Analysis and redesign of characters in Turkish mythology

Many civilizations have existed throughout human history. While some of these civilizations could survive, others could not survive. However, in both cases, these civilizations have left behind a very rich cultural heritage. In this heritage there are mythologies, epics and legends which have been passed on to the present day some orally and some in written form. Each society has its own unique epic tradition and reflects the society it represents. Therefore, studying mythologies also means to examine the socio- cultural history of that society. Turkish society, which is one of the oldest living communities in the world, has a mythological verbal and written knowledge, but it has been noticed that there is a great deficiency in its visual experience. Based on the existing oral and written knowledge of Turkish mythology, this research aims to visualize the mythical characters depicted partially in epics and stories by adhering to the descriptions and depictions, making the characters visible in their original form and in this way contributing visually to the cultural accumulation of Turkish society. During the literature review, it was determined that many visualization studies were carried out based on Greek or Scandinavian mythologies. It is seen that depictions of these mythological characters are generally made in movies, books and many visual fields. In America, this situation has turned into a big-budget sector, a dream world, a universe has been created and world-renowned heroes have been created from this universe. At this stage, visualizing the rich background of Turkish mythology and revealing its heroes will be beneficial in terms of sharing this cultural heritage with the whole world. In this study, the current descriptions of all characters that can be accessed from written sources were examined by drawing the general lines of Turkish mythology, which has a rich history. Based on these analysed depictions, the characters were tried to be visualized in accordance with the original and accurately using the digital illustration technique. Keywords: Turkish Mythology, Character Design, Graphic Design, Digital Illustration