Research
This project was about portraying one of the seven virtues within a character. Out of them all I chose patience, because it's something I believe quite strongly in, good things come to those who wait etc.
When it came to researching it was difficult until I had a rough idea of what I wanted to do, starting with alchemy I drafted out a load of shapes, mostly quite complex before I made one that looked like an old man sitting down. I couldn't think of a better portrayal for patience than this. So I began to research into just how men over the age of 80/90 look and move, so I could create a character who looked withered by time.
After looking at images like these I began to get a clear picture of an older mans stance and how he composes himself.
The next step was to find an object that added to the realism of this character, so I wanted a walking stick/staff. My reasoning behind this is that with staves and walking sticks you can make them look as old as the person carrying them and older, especially with wood. The wood can be cracked and worn from years of use and because it's wood this can be easily shown.
I wasn't 100% sure on what kind of staff I wanted to give me character so I began to look up trees and tree branches to see if I could find the right type of tree that would give a withered wood that looked right for my character. I also wanted something a bit twisted and deformed, not a perfectly straight staff, I wanted something that looked like it could just been picked up off the ground and maybe whittled a little to be a personal belonging.
Having looked at several different types of tree such as oak, pine, maple, and willow, I decided on this one almost immediately, I chose a yew tree branch.
The yew tree has that perfect deformed and twisted look that I wanted. I then took this knowledge into Photoshop and began concepting a few ideas.
