CHoW#254 :: Queen of Seren

[Eofn]

Character of the Week #254
Queen of Seren
-Create a design for the Queen of the planet Seren-

DEADLINE: SUNDAY 31st JULY 2011, 9PM GMT+1
Check your timezone!

The planet of Seren is a beautiful, serene place ruled over by a young Queen. As kind and remarkable as the people of Seren are, they have one tradition which is regarded as barbaric by most other planets in the system. When a new Queen is crowned, she undergoes a ceremonial blinding, a process which is believed to allow the woman to 'see truth' and therefore rule her people better. Whilst normally the Queen is an adult when she comes to be crowned, the current Queen was only a child when she came into power.

This weeks challenge is to design the young Queen, now in her teens, in a ceremonial gown, preparing for the summer celebrations of Seren. The clothing needs to be lightweight but also lavish and extravagant.

Designing for Film:
This week's design is aimed at a film character. Whilst that should not limit your design, we would like you to consider the materials, fabrics and elements etc that your designs are made out of.

The Guidelines:

• Must be a FEMALE character
• Must be a young teen
• She has been ceremonially blinded so consider the process; did it scar? did it remove her eyes completely?
• Consider the climate of the planet
• Designs do not have to adhere to any earth cultures.
• Must clearly be a Queen so please try to avoid casual style clothing.
• Can be any style or genre

THE RULES
In addition to the brief, if you do not follow these rules, you will not be included in the poll.

• Files must be named: CHoW#254_Username 
(Files with any other names such as final.jpg or even chow254final.jpg will not be accepted)
• Finals must be posted in the finals thread BEFORE the deadline
• Final post must include the CHoW number and the artists username at the bottom of the image
• At least 3/4 of the focus character must be visible
• Final images must be accompanied with a basic character sheet in a separate image
Character sheets should at the very least show a sketch of the front and back of the character and a couple of early thumbnails/silhouettes.
• Follow the brief!

[Pixeltuner]

FIRST :p Looks like a perfect fit for me. Girls & Fashion, I'm all over it. Let's hope I can find some time.

edit -- btw, is the character sheet a new requirement, or a substitute for the wips? I've been on holiday for a couple of weeks so I kinda missed that meeting I guess

[Eofn]

@Pixeltuner The character sheet is a substitute for the WIPS.

[Pixeltuner]

Rinibee: Got it, thx for clarifying

[Kalumis]

Sounds good ^^ Here's my first sketchs about Come and play !
More details and legends with my next update

[Eofn]

Rough idea of Queen's attire

[GEB]

This is a wicked topic! Hopefully find some time to devote to it

[Rusty]

An hour of quick doodles. The ritual I was thinking culminates with having the eyes removed and replaced with a pair of sacred/symbolic stones, so I'm gonna emphasize the eyes if anything. Be an intimidation factor going on with the eyes piercing the subject in conversation

Interesting topic, cant wait to see what you guys come up with!

[Pixeltuner]

Ref for outfit, ref for faces, ref for pose and summery colour ref. We have a lift-off.
I kinda have the same eye-dea (huhuhuh) as Rusty. Her eyes are replaced by glass eyes with eyes 'painted' on them. And since she'll never blink that can be quite unnerving.

[jagder]

little queen

[Tokoldi]

I have a question before I begin: Does she have to be human (as in homo sapiens)?

[Eofn]

Nope she can be alien although she needs to look young, whatever race she is.

[Dranyer]

Kalumis : lookin' good! you might move the arms away from the body a bit to play with the negative space some.

Rinibee : looks pretty neat.

Rusty : awesome sketches, i'm loving those headdresses.

Pixeltuner : great start, can't wait to see where you take it.

jagder : that is fantastic!

ok, i decided to get started before the end of the week this time, so here are some initial rough brainstorming sketches on the ritual blindness for the character, lemme know what ya think.

[Lucassie]

Just getting a feel for the form. This time I'll be sure to include legs...

[Pixeltuner]

Dranyer: I like 8 very much for some reason. It looks very designed and has some regal qualities because of that.

[Partisan]

Dranyer 1 and 8 are a maybe the rest definitely a NO the planet is described as a beautiful place ...and places tend to have an influence of a cultures behavior, so when your culture and your surrounding tend to be rather beautiful you tend to execute actions even those that are ceremonial in a way that appeals to your overall idea of aesthetics. So 2-7 would be ok if it where are OVERALL barbaric culture or if they would live in a gruesome world with overall gruesome habits and ideas, but they dont ^^

my two cents
Seb

[dan liimatta]

Partisan
I kind of agree, but the process of blinding could be overly brutal as this is the one thing on this peaceful planet that isn't civilized - they could have decided to show the sacrifice by scaring - or even by ritual demand a horrific procedure to please their gods and the like.

So I'd say that 2,3 and 6, 7 are also decent if they would just have treated the scars better.

In the end I think I'd go with something like that - that all is nice and harmonious - save this barbaric ritual, making the ritual and the results a contrast to the beauty of everything else.

