Character Designs Through Time

• As part of my college work I was tasked with creating character in the style of different era's. In order we have: 1920's, 1950's, 1970's, 1980's, 1990's, Modern and future.

• (1920's) I started out by looking at iconic cartoon characters from the 1920's like Felix the Cat and Mickey Mouse. This inspired my monochrome and cartoony look for my first character. I also went with a 20's mobster look and my character is also sporting a 1920's Thompson Sub Machine Gun.

• (1950's) I then moved on to the 50's and created a character with a similar look though slightly more advanced using some basic colour for the crocodile skin. His outfit and hair style was inspired by photo's of 50's Greasers.

• (1970's) My 70's character is heavily inspired by the Band Kiss as found the king cobra sticking his tongue out reminded me of them. I used a lot of line variation on this piece as it was the in style of the time.  

• (1980's) For the 80's I looked at the shows I remember watching when I was growing up. This meant a lot of He-Man and Thunder Cats. I wanted to make a character that both looked like they would belong in one of those shows and make a cool action figure.

• (1990's) For my 90's character I was inspired by cartoons of the era that were trying to become the next Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Shows like Street Sharks and Extreme Dinosaurs.

• (Modern) When I came to do my modern character I wanted to ape the style of shows like Adventure Time and The Regular Show by creating a very cartoony character with thin limbs and a rounded body.  

• (Future) For my finale character i wanted to revisit my first character and try and rework the style I used to create them. This was inspired by the upcoming Mickey Mouse cartoon which has revisited his older style and themes. I can see a lot of companies doing this in future.