Once the resin was dry; which as it was dipped was over night I peeled the samples off the surface I have placed them on and observed them. Most of the flowers had lost their coloring and have shriveled up. It also wasn't very apparent that they had been dipped in resin at all

Resin was another material I experimented with.I spent the day prepping materials I had gathered earlier to be dipped and sealed in resin. This was my first time using resin and i'd be happy to use it again, it's a great material and I would imagine my dipped samples will look great on the model.

Next I started sculpting faces out of Plasticine. I'm comfortable using Plasticine, it's nice to work with and it leaves a nice finish! I spent the rest of the day doing this, trying to get the right expression and character in the models.

I experimented and played around with facial expressions a lot more! I want this model to be just right in regards to expression.

I've now moved onto my experimentation, one of the processes I did involved the hot glue gun. It was suggested to me that I use the glue from a hot glue gun as a synthetic material for my model. I streaked hot glue down a glass plate (the glass prevents it from sticking) and once dry I peeled it away and tested it out on a pre drawn face in my book. Initially I wanted to use it for some kind of facial hair but after testing I realized it would look better as bits of plant life dripping off the body.

I continued to play around with different idea's and designs.

The common hare was in fact a really good piece of research because it's character fits the leshy's character really well. The leshy is described as being mischievous and sneaky, which are the characteristics that are used to describe a fox. It also makes me think, how do I want my character to stand? if it's being compared to a fox then surely it should look slender and toned?

Next I looked at eastern European animals and their features in more detail. For example the deer is indigenous to eastern Europe, it's most distinct feature is it's antlers! I went on to create deigns that incorporated the antler feature. I also analysed the brown bear and the common hare.

If i'm to design a character I need to have good facial references, so I spent the next couple of days taking photos of my peers at college for primary research. I asked them all to pull a range of different expressions, it went really well! I then went on to sketch some of these expressions and attempted to transform them into a character using their distinct features such as the eyes, the furrow of the eyebrows and the mouth (which are the sections of the face that show the most emotion)

Once I had the photo's of the lockton's printed off I began to experiment with the different design possibilities of the horns. I came to a realization then that I shouldn't incorporate Locton sheep characteristics into my piece, mainly because they're not indigenous to eastern Europe and my character is so it wouldn't make sense. It's at this point I started to explore the wildlife of eastern Europe in more detail.

I went on to take more primary research, this time I took some photos of animal life, particularly Lockton sheep. The Leshy is described has having large horns that are fashioned in the shape of rams horns, Lockton's were the closest thing I could get to that!

I've started to move onto my designing stage now, I've explored organic growths in nature such as ivy, fungus and moss. I really want my character to have a sense of scale and age, I don't want his form to be made out of the same materials! I went out and took photographs of a forest environment and the plant life within it, I also took some samples home for experimentation. From this Primary research I went on to make some small designs. I was particularly interested in some pine cones I collected, I extracted some of the segment and experimented with different layering techniques.

Pans Labyrinth by Guillermo Del Toro is also a really big influence for me because it's characters are so similar to my "Leshy" character. The character I'm referring to is the faun.
His obvious features; The horns, goat like ears and pale complexion are incredibly similar to the Leshy's characteristics.

I've spent the majority of my time looking at artists such as Jordu Schell, who is a world renowned sculpture and model maker with in the film industry. I really love his style, he's a rare talent because he is part of a handful of people that are asked to make physical models for film production; it's mostly all done in 3D software. I've done an in depth analysis of his work in my book. What really jumps out at me in his work are the eyes of the models! they're so lifelike it's scary. 

He uses a very diverse range of materials including ones that I've never had the opportunity to use at college. Materials such as silicone and latex for the skin and texture! If I'm to take anything away from his influence it would be the expression he captures in the eyes of his characters

In addition to the previous research I also looked at Henry Selick's Coraline. I studied the model making techniques and styles of the stop motion in the previous project, I still find the character and set design really inspiring now. The things that really jump out at me are the elongated limbs of the characters, it gives them an elegant and aesthetic feel. Also the sets are incredibly detailed, I was surprised to discover that these sets we're in fact tiny, knowing this now I can really appreciate the amount of time and skill that's gone in to creating them. I hope that my model and set will reflect a level of skill that can be appreciated by the viewer.

