although, upon further research, there are a lot of variations and small design changes too make them unique to the user. This is an area that needs to be looked at further for my character design.

Burqa: This is a full veil that covers the head and complete body of its wearer. It is commonly worn in Afganistarn and some other asian countries. There is a mesh screen that allows the wearer to see. Although, not a requirement in most laws and the Islam religion, many encourage the covering of the face (especially in a males presence).

Niqab: This is a full body dress that covers the face (including the mouth and nose). It leaves a small gap for the eyes. Although many Muslim scholars and many Islamic societies have stated that face covering is not a requirement there is a small minority that demand it is a must.

Hijab: This is the head scarf worn by many Muslims around the world. In Iran it is a legal requirement to wear one (or an alternative method to covering the head, shoulders, ears and neck). It is the main symbol of Islam in many parts of Europe.

In a BBC news article, there was a case of a small sign of rebellion amongst Iranian women. A women who used to live in Northern Iran (now in America) is 'protesting against the compulsory wearing of the hijab, or headscarf, in her country. It spread on social media and led to unprecedented demonstrations in the streets'. She started an online movement (which gained a lot of traction) to protest against the legal requirements of wearing such clothing in Iran. However, she has had to live in the US in a self-imposed excel to avoid being arrested in Iran since 2009. '

Her parents are forbidden from leaving the country and her father has stopped speaking to her. Masih says that he has been brainwashed by government agents. Death threats are a daily occurrence for Masih.' Above is a clear example of protest and rebellion to the rules imposed on Women in Iran. However, the governments response clearly shows the severity of censorship and control they have over the people. They cracked down on this movement by arresting 35 female protesters and threatened 10 years in jail for such actions.

Ways I could make the character rebellious in this regard is to push the boundary on what is being shown. More ankle can be revealed, bleached hair (although has to stay natural) and skinny jeans are common ways to rebel.

1, 2009_Herat_Afghanistan_4112231650.jpg

2, Burqa_clad_women_bying_at_a_market.jp

efe-epa, 2018. Iran's chador cloak tailored to women of all tastes, social classes. [Online]
Available at: https://www.efe.com/efe/english/life/iran-s-chador-cloak-tailored-to-women-of-all-tastes-social-classes/50000263-3825639
[Accessed 20 November 2020].

Hatam, N., 2018. Iranian women threw off the hijab - what happened next?. [Online]
Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-44040236
[Accessed 20 November 2020].

Hazeri, N. M. &. A. M., 2020. Two Different Narratives of Hijab in Iran: Burqa and Niqab. [Online]
Available at: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12119-020-09789-3
[Accessed 20 November 2020].

Human Rights Watch, 2015. Women’s Rights in Iran. [Online]
Available at: https://www.hrw.org/news/2015/10/28/womens-rights-iran
[Accessed 20 November 2020].

Wikipedia, 2020. Burqa. [Online]
Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burqa
[Accessed 20 November 2020].

Wikipedia, 2020. Chador. [Online]
Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chador
[Accessed 20 November 2020].

Wikipedia, 2020. Hijab by country. [Online]
Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hijab_by_country
[Accessed 20 November 2020].

Wikipedia, 2020. Niqāb. [Online]
Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niq%C4%81b
[Accessed 20 November 2020].

References to Images:

Gazette, M., 2018. What's the difference between a hijab, chador, niqab and burka?. [Online]
Available at: https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/whats-the-difference-between-a-hijab-chador-niqab-and-burka
[Accessed 20 November 2020].

Staff, I. E., 2016. Women Banned from Wearing Burqa When Entering ISIS’ Security Centres. [Online]

Available at: https://ifpnews.com/women-banned-wearing-burqa-entering-isis-security-centres
[Accessed 20 November 2020].

When it comes to people dressed like these, the main indicator of rebelliousness comes from the face. Its hard to read body language with so much of the women covered up. That leaves the face to express the emotion (and only the eyes in the case of the Niqab). The plan is to draw 2 characters, 1 in the Niqab and the other in a m chador. These cover up the women more than the Hijab (another possible route to explore). The Burka is too excessive and not even a legal requirement unlike some of the others. The eyes will be my greatest source of rebelliousness.

NEW SKILL - WATERCOLOUR EFFECT - 22/11/2020

PSt, P. T. -., 2017. How to Create a Watercolor Painting Effect with Photoshop - Photoshop Tutorial. [Online]
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJ8R3egJ_84
[Accessed 22 November 2020].

I already have an idea on what art style I want to go for for my Iranian character. I'm going to attempt to mix my own western style with the anime style of the North Korea character.

Although, I still want to incorporate some originality into my character design. So I went on YouTube after researching about Iranian Artists and found a watercolour tutorial.

i did not attempt the tutorial itself until my final character design, which was a major fault on my part. I needed to experiment with this before attempting to use it for the 1st time on very strict time restraint.

So when things started going wrong on step 6 I had no choice but to scrap the method. Below (during the write up of my final character) I go into more detail about what happened and why I had to stop. This research still had an impact on my project which is why I have included it here. However it taught me that not all experimentation will be successful, and sometimes it will initially fail..

IRANIAN ANIMATORS - 21/11/2020

Rasoul Azadani

He is a Iranian animator, lightening designer and layout artist. Rasoul worked for Walt Disney since 1985 to the present day. He studied at the California Institute of Art. He worked on films such as Hercules, Treasure Planet and Princess and the frog.

He even had a character named after him in Aladdin called Razoul, the security man with a sword that chases Aladdin at the start of the film.

As well as his work at Disney, he is also known for his work on watercolour art, mainly background art. Many of his pieces show eastern culture in a variety of lights. Most of his artworks have a main, dominant colour that is assisted by another colour to contrast. Being watercolour, there is few harsh lines and colour flows into each other for lighter and darker shades. Shapes are implied but have undefined edges.

Farkhondeh Torabi

According to Wikipedia, Farkhondeh Torabi 'is an internationally acclaimed Persian animation director.' She studied at Alzahra University (Tehran). She was also known for her puppet animation. She made many short films in 1991. She was the assistant director of Lili Hosak and in 2000, she directed the animated Iranian film Shangoul and Mangoul.

This puppet style of animation is completely different to most western animations (that rely on CGI, VXF, 3D or in some cases 2D animation. They are made up of very detailed stitches and fabrics that are slowly moved to create movement.

Esfandiar Ahmadleh

There is not a lot of information available for him. Wikipedia said that 'He is regarded as the "father of the Iranian animation". His most significant works include the films Molla Nasreddin, Satellite, Jealous Duck, Wheat Crop, and Where Are You Going Kite? He drew many of his animations with pencil.'

Once again, he is using a completely different medium to the other examples of Iranian animators and those of the west. This is all the info that was available for him on wikipedia and considering he was a clear founder of Iranian animation, that raises some red flags.

There are also few visual examples of his work available. I was able to find an image of his work. It worked on a limited colour scheme of greens and oranges. Heavy representation of war and battle, in this case a severe injury. Line art is very smooth and draws some similarities to early Disney animations drawing style.

