INTIAL THOUGHTS:
I was very excited to start this brief because I want to specialise in character design professionally - it’s been a passion of mine since I was very little. It was difficult to start brewing ideas however, because I’ve been exposed to very little media and potential inspiration at the moment. Luckily, I was excited to start because I’ve taken a great liking and fascination to Botticelli’s ‘La Primavera’ - a painting I studied in my extracurricular Art History course. It features characters from Greek mythology (developed during Ancient times) and I found it incredibly beautiful - especially the colours and the elegant attire featured. I wanted to set this interest as the foundation of my project, since it’s been a fresh source of inspiration for me. I like to develop ideas according to my current tastes and fixations because it makes it exciting and relevant to my personal life, and encourages me to produce it to the best of my interest. Another very central theme to my life is religion, and I felt that it’s also a very quintessential topic to Ancient and older civilisations - time periods where religions tend to be formed. Fusing these interests starts me on the right track to include a socio commentary through my piece, instead of adding it loosely at the end. 

 

After flicking through exemplar submissions, I realised that the brief urges that you make it fantastical. This allows for many new design possibilities and a chance to explore world building. This means I have to plan a narrative for structure and context. I briefly searched the internet for a simple basis I can manipulate to be fictional, and decided to contextualise and refer to the real world by researching the earliest Civilisation to be recorded. I took note of the websites I passed by so I can take a deeper look and found Podcasts about the subject. 

 

 

Art Station is especially popular to game artists, so I assumed that the characters submitted are intended for gaming, rather than television/cinema. This enables me to heavily exaggerate features, movement and focus less on making it a relatable/realistic character. However, I do want to maintain a sense of realism instead of completely taking it away from humanity, so that viewers can identify/empathise with them. In order to do this, I will exaggerate and emphasise accessories, clothing and any other ornamentation on the design instead of their physical attributes. It’s also dangerous to enhance cultural features because it can be taken offensively, and too caricature-like! 

 

With this rough concept, I believe I can develop and consolidate my ideas after some more research, and find artists, idols, games and narratives for a case study. 

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POTENTIAL RESEARCH TOPICS:

-Existing ancient civilizations

-Fantastical ancient philosophies/myths/legends

-Religious imagery

-Stigmas surrounding hijabs

-History of non-binary people

-Representation in the media

-Silhouettes in design

-Religious garments/fashion

-Muslim figures & Influencers of inspiration

-Survey & Statistics

-Relevance of my chosen topics

-LGBTQ+ in Islam

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CONTEXT

 

LOWER MESOPOTAMIA:

1) Ancient Mesopotamia 101 | National Geographic

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"The story of civilisation itself, begins in one place..."

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I wanted to take advantage of the time I have to complete my CMP to delve into some of my personal questions - what was the first recorded civilization, and what was it like? I quickly met my answer after a very brief Google search, and - to my surprise - it happened to be located in the now known land of Iraq. This is significant because my Father was born and raised there, meaning it's a very crucial part of my heritage. Fortunately, this 'coincidence' can be used to benefit my work ethic as it'll be enticing for both me and my family, even if it's only a minor detail to the finished piece. I believe it's important to discover ones ethnic origins, as there is great artistic and historical potential to be unveiled in a relevant and educational way.

 

Other than Aladdin, I cannot recall a character from my childhood that portrayed the same ethnic backgrounds as me. This was partially damaging to my young self - I believed that girls with my appearance and non-English culture were uninteresting, undesirable and unwelcome in contrast to the white girls that I'd see on 80% of my favourite TV shows. I hardly saw the beautiful relatives on my Fathers side presented in a regular, well developed and admirable light on TV. From this, I rejected that side of me and never bothered to explore it. I don't want more children to feel the same way, and I hope there is a high quality surge of representation for a greater variety of cultures, even in the UK and US. 

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".. an exceedingly fertile plane, situated between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers."

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I found this piece of information notable because its contents seem fitting for world building - a very crucial part of character design, as it sets the history, context and atmosphere that the characters directly encounter and interact with. Good world building is an attempt to convince the viewer that the fictional land they're exploring could, potentially, exist (if it's laws, physical restrictions and dynamics seem - at least theoretically - functionable and valid). This is a skill I might want to do further reading into later.

