This is my selfportrait, partially made out of objects. I painted myself in a dancing position, because I love salsa dancing and it is a big part of who I am. The background is a tropical red and orange gradient, because that suits the dance and my character. (Not that I'm tropical, but more like vicious.) I put 10 and 1 cents in my eyes, because I never have a lot of money, but always want it. The Wax stamp is my nose, because I love the traditional ways of working, like writing letters and making books. The tweezers are my eyebrows because I do that every day and I find it important to maintain. The red dots on my skin resembles my skin disorder, it has and still is a big part of my life (sadly enough) and I think I should also show the bad things instead of only the good things.

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CHARACTER DESIGN

FAULTY LILLY

GICCI GUCCI

FLAMENCO FLAMINGO

Workshop
Make a character out of objects.

INSPIRATION

Flamenco Flamingo.
Flamenco is a clumsy, insecure, obviously gay Flamingo, who wants to be the best Flamenco dancer ever.
There is just one problem... he's a terrible dancer, which makes him even more insecure. He tries very hard to be part of the good dancer's group, but they just laugh at him.
Everyday he practices Flamenco in an abandoned studio, but when he goes out to dance, he has massive blackouts, and makes a complete fool of himself. He only has one friend, who he takes for granted, Timothy Toad. Timothy admires Flamenco, because he can't dance at all, and everyone thinks he's gross. At least Flamenco has nice plumage.
Will Flamenco ever reach the level of top Flamenco dancing? Will he find out the true meaning of fiendship?
To be continued...

I found it difficult to get the right background, but I'm happy with the end result. I wanted to use yellow, orange or red shades at first, because it suits the dance, but Flamenco is very clumsy and gangly, so I decided to use the opposite so it would fit his character better.

Sketches of Flamenco. I decided to make the character around this first sketch. It cracks me up every time haha. I sketched some different dancing positions, which you would see in flamenco dancing (done by men). I also used the clothing style, ruffles, gilet and shoes with (for men) high heels. The castagnettes are mostly used by woman. I put them in anyway, because he is gay after all and else it would be hard to tell it's about Flameco dancing.

Faulty Lilly.
My first idea for my character was my own cat Lilly. She goes against all expectations. We wanted a sweet loving female cat, we got a destructive, neurotic, hyperactive, scratching, biting cat. I linked all sorts of (human) disorders to her, such as: Claustrophobia, Foot fettish, Pyromaniac etc, to give her a more human like charatcer. But I could only make this (somewhat) clear in the surroundings, and not in her appearance. I thought that was kind of boring, so I decided not to use her as my character.

Gicci Gucci is a fake Gucci purse.
Her (and her owner's) character is visible through the products she carries with her. She wants to look super fabulous, and wants all the expensive brands, but she can't afford it. She acts like a spoiled, rich b*tch, when she's being carried around. But when she's alone, she's very insecure and affraid. She knows that she's fake, but tries to hide it. I didn't use this character because I wasn't very enthusiastic about it.

Riso printer version :)

15 ways

Here you can see all the 15 ways
I made and the process of the whole project.

CHARACTERCARD

SELFPORTRAIT

INK

INK

LINO

3D PEN

ACRYLIC PAINTING

OIL PAINTING

CASTAGNETTES

PRACTICE CD

PAPER DOLL

SILK SCREEN

SJABLOON

CARTOON

FLYER