Farshid Mesghali

According to Wikipedia, 'Farshid Mesghali (Persian: فرشید مثقالی‎, born July 1943) is an Iranian animator, graphic designer, illustrator, animator, and writer who has lived in the United States since 1986.'

He is known for his paintings and sculpting, he learnt how to paint in Tehran University, Iran. Many of his paintings appear as 'mixed media' mean he used more than one paint to create the artwork. His portrait paintings are built of a base colour with extra colours scratch into it. Use of colour is very abstract and vary greatly in a single artwork.

Many of his works are untitled. A particular one (made of acrylic and glitter) is in a completely different style to his portraits. There is no one defining colour, many colour are used and blend together to create a form. His work is very abstract (or at least semi-abstract). Forms of real life are shown throughout his works but are distorted and changed to emphasis particular traits.

Mutual Art, 2016. UNTITLED, circa 1980. [Online]
Available at: https://www.mutualart.com/Artwork/UNTITLED/F6807E4CEEAD63A1
[Accessed 20 November 2020].

Mutual Art, 2020. Sohrab Sepehri’s Portrait, 2018. [Online]
Available at: https://www.mutualart.com/Artwork/Sohrab-Sepehris-Portrait/E5E5CE078464586D
[Accessed 20 November 2020].

silk road gallery, n.d. FARSHID MESGHALI. [Online]
Available at: http://www.silkroadartgallery.com/farshid-mesghali/
[Accessed 20 November 2020].

Wikipedia, 2020. Farshid Mesghali. [Online]
Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farshid_Mesghali
[Accessed 20 November 2020].

ckc animation, 2015. ESFANDIAR AHMADIEH. [Online]
Available at: http://www.animationckc.ir/contents/1017/Esfandiar-Ahmadieh
[Accessed 20 November 2020].

Neil, 2014. Mideast Animation. [Online]
Available at: http://mideastmation.blogspot.com/2014/02/esfandiar-ahmadieh-father-of-iranian.html
[Accessed 20 November 2020].

Wikipedia, 2020. Esfandiar Ahmadieh. [Online]
Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esfandiar_Ahmadieh
[Accessed 20 November 2020].

real time, 2010. danni zuvela: asia pacific triennial cinema program. [Online]
Available at: http://www.realtimearts.net/article/94/9733
[Accessed 20 November 2020].

Sur, A. D., 2018. Lili Hosak Vajiollah Fard e Moghadam, 1998. [Online]
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wuixn9xC0C4
[Accessed 20 November 2020].

Wikipedia, 2020. Farkhondeh Torabi. [Online]
Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farkhondeh_Torabi
[Accessed 20 November 2020].

Wikipedia, 2020. Shangoul and Mangoul. [Online]
Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shangoul_and_Mangoul
[Accessed 20 November 2020].

Azadani, R., 2017. [Online]
Available at: https://www.facebook.com/Rasoul-Azadani-480728358614957/photos/1490474014307048
[Accessed 2020 November 2020].

Azadani, R., 2017. Bangkok/ Thailand. [Online]
Available at: https://www.facebook.com/Rasoul-Azadani-480728358614957/photos/1445901722097611
[Accessed 20 November 2020].

Pinterest, 2020. Rasoul azadani. [Online]
Available at: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/rasoulazadani/rasoul-azadani/
[Accessed 20 November 2020].

Wikipedia, 2020. Rasoul Azadani. [Online]
Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rasoul_Azadani
[Accessed 20 November 2020].

3302_farkhondeh_torabi_shangoul-o-mangou

4761fc39-25bb-4dce-8baa-8d3dc5742058.web

5381d55e-bf03-4cae-86a9-d729d928724d_570

Animator Comparison

Looking at these examples, some clear similarities and major differences appear. For starters they all use different media in their animation. Farshid Mesghali used paint and sculpted, Esfandiar Ahmadleh was known for his pencil animations (although information is extremely limited on him), Farkhondeh Torabi used puppetry and fabric and finally Rasoul Azadani used water colour and worked in many western films.

There is no clear style when it comes to Iranian animation. Japan is known for 2D animation and the West is know for 3D and CGI animation. However, Iran seems to have no clear style. Although it seems Iran works with more traditional techniques such as pencil and many mediums of paint including acrylic and water colour.

Furthermore, the source of information is surprisingly limited. The internet is one of the biggest sources of information world wide, for so little to be available is concerning. Those who work in Iran itself have the least amount of info while those who moved to the west have much more info available. This is due to Iran heavily restricting internet access and trying to reduce as much info about Iran as possible.

There is no overall taste to Irans citizens, being the inconsistent range of styles and media. Most art is incredibly hard to find on the internet from Iran itself, the others work in western media for a western audience. The media that is shown in Iran is tailored for their specific guidelines and show themes of war and violence. What the people want to see and what is actually allowed are not the same. Due to Iran working under a theocratic system, there are many tight restrictions and regulations on what can be shown. Anything anti-government or any other religion than Islam will obviously be banned. What the people can watch will be filtered and edited to support the countries ideals on religion, god and government and their beliefs (not the peoples).

I want to experiment with these medias, or more specifically emulate these media in photoshop. I want to attempt to try and get a pencil effect in my character design. Try to mimic water colour and acrylic paint, as well as my own style.

IRAN WORK

25/11/2020

From the research I have done currently on Iran, I am expecting a massive inequality gap between men and women in the workplace. Turns out the average male salary in Iran is $16,313 (410 entries) while women get £13,857 (92 entries). The incredibly skewed amount of entries implies that there are a greater no of men in the workplace than women.

average salary survey, 2020. Iran salary. [Online]
Available at: https://www.averagesalarysurvey.com/iran
[Accessed 20 November 2020].

Turns out, there is much injustice within Iran's workplace. Equal times said 'Independent trade unions are banned, workers in public companies have to wait months for their wages, labourers in the private sector work under precarious conditions, and if unionists demand their rights, they are silenced with an iron fist.' Now these conditions are contradictory to their policy and legal

system.

According to equal times

I learnt in class about the following labour laws, they were taken from the faramalaw website. On this site it is stated in Clause 4 of Article 43 that:

•it is prohibited to compel individuals into performance of a specific work, and to exploit them.

•The people of Iran, of any tribe and ethnic group, shall enjoy equal rights.

•Colour, race, language and their likes shall not be treated as a privilege, as all people, whether male or female shall be equally protected by law.

•Every person has the right to choose his desired occupation provided that it is not contrary to Islam and public interests, and does not infringe upon others’ rights.

•Article 7: An employment agreement is a written or oral agreement under which a worker performs a job ‘for the employer against receipt of remuneration for a definite (temporary) or indefinite period.

Maternity leave for female workers is a total of 90 days, at least 45 days of which have to be taken after childbirth.

The 1st point basically means that workers cant get exploited. They get payed for their work and their contract cant be altered or changed without legal permission. Other points stress the equality of ethnicity, males and females and how no one type is favoured over the other. however, there are clearly signs in the document that it is male orientated. The pronouns "his" in the standard workers right are a clear giveaway of this. And although women can work in Iran, they need the permission of their husbands first, which in itself is a clear sign in inequality.

