Started off with a few sketches of characters where I got inspiration from picking random topics such as plants and historical events.

I ended up choosing the “1940s Jazz singer” as I had an idea on how I could improve it with research and style.

The Design

I had a few basic ideas for her and I felt that this design was a solid start for her development, I decided to make her an antagonist character so when I design her further I can use shape theory to make her more dramatic.

I based her design off of Josephine Baker, who was a Show Girl in the 1920s, at this point I haven’t decided what era to put her in as I felt that she could fit into any of them between this time period.

I chose a German Luger P08 for her weapon as I wanted it to be more obvious that she wasn’t just a show girl and I added a holder which is attached to her leg, I got this inspiration from Josephine Baker who after her career she became a spy during WW2.

For her dress I took a few inspiration online by looking at flapper dresses, I really liked the ones with a lot of tassels on the ends and the dresses which weren’t too tight and more straight fit.

I got feedback on my characters design, and I felt like it really helped to develop the design better.

Feedback:

• A positive note I received was the values were good, I was particularly looking for this as I wanted it to be contrasted enough and look good with the colouring. But one little thing was about the face contrast, to maybe add some earrings to make it contrasted.
• One person said to look into a specific timeframe as between the 1920s and 1950s were quite varied in fashion and in performers. I decided to research more into the 1920s and add lots of details into her design like the hair and accessories.
• The gun should be higher up, a great point was made about the gun since its quite heavy and bulky, it works for the time period but it is too heavy to be on her thigh so I might either put it higher up, which means it would be unseen or to scrap it entirely.
• The gun is visible, she is a spy so it doesnt make sense for it to be visible, the more I thought about it the more I felt the gun didnt fit well, even if I added a smaller and dainty gun it would be pointless especially when adding it to the 3D design.
• How will she fight, a lot of the feedback was about how she is going to fight and the weapons which made me think a lot more about it and this is something I didn’t do so well with this design at this point I was more focused on making a character rather than thinking about the specifics.

Character Biography

Finally to help me keep consistent with the characters design I decided to create a biography with a bit of backstory and insight into her character and what part she plays.

Changing and redesigning

I used a lot of references and research to help build on my characters design and change elements of her to make her fit into the 1920s.

I found a website that detailed how flapper dresses originally didnt have fringe on them and were recreated in the 1950s with their body standard (the maryln monroe) which was shorter and more tight to the skin, I wanted to go for a more authentic feel so I decided to redesign the dress to have ruffles instead and a bit longer to be around the knees.

I feel like with my original design I hit the body type quite well as in the 1920s the body standard was boxy and slim, it had a boyish look and was very rectangular, I do however want to add some muscle to give her a fighter look as I feel the regular standard is too “weak” and want to give the hint of her being more than just a showgirl.

Redesign

I wanted to keep her more cartoonish but have ethnic features so I took hair inspiration from Josephine Baker (the top of the hair) and westafricanbaby ‘s tutorial on great gatsby hair on YouTube (the bottom of the hair) to get this look I feel like it got the essence of the character I needed. I also changed her weapon to be a dagger which is hidden in her hair, I feel like when I start creating her in 3D this will be a lot easier to model than the gun.

As for the dress and the accessories, I kept the shoes and gloves the same but I made a massive change to the dress, I took inspiration from 1950s flapper dresses and wanted to incorperate ruffles and bows as I thought It would make a cute and refreshing design, looking more authentic.

I used the image on the right to help me when detailing the ruffles on the design and I wanted to incorperate some pattern into the top of the dress.

references

1920s flapper girls borderless 8×10 dramatic photo (no date) eBay. Available at: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/385456193039 (Accessed: 23 January 2024).

Beery, Z. (2017) Actually, flappers didn’t wear fringed dresses, Racked. Available at: https://www.racked.com/2017/5/19/15612000/flappers-fringe-myth (Accessed: 08 October 2023).

Meares, H.H. (2020) Paris when it sizzles: The loves and lives of Josephine Baker, Vanity Fair. Available at: https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2020/09/josephine-baker-biography-paris (Accessed: 07 October 2023).

westafricanbaby (2019) 1920s gatsby flapper girl hair tutorial on natural hair, YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prpININ0fuI (Accessed: 23 January 2024).

Woodard, T. (2021) German luger P-08 9mm luger, Gun Tests. Available at: https://www.gun-tests.com/handguns/german-luger-p-08-9mm-luger/ (Accessed: 07 October 2023).

wurschteline (2021) R/vintagefashion – me in an authentic 1920s flapper dress (by … – reddit. Available at: https://www.reddit.com/r/VintageFashion/comments/m51ayy/me_in_an_authentic_1920s_flapper_dress_by_b%C3%A9choff/ (Accessed: 23 January 2024).