Project - Inspirations:

Inspirations 

'Spider-Man: Into The Spiderverse' Film:

From watching the 2018 animated Marvel Spider-Man film, I was inspired to create myself as a Spider-Man character. The main message of the film was that 'anyone can be Spider-Man' as it displayed multiple versions of Spider-Man from different dimensions. The 'Spidersona' character creating trend, came out of this movie release as many fans and artists wanted to depict a visual character design based on their own personality traits.   

Below, I have demonstrated a range of different 'Spidersona' character designs. I wanted to research to see how other artists had approached the challenge and how the visual outcomes came out. Some of my favourite features is to focus on the colour scheme and the dynamic body poses. 

Jazza's Spidersona YouTube Video:

 Creating a 'Spidersona':

To build up the skills and apply the researched knowledge, I wanted to create a 'Spidersona' for someone I know. I found this process to be really enjoyable. My focused subject was my girlfriend's brother, Connor. He loves superheroes and comic style films which just boosted the enjoyment of my process.

As Connor is 4, I wanted to tap into the childish and playful traits he has. Which is why I created a 'fancy dress up' version of Spider-Man, but just fitting the style to Connor.  

I definitely enjoyed this process, however when creating my own 'Spidersona' character design, I feel as I can be more original and fit more of a personal aesthetic to compliment my interests. For example, including features of the 80s. Bold, neon coloured lights in the design will effectively reflect on my love of 80s music. Tapping into popular 80s fashion and imagery will be much more impactful than Connor's 'Spidersona', where he is just effectively dressed up as the pre-existing version of Spider-Man.  

Spidersona, The 80s & My 18th Birthday:

Developing ideas from the 80s with other influential superheroes, into a visual idea page, helps me envision the specific style and aesthetic my character design will have.   

I also wanted to include references from my 18th birthday party as I dressed as Marty McFly, from Back To The Future, as my party was 80s themed. 

Using 'Marty McFly' as character reference, I adopted some clothing ideas from him as well as 'Star Lord' from 'Guardians Of The Galaxy' (with the use of the headphones.) Mixing these inspirations together, definitely portrays a vintage and retro aesthetic, reminiscing of the 1980s.

From these 'Spidersona' creation exercises, I have developed a key skill in character designing which will be very useful when establishing my own original characters. I have built up on my anatomy skills, making sure all body features are in proportion. Within comic books, some body features (mainly muscular structure) is exaggerated to portray an almighty amount of strength. Anatomy and proportions are still important as if you over emphasise too much, the character will look incorrect and unrealistic.