On a website called workaway, I found many private jobs through families, teaching them how to speak English. Teaching Iranians English is a very prominent job for English speaking foreigners. However I need to find about job in Iran itself for other Iranians.

Teachers and Doctors seem to be some of the most well paid and respected jobs (although highly competitive). Due to the exceptionally high demand and competition on getting into University. Although it depend son what level you teach. Normal teacher have extremely low pay but any teacher who either teaches or preps student for university can get paid up to 10 million rials ($270) for an hour of teaching.

in this I have stated and briefly explained many of the possible routes of jobs you can get in Iran, as well as some of the rights that protect you.

MY CAREER

Abadi, M. C., 2018. “Iranian workers are not only deprived of their wages but of their basic rights”. [Online]
Available at: https://www.equaltimes.org/iranian-workers-are-not-only?lang=en#.X762bM37QuX
[Accessed 25 November 2020].

FARAMA @ CO, 2020. The Labour Law of Islamic Republic of Iran. [Online]
Available at: http://faramalaw.com/laws1.html
[Accessed 25 November 2020].

Naukri, 2020. 3D Animation Jobs | Motion Graphics Artist Jobs | Pune. [Online]
Available at: https://www.naukri.com/job-listings-3d-animation-jobs-motion-graphics-artist-jobs-pune-advids-co-nasik-pune-0-to-5-years-191120008936?src=seo_srp&sid=16058857077837838_1&xp=2&px=1
[Accessed 25 November 2020].

naukri, 2020. Showing jobs for 'animation, iran'. [Online]
Available at: https://editor.wix.com/html/editor/web/renderer/edit/9dc12f41-4e3b-445c-a0a7-aa95a70bf1aa?metaSiteId=b2251390-4ae5-49b0-85c9-a78e0426e87f&editorSessionId=11865e51-1775-4e92-9caf-646d7e1ef917&referralInfo=dashboard
[Accessed 25 November 2020].

Wikipedia, 2020. Iranian labor law. [Online]
Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iranian_labor_law
[Accessed 25 November 2020].

trend news agency, 2017. Always in demand: Iran's highest paid jobs today. [Online]
Available at: https://en.trend.az/iran/business/2801397.html
[Accessed 25 November 2020].
workaway, 2020. Homestays, Volunteering & Working Holidays in Iran. [Online]
Available at: https://www.workaway.info/en/hostlist?showMoreOptions=0&search=&lang=en&workawayer_capacity=0&languages=&date_start=&date_end=&min_stay=&host_rating=0&country=IR&region=&gnid=&lat=0&lon=0&ct=middle-east&distance=
[Accessed 25 November 2020].

27/11/2020

This is the mood board that sums up my ideal future. I want to do a lot of travelling to places such as America and Australia. Japan is also a prime destination for myself. Many of the animation jobs are in Japan and America so one day I might move there, although Japanese culture is completely different to my own. I like my cars. I don't need a million dollar car, but I do have a soft spot for American muscle. there are also examples of ideas for my future home.

As well as material good, I want find new hobbies, such as playing the gitar. Its the smaller things that matter to me. The hammock to read in at the end of the garden. The dog to come home to and love. The beautiful scenery and the fun times with friends. One day start a family and share my life with those I love.

i also have some career goals on here. Working at a big corporation like Pixar or Disney would be a dream come true. To say " I helped create that movie" and have my name in the credits. To leave a legacy of work behind me that will be analysed and broken down. That will inspire another generation of animators.

As far as my career goals, I have made a rough guide of what a possible path into the future will be. It will start with completing my 1st and 2nd year at South Essex College, achieving the highest grade possible and having the foundations of my portfolio. Next will be University for myself. There are alternatives here such as internships and apprentaships but Uni will be my next goal. I want to study Animation at Portsmouth, or go to a more animation specific course such as the one at Northumbria (where the course is specific to a certain field of animation rather than Portsmouth's bit of everything course). Once I've got my degree, I will either take my masters in my chosen animation field or search for employment. Down the employment route, I will have to start small, maybe at an advertising job. During Uni I can do an extra year in industry to built my contacts and network, as well as get first hand experience in my area of study. This will give me my first taste into employment. Once I get enough experience here and work my way up, I will try and find work at a smaller studio and then eventually the giant studios such as Disney.

IRAN CHARACTER

21/11/2020

Fashion Street Hijab Iranian Style 5.jpg

the-face-of-old-muslim-woman-with-angry-

furious-islamic-lady-hijab-emotionally-s

alamy, 2020. Hands hand close mad angry anger fight punch white fingers finger wrist hold holding grabing grab tight firm - Image ID: ADY913. [Online]
Available at: https://www.alamy.com/hands-hand-close-mad-angry-anger-fight-punch-white-fingers-finger-image2521362.html
[Accessed 22 November 2020].

alamy, 2020. The face of old Muslim woman with angry frowning eyebrows, face hidden in a black headscarf (hijab), color isolated hand drawn illustration - Image ID: J26G3N. [Online]
Available at: https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-the-face-of-old-muslim-woman-with-angry-frowning-eyebrows-face-hidden-139056617.html
[Accessed 21 November 2020].

dreamstime, 2020. Furious islamic lady in hijab emotionally screaming, very angry to someone.. [Online]
Available at: https://www.dreamstime.com/furious-islamic-lady-hijab-emotionally-screaming-very-angry-to-someone-hate-concept-muslim-woman-raising-hands-clenching-image169907872
[Accessed 21 November 2020].

iran gazette, 2020. Fashion: Street Hijab, Iranian Style. [Online]
Available at: https://irangazette.com/en/about-iran/50-iran/trip-to-iran/1354-fashion-street-hijab,-iranian-style.html
[Accessed 21 November 2020].

ISLAMIC SHOP, 2020. IRANI CHADOR WITH DETACHABLE NOSE PIECE. [Online]
Available at: https://islamicshop.in/irani-chador-with-detachable-nose-piece.html
[Accessed 21 November 2020].

mushkiya, 2020. Irani Chadar with Detachable Nose Piece-Only Hijab In Rayon Fabric. [Online]
Available at: https://mushkiya.com/cotton-hijab.html
[Accessed 21 November 2020].

Brief comparison of Countries and Time management - 23/11/2020

For this section of the project, I decided to try a different approach to researching and creating an Iranian character. The western had about 4 days of research on UK regulations, jobs, censorship with the main focus on research for my character. Much of the effort was spent on trying to improve and perfect my characters anatomy in particular - through feedback, interviews, books and simple trial and error. 3 days was spent on the character itself (2 in total) with an extra day specifically for feedback. The UK had the most lacks censorship so I wasn't bound by as many rules as the other 2. The wix write up was done after every day - little and often.

