And finally, here is the Maquette I created for character design class. This is the dreaded Octo-Dragon that I created for my friend Mary Kate Dangoia’s thesis project. I am doing the storyboards and character design for her 3D/stop motion film and created this model as a proto-type of our titular villain.

The process for creating the maquette was extremely fun. First you create turnarounds to figure out what the character will look like on all sides.

Next, you create a wire frame, which serves as the skeleton for the character.

Then you cover the wire frame with aluminum. This is essentially the first layer of “skin.”

After that, you add the sculpey clay, a little at a time. Then you bake it in the oven for 25 minutes.

And finally, when the sculpture cools, you sand it down and then spray it with primer. I used Rust-o-leum. And voila! The dreaded sea creature.

Here are some characters from a short film idea I have called “Mermaid Girl.” It’s the timeless tale of a poor young boy who sneaks into a traveling carnival and discovers a mermaid girl being held against her will by an evil carnival owner. He and his intrepid dog sidekick save the girl and save the day.

Below are versions 1, 2 and 3, ranging from cartoony to more realistic.

This is my favorite assignment for character design class. Our instructor asked us to draw a mother and father and to give the children attributes from both of them. The daughter was to resemble the father and the son was to resemble the mother. This coincided perfectly with a story that I am currently working on. In that story, Apheidas is one of the main characters, and all of his sisters are actually dryads. In the actual Greek tale, Arcas saved the Hamadryad Chrysopeleia and the two of them actually had two sons. For this assignment, I invented a sister for him based on another one of Arcas’ human daughters.