After receiving positive feedback on my new designs, I was asked to try drawing model sheets for the two characters. Below you can see the results:

I tried to do as many views as possible, so it would be easier to draw the characters from different angles. I also included colour palettes so we could easily grab the colours when animating/drawing them!

After talking with my group more, they decided they wanted to try a more traditional Chinese art style for the characters. So I tried my best to redraw the designs I'd come up with in this newer style. Below you can see the results:

I actually found this quite difficult to do, since this style of drawing is so drastically different to my own art style, which is more cartoony. I used a lot of reference images that I found through research on google. I'm sure you can agree that these new designs don't quite look the same as the traditional Chinese style of drawing, but I tried simplifying it a little, so it would be easier to draw/animate in the future.

After drawing up the sheets for Shen Nung and his Assistant, my group suggested that I try drawing them a bit more, just so I could get used to drawing them in the style we'd picked. Below you can see the results:

Although they're fairly simple doodles, I felt that doing these drawings helped me get a better feel for the two characters, it allowed me to draw a few more poses and emotions.

After receiving some more feedback from my group on the designs for Shen Nung and his Assistant, I decided to try drawing up some coloured reference sheets for them! Below you can see the results:

We decided on more saturated colour schemes for these two, because we thought it would work well against the traditional style backgrounds we'll be using. They'd fit within thew environment, but still stand out against the backdrop.

I'm fairly happy with how these turned out! 

Whilst waiting for feedback on some of my Shen Nung designs, I drew up some designs for his assistant. The only thing specified so far is that the assistant is female. So I decided to try searching for historical representations of Emperor's assistants in order to aid my design process.

Below you can see the results so far:

I stuck with a fairly simple design, since she's only supposed to be an assistant and probably wouldn't wear fancy clothing. I also played with hairstyles and couldn't really decide whether it should be short or long!

I haven't received any feedback on her from the rest of my group yet, so for now she'll stay as she is. 

The next stage of design for Shen Nung was costume design. 

Below you can see some concepts I've made:

I tried out a few different colour schemes just to see what would work best with the background concepts we had (Although we haven't decided on a proper colour scheme for him yet!)

Similar to the basic designs, I decided to look up how Shen Nung was represented in other paintings etc, and base his outfits off of those. In the majority of the images I found, his outfits were fairly similar. So there isn't too much variety in his outfits here.

After receiving some feedback from my group, I decided to try coming up with another outfit design for him. This is because my group didn't think my designs looked quite regal enough for him to be recognized as an Emperor. I agree with this! I think his designs look a little too modest.

Since I've been assigned the role of concept designer, I wanted to try drawing up some character designs as well. The two characters for this section are the Chinese Emperor Shen Nung and his assistant. I started with Shen Nung, since the section mostly focuses on him. 

Below you can see my concepts for Shen Nung's design:

After researching Shen Nung as a group we found he was represented in a few different ways, but all of them shared one thing: that he was an Emperor. Independently, I decided to research how Shen Nung had been represented and based my designs off of those.

After some feedback from my group, I think we're choosing design number 4, as this is closest to how he's represented in traditional paintings and tellings of the myths he's a part of.