North Korea was a different case. Much more time was dedicated to establishing the laws, culture and regulations of North Korea, as well as attempting a completely different style. Not only was I following a completely different censorship scheme (as well as the new culture, laws and values) I had to research into how to draw anime. Human anatomy is still a weakness of mine, now I had to learn it all again due to the unrealistic proportions of anime. A new character was attempted every few days with mixed results (3 overall). Eventually I was able to pull off the anime style whilst abiding by and appealing to the North Korean system. Images, articles, books, YouTube tutorials and feedback were all used to improve my character design. Also much of the wix website write up all occurred within the last 2 days. Most days was spent on research and experimentation and drawing. This left me 2 days to write up all my findings. This allowed me more time to draw and research but meant the evaluation suffered in places.

So while the UK was split half on research and half on character, and North Korea constantly swapping between the two, Iran was spent majority on research with the final few days on character. This meant I will have more research into the culture and regulations (with a far greater amount of online recourses) but will only have 1 character at the end of the week. The other countries had multiple characters, meaning less time was spent on each individual one to finish the others. This time round all my efforts was on a single character, which in itself has its pros and cons. Research was done specifically for the benefit of my character rather than for the sake of the brief. Unlike the other 2 weeks, I looked at professional animators from Iran, cartoons depicting Iran, Iran's history as well as the normal rules regulations and censorship.

Character Process - 21/11/2020

I will be explaining my methods below and the through process that went into it. Strengths, weaknesses, what I will do differently and what I will do in the future will also be covered. I will also need to say how it meets regulations, doesn't need censoring and the skills I used to create this.

Like all the other designs, I start with the line art. The 1st draft is very rough and is just used to map out the body position, I learnt my lesson of too much detail in previous characters. The image of an Iranian women (with lowered opacity) can be seen in early screenshots. I used her face and body angle as a reference. A weakness from my task 1 was context, how I used my research to help my character.

The face was the start. I first mimicked the facial expression from my main reference image. She looked bored and fed up but still came across as compliant. I had to go away and look for "angry Iranian women" in google. I got the expression I was looking for, the trick was to convert it into the correct perspective. I normally go for a front perspective when drawing characters, so I challenged myself by doing a 3/4 perspective instead.

This made my character face go from bored compliance to visible rage, a much more rebellious characteristic. This made me feel much better. Iranian censorship is very tight (even more than North Korea in my opinion). Clothing is very restricted in Iran so there isn't a lot I can do to show rebelliousness in clothing alone. Much of the detail comes down to the face (the least covered area) and body language. It felt good to get across the right feelings at such an early stage.

I used a similar technique to the North Korea design for planning the body. Although this was corrected later on, a weakness of the body would be the angle. While the head is a 3/4 view, the body is at a almost side view. However, I was able to correct this when adding the clothing. The clothes cover up 90% of the body shape but I still needed to plan out the proportions. I started with drawing the basic ribcage and pelvis, followed by the location of the knees and elbows. Hand and feet just have the basic shape to decide the position.

After finishing the skeleton, I added a fair amount of body mass to gauge how wide to make the clothing. The chador will hang off the body so it is important to establish how thick the arms and general shape are. A new body position also had to established as reoccurring body positions were frowned upon in Western and North Korea character design. Time management was key in being successful. I had two days to complete the character and apply my research to improve the design as much as possible. The line art is very rough with many anatomy errors. However it will be covered up so there would be no point in going too detailed.

After was the veil (the chador). I had 4 possible dresses to choose from for the characters clothing. Above I used several reference images to help me draw my own chador. As well as the images directly above, there are more in the 'Women and further Oppressive Laws (Censorship part 2)'. This gave me a basic understanding on what strict regulations women were under. The head, neck and shoulders must be covered under the regulations of Iran. Forearms can be shown and ankles can to some extent. Many women wear their head veil back as far as possible to show hair, as a small act of rebellion. It was this research that allowed me to follow regulations and avoid the censoring of my character, as well as how I could show rebellious behaviour.

The veil was designed to hang off the body. I found in my research on the chador that there is no way to do it up, women have to hold onto it to keep it all together. The head veil was pulled back even further to show more of the face, although without hair it makes the character feel alien. The fact of her ankles showing and the amount of head exposed was the main way to show her rebelliousness, that and her angry expression and body language.

The western line art was very sketchy, while the North Korean anime line art was thick and blocky (due to the anime style). This time I decided to go down a bit of both. The line art was thickened and tided up on a separate layer. Clear sections were made for clothes creases.

The result of the new line art made the character much more cartoony , which could be a strength or a weakness. People in real life wouldn't have lines around them, we use them to represent shape. In the end I was going for a blend of my western style and the anime style of the North Korea character. I used the block like colours and thick line art of the anime style and found a balance between the two.

My aim was to make it look like acrylic paint, to mimic the style of Farshid Mesghali. He used a mixture of mediums but specifically paint for his portraits.

Although, his style of painting uses defined brush strokes, making his painting rough. Furthermore, he uses abstract colours to define shape, not mere lines. If I want to use him as my main inspiration for my character, I must completely change my art style. My use of colour made the work far too smooth, with colours blending into one another. Black is the most common colour for the chador but dark blue is also an option. As you will see below, I corrected many of these weaknesses near the end of my art work.

The colour was deliberately blocky, like the anime style. The face base colour was far too saturated so I went for a paler (lighter) colour instead. The blues look good and convey the smooth texture of the veil (chador). However the shades are too close together, meaning the light direction is currently unclear. This needed addressing.

22/11/2020

I carried on with this character on the 22nd, aiming to fix the errors of the previous day. I did feel very relaxed drawing the character. Once the difficult bit of planning the body was done, It was easy to go into autopilot and zone out (enjoy the drawing). I added lighter areas and extra shadow to define where the clothe creases would be. This allowed me to remove, or at least minimise, the use of lines to define shape. The aim was reduce the amount of lines used that define the shape, as it looks far more like a cartoon with them. Adding lighter and darker areas help with this goal. Light was added to the right side, making the left cast into shadow. I started with a base colour for each of the shapes. Then, using a mix of block colours, I layered colours on top of each other created the effect of blending (rather than using opacity to achieve the same effect).

The hair would of been the closest I got to the western style. With low opacity strands all overlapping to create the texture of hair.

Although this did improve the artwork, I believe this wasn't done to enough extent. The shadow area still looks too bright and the blues surrounding the light areas need to be lighter. This would also mean the face need to have lighter areas to work with this new light direction. Once again, although the face had some low opacity areas blended into it, it wasn't enough to achieve the desired effect - which is the main weakness of this character. Steps were taken to improve it but was not taken far enough to create any major impact. If I was to do this again, I would use the same techniques and tactics but to a greater extend.

When researching about footwear in Iran, I found that there was no overall restriction or measure dictating the allowed item. In the end I found an image of two adults sitting on the bench and used the females footwear for my character. The angle was completely different but the attempt in transferring it over was successful. Although looking at it now, I do realise the her right foot (our left) does look broken. The ankle is pointing downwards while the foot is angled the our left. Even though body anatomy has greatly improved since the start of task 2, there are still errors to fix.

