F2 - Moodboards and initial concept sketches

I had absolutely no idea what character to design, but I wanted to do something that's my own idea so that I don't loose interest halfway through like with the vampiric knight. It was a cool concept but without any real inspiration or attatched story I wasn't that invested in it.

To try and brainstorm, I made quite a few moodboards: 

For this, I just went onto Pinterest and went down a rabbit hole without searching for anything, so it just gave me loads of stuff I was already interested in, this is pretty much my default aesthetic for designing things.

 

 Following on from that, I made a moodboard for animals connected to the moon (or just ones that I think would look cool with the moon theme)

 

 

While making the initial moodboard, this iridescent white raven in the top left popped up, and sparked the next moodboard of whatever this is called. Pastels and crystals?

 

 

 This one was not intended to be as Japan-themed as it is, I wanted it to be that type of caligraphy/ white, red and black kinda look, and Japanese art and caligraphy fits the mark perfectly.

 

 

 This one is themed around mostly blue/white china, with a little bit of Kintsugi as well - the idea of kinstugi as a whole has some really interesting implications for a character. I also just really like the colours.

 

 

Owls, more specifically/ mostly barn owls. I love these little guys so much, they can be really adorable and/or almost ethereal, so I tried to lean into that here.

 

 

 This last one's a bit random. Every now and then I just kinda go back to sharks/orcas/ sealife, etc. I did the orca studies and character sketches before making this moodboard, and I added the pirate theming afterwards which is why the sketches so far aren't also pirate themed. The wooden weapon down there is a leiomano (SellswordArts 2025).

 

 One last moodboard, I thought about making a little clown guy themed around kinstugi, but the more pictures of clown dolls I found the less appealing this idea became:

 

 

I mainly wanted to base it on these little clay clowns anyways, and less on the vintage aesthetic. I did a little sketch using the mouse in the corner too.

Sketches:

 

 (Waterside 2024)

 (Starr 2025)

 (Euronews 2024)

  

Some of these poses are a little bit stiff, I just wanted to quickly get ideas down so I didn't use any references for them.

 

Bibliography:

 

A Sword made from SHARKS TEETH?!, 2025. [YouTube] SellswordArts, 8 January. Available at: https://youtube.com/shorts/H1gTEPw5aLU?si=fGqZajfgOXqYJ4Ub [Accessed 08 February 2025].

Euronews Green, 2024. Why has Portugal banned tourist boats approaching orcas? Spate of European rammings continues [online]. Euronews. Available at: https://www.euronews.com/green/2024/05/14/revenge-of-the-killer-whales-experts-at-a-loss-over-why-orcas-are-ramming-into-fishing-boa [Accessed 07 February 2025]. 

Japan House London, n.d. Kintsugi: Japanese Repair Technique [online]. Japan House London. Available at: https://www.japanhouselondon.uk/read-and-watch/kintsugi/ [Accessed 08 February 2025].

Starr, M., 2025. DNA Confirms Orcas Prey Upon One of Australia's Deadliest Marine Predators [online]. Science Alert. Available at: https://www.sciencealert.com/dna-confirms-orcas-prey-upon-one-of-australias-deadliest-marine-predators [Accessed 07 February 2025]. 

TikiMaster.com, 2025. Lei o mano [online]. TikiMaster. Available at: https://www.tikimaster.com/lei-o-mano/ [Accessed 08 February 2025]. 

Waterside, 2024. How to See Orcas in Cornwall – Our Top Tips [online]. Waterside. Available at: https://www.watersideholidaygroup.co.uk/guides/how-to-see-orcas-in-cornwall/ [Accessed 07 February 2025]. 

Wikipedia, n.d. Blackbeard [online]. Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackbeard [Accessed 08 February 2025].