My Digital Media Project - Brief 2 - Some stuff I forgot to post about

I did some more sketches, and I feel confident that I have finalised Donkeyskin's design to my satisfaction.

These are sketches for Donkeyskin's dress before she ran away, along with sketches of how her appearance would change after she did so. I looked up stuff about regency fashion, including what regency era aprons looked like, though I decided not to add an apron to the rags. I liked the idea that, after she'd ran away, at first Donkeyskin's dress would be in tatters, but over the course of the story, it would be slowly mended. I felt it was a nice metaphor for her healing from the terror her father's madness would have caused her.

I actually drew the face sketches while waiting for a doctor's appointment. Again, I looked up some regency hairstyles, but in this case, I chose the bottom right, which was not pulled from research. I wanted Donkeyskin to look both practical and graceful, but I also wanted to give her a hairstyle that wouldn't be too hard to mess up, while still having her be recognisable.

Finally, Donkeyskin's ball gowns. In the fairytale, Donkeyskin goes to three balls held by the prince in three different dresses. One dress supposedly made of sunlight, one of starlight and the last of moonlight. Taking sun, moon and stars for the dress themes, I took some of the ideas from the initial sketches, and some research into regency era ball gowns. My personal favourite is the moon dress, which has a very appealing silhouette, and, once the phases were changed to a pattern along the hem, it's theme is very subtle, but noticeable when you know it's there. The first iteration of the starlight dress was based on a particular regency dress I found in my research, however I felt that the dress didn't work so well with my art style, and redesigned it. I liked the idea that there was an element of escalation through the balls, and therefore the dresses. The sunbeam dress is worn on the first night, and has a fairly simple design. The starlight dress is worn on the second night, and while more glamorous than the sunbeam dress, it's still somewhat less so than the beautiful moonlight dress, worn for the climactic reveal.