Concept Character Bust - Scarecrow

My final project with Tony was to create a concept for a character bust and a game menu to go along with it. The purpose of the project was to create a realistic looking bust of a character with all of the muscle groups and body of a human.

My chosen idea for the project was to create a scarecrow with a pirate hat and coat.

Synopsis:
One day there was a group of pirates raiding a farm, the character got unlucky and he ended up becoming cursed by the witch that lived there. His crew-mates abandoned him there thinking he was a goner and his body started to turn into what can only be described as being like a scarecrow. The idea of the game is to play as this pirate (now a scarecrow), being controlled by the curse set upon him to do work on the farm and to scare away intruders and pests.

The first thing I did for this project was to create mood boards for inspiration, I searched for images that I liked or images which seemed relevant to my concept idea.



I liked the big pirate hat and the coat so I decided to base it on the image of the pirate. The scarecrow face on the left was the look I decided to create the characters face like. I had the idea of making a bird to perch on the scarecrow's arm.



 The scarecrow sculpture progress:

18th March

Today I started making the character bust, I used a long piece of wire and twisted it to create the bone structure for the bust. For the arm I used a second piece of twisted wire wrapped around the main one, this worked well keeping the structure intact whilst sculpturing it. 

Today's lesson, I added layers onto the sculptures face, chest and back to build up the form a little bit.

25th March

I also created the sack texture over the character's face by rolling out a flat sheet of clay and then by wrapping it around the face and then drawing on it to create a rough surface.

25th March

1st April

Today I created the hat, using a sheet of wire mesh cut into a circle, also a roll of wire mesh for the inside of the hat. Before creating the top of the hat from the hole, I measured it to fit his head. Using a role of wire mesh I was about to create the top of the hat structure which I was then able to use a roll of thin clay to cover. The whole hat was coated in thin layers of clay.

1st April

Once the hat had been made, I placed it over the scarecrow's head, bent it a bit to give it the right shape. 

1st April

I was able to create a feather to place inside of the hat by getting a roll of clay and sticking it to a very small piece of wire. 

29th April

The clothing was made using thin layers of clay that had been rolled out using a rolling pin and small amounts of oil. I was able to create a realistic looking coat by allowing the layer of clay to become creased while wrapping it over the model. Once the object was baked the model of the bird didn't come out very well. 

The game menu I created for this project was made up of a photo of some land, bird feathers and skulls. My inspiration came from looking at other game menus.

I took photos of some farm land which I planned to use as the background in my menu.

The twigs seem to work well with the idea of a scarecrow

I arranged feathers with the skull to create a symbol

I decided to go along with a Sans serif font for the game name, it creates a clean and readable look to the title. The bird and skull works well as it gives the idea of it being cursed, and the crow feathers are relevant to the whole scarecrow theme. 

Game menu