Mid-Term results

The mid-term went well, although I didn't achieve the goals I had set out I learned a lot that could help me in future projects.

To put things in perspective:

I couldn't finish the emotion sheets like I wanted to, I ended up cancelling that part of the project. Reason for this was because I only started to draw faces with emotion two months ago and I didn't know back then how much I still needed to learn and how frustrating it was going to be. 

Learning a skill this complex takes more then a few months and some tutorials. 

But, I learned a lot about what makes the face: 

- Skull, muscles and features such as eyes and nose determine someone's appearance. I know now how these elements are structured together and how they work, which will help a lot with 3D modelling and animation. 

- The skull is the base that supports the muscles, features and eventually the skin. It determines the shape of the face and can differ in profile, width and height. 

-There is a standard for face proportions Andrew Loomis mentions, but it's important to know that not all faces are confined to these standards. The features that deviate from the standard are the features that makes a person recognisable. Someone's eyes might be farther apart, or someone's nose might be larger then usual. These are the things you'll notice when you meet someone. 

Aside from these facts, I also gained some general knowledge about acquiring a new art skill:

- Two months are not enough to learn a new skill

- "defining your own style" is a not a goal. It is something that happens through process. It is a preference you develop for little or big details.

- Some things are better to draw from 3D then from 2D. While drawing the skull from other drawings I had a difficult time imagining the shape of some parts, such as the eye socket. But when I used the 3D skull from Visual Science, it all snapped into place and drawing became a lot easier and logical.

- You think in 3D, but you draw in 2D. Always imagine the whole shape before drawing one aspect of it.

- A classmate of mine showed a lot of progress by drawing 20 quick poses each day in his dummy. I'm still hitting myself on the head for not doing that with the face practice. In the end he had a book where you could browse through the pages and see the progress as you went on.

The mid-term put an end to the research phase and the next step is to build the scene. I'm going to start building a mock-up where I could have an audience test my assumptions before finalizing it.