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I say that 'it's contents would work well' in my CMP because Mesopotamias' setting includes 2 rivers (I'll generalise this to having large 'bodies of water'). Water is commonly seen - particularly in fantasy - as a crucial and central part to ones world, as are any other natural elements, especially to Mesopotamians since they developed the birthplace of agriculture - "the science or practice of farming, including cultivation of the soil for the growing of crops and the rearing of animals to provide food, wool, and other products" . An example of this is in franchises (such as Avatar the Last Airbender), where the entire story progresses surrounding a dynamic between manipulating natural materials/elements - one being Water. I can assume that the rivers are particularly important to the Mesopotamian civilisation and can be used to develop a fictional world because fact can ground fiction and make it more believable, whilst also being a very fluid and vast subject to make fantastical.

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"Despite near constant warfare, innovation and

development thrived in Ancient Mesopotamia.

They built, on a monumental scale, from palaces to ziggurats,

mammoth temples served as ritual locations to commune with the Gods."

"They also developed advanced mathematics."

"The Babylonians used their sophisticated system of mathematics

to map and study the sky" - findings/traditions later "adopted by the

Greeks to create the zodiac."

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This finding is useful in understanding how complex and intelligent they were to have discovered and developed the foundation of so many ideas and concepts that we still use today. I was mostly struck by the spiritual connection they had and clearly prioritised - despite being such an advanced collection of humans with many new physical things to explore, they still held religion to such a high degree of importance. This is fascinating and can be used to reflect and contrast with the Western worlds' newly and differing perspective on religion and faith - a topic I would love to delve into and include in my CMP.

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"Perhaps the most impactful innovation to come out of Mesopotamia was literacy."

"Writing system = 'Cuneiform' in modern times, and proved" incredibly "flexible"

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Hearing that the 'first' civilisation had invented literature and writing proves how important it was and still is to humanity. I was astounded to learn this! I hope that I can include this significant and essential part of Mesopotamian culture and fuse it to form an intelligent, intellectual and literary character. It also opens subtle design opportunities to refer to their alphabet/symbols without being explicit and cheap when expressing context - it gives the audience a History to look into and discover more outside the game play/television/cinema that isn't directly fed to them already.

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2) The Mesopotamians did it first!

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“The term is Greek, it means ‘two rivers’"

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Reiterating information I knew previously - more evident how important it is and also how we only kept the Greek recording of it.

“It wasn’t one society; there were multiple that shared aspects”
“..there were the Sumerians and Acadians, in those groups were the Babylonians and the Assyrians”, ‘didn’t share everything, different laws & customs, two languages too’
“..bilingualism was common” 
“..shared a pantheon of gods”

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Interesting to note that Mesopotamia was still divided into multiple societies but still communicated - I can use this to create a fictionalised interpretation of how they initially communicated and interacted with one another. Again they also mention the importance of religion/belief in both cultures, and how religion was a middle ground between them.

“It was important for them to be literate (which was rare in ancient cultures)

they shared a system of writing - they both wrote in '???' form”

 

Similarly to the first article, it shows the importance of literacy. I can imaginatively fill the gaps of how they might've educated a whole society considering class divisions etc, and why this might've changed to later ancient civilisations. Interesting that they wouldn't have needed a translator/interpreter since they wouldn't have had language barriers across Mesopotamia. I can assume a greater sense of unity and communication than some modern countries may have.

“Women had rights in Mesopotamia” ! (‘basically equal to the men’)
^”..the women farmed and had their own land” etc
“..first to develop:” “domesticated animals”, “invented beer and wine” ...

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Combats a view some may have that present day society is the result of a gradual and positive progression toward equality, where we actually backtracked centuries ago as misogyny developed or intensified during specific eras. Interesting to note for games/movies/shows where some viewers assume that it's 'too unrealistic' when women have the same roles as men previously because they think societies have only improved, not worsened, in terms of having strict and particular gender roles etc. Though many of these facts have only been mentioned briefly, they are very impressive and must've taken years to master. Developments like these are shortened to passing comments, but are clearly very complex founding's that are worthy of a story.

“the Western world likes to ignore founders of civilisations that weren’t white”
 

Unfortunately the history of how humanity has evolved has been completely white washed - I hadn't heard anything of Mesopotamia before I started the CMP, and in ways I am grateful to have newly learned about it but also wonder why it has been so overshadowed by Greek and Egyptian history. 

mentions the ‘Epic of Gilgamesh’ 

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This legendary tale is claimed to be the first recorded piece of literature known to mankind. It's an epic poem that was written on tablets of stone and maintained for centuries - translations can be found and I have found a few podcasts that discuss it. It would be too long and excessive for me to read myself, so I'll find summaries online. In short, the narrative follows a very interesting and rather complex storyline, surrounding the life of a King, presumed to be based of a real historical figure. 

