06/10/20 update

I've continued on from last week's face experiment and finished it up.

As I noted in an annotation, the idea for the flower petal eyelashes comes from the design for Lillia in League of Legends: 

       Her design is all about showing how she is one with nature. In particular, there's the flower that grows from her head and the glow from the flower is seen in her hair, back and staff. The energy from nature is quite literally flowing through her. She has also clothed herself in what looks like tree bark. I think it looks too precisely tailored to her body and armour-like to feel natural  but the idea is there. Additionally, I wish her face was more deer-like with a long nose and face. Her face feels somewhat disconnected from her body, like they just slapped on their typical League woman face and called it a day. League has a problem with the lack of face variety in their woman character designs and Lillia is little different.

    After I finished up the face study, I took both of them forward.

    

    Firstly the amaryllis: 

    I felt like the face that I had come out with looked very androgynous or drag queen like. So, I tried to play with contrasting masculine and feminine features. Additionally, amaryllis have long stalks that stand tall which is why they are associated with pride and the stalks reminded me of dreadlocks. 

    At the moment, they're looking more like a wood spirit or god than a queen. A nature god of some kind of god of creation would fit well with the meaning of pride. I'm not too surprised that I've ended up this way since my main inspiration for how I tried to explore androgyny was the design for Chaos from Hades:

    Chaos is characterised in Hades as a pure entity of creation. They have a androgynous face. Their body is clearly male but their frame is softened and rounded by the conglomeration of faces around their shoulders. 

    The idea of framing parts of my project around feminisms and gender studies is something I'm thinking about. Flowers are closely associated with femininity so I think that there's something I could do with that. I just haven't figured it out yet.

    Back to Hades, the quality of the character design is so high. I love Supergiants work so much. Additionally, the design for Eurydice is relevant to my project:

    She is a oak tree nymph and I love how they're put that across in her design. The wood markings on her body and particularly her "hair" adds 3D definition to her. Also, her hair being a small tree with how the leaves have bloomed making it look like an afro ponytail is something that feels so simple and perfect. 

    Lastly, the chamomile flower:

        I tried to balance the delicate look of the flower (the white dress with frills and floral apron) and the practical usage of it in herbal remedies and tea etc (the under shirt rolled to her elbows, working gloves and boots and her ponytail). I wanted her to look like a doctor's student / apprentice also. Visual short-hands for doctors like a lab coat, medical bag or a stethoscope felt pretty tacky so I went for decorating parts of her clothing with red crosses. 

    Also, since my main source for flower language is the Victorian version, I tried to start using Victorian fashion as a reference point. I had a look at Victorian doctors and there wasn't anything particularly distinct about their clothing that I could see. 

    Finally, I should mention that I have started collecting written sources. I have found an illustrated book on botany since I figured that knowing the anatomy of flowers would help. I've never liked science but I'll give it a shot. Also, I've found a few papers on floriography / plant symbolism so I'll see where those'll take me.