The good folks at Africa Nouveau commissioned me to create two characters inspired by their 2019 theme:
AFRICANS AND OUTER WORLD BEINGS
The brief: As both science and culture suggest, Africa has long communicated with and been related to historical myths and ancient civilisations. We seek to investigate the historical understanding and relationship of Africans to outer world beings and forecast an imaginary future where Africans have reconnected with ancient knowledge ask "What could we learn? What could we create?"
MY MOODBOARDS
1st thing I do is dive into research and look for inspiration from a lot of interesting or sometimes unexpected places.
At this stage I'm not quite sure what the end product is going to look like, I just search and collect info and reference based on what the brief has mentioned, anything that sparks my curiosity and is authentic to the story. At some point during this process a few ideas and visuals will start to come to mind. Ideas that I can develop for the next stage.
MY CREATIVE PROCESS
Fuelled by the research and inspiration I collected earlier, I start by drawing and illustrating different elements and patterns that I feel will come together well in the final piece. In this case I got a model to pose and used that as visual reference for my characters, later I added other elements and accessories to give them personality and make them come to life. One thing that consistently guides this process is a desire to be authentic & true to how I interpret the brief or message.
Visuals, software skills and execution are important but I think being authentic and true to your vision is what sets your work apart in the end.
YOUNG KING
YOUNG QUEEN