On the way

I spent the day researching into the Mythology behind the Leshy, I discovered that it comes from Slavic myth. Tomorrow I'm going to explore it in more detail. I've also built a basic picture of the Leshy's characteristics and form. It's very nature based; it's beard is made from grass and vines, it's pale with golden eyes and has hooves and horns. I'm going to us this information and build onto it using my own ideas. At the moment I'd like this model to be scary and sinister/Gothic, mainly because it's features would really compliment that sort of character

Leshy interpretation

I've also researched into examples of characters in stop motion/animation films such as Madame Tutli-Putli, Corpse bride and The nightmare before Christmas! So much life and spirit has been captured in the characters in these films, I'm hoping they will inspire and influence me to make my model as alive as possible; I'm going to achieve this through the use of expression, posture and costume.

Madame Tutli-Putli

Corpse Bride

I think the main things I need to consider at the moment is the scale of my model and also where it's going to be set, what environment? how big will that be?
I'm going to continue to focus on the research side of this project for the time being. Next week I'll move on to my primary research where I'll go out and photograph relevant references which will aid me during the design stage.
I'm really relieved that I've settled on a character! I can now get stuck in with this project! 

Pinterest is really good for research! I'm finding so many great examples of modelmaking

What kind of character??

Now that I know I'm going to specialize in character and set design I need to decide on an idea. I don't have much time on this project, it goes on for 6 weeks and it's already the Wednesday of the first week! YIKES! *puts skates on*.
To save me the time of making a character profile I'm going to choose a creature that already exists in myth. I want this character the be obscure, I don't want it to already exist in visual media. Characters such as Medusa and a the Minotaur have been done to death. I managed to find exactly was looking for by googling "cool mythological monsters" and I got some really weird ones!

Vodníci, Czech Republic/Slovakia
 "Have you ever felt something strange at the bottom of a pond? If you’re not sure what it was, we suggest the Vodníci, a breed of underwater ghouls who dress like vagrants and proudly store human souls in cups. That’s right — after you’ve been drowned by a Vodník, your soul is eternally doomed to his cup, the creature’s one prized possession. When a Vodník isn’t busy killing swimmers, he will often spend his time leisurely smoking tobacco, loitering, and playing cards at the water’s edge. Sounds like a fun guy to us!"

I like the idea of this character, there's a lot of opportunity to get really gothic and dark with the designs and model creation. Also he's not very well known (in this part of the world anyway) I could really make it unique!

I also really like this guy!
Leshy, Eastern Europe
"A Leshy usually appears as a tall man, but he is able to change his size from that of a blade of grass to a very tall tree. He has hair and a beard of living grass and vines, and is sometimes depicted with a tail, hooves, and horns. He has pale white skin that contrasts with his bright green eyes"

In regard to materials and experimentation this charterer really jumps out! 

At the moment I'm definitely drawn to the Leshy creature. I'll need to do in depth research into this creature and the culture/history behind it if I'm to understand it fully. I'll also need to research into model making/set design itself so I can get a good idea of how this character will be created.

Decision time

Okay, after juggling loads of different idea's for FMP (Final Major Project) I decided to settle with a simple character design/set design project. I found it really difficult to decide because I'm unsure of my specialist area, do I want to do character design? concept design? illustration? Animation? hence I came to the conclusion to create something that embodies all of these areas. However after completing a short animation/stop motion in the last project I decided I wasn't at all keen on the process of capturing the motion of the characters, but I thoroughly enjoyed making the models and sets! I'm confident that this is where my main strength lies.
My Sets in the last in the last project-
They consisted of a boat made of card then painted with acrylic and a coral reef interpretation made out of hot air gunned polystyrene! (I'm not sure what happened with the picture layout?) I also made tentacles out of plasticine, you can see the pulling at the boat and protruding out of the reef.

Currently

At the moment I've specialized in 4 different areas of study, which are Illustration, Animation, 3D and Graphics. I'm happy with these four subjects because they are all link into one another. I've found that when I make a breakthrough with one topic; whether it be a new technique or material used I can take what I've learned and use that in the other subjects.
During my Final major project I'm planning on doing a daily diary, in this I will log my progress and techniques as well as look back and reflect on what I've done.
Currently I've been given my briefs for the final few weeks before FMP, during this time I hope to achieve all of my remaining units. I'm starting a diary now so that I can get into the routine of logging my progress and self reflecting on my work.