Along with the screenshots, I starting writing my thoughts and ideas at the time of creation. This was when I decided the mix of the two styles. The line art and colours were of anime, while the human proportions and added details were of the western style (my style). This all resulted in the mix of techniques used to create the character below - the 1st officially complete Iranian character. The character is supposed to have her mouth open, hence the circular shape of her lips. If this is the case then where are her teeth?

To clarify about how she shows her confidents and rebellious, while sticking to guidelines. Her head, neck, shoulders and body is covered up. Her forearm shape is visible (although the arm is covered), hands are visible and her ankles are on show. Too much ankle could get her censored, same with too much head exposed. From the research I have done on Iranian women and the strict guides they must follow, this should fall under Iran censorship.

Overall, I am satisfied with the outcome of my Iranian character. I used the research done during the Iran section of task 2 to improve and adapt my character. The style is different to my North Korea and my western, taking influence from both as well as adapting it to Iran regulations and censorship. Although it may be too similar to my previous attempts at designing characters so more has to be done.

exper 4.1 a, watercolour titorial start.

'New Adjustment Layer' Experimentation - 23/11/2020

Anyway, this new method meant that every layer present was effected. If I am to use this effectively, I need more control over what it impacts. Turns out, after some trial and error, it can effect layers of my choosing by highlighting them before applying the adjustment layer. However it turns out that it only affected the 1st layer highlighted. I cannot highlight multiple layers to be affected by the new adjustment. This mean I would have to either adjust each separate layer, or merge certain layers together. i discovered this by attempt to adjust the colour of the multiple face layers, resulting in the screenshot on the right.

by going to layer, then new adjustment layer, you can edit many of the aspects of the artwork. This can completely warp and change colour, brightness, texture, saturation, contrast...

On the left is a screenshot of my first experimentation with this function. I created a light blue hue and ramped up the brightness, creating this highly colour saturated version of my Iran character.

The hair colour has to stay natural to fit through Iran censorship so I had to be careful. This made the character look like it was created out of pen rather than paint. I want to keep to the traditional medias of Iran. Although the actual media is digital, I am attempting to create the illusion of being done another way.

The way to stop it affecting every layer is to tick this checkbox during the adjustment layers creation. With this new tool, I can adapt the colour of my character to match the abstract colours of the Iranian artist Farshid Mesghali.

My results of this can be seen below. I made the line art layer at 50% opacity, to make them less prominent in shape definition. I learnt that without them the shapes start merging into 1.

In the end, I completely changed the main colour scheme of the character into more abstract colours. The skin colour was exaggerated, the eyes reddened to convey great anger and the dress made purple as it was the main colour of the specific portrait I took inspiration from.

Filters - 23/11/2020

This is an alternative to the 'new adjustment layer' method. It allows me completely alter the style of my artwork with present layouts that can be adjusted. You can only do this on a single layer so all layers affected have to be merged into a "smart" layer. This then allows you to filter certain effects onto your work to completely alter the style. My first two attempt, I went for a water colour style to try and take inspiration from Rasoul Azadani's style. He used watercolour as his chosen medium for his art. I wanted to try and mimic the appearance of watercolour within photoshop. I first noticed that there were no defined edges (few line art). Shape was defined by the use of colour. So one of the 1st thing I did was heavily lower line opacity. Next, I experimented with filters to recreate the smooth blends and stark contrast between light and dark areas. Once I was satisfied with how close I could get to this goal with filters alone, I done 1 more. I used the 'stamp' filter to mimic the style of the Iranian animation and to observe what impact this would have on my character. Even at her most basic, the character still looks stern and no nonsense, with an air of accusation towards someone off canvas.

Going back to the water colour method, I had two alternative designs created by the filters, one with the 'palette' filter and another with the 'watercolour' filter. The watercolour filter had much more defined shape, where the dark colours of the line art become extremely dominant. However it looked much too solid compared to the watered down effects of traditional watercolour. It reminded me of stained glass personally, liquid colour encased in a clear solid object. This could be down to the block colours of the original design, overwhelming the art with high density colour.

I had more success with the palette filter in convey the effects of watercolour. Colours blended into each other and overlapped in places, the line art wasn't the biggest factor in defining shape and the art looked much less solid overall.

However, due to the similarity between colours, the shape was slowly getting lost within the blends.

If I was to do this particular character again for Iran, I would plan my light direction from the start before applying colour. I would also want to research more and attempt a completely new style to the other characters. This one was a mix of the 2 original styles with inspiration from traditional methods. Most of the research was of Iran itself, I wanted to do more research regarding the design of the characters and new tools and techniques to develop it.

Overall I am satisfied with how my character came out. That leaves me with the Evaluation, skills used, my personal career goal as well as jobs in UK and Iran. That is my future plan, to meet these brief points to get the best grade I can at this stage of development.

WATERCOLOUR VIDEO - ALSO ABOVE BY IRANIAN ANIMATORS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?

Full reference in the above section

While both had their strengths and weaknesses, I know I could do better. So I went away and researched a YouTube video about making photos in a watercolour style and attempted to copy the process for my artwork. However, the issue was that they were using tools and methods that I have never used before. They used tools that weren't in my tool bar (and wasn't available when trying to edit my toolbar either) and the experience was completely visual. There were no written instructions or audio (just background music). This resulted in me only being able to complete half the steps before having no choice to give up on this method.

Due to time constraints, I ran out of time to do further investigation and ended up on being finished with the progress I had. I took inspiration from 2 Iranian artists, used several internet images for reference in my design, attempted to use YouTube videos to learn new methods and it all resulted in the characters above. It follows the regulations of Iran (especially on clothing) while definitely falling on the rebellious side.

Below are the steps I was able to carry out (the 1st 5 steps) and what the result was of my mid-process artwork. Many of these were under the filter dropdown and seemed to be a more customised method the the filter gallery. This would give me more control but without the proper experience I could damage the work beyond recognition.

exper 4.8 b, palette vs watercolour filt

Pin lighting and smart blur were the 1st steps. These were additional filter features that I used to create the screenshots below. It merged the colours better and started undefining the shape compared to the original.

This is a brand new method to me as I would of only used the filter gallery from this section. These are new tools that I'm experimenting with to achieve a positive impact on my work.

This was the step I did not understand. I first inserted a image layer representing paper and its texture into photoshop. I then used the mask tool. This was used when not wanted to draw outside a certain parameter of another layer. However the YouTuber used control I on the symbol and the paper inverted. Originally the paper was on top of my character layer, and inverting it almost hid the entire paper layer except for an outline. This was a completely different result of the video itself, which used watercolour brushes after this step to reveal the character beneath the layer. I have a saved copy on my computer and plan to use these new brushes in the future. When it came down to it, my biggest issue was time. I didn't have enough of it to carry on and fix this issue, I had to move on. In doing so I guarantee the other areas of this task to be complete to a better standard. Iran, UK and my own career work still needs to be written up, as well las this very character design analysis at the time of this method.