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COMMENTARY

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I believe that it's important for all pieces of media to have some socio/eco/political/general informative commentary within their work, whether it's incredibly subtle or the main selling point. Many creators and consumers criticise this way of making art, but I think education via the media is one of the most effective forms. Considering this, it should be handled cautiously because it is unfair to police people ideology, only propose new ones instead and start a conversation or provoke any internal thinking for the individual viewer too. The 'debate' I wanted to address was a stigma surrounding 'the hijab' - my Muslim friends have discussed this with me before, and I've come across design & fashion projects that directly address this in a similar fashion, though I would translate this to being part of a game/tv series/movie. There is a certain 'reform' of the way people view it, and I thought it would be highly informative and beneficial for me to look into it, especially taking into account it's earliest recorded uses in history. This ties in with the topic of antiquity, so it still suits my brief. By discussing a 'debate' surrounding a certain accessory/garment, I can visibly cover it by incorporating it into my design. I found some articles, interviews and podcasts surrounding the discourse:

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1. Responding to common misconceptions

• ‘’Student ‘Mariam Khattab’ received so much abuse on the streets of Sunderland she made the decision to stop wearing the headscarf’’

• Outlined the irony that those who claim that the hijab ‘oppresses women’ are often the perpetrators that oppress women by deciding what they should/shouldn’t wear themselves

• Admits that there are cases where women are forced, but it’s only a minority

• Unfortunately can make you a greater target/‘affects the way you’re treated by others’

• “a piece of fabric that doesn’t change who I am’’who I believe in’’ my faith in God’’ my relationship with God”

• Told statements about how welcome they are in their own country

• Demoralising remarks made about them

 

SUMMARY: wearing the hijab doesn’t define someone in any way. It’s a piece of fabric that can mean different things individually, personally and internally. Others shouldn’t speak on or monitor what people wear.

 

 

 

2. Muslim Cosplayer

• Dania: “I didn’t think at first that I could do cosplay wearing a hijab”

• Cosplay: ‘dressing up as a fictional character’

• Mistaken to be political (considering timing with the news etc)

• She builds hijabs into her looks creatively, even though the original designs don’t wear one

• “I feel like a lot of people have the preconception about Muslim women who wear the hijab that they’re oppressed and they’re forced into it and that they should be very quiet and not have a voice” “I feel like i’m challenging that”

• Dust - X Men character - “I really liked that there was a character that looked like me” (‘she wore a hijab & niqab’)

• She likes to ‘Hijabify’ them

• Cosplays characters that inspire her, and make them more modest

• Combats over-sexualisation without taking away from the character

• Combats the idea that Hijab-wearers cant cosplay regular costumes 

• “An escape from normal life” = doesn’t have to be political/to make a statement/professional. 

• The only hijabi cosplayer in her community but hopes that more will join.

 

 

 

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3. On wearing hijab aside from religion

• Question: ‘Can a non-muslim wear a hijab for fashion’

• “I love how they make me feel more removed from the gaze and judgement of strangers. It’s as if head coverings are a privacy screen”

• “Would wearing a hijab appear to be a political statement?”

• RESPONSE...

• “Cultural appropriation is a hot topic these days”

• “Unless the appropriation is deliberately racist or pointless -“”- most people aren’t inclined to get angry about what others are wearing, eating..”

• “No prohibition on nonbelievers donning the veil” 

• “Head coverings of various kinds have long been enjoyed by women all over the world”

• “Ibrahim Hooper, national communications director for the Council on American-Islamic relations, pointed out-“”- ‘if you choose to wear a hijab, there’s no offensive on our end’ “

• “There are people who will likely react with hostility” .. “this climate of religious bigotry still affects the context of your question (of wearing it despite the risks)

• “Some non-Muslim women and girls -“”-have been wearing it in solidarity with a group under attack”

• February 1st = World Hijab day (non-believers are invited to wear it)

 

 

4. “The Hijab and the Sari”, Her Half of History

• “Many Westerners associate any form of veiling with Islam, but veiling is much older than the religion.”

• “Worn for centuries by upper class women in Syria and Iran as a sign of social status”

• “Even a theory that Cleopatra, last pharaoh of Egypt, may have worn full body veiling on at least one occasion”

• “The Qu’ran does advocate modesty,” “ ‘tell the believing women to lower their gaze and guard their chastity and not to reveal their adornments except what normally appears’ “

• ^ chapter 24, verse 31// “raises the question; which are the adornments that normally appear?”/“definition of modesty?”

• “Not the same as the niqab” “or burka”

• “These distinctions and definitions have not always been perfectly observed”

• “Clearly used as something for Muhammad’s wives - not women in general”

• People are equally devout for opposite claims and beliefs about how vital hijabs are to Islam.

