Loris Prestaux – Portfolio

This figurine was created as part of the Visual Design course at De:Hive.
For this assignment, we were asked to create a figurine approximately 30 cm tall using oven-baked clay.

The theme for this project was “Reluctant Detective.”

Gallery

Workflow

Research

At first, I only had an intuition of the direction I wanted to go. I had an interest for Victorian London, the bourgeoisie and its hidden vices, the moody atmosphere of the 18th century and this kind of “Jack the Ripper” ambience. Since I have more interest in designing relatable characters who find their strength from within, I wanted to design a unassuming at first character. From there, I started imagining a rigid middle-aged lady.

From this point on, I tried to outline who this character could be, what she would do, what kind of universe she would be familiar with. Inspired by my setting of choice and influenced by old-age brothel aesthetics, I finally drafted the character concept for Maude Vex.

I then spent time researching era-appropriate fashion, in relation to the character’s gender, social class and profession.

Below, an excerpt of research and ideation for Maude:

Sketching

Here are a few initial sketches for Maude, as well as proofs of concept and various stages of the silhouette drawings I would use as reference for clay modelling.

Modelling