CHARACTER DESIGN ANALYSIS WRITTEN UP IN 23/11/2020 - 24/11/2020

WATERCOLOUR WRITTEN IN 24/11/2020, RESEARCHED IN 22/11/2020

CHARACTER FINISHED FROM 21/11/2020 - 22/11/2020

ADDITIONAL RESEARCH DATED ABOVE

Peer Feedback on Wix Website, Identifying any errors made and improvements to do - 25/11/2020

During class, I was put in charge of leading a small team through a peer review exercise, showing evidence of my leadership skills and other key features.

The task was separated into 7 sections, with an 8th added on towards the end. I was given the role of 'MP' by the 'PM' (Adam), charged with keeping everyone on task and pushing them to challenge themselves. I had to lead my team through the tasks with the PM inspecting my progress every 5 to 10mins. He gave feedback on my actions and management as leader as well as how to improve myself. The instructions I was given by Adam are shown below.

The 1st task was to create a checklist on everything that was to be completed on my wix website. The list can be seen below (my rough notes and the official write up). I asked my team members what should be on it and guided them to the awnser where necessary.

Once the checklist was voted and agreed upon in the group, I had to show and present it to Adam (explain the process). Much of the discussion and results was verbal, with only rough notes to remind me of this. Everyone sanitised and logged on to their computer and completed all the necessary tasks I was instructed to give.

At the end of my time as leader, the other team members had to anomalously give feedback on my performance. They could say anything they wanted, good or bad. This will be an accurate reflection of my leadership skills as of this time.

My Personal Reflection

Overall, I think I done well as a elected leader, although I am not satisfied with some areas of my performance. There is mostly positive feedback with one main error that kept getting brought up form multiple accounts. It was clear how much stress I was under according to everyone. I need to keep a calm composure in order to keep my team at ease. A stressed out leader could syphon those emotions onto their team.

i needed to slow down on task pace and give people room to breath, I was extremely effective but very intense. I will learn to lower this intensity and control my emotions better for any future times I have to lead people. This was an invaluable learning experience overall.

Peer Feedback on Wix Website, FEEDBACK on the 3 Character Designs - 25/11/2020

Kyle

1. Very obvious its the character made for Iran, the pose fits the brief and seems pretty confident and also combative. The shading is pretty good for the robes however I don't see how the colour blue fits the character very well, as I associate blue with calming and melancholic feeling, but it does complement the skin and hair colours so it still fits in.

2. The pose is nice as it seems quite confident and its a easy to see that its for the western market with the clothing choices and hair, the shading is very nice and add some texture and depth to the character, however its hard to see where the light is coming from in the image because the highlights seem inconsistent with each other and the proportions of the face seem awkward and a bit off.

3. This one looks like it is made for the North Korean market and the pose fits the confident and rebellious parts of the brief but I think the proportions of the left arm seems a bit off and makes the pose a bit more awkward than it could be, the shading of the dress is really nice and adds a lot of depth to the image, the style is quite anime which fits the asian market and the hair is quite nice and has good shading.

Charlie

1. This character is from Iran. I can make this assumption because the characters robes are pretty traditional towards the Iranian culture and their theocracy life style, since females have absolutely got to wear these clothes. I don't see the rebellion side of it, although I don't see the rebellion style, I can see your attempt and I think it looks really good! the shading, the detail within the dress, you were able to make it look very detailed whereas some people might not be able to.

2. Looking at this character, I cant exactly tell which region this is for but I could tell once I looked at the North Korean design that this is a UK design. I really like this because you have made it look like t=you have made the same character in different styles which makes this look so much better than when I originally looked at it. I love the pose, it says 'don't talk to me unless you got swag'. this is great and this makes me see the rebellious side rather than seeing no side at all.

3. This character, obviously North Korean, the dress says it all and the hairstyle does as well. the pose says confidence and the ripped bottom part

FEEDBACK REFLECTION

Overall, I was happy with the feedback I got. Due to time constraints, I did not have time to gather feedback on my Iran character so this was much needed. The clothing of the character made it clear of their Iranian culture. Theocracy was clearly seen from the design itself, showing how my research has clearly impacted my character design. While one feedback said the pose was 'confident and also combative' the other said they 'don't see the rebellion side of it, although I don't see the rebellion style, I can see your attempt and I think it looks really good!' Although it's clear the effort was made, there are varying degrees of success when showing it to an audience.

The North Korean got the most positive feedback - although feedback 2 (Charlie) only had a small response. Feedback 1 (Kyle) said that confidents and rebelliousness was clear from the start with this character, while Iran didn't have this effect. The anime style and Korean influence is clear in both responses. There was an issue with the anatomy of one arm, this can be fixed in the future given the time. The Korean character had the most experimentation and that has had a powerful impact on the quality of the character. The Iran had more research but fell down a bit due to the lack of experimentation. Research is good, but I must leave time to experiment in order to see what works and what needs improving.

The shading is a point mentioned in multiple characters so overall colour choice and style was extremely effective. The same character in different styles was finally noticed by Charlie, which boosted the overall positive response it had on him. The western character itself had similar positives to the others as well as some shared negatives. Light source was a main issue (also brought up in my Iran character evaluation). The face is also a bit off so character anatomy will have to be experimented more in the future to perfect. Much of my anatomy work was not complete until the Korean character, which explains why certain body mistakes are worse in the UK design compared to the others.

EVALUATION

PART 1 - 26/11/2020

Included within my evaluation are the point that Mitch wanted me to cover about the different works from around the world.

1. What have you learnt about censorship and their underpinning ideologies

Censorship is mainly used as a form as control over the people. North Korea uses censorship to control their population and to enforce their ties to the government. Anything too foreign is banned, restricted or is heavily criticised. Blue jeans was the main example, as they were a symbol of everything western. Haircuts were restricted to 15 styles per gender, which meant my character design was limited on hairstyles. Then you have the religious side. Iran made many laws to enforce the Islamic beliefs onto its people. Women had to cover their head, shoulders, neck and top parts of the arm. Once again, western influence was limited and had to be smuggled in. In the case of North Korea and Iran, western influence is heavily restricted in favour for their own culture.

Many of these facts can be seen in day to day life in the workplace. North Korean government designates jobs to its citizens, completely removing freewill from the equation. You go where the government needs you. Iran on the other hand works under similar rules to UK policies (on paper). It shares many of the workers rights of the UK in regards to exploitation, equality and workers rights. However, there is much more corruption, just because the laws are written down dosent mean that they are followed. Women are incredibly oppressed in Iran, as well as the workplace. For starters they need their husbands permission in order to be allowed to work in the first place. As well as this, many of the criteria and regulations (found in the 'Iran work' section) refer to workers as 'him' and 'he'. These pronouns are a clear example of the norm expectations in the workplace. Out of the 3 countries, the UK provides the most protection and rights to workers. Diversity and difference is celebrated and any form of inequality is not tolerated.

