Saturday 14 February 2009

The Spirit in the Bottle Character Designs



The Spirit in the Bottle is a fairytale about a Woodsman who saves all his money and puts his son through school, but before his education is finished the money runs out. The son borrows an axe from the neighbours and joins his father to earn more money, while the father is resting the son finds a bottle in the forest. He opened it, and a spirit sprang out and declared she would break his neck. The son said first he had to see that the spirit really came out of the bottle so the spirit went back in to show him, and the son closed the bottle again. The spirit begged him and offered to make him rich. The son thought it was worth a risk and he opened it. The spirit gave him a bandage that would cure all wounds and a stick that would turn iron to silver. He tried the bandage by cutting a tree and using it, and it worked. He turned the axe to silver, and it bent on a tree. He persuaded his father to come home with him, because he did not know the way, and sold the silver for far more money than was needed to repay the neighbour for the axe. He went back to school and became a famous doctor. I wanted the father to be a bit of a bruiser as I would imagine you would want to be tough enough to do the job but I did not want him to look mean. I made the son a falconer to elude to the boy being sent to Saudi Arabia to be educated to be a doctor as surgery was developed to a high degree in the Arab world. I want the spirit to look vicious as she does threatens to snap the boys neck. I hope you like them.

Monday 2 February 2009

Bearskin Character Designs



Here are some character designs I did for a Grimm brothers fairytale called Bearskin. I thought I would set it in Russia. It is about a soldier who comes home from a war and is homeless and a demon in a coat appears to him and tells him if he does not cut his hair or clip his nails for seven years he would make him a wealthy man the soldier takes the deal and the demon gave him the coat and tells him he would find its pockets full of money and a bearskin, telling him that he had to sleep in it and would be known as Bearskin because of it. He gave most of the money to poor people and they would pray for him, After a few years he overhears an old man telling a story of how the innkeeper is going to throw him in prison so he paid the old mans bill and gave him a purse of gold. The old man offered to let him marry one of his daughters the two older sisters are disgusted by him but the youngest sister agrees and Bearskin gives her half a ring as a promise. After the seven years the man cleans himself up and comes back and the youngest sister does not recognise him so he put the other half of the ring into a wine cup and then she realise who he is. The first character is the demon and then Bearskin next is the soldier cleaned up next is the youngest daughter next is her father next to him is the eldest daughter and last is the middle daughter. I hope you like them.