Beginning research for the 1st task.

I've decided my insect of choice, the only thing we were told regarding this project was insects so we have free reign as far as with what direction we will take. As I am choosing to specialise in 2D character concept for my main project work I will be going in this direction with these tasks.

What I will be doing is what we learned in Year 1 to create this character, to get ideas for the character I will be ...

• Creating Mood-Boards.
• Doing Silhouettes to garner a shape to the character. (probably around 25).
• Creating a final piece (will hope to make it polished).

I've decided to trim the fat so to speak with the process for this task. I skipped doing values and different outfits because we don't have too much time to get this done. Normally I would create numerous outfits but I think I will just choose from outfits I found in my research to guide what I end up drawing.

First things first, a little information on said Moth ... I am going to be focusing on the Acherontia species as this one is the most recognised, and the skull is most prominent.

My favourite information from this is

"In spite of the fact that Acherontia atropos is perfectly harmless except as a minor pest to crops and to beehives, the fancied skull pattern has burdened the moth with a negative reputation, such as associations with the supernatural and evil. There are numerous superstitions to the effect that the moth brings bad luck to the house into which it flies, and that death or grave misfortune may be expected to follow. More prosaically, in South Africa at least, uninformed people have claimed that the moth has a poisonous, often fatal, sting (possibly referring mainly to the proboscis, but sometimes to the horn on the posterior of the larva)."

I feel this will affect how I create the character, I want it to be a reflection of this superstition. I can also take from this how I want the character to look, as it mainly resides in Africa I feel this will take a African twist, I have never looked into Africa from an artistic viewpoint so this will be a nice refreshing start to my projects.

Even though they are supposed to be all scary and evil .... they squeak .... so cute!

And now for mood-boards ... I have gathered here a collection of ...

• Images of the moth itself.
• Artists that I feel will inspire me and make me think of the moth.
• Images of clothing (mostly items from Alexander McQueen's collection) that remind me of the moth
• Images of regional clothing related to where the Moth lives.

These mood-boards have given me a lot of inspiration and will hopefully guide me into the silhouette phase of the task. In the next post I do I will start work on researching more into African culture and begin work on the silhouettes.