2. How has censorship and Ideologies influence design choices that I have made for my character

This research into the censorship and ideologies had to have an impact on my character in order for them to pass through the regulations of each country. For example the North Korean character had to have 1 of 15 designated haircuts and be wearing suitable clothing. Western clothes were a big no (which I would of know without research into this). Western audience had less regulation in comparison to the other cultures. Although they did have to go through regulations that dictated what age can see what media. My character couldn't go over these boundaries if I want to show it to as many audiences as possible. The Iran character wouldn't of been possible without the research into censorship and ideologies. Much of the oppression on women is even worse than North Korea in some cases. They cannot work without their fathers permission, clothing regulations are extremely tight and religion is a much bigger factor in the laws of the country than North Korea and the UK. Due to religious influence by the law, my character had to be careful how much was on show. Women cannot show their shoulders or neck in public and must cover it up. This meant that if I wanted to design a female character for Iran then I will have to abide by clothing regulations.

3. How successful do I think my designs are in meeting expectations of each society that they are designed for

This is essentially a summary of my character feedback. I can't really decide if I've met the target market for myself as I would be incredibly biased. So this is based of the feedback of others. Feedback can clearly see what market each character is design for. The traditional dress of North Korea was the biggest giveaway for my NK character. The chador was the biggest clue for the Iran character. If others can clearly see what market was designated for each character, then it is clear I am meeting expectations.

Iran is an extremely religious society, with many of their laws influence by Islamic culture. Therefore my character must of had a religious background and representation. Personally, I think I was successful in meeting expectations of each society that they were design for. From the feedback I got, it is clear that each character is designed for their specific society. The North Korean is shown as powerful and resilient, with the right amount rejection of Korean culture without crossing the line. The UK character fits the market it was design for. An outfit created through the feedback of individuals in the target market meant my character design was very effective. Even the Iranian design met expectation that were required to pass through Iran broadcast regulations.

4. How do I think a UK audience would respond to the character design for North Korea (NK) and Iran

My characters have been based off the research I put in regarding the culture and countries laws their based off. Due to this, a UK audience will see my characters as stereotypes of their respective culture, or see them as heavily restricted and oppressed individuals. My evidence of this will be their clothing in particular. The North Korean (NK) character is wearing a traditional Korean dress while the Iranian character is wearing a chador (worn by a 1/3 of Iranians according to previous research). The NK dress was at least altered to show some rejection of traditional culture, however the chador is a complete stereotype of Islamic culture.

The Iranian character is wearing a traditional chador, a symbol of Islamic religion. While an Iranian audience will see this constantly in day to day life, this is a much rarer sight in the UK. Women wear it to cover up their bodies in Iran as a mandatory law. However, in the UK, there is no need to cover up. UK citizens will be suspicious of what they are hiding, you don't trust someone who looks like their hiding something from you. Also, due to the stereotypes of Islam in the west, many will see her as borderline dangerous. The chador can cover up any weapon (knifes, guns, bombs...). It human nature to distrust the unknown. Furthermore, the Iranian characters body language is deliberately accusing and aggressive. This will only increase the suspicion of her possible threatening nature.

At the same time, we could have the opposite effect. The UK is a heavily diverse country, home to several different types of religion. A character with clear Islamic influence could be welcomed by British media and audiences. They could represent those with Islamic backgrounds, something current media lacks.

As far as the north Korean Character goes.... North Korea in the eyes of the west is seen as heavily restrictive and completely censored, with little influence from the outside world. However, I believe the North Korean character will be perceived better in the UK than the Iranian. The anime style is familiar to the west. As well as this there is clear rejection of Korean culture in her design. The dress is torn at the bottom and bow, the mandatory pin is missing and the body language clearly show she has nothing to hide. Most UK citizens will see North Korean characters as either oppressed or heavily militarised.

5. How do I think a NK audience would respond to the character design for UK and Iran

North Korea (NK) is considered an non-religious country, an an 'atheist state' according to Wikipedia. Although there are small groups of religion in North Korea, the majority of people and culture widely reject it. Therefore an Islamic character wouldn't transfer well across North Korean media. The very religion and culture of the Iran character would get rejected in NK. Many wouldn't see the appeal and the majority wont even be aware of their religion. It would certainly go against the beliefs of the country and the Kim dynasty.

While the Iran character would translate well and be viewed as (...), the UK character would get hatred from the government and those loyal to it. For starters Blue jeans are outright banned in North Korea (NK), due to their imperial symbolism to the west. Furthermore, they don't like their women showing too much skin, hence they are encouraged to wear baggier clothing. According to prior research, anything that looks remotely "foreign" is look down upon or outright banned in NK. The western (UK) character would not get through Korean regulation without heavy censorship. It would be despised by the government and the public couldn't publicly like it without getting sent to a labour camp. Major censorship would have to occurs for the UK design to reach North Korean. Either that or it would have to be shown up as an example of how "bad" western culture is (basically anti-west propaganda).

6. How do I think a Iran audience would respond to the character design for North Korea (NK) and UK

I know that my UK design would not be allowed to be shown in Iran. For starters, the UK character design would not be allowed under Iran regulations and would require censorship. The crop top reveals skin around the neck and shoulders (clear violations of women dress code). It would be censored by law and filtered for their citizens. The ears and head is also uncovered, due to the lack of headwear. Too much of the body shape is shown. Audiences would just never see this character, let alone a censored version.

The character is clearly not religious, with no religious clothing or symbols. Considering the deep Islamic roots within the law itself, this would be despised among the Iranian government.

Like the UK character, the North Korean character would never reach Iran's audience. For the same reason as the UK, the North Korean character wouldn't be allowed in Iran. Once again, too much of the head is exposed to get through Iranian censorship. The ears and head are completely exposed. Although it stands more chance of getting through than the UK.

PART 2 - 27/11/2020

Checklist: I originally tried to go point by point in awnsering my evaluation. However this lead to certain areas being repeated multiple times due to their similarities to other questions. It made information repetitive and meant some questions had more than lacking awnsers. Overall my evaluation suffered as a result of this format so I will be trying a different method in this next set of questions. On feedback to my website, I found out the word count was approaching 30,000 at this point, averaging 1000 words a day. This, in my opinion is far too much, and resulted in physical and mental pain, probably due to stress and overworking myself. Mental health must come first which is why I will be forcing myself to adapt until I can sustainable manage this workload without negative effects.

