Hippie Dress

The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston has a new exhibition featuring Hippie Fashion. I love how the MFA is featuring more and more fashion design in their temporary shows. Last year they had another exhibition with some really beautiful fashion illustration. Although I don't really know anything about what's in style( or how to saw a button for the matter), fashion design is, in essence, character design.

I did a bunch of sketches out that show. This is one I re-started in the computer. I am trying to go more cartoony and flat in my work from imagination, and fashion illustration seems like a good place to get inspiration on that. Fun times :)

The Tiger of Malaysia

There was a period in my childhood in which I had no game consoles, and the cable company didn't have service in the neighborhood, just outside of the town, in which me and my family lived. Reluctantly. I took reading as my source of escapism, and it was Treasure Island what finally hooked me into reading (and that only because of Takarajima, which was my favorite cartoon back when we lived near civilization and delicius cable).

Treasure Island got me so much into pirates, that after finishing that I DEVOURED the whole Sandokan series. What does that have to do with anything? Well, today on the train I saw a dude that looked EXACTLY like I used to imagine the character in my head! It is an uncanny feeling. Here are some sketches.

More sketches

Some of the doodles I've been making trying to understand variables of character design. These are about neotenic features in faces. If you have ever seen Fred Moore's drawings of cute ladies, you know what I am talking about: The tall forehead, the small nose, the big eyes, etc. I am not sure if switching the ratio has exactly the opposite effect, but it is still and interesting variable.I wonder how a monster like Medusa would look if Fred Moore drew it?  I also wonder if we have moved past these assumptions about beauty, or if we can use them to challenge our expectations regarding characters?