Character Research

I started sketching with the theme of doing global climate change, temperatures rising and cooling ect. The idea would be to convey the message of water conservation and reducing the use of fossil fuels which contribute to the destruction of the ozone layer and trap CO2 emissions in the earths atmosphere. This got me thinking of things like ice, snow, trees and later T-rex's. The first are directly related to global climate change. T-rex's are very interesting to young children, they can be cute for girls and deadly looking for boys. They also became extinct because of an ice age, another time when the earth underwent global climate change.

I am very interested in this cause myself and have read many articles and seen many documentaries on climate change and a theory I found interesting which has lots of scientific support is that the sun is directly responsible for the state of the climate in the earth. Previously scientists and the media have portrayed climate change as the direct action of human behavior. However we have not caused this, just made it worse. Al Gore's an inconvenient truth lists data that show the level of CO2 in the past 80-50 years has increased and matches it with data of the global temperature which has also increased. He states that CO2 is human made and emitted and uses this to explain that is is humans fault that the earths temperature is rising. In an opposing documentary scientists prove that it is the suns fault that the temperature has risen, and their data goes back further than it does in an Inconvenient Truth. Their theory is along the lines of the more sun spots and solar flares that the sun has creates more heat and warms the earth. The less these have the cooler the earth is. Their data on sun spots show that in the last ice age there were very few sun spots, where as comparatively now there are many.

This lead me to also sketch suns and sun hats as characters to convey that the sun is causing these issues yet humans are making it much worse.

I looked at T-Rex images to try to best portray a T-rex. I also looked at T-Rex characters, they have varying proportions and sly smiles which make them cute. They are also very humanistic wearing t-shirts or shoes. This would be a good idea for a character for children.

 

 
 

 

Images:
http://www.clker.com/clipart-26471.html
http://www.istockphoto.com/stock-illustration-13576193-dinosaur-cartoon-t-rex.php
http://girltomom.com/mommy-mistake/tyrannosaurus-bex/attachment/t-rex-cartoon-3
http://www.susology.com/gfx/vectors/10672-graphicriver-item-baby-tyrannosaurus-rex-dinosaur-65974.html
http://www.dinosaurtypes.org/images/dinosaurs/dinosaurs_by_name/dinosaurs/tyrannosaurus.html
http://stores.rmohats.com/-strse-Sun-Hats/Categories.bok
http://eastcombeclass1.blogspot.co.nz/2010/05/hot-weather.html
http://www.webring.org/hub/westernhorse?w=1280;rh=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Ehatcountry%2Ecom%2F;rd=1
http://occupycorporatism.com/nasa-observes-giant-sunspot-anticipates-more-solar-activity/
http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/ciencia/ciencia_sol21.htm
http://joemamas.blogspot.co.nz/2011/10/solar-activity-update-sunspot-1319-will.html
http://blog.alexanderhiggins.com/2011/04/26/nasa-warn-super-solar-storms-forecasted-2012-kill-1-billion-20382/
http://www.space.com/11506-space-weather-sunspots-solar-flares-coronal-mass-ejections.html