Portuguese Holiday – 25 de Abril
The holiday I chose to represent is 25 de Abril or Dia da Liberdade (25th April or Liberty Day). It commemorates the peaceful revolution that took place all over Portugal and marked the end of the nationalist dictatorship and colonial wars. It is infamous for its peaceful approach, where soldiers placed carnations inside the muzzles of their rifles. As a result, this movement is often called “A Revolução dos Cravos” (Carnation Revolution).
I chose this holiday because it is one of the few revolutions that happened in the history of humanity that did not use force against their opponents. This shows that strength is in numbers and unity, not violence. For this reason, I want to use this historic day as inspiration for my character.
25th April 1974 – Soldiers during the Revolution
Character Inspiration
I have been thinking and I wanted my character to be an animal. I think it would be a more friendly, cartoonish approach that could help younger audiences feel more drawn toward this emblematic day. However, I want an animal that inhabits Portuguese territory to make it coherent with the theme.
After some research, I decided to use the Iberian wolf as a reference for my character. This species lives in the northern regions of Portugal and northwestern Spain. At first, I wanted to do the “Andorinha” (swallow bird), which is probably the most emblematic animal in Portugal, but I thought it wouldn’t have the same impact and it would be harder to anthropomorphize. Therefore, I’d rather stick with the wolf.
I have also gathered a few images as inspiration for the design. I want the wolf to be a Disney style character, because it makes it more readable and expressive, in my opinion. Zootopia was very useful for this! The wolf characters are very funny and expressive while maintaining anatomically correct proportions that keep them true to the species they belong to. I especially like the way they modeled their noses. That slight arch that wolves have and that Disney artists used to create different proportions for distinct characters is so satisfying!
Character Design
I have been doing some sketches and to be honest, I am not fully convinced about these designs yet. There is something about this drawing that makes the wolf feel like a Furry XD. I want him to be a bit more expressive and less flirtatious… The body is ok, but the whole face just looks off. I don’t know… I will probably redo the whole thing. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
UPDATE
This took way longer than it should have but I finally have a design I want to work with! The proportions look way more expressive and unique than in the first drawings. Also, this design’s expression conveys more personality.
I did not mention this earlier but, my intention is to make this wolf look peaceful, reliable and relaxed, at the same time strong and decisive. It all has to do with the core of this peaceful revolution. I do not want it to look violent, but it cannot look weak. The relaxed state is also not to say that this character is lazy but instead that it is sure of its morals and confident that peace is a better path than violence. This wolf also has to look like a friendly, reliable character, since I want to express that strength is also in unity, looking out for each other and trusting one another.
I think this design conveys all of that and I am finally ready to move to the next step and start thinking about colors and modeling. Finally… I am so tired! (It is literally 5 am).
COLOR UPDATE
I have decided to make a major change and switch the military hat to a helmet. These were also used during the revolution and I think it makes the character look more like a soldier rather than a common individual with a gun.
For the colors and patterns, I want to keep them fairly true to the actual species but still have them pop out. Therefore the palette is mostly composed of very saturated brown tones. As for the hat and carnation, I made them opposite colors on the color wheel to create more contrast. The weapon is a blueish-grey that also helps create contrast, while not deviating the attention from the character too much.