Character Design Challenge

Thai Dancer Theme for the Character design Challenge on Facebook and Instagram

Researching this, I instantly thought about religion and gods. Though people in Thailand have no specific religion, they are known for Hinduism and Buddhism, as the king of Thailand always must be a Buddhist by law.  Despite this, there is also a large Thai-Chinese population in Thailand, which also means there are lots of Chinese worships such as Taoism. The masks often worn by male dancers reminded me of Oni-s (Pinyin in Chinese), especially because in current cultured version by the Japanese, they are known to have a single horn on their head, which the cone caps or the single spear headdress is visible on all the male dancers. 

The colour palettes are heavily based on red, gold and green with accents of white and black. This originally gave me the idea of wanting to incorporate the Chinese monkey king.

Another idea that I had looking at the man in the top left of the mood board below was to create a steampunk Thai dancer, as the headgear and square body reminded me of clockwork like Big Ben. The conditions did say that they were open to examples such as a Thai Dancer from the roman era or from the future, so I was debating the steampunk character. I didn't take this beyond an idea, because I feel like the steampunk genre has quite a reputation behind it that consists of weapons, darker anime and characters such as the devil, such as Crowley in Good Omens. My intention wouldn't have been to alter the culture to that, but I figured the Monkey King had safer connotations. Even if the oni masks represent demons/ evils.  

Looking at female poses, I noticed that the twisted hands and limbs are a huge part of these dances. However, female dancers often dance in large groups together or with a male partner, and part of the brief is that you one draw one character. I also feel if you don't draw the pose correctly, it is very easy to mistake a twisted limb for a limb facing in a normal direction, just drawn very badly. 

Where as the feminine people had very fluid motion and curved arches, I felt like the masculine people had very square forms. Thinking more in to the dancers on the stage, the oni scene looks a lot like warriors in an army fighting along side the dead/ spirits of fallen soldiers. The shoulder pads on all of the masc's costumes actually line up with those of traditional Thailand warriors, so I tried to mix a warrior with the dancer's costumes. As a comic book influenced artist, I really took to the pose with the spear. I thought this showed dance in an attack form very well: showing movement whilst also being very square in shape. 

As I was drawing a Monkey King, I thought that suns would be a good pattern to spread across the clothes, like the sun monkey. This idea was inspired by the character Sun in RWBY who's real life basis was the sun monkey. I liked the switch of the pointed cap to the tweed hat, as I think it looks more traditional and warrior-like. 

After a bit of consideration, I thought the colour palette looked very off. As fond as I was of the clay coloured mask and the authenticity of the design, I thought the details were lost and more primary colours were Looking at onis, they usually have a red or blue face with a golden horn. So trying to merge the cyan/green colour from the dancers' costumes with the onis gave this nice dark teal which gave off a very imperial version of the primary colour palette with the gold and orange-red. The browns added to the rustic feel of the hat and I think the the yellow really helped to outline the best features like the suns. Though the mask is based on monkey features, I do think I lost that. But I like how the red around the nose can suggest fire/power. The gold in the suns shows light. And the blue shows the demonic warrior it was inspired on - all kind of showing the power, light and strength of a some say mythical sun king. I also think the colour in the end represented the colours of a sunrise - a rise of power and a victory in the overall. Which is why I chose a sunrise for the sky in the background. 

I mostly took background inspiration from this reference image of traditional Thailand warriors. Though I liked their costumes, I thought the metal and restricted movement contrasted the fluidity of being a dancer.