contextual studies 3

After looking in to literature and a bit of history I thought i would look into cultural influences of why they like coloured hair. http://www.anizeen.com/threads/14889-The-purpose-of-unnatural-hair-color-in-anime <- I found this website which was very insightful about how important hairstyles are to them as they want it to reflect their personalities and is a vital part to their culture.
On the other hand I have been looking at Devil may cry and it seems that Dante had similar white hair to Riku's but in their newest game they have decided to remodel his to look more genetic with brown shaved hair. which is unfortunate as he had a unique look but the game seemed to want to appeal to a wider western market.

contextual studies 2

In Japanese culture anime, manga and games their characters are bold and individual not just but their anime eyes but their hair. Unlike western games were their hairstyles are very generic, the eastern styled games like to make colorful, gravity-defying hair so their character can stand out in a crowd and be easily recognized. but i wanted to look further into this so i can understand where the idea of wacky hairstyles came from.
I thought looking at faeries would be relevant as they are also gifted like Riku and have colourful hair showing symbolic meaning.
one fairy in particular "the Blue Fairy" in Pinocchio is said to have blue hair normal represents a character being calm but also can stand for justice as well as being seen as a teacher;(" Turquoise Fairy"-Pinocchio,  "the child with blue hair"-A,I)
Looking further into faeries i found little else supporting the history of coloured hair in supernatural creatures. But evidence of characters with supernatural abilities being both good and bad. once again looking at faries as they have a connection to my character some-what. Faeries in the middle ages were seen as baby snatchers and changelings which was something to fear; While the Victorians made faeries seems curious and kind. overall this can show how characters with talents can be seen as both good and bad.

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/tony-robinsons-gods-and-monsters/4od#3306972
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fairy_with_Turquoise_Hair
good faeries/ bad faeries by brain froud

Reference Photo

for my textures i went and took a variety of reference picture for textures and ideas for the structure of the building . I was very interested in finding textures which had peeling paint or showed weathering as it would give my own model a more realistic look,

contextual studies 1

for contextual studies I'm in a group doing a presentation about characters. I have chosen to do Riku out of the Kingdom Hearts series as I would like to understand how eastern characters are much more varied than in western countries. Also I like how even though Riku a non-playable most of the time he has a very interesting personality that really connects with the player as being more human than some other characters.
for example in Kingdom Hearts he was a sympathetic villain trying to help his friend but then turned his attention to power. through out the series Riku tries to redeem himself to become a brave and morally good person.
Clothing on the other hand his appearance is very interesting to me as it reflects his character. for example his silver hair could emphasis the idea of being calm but can also symbolize that his heart is not completely good or bad. This is appealing to the audience as nobody is perfect and nobody can make good decisions all the time. Also his clothes can give indications about his personality as he is wear the majority of blue it an represent his calm nature and the yellow his happiness and energy while around his friends compared to Sora who wear red in the 1st game which can represent his bold character.

His clothes also gives an indication about his personality as he is wear a majority of blue it can represent his depressive or serious nature compared to other characters like Sora who wears red to represent his bold character.

concept art

this is my concept for my environment it will consist of two beach huts and a shop overlooking the sea. Although beach huts conventional face towards the sea i find it fitting to swap the direction there facing so  the path in the middle is more distinguishable.     

beach reference photos

For my environment project I have decided to go for a unusual setting, the beach. these are some reference photos of the beaches around west Norfolk mostly Hunstanton as there are a variety of beech huts there. the setting seems to be a place for a detective game especially as there are quite a lot of mystery stories on TV at the moment like "Broadchurch" and "Light fields" which are set near the beach.