Justin Tyme

My Toy Design class has been very rewarding so far. I mean, I'm learning a lot and really enjoying the new look at Product Design from more of a toy standpoint, but I really feel there's something more that I want to gain from Otis itself. Part of it, I think, is the fact that I really enjoyed the work in my illustration class a lot more. Not to say I haven't had a lot of drawing to do, I have. Check it out. You can click on the following for up close pictures, but a couple of them are quite huge.


Here's one of my first passes (actually my fourth attempt) at a character design for the project I'm working on. There's a specific look I'm going for here, but to tell the truth, it's not the look I ultimately wanted to achieve. Unsatisfied, I tried something a little different.


This one actually was a lot closer to my original sketch (not shown) and it came out pretty good. I really liked it at first, or at least the look of it, but after going through a few full-body sketches, I still wasn't terribly happy with it.


Here's a pirate version of my character, sans glasses. After going through a couple iterations including an inventor costume, swashbuckler costume, and even cowboy costume, I got the idea that the pirate look may be the most appealing for the age group I was attempting to reign in. My instructor actually told me to aim for tweens, and although I was thinking a bit younger, her suggestion does make a bit of sense. The look lends itself to a lot of possibility and also to a lot more fun, so I think I'll explore it a bit more. In the end however, the look I ended up with is quite different.


Here's the last one I came up with. It's actually more in tune with my original idea of a modern-day character trying to discover his past, his ancestors, and history in general. Something still cries out "generic" to me, which is disappointing. I'm sure, however, with more sketching, and more time, I'll nail it down though. The instructor says that it is quite common to change your idea very, very often. I'm not averse to it either, because I have to admit that I'm having difficulty being happy with it so far. It's very fun though and the learning process has been great for me creatively and artistically. I'll keep updating as time goes on.