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To summarise my findings, hijab isn’t strictly islamic, and it’s almost always a woman’s sole choice to wear one. Another finding is that depending on location, Islamic traditions and garments aren’t enforced or common. Taking this into consideration, I will use this to develop a target audience and basis for my response-oriented studies.

I will try to cater (even if it’s minimally) for hijabis/other modest members of society, and give them a character/sequence of characters that wear such headscarves. This allows them to explore cosplay and the such, whilst also introducing a more diverse assembly in the world of character design. This simultaneously defeats the preconception that a successful piece of media must feature a sexualised woman for responses - in the same way Black Panther was successful because it showcased Black characters, my project can be successful for the hijabi and female community.

Since my ancient setting is only loosely inspired by real life antiquity, religions we know and recognise today won’t be featured, and it will be more fantastical instead or have an entirely different power & spiritual system. This doesn’t have a massive affect, since the main stigma I wanted to challenge was surrounding women’s clothing choice/modesty devoid of religion, and over sexualisation of women in the media.

Another reason these case studies were useful is because it can let me research and critique existing representations of muslim and niqabi/hijabi characters, so that my designs are more progressive.

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ARTIST STUDY

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Arucelli:

• I found this artist on instagram and was pleasantly surprised to see a full character design board for an ethnic character. This came as a surprise because the posts in my feed are predominantly white/fair-skinned. There’s a major detachment from culture even when an POC character is presented - not necessarily white washed but certainly devoid of any culture fashion/accessory to represent their background/heritage, since they’re almost always put in a Western setting. It was truly refreshing.

• Aside from the inclusivity/diversity, the board is a great model for any character concept. After finding that they were a professional, I felt confident that I could use their work as an exemplar. This is extremely useful for portfolio work, as it demonstrates that you can clearly communicate an entire character/being and personality (when done well, of course). My main goal from this case study is to learn how to:

  • strategically minimise detail to be concise

  • visually arrange and organise a character/mood board

  • explore non-white culture in a respectful and intriguing way

• Illustration wise, I can locate where the artist has minimised detail but kept the flow and personality of the subject. Though some lines seem sketchy, they’re prominent enough to act as line art for the character. Unfortunately, it would take too long for the artist to make full renders for each sketch, and could result in appearing too refined and less dynamic.

• I’ll use this artists board as a template for my own. Some criteria I have made for myself is:

  • Keep the illustrations relatively loose and try maintain movement/personality best you can

  • Include sketches of your character interacting with your world

  • Multiple facial expressions

  • Settle on a colour scheme

  • At least 1 full body image

⁃ Another thing I noticed on their social media profiles was that they had a more in depth and more detailed render of their character (as though it were an official portrait) as a separate post. Imagining my character in a realistic and polished way would help strengthen my vision and I hope to include this in my CMP deliverables.

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CASE STUDIES

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Dust - the Muslim X-Man

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I decided to research into this character, because she is not only Islamic, but wears a full ‘niqab’, making her a prime example for my CMP studies. When minorities are explored in popular media, they are often a side-character to the grand scheme, and are also seen as a “token” character. I’ve learnt from previous studies (in Game Design) that the reduced number of diversity on screen results in an amplified and more sensitive representation of any character they introduce that belongs to a minority group. This can include LGBTQ+, disabled people, religious practicers (other than christianity) and many more. These communities are often a target for heavy stereotyping and usually receive abuse because of misinformation - this can be spread and encouraged by poor representation in the media, since lots of people’s sole or prime understanding of these groups are through (typically) undeveloped, minimal and unrealistic characters on TV. This applies to the X-Man, Dust, that I wanted to find more about.

Fans are usually overjoyed to hear a Muslim character is in the making because they’re members of society that are incredibly underrepresented and (unfortunately) antagonised - it’s welcoming (especially for Western audiences) to find these members shown in their natural and regular way. However, Youtuber ‘’ expresses that she’d rather have “no representation at all if the reputation they give us is poor and harmful”, speaking on the topic of Dust. The creators of X-Men received backlash over her design. In short, they claim that she was extremely ‘over-sexualised’, ‘weakly constructed’ and only reinforced false stereotypes/tropes/desires. Youtuber ‘’ claims that it wholly “catered to the male gaze” - a very important concept in understanding why women are so poorly represented even when they show up on screen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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An unofficial redesign of Dusts' attire, imagined and drawn by Sara Alfagee. It was uploaded to Twitter after a bitter criticism of how poorly Marvel designed a Muslim character.