1. How have I become more professional since the start of September DONE

2. How has my soft skills developed since the start of September that will help me into employment DONE

3. How has my transferable skills developed since the start of September that will help me into employment DONE

4. How has my subject specialist skills developed since the start of September that will help me into employment DONE

5. How have I developed my skills to help me organise myself and my work, especially to meet deadlines and targets since September

6. How have I demonstrated consideration and professionalism when working with others since September

Since September, much has changed in my work ethic and how I handle tasks. September tell now means all tutorial sessions, social action lessons, task 1 and 2 (project 1) and blended learning can be used to back up my next statements. If I compare my work to pre-September (eg the transition work) it is clear how much I have developed on a skills and professional level. All the skills below are apart of being 'professional', with their developments key to

It is important to establish a definition for the many kind of skills before ~I go into detail about each one. Transferable skills are skills you would use in any workplace. Doesn't matter if you work in McDonalds or Disney, in order to work at either, you must have these skills to be successful. Examples of this would be communication, handling pressure and strong adaptability. Soft skills are skills that are essential in the workplace which are not specific to that job. For example, when working at Disney, you need to meet deadlines, work as a team and be able to lead your group. This makes them very similar with transferable skill, due too many overlaps in specific skills. Finally we have subject specific skills, these are skills specific to the job or employment that you are in. For example in 2D animation, it is important to know how o draw and use your software effectively. In most cases, there is no need for this software unless you're in this specific field of work.

So, let's talk about my skills specifically now we have established a definition and what is available to back myself up. I will start with transferable skills. My own job (at Pizza Hut) would be the perfect example to back myself up. I have to work under several small deadlines to get orders out on time. I have to constantly adapt to the orders of management and priorities their order to get the best results possible. I also have to work with (and in some cases lead) the other kitchen staff around my work station, requiring teamwork, leadership and communication especially. However, I need to use this course to show the skills above, not my personal and professional life. There were multiple instances during class where I had to work as, and in some cases lead, a team throughout a given task. I have had to present and talk in front of my class several times and lead multiple small groups. The biggest case of this was when I was voted by my team to be 'MP', where I was trusted with instructions by the 'PM'. I had to lead and manage my team to complete the tasks given, a clear example of leadership. The instructions and feedback to my performance is shown above on this webpage. Leadership is a skills that is essential for any kind of employment. When leading a team, communication (verbal and sometimes written) is crucial, you must be clear on instructions and to the point when helping those who need it. You cannot go through any employment without communication skills. Without it, you would never be able to organise others as a collective to get tasks done. It has been through these class excersises that I have developed these skills, which wouldn't of been possible before September.

Soft skills, as stated above, are skills used in the workplace that are not specific to the job you're doing. They are essential in order to be successful, but can be used in any work or professional environment. Examples of this would be adaptability, empathy and patients. I can clearly show adaptability through out my task work. Before September, I would of had no experience in Photoshop or Wix. The computers were new and completely alien to me, the keyboard was different and the graphic tablets were tiny. By looking at my concept 1 and comparing to later concepts, it is clear of the development in timing and quality. My photoshop skills would of greatly improved. I had to overcome obstacles such as dodgy line art, blocky colours, cliche ideas, the introduction of vector tools and many more brand new issues to deal with. In lesson, I had to get used to the new PC, keyboard and graphic tablets as they were completely different to my own home set up. I use windows, they use apple. I have a mechanical keyboard, they have a apple one. The schools graphic tablets are tiny, mine is 16inches and has a screen but is incompatible with school systems due to lack of HDMI slot. These were clear issues that I have had to deal with over the weeks.

Although it was established empathy and patients were my weaker skills in task 1 (see task 1 page for more), they have still developed. My patients was tested multiple times with these "different" computers and "questionable" network connections. My patients was also tested multiple times during feedback, especially during my North Korean character design. I uploaded my 1st copy of a Korean character in Discord and it got destroyed and broken completely by Ayo (under the name 'BM'). Every time I made changes to my new character, it got equal treatment. It was an onslaught of critique and a big list of errors each time I uploaded. Although it was my most useful feedback (forcing me to push my creative limits in character design) it was my greatest test of patients. Having your work verbally torn apart in front of you is incredibly frustrating.

The last skill I want to talk about is empathy, understanding someone else emotions, see it from their perspective. It was clear at the start of the course this was an area I lacked. I found it hard to read others and came across as "robotic" almost "preformed". However, I have got to know the people in my class these past few months. I have been there to comfort them in their lowest points. I have listened patiently and held my tongue when opinions are fired that I don't necessarily agree with and debated them on it where suitable. I have helped those who are struggling to complete work even on the day of this write up (ask Scott), trying to give Mark and Josh motivation to do their evaluations. Explaining where to look, what to use, how to answer the questions and how to structure their orders. At this point it all comes down to their motivation and effort in what result they achieve with their evaluation.

Subject specific skills are skills required for your specific job/employment. For example, If I was working in an animation job, I could need certain skills in Photoshop or Adobe Animate in order to complete my task. These skills would not translate well into my Pizza Hut job, as they are not needed to do their tasks - making these skills subject specific.

If I use Photoshop as my main example of development in this case, it is clear how my skills have developed from the start of September. As already stated above, my concept 1 in task 1 went through some extreme changes as I developed my Photoshop skills. In 6 weeks, I completely transformed my concept arts until it got to the point of my final concept art. You can even see the development in this project. I made it a personal goal to improve in character design (particular humans) as my long term target. This very task is proof of my progress. I had tolerant several new techniques to plan and draw the human body. Much research and failed attempts were made in progressing in human anatomy. Much feedback was given and many changes were made. All 3 of my final characters represent different styles with different anatomy. The western (my personal style that was developed form the concepts arts), the Korean (anime style with eastern features) and Iran character (a blend of the previous 2 mixed in with more traditional techniques). Each stage required many specific skills to progress to the next part. Line art went from sketchy to bold, finally using colour and shade to define shape instead. Colour went from my opaque soft blends to overlapping block colours to a mix of both (with many filters to give the illusion of traditional medias). The face went through several method changes and alterations throughout the process. From books, to tutorials to feedback and pre-existing examples, I improved and adapted my skills. Even now it is still no where near perfect, but a lot better than where it started off at. I knew nothing of human anatomy at the start of September and now I have designed 3 successful character in 3 different styles for 3 completely different markets.

Through out the weeks at college, I have had to meet many deadlines (the main 2 being the final deadline for task 1 and 2 of project 1). Deadlines and task management have never been weak areas for me. I can confidently say that I have managed to stick to my deadlines and get my work in on time. A useful method I found is to get the bullet points form the task brief and work out which one I will cover for each day. I would give the write up so many days, the character design drawing so many days and a few left for any final touches that need to be made. For example, the final day of this task is to finish and improve my evaluation where needed and to look back for anything I have currently missed ( my career goal in this case). When doing work for this task, I decide what I'm doing that day and work tell it gets completed. Although this did lead to a massive burnout at the final week of task 2. Due to the sheer quantity of work I completed in 3 weeks (on Tuesday of 4th week) I was in physical pain. My eyes were far too strained (it hurt to look at electronic screens) and my head was pounding. Focus became impossible. This was a result of many late nights working and many afternoons studying. It was too much of a mental and physical strain on my body and mind.

Consideration and Professionalism have greatly developed. I have had to work with others on several occasions, all with their own opinions on what and how it should work. I need to listen to other peoples opinions and respect their choices. There were quite a few times in class where my view wouldn't of line dup with those around me. Debate is fine and healthy but you have to respect others views. Professionalism has many ties into the skills that were spoken about above and I don't want to go over the same points already made.

CH