Assignment Three

The Assignment:
We were assigned a race and occupation with which we were to create a character design and back story of. I was assigned a Zulu Coroner and my first thought was a Witch-Doctor-esque character. As the idea tumbled around my mind, I did some research on how to make this character as fun and accurate as I could.


Research:
The first thing I did was look up what a coroner was. It's pretty synonymous with medical examiner, in which they research cause of death.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coroner

Next, I began researching Zulu culture and when and where it was formed. The earliest Zulu's known were the 17th century, which is the time I decided to base my Zulu character, Doc. My research lead to looking up Zulu history, clothing, masks, tools, and culture.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zulu_people
http://www.theancientweb.com/explore/content.aspx?content_id=37

I also looked up masks, as it soon became part of my character.

These two masks where my main inspirations. I eventually created a hybrid of the two.


I also decided to give him a simple tunic for the fact of how much blood he got on himself and how often he'd have to wash his clothes. The less clothes Doc has on, the less he has to scrub in the river.

Doc uses simple tools that are easily constructed of sharpened rocks, twine, and sturdy branches.

Additionally, in researching both coroners and Zulu beliefs, I came to the harmony of Doc's purpose to both find ailments and evil spirits.


Sketches:
A lot of my sketches involved the mask, as that is one of my character's defining features. Others included standard outfit, views, and a ceremonial neck piece I later removed. I figured he wouldn't want to have to clean as many clothes as he would if he had more than the bare essentials... and his mask.






Zulu Coroner:
My Style
Gorillaz Style
Rugrats Style

Ancient Zulu Coroner.

Name: Khulekani (meaning Pray)

Age: Around Mid-30s

Occupation: Coroner

Nationality: Zulu

Time Period: 1700s, during the beginning of the assembly of the Zulu clan.

This man has no name to any of the other villagers. He is only known as “The Doctor” or simply "Doc." However, he is no ordinary doctor; he examines and dissects the deceased to determine what illness and spirits killed the unsuspecting villager.

Ever since he was a young boy, Khulekani has been interested in cultural masks and sciences. He was always taking apart the crickets and beetles to look at their organs and see what made them tick, usually while wearing one of his father’s clay masks.

As he grew older, he moved from looking at the insides of bugs to looking at the insides of humans. He became very interested in what made people die so early compared to another still living. His interest led him to discoveries such as those who had certain aliments had deformed organs upon death. Eager to share, he wrote down everything he could about his findings. As the village grew stable economically and socially, he was appointed the local coroner and medicine man after the others read his notes.

He often delivers his final autopsy report through posting his findings outside of the grass hut he resides in. He doesn’t ever recite his findings verbally, and those villagers who do not understand the written language must have one who does read it for them.The village has learned many things of aliments and to prevent them, call to the spirits to cure them.

As the villagers continue their lives after the prayer, Doc says a prayer for his latest corpse as he grabs his custom, short handled spear and begins to perform his autopsy. His "patients" lie on a slab of elevated, dried clay to allow Doc easy access to them while standing. The tools he uses are custom made to slice flesh easily and precisely.

Styles:
Gorillaz
The first style I chose is Jamie Hewlett's of the band Gorillaz. His style is very angular and I felt it would fit my character well. This, and Gorillaz is my favorite band.

His style is very distinct in his volumes, line work, and coloring, all of which I attempted to replicate as he works. In a Gorillaz documentary, Bananaz, Jamie uses inking pens to outline his designs. I assume he scans these ink drawings, as they are usually colored digitally.

My references used were mostly that of their newest artwork from the album Plastic Beach.



The color of the corpse's skin was based off of the use of blue for the zombies in the Rock It music video.


In true Gorillaz style, the background is a real picture.


Rugrats
This style I did for fun and to illustrate Doc's love of masks at a young age. The Rugrats style is more simplistic than the Gorillaz style but it was a nice change from usually using straight, clean line work.



Rugrats' style also often uses simple color with little to no shading. The colors however are often very bright and eye-catching, something I attempted to replicate with my color choices.


I kept the background simple to match the Rugrats style.

I want to do a couple other styles for the hell of it too because this is super-fun to draw him differently.