Characters: 'Thomas' Expression & Character Sheets

I started off refering back to Andrew Loomis' Fun With A Pencil to help me develop my character of Thomas. I had already found one of my early drawings that I was happy with using as a base to work on so I tried using several techniques in the Loomis book including the "blocky" treatment. I thought this may help show Thomas' age better than the earlier drawing which now that I need some photographs of him when he was in the Navy and getting married will come in useful for a younger adult Thomas. The block method really did help show his age better especially around the jaw. I did eventually take away some lines though because to me he now seems easier to empathise with.

Some sketches with the help of Loomis' book trying to add age to Thomas and find his neutral face.

Thomas Expression Sheet. It was especially useful working on this in photoshop as it allowed me to use the neutral face as a base and just work over it.

Thomas turnaround/ character sheet.

I was originally going to create a pose where Thomas would look older, bent over as such but then I thought that would make him look like he needed help and really I want him to seem like he's fine, he doesn't need to go into a home, instead going there is bad for him and the care home workers are just judging him sterotypically so I actually used my own grandad as an example. Thomas isn't hunched over but he isn't standing very straight either because of my want to stop the stereotype but show his age.

Experimentation with pose and getting the joints/body parts in the right place.