Exploration in Characters and Environments

Since I started exploring 2D animation, I found myself drawing the same simple character (brown hair girl) who kept changing only slightly each frame, and since creating a backstory for her and her friend I needed solid designs for them. By creating a facial expression sheet of them both, I was able to explore the balance between simplicity in animation designs and complexity in how to make them unique while still simple enough to keep the same every frame.

The story for them is that as kids, they both were raised in upper class families and met at a ball where they became fast friends and decided to sneak out every day to play by the old railway in the fields. They grew very close until one day the blond haired girl was hit by a train they didn't see coming, and ever since the brown haired girl has become solemn with grief and visits the railway every year to bring her flowers. On occasion, the brown haired girl sees glimpses of what could've been if the girl had lived.

Designing spaces for characters to be designed around and incorporating their elements into the background has always brought me joy, adding the small details like the characters grown up behind them (ballroom illustration) or paintings on the wall of them in past lives (art gallery illustration) brings in little details I hope people who might analyse my art could see.