Character Designs and Breaking Into The Story

This week I have been sketching designs for the different characters in the Snow Queen. To do this, I have been looking at the time and place the story was set in, the kind of clothes they would each wear, their traits and personalities as well as symbolism throughout the story. As shown in the images below, I've created a mood board filled with images that will inspire me in the creation of the character the Snow Queen, ranging from snowy scenic landscapes to patterned white lace. Meanwhile I've also continued with media experiments.

The Snow Queen character research and design, Selina Quach

The Snow Queen character research and design, Selina Quach

I find it easier to create character designs by drawing the character in a certain scene or doing something related to the story, therefore that is how I went about developing ideas.

The Snow Queen is an isolated figure who according to Kai's old grandmother "never remains on earth, but flies up to the dark clouds". This has understandably given her a reputation as a frightening otherworldly creature. However she shows a lot more human emotions than her icy exterior suggests as she kidnaps Kai due to a mixture of selfishness and loneliness and a desire to fill the emptiness that is actually within her.
Appearance-wise she can be described as beautiful, regal, grand and graceful. She wears a dress that "appeared to be made of the finest white gauze". All of this inspired the illustration below. I have also found that gouache (which is the material used here) is quite successful in recreating the gauze-like effect.

The Snow Queen and Kai, Selina Quach

The Robber Girl is another interesting character that is more complex than you would first expect. Along Gerda's journey to find Kai, she is ambushed by the Robber family, including the Old Robber Woman who wants to eat Gerda. However the Robber Girl stops her, biting her mother's ear and proclaiming that Gerda will play with her, give her her muff and sleep in bed with her. Though she seems at first to be a selfish and willful young girl, she shows a kinder side to her nature when Gerda tells her story to her, and she decides to let Gerda go, even giving her Bae, the reindeer and her extra warm gloves.

The Robber Girl is described as having being "about the same size as Gerda but stronger; she had broader shoulders and a darker skin; her eyes were quite black, and she had a mournful look. There wasn't any information about her background but it would probably be quite rare at the time this book was set to have someone with dark skin in Northern Europe, and the fact that she travels around with her family reminded me of gypsies.

The Robber Girl character designs, Selina Quach

The Raven character design and another painting of Gerda, Selina Quach

Kai's change throughout the story as the shard effects his mind and personality,
Selina Quach

Compositional sketches for the first chapter, Selina Quach

Gerda and The Raven, Selina Quach

I began compositional sketches and the above is the first full painting of a scene from the story. It's helpful for me to paint scenes straight off I can then figure out what kind of materials/technique to use for the final book. I tried to bring across the colours of autumn as seasons is a strong theme. As the seasons change in the book I might change the colour palette accordingly.

Initial Sketches, Further Research & Personal Tutorial with Louise

This week, I started on some inital sketches just to get my brain flowing for illustrating the Snow Queen. I began drawing things that popped into my head; main symbols such as the snowflake and began on some character design of Gerda, the heroine, and Bae the reindeer from part five of the story. They are as shown below.

As far as media is concerned, I have started experimenting with a range of material to see what will work best including brush pen, colour fine liners, water colour, water colour pencils and gouache, as these are the ones that have suited my work best in the past.

I've additionally been reading some texts which analyse the Snow Queen, in particular Wolf Lederer's The Kiss of the Snow Queen which gives some quite insightful and in depth analysis of the themes in the story that one wouldn't normally pick up just from reading the book.

The Raven

Gerda character designs I

II

III

IV

Reindeer drawings from London Zoo 

II

III

The Kiss of the Snow Queen by Wolfgang Lederer

 I also had a tutorial with Louise today where she advised me on my work. Here were the points made summarised:

• Stop researching other artists - put pen to paper and draw!
• Draw from life
• Work larger
• Find out Gerda's background to create a more informed character design
• Create a modern interpretation of the story by the way I draw instead of changing the characters' appearance
• Go the print room to get an A3 sketchbook bound with different types of paper, as some of my work from the last project could have been used as final pieces