Above are 12 potential palettes for Russi, obviously I can only use 1 in the end so I began the process of narrowing it down by picking what I felt were the 4 strongest palettes. Below I will explain what I liked about each of these palettes:
#1: I liked the 'natural' tone of the fur and the delicate shade of red against the dull navy blue. However, I worry that the navy may be a little too dull for a mascot character who should be happy and energetic.
#2: I personally love bright pastel colours as they add a sense of fun and excitement to a character. However, I am concerned that this palette may be a little too busy to be memorable, with the inclusion of 4 noticeably different sections of the colour wheel (this doesn't include shades or tints - white, grey and black).
#3: I liked how this palette had great contrast, making the stars on her design (the icon or symbol I would use to define her) stand out against the purple and blue tones. However, there is so much purple and blue in this palette that the whole design almost blurs together. Also, the colours on this unintentionally look quite similar to Sash Lilac - one of the protagonists from Freedom Planet, another platform game.
#4: This design uses a set of colours that is tried and tested with mascots. It's called a triad and it consists of 3 colours (most commonly: yellow, red and blue) that are equidistant from one another on the colour wheel. White is also very often used to tie the trio of colours together - a few examples of characters that use this kind of palette are Sonic the Hedgehog, Super Mario and Donald Duck. However, with the colours being used so often, I worry that it could make my design look more generic, despite my unusual use of yellow as the dominant colour.
#2: I personally love bright pastel colours as they add a sense of fun and excitement to a character. However, I am concerned that this palette may be a little too busy to be memorable, with the inclusion of 4 noticeably different sections of the colour wheel (this doesn't include shades or tints - white, grey and black).
#3: I liked how this palette had great contrast, making the stars on her design (the icon or symbol I would use to define her) stand out against the purple and blue tones. However, there is so much purple and blue in this palette that the whole design almost blurs together. Also, the colours on this unintentionally look quite similar to Sash Lilac - one of the protagonists from Freedom Planet, another platform game.
#4: This design uses a set of colours that is tried and tested with mascots. It's called a triad and it consists of 3 colours (most commonly: yellow, red and blue) that are equidistant from one another on the colour wheel. White is also very often used to tie the trio of colours together - a few examples of characters that use this kind of palette are Sonic the Hedgehog, Super Mario and Donald Duck. However, with the colours being used so often, I worry that it could make my design look more generic, despite my unusual use of yellow as the dominant colour.
On reflection of the above, I'm going to proceed with the triad design for now. I feel like the design of environments greatly impacts how a character's colour scheme should look so there may be revisions during the contextualisation process.
Getting a colour palette in place is only the beginning of finalising this character's design. The next processes were to create a concept / reference sheet (with a turnaround and character expressions) and what I would call a "final piece" - a dynamic picture of the character that is fully coloured and shaded.
I started thinking about the final piece by doing some quick digital sketches, I decided on one of these and made some small edits (such as changing the direction Russi is facing to make it feel more welcoming to an observer).
I started thinking about the final piece by doing some quick digital sketches, I decided on one of these and made some small edits (such as changing the direction Russi is facing to make it feel more welcoming to an observer).
I settled on the final pose shown above as I felt like it captured a cuteness and a sense of energy and adventure within the character. Following this I have started work on a reference sheet which includes a front and back view, some expressions and the final piece. I'll be posting it as part of my next blog post: "Semester 1: Body of Work" - it should be posted in the next few hours, look forward to it!
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