I'm considering something like the crown of fire from ASOFAI & Game of throwns - that they poured molten metal over her eyes until the eyes boiled away and the sockets were filled with gold.

[Gadbury]

I imagine any method of blinding someone would end up being somewhat brutal or violent !

[dan liimatta]

Mr. Gadbury
I can imagine several that aren't actually - blinding through strong light over time - save if their sun during eclipses would burn the retinas, or if you sedate her and remove the eyes and replace them with jewels.

I can see them placing her on a ritual stone to glare into the sun for a day - especially if this is on a planet with a strong sun.

Also certain chemicals here on earth can blind, should be possible there as well, as would magical rituals.

EDIT: I like one were they give her a small bug/bacteria causing certain parts of her brain to develop but with a side effect of giving her a cataract that clouds the crystalline lens of the eye making her blind - they might even believe the cataract is the reason for her powers and refuse any sort of helpful operation making it at once very pain-free but also brutal in the sense of stone-aged and old.

and so on.

cutting them out without sedation or pouring molten metal down her face are both comparison so different that placing them all under the class of brutal makes little sense since you could make all the previously mentioned methods totally painless.

& if she actually is given a new sense by removing her sight then you could argue that it isn't even a negative at all, it would instead be like any operation here that improves the body and in some senses very civilized and modern.

& Even if they only believe that it happens while it does not - at least they wouldn't consider it brutal as such, unless the ritual is actually brutal.

I now see one were they plan a special seed in her eyes and over time small trees/flowers grow out blinding her while pumping hallucinogenic (misnomer or not) chemicals into her system - and it could be very brutal if it gives any pain, but it could also be an ephemeral experience filled with warmth and opium filled peace. The later could even be a vision to behold for everyone else as the flowers bloom crimson and fills the air with sweet nectar that thwarts their minds to the same peace and solitude as hers - could even be what civilizes the world so ~

That said the description calls for brutal, so I'm more inclined for red hot pokers and molten metal.

Placing eggs into her eyes that contains vicious small animals that will eat her eyes as their first nourishment and then meld into her nerves and brain would probably do as well.

[Kalumis]

Rinibee : love that dress

Rusty : In love with the first one, she seems very pure :3

Pixeltuner : Colors \o/ Love the pose, can't wait to see what you'll do with the eyes

Jadger : She seems a little aged but the whole is s magistral

Dranyer : Wow ! The 7 is a kind of scary but i really like the raw style
I understand what to do you mean for the arms of my design, I'm kinda of stuck with my details but I'll try if I have the time

[Sanjo]

Interesting topic... Here a few sketches

[Partisan]

Mr. Gadbury
remove the eyes and replace them with jewels.

DAMN that was my EXACT idea ...guess now I have to come up with something else ^^

[Lucassie]

Update:

[dan liimatta]

Partisan
I mentioned a ton of random ideas - you are free to any of them and if you had the idea before I even sketched it you should have no qualms about it and here I only wrote it down as apart of a slew.

& in the end ideas a cheap ~ I've already had many but it matters not.

[Partisan]

it matters to me ^^ if the idea is so used that everybody comes up with it its not worth it ^^ all you did was to point out to me how cheap that idea actually is ^^

[dan liimatta]

Partistan
They all are cheap unless you make something out of it - you need to sell it, make it - I didn't and you are free to.

And I would do the same if someone had started a sketch, or I'd at least push it in a different direction - but for text? you are too hard against yourself ~

[Artfix]

it matters to me ^^ if the idea is so used that everybody comes up with it its not worth it ^^ all you did was to point out to me how cheap that idea actually is ^^

I've thought about this before about the ideas. I personally think it would be silly to steer away from an idea just because you are not the only one in the world to think of it--do you know how rare that actually is? Its impossible, really. I for one, would have never thought of replacing the eyes with anything but I would have no problem using that idea myself now if I like it. So I encourage everyone to do what they wanna do, period. I agree that ideas are cheap--it sure as hell isn't going to win the votes for you--you have to design the character the best(well in my opinion you should design the best illustration but I know I'm alone in this lol), and THAT is the HARD part.

[nim]

awesome topic! Rinibee you rock! I'm definitely gonna try this time!

[maeganite]

I like this topic alot!

Dan liimatta Those are some pretty awesome ideas. I was thinking along the lines of them burning a royal seal over her eyes.

Sanjo I really like your last dress idea, esp the headpiece.

[Partisan]

ok just one last thing from me ^^ because otherwise this will end in a huge conversation over basic issues. I didnt mean that I would absolutely not use an idea because somebody else had it too but in our small group of people I dont want to use something that somebody else came up with, if I could try to come up with something else ^^ ...so I dont meant this as a huge general statement like " I am too inventive to use AAAAANY idea anyone has ever used before " ^^

Artfix I know how rare this is , actually I am a person that believes it is impossible to come up with something totally new ^^ its just not how we work we only can rearrange things that already exist so nobody actually has an original idea they all just rearrange things they already know.

sorry if I made this sound like a bigger issue than it actually was ^^