P6: Develop an original character to be included in the planned story
In this section I will be developing the ideas for the main character of my comic: Comet.
Colour theory:
use of colour is important to consider when designing characters for any medium, as colours can have various affects on a scene and character. Colours can not only relay more visual information and make a scene more visually interesting, but can also evoke certain emotions and feelings towards certain characters within the audience. How colours are used in character in character design are crucial to how the character is received by the audience.
I have opted to create my comic in black and white ink, as this reflects my inspiration from original manga comics, which are typically drawn and printed in black and white. This will create the stylistic effect of my project being an original manga style comic.
Evidently, The issue with this decision, despite the stylistic benefit, is that my comic won't gain from the complex character symbolism and emotion that colour can bring. To resolve this, I have decided to go for a majority black and white character design, but in certain panels that are crucial to the story, I will add splashes of colour, reflecting the scene and characters emotions. This allows me to maintain the classic manga comic style whilst also invoking emotion with the use of colour.
This also allows me to be creative and have a lot of freedom with my use of colour to invoke different emotions and create symbolism. This is a technique that was inspired by the manga and anime series "JoJo's Bizarre Adventure" and it's creator Hirohiko Araki. The main manga for this series was done in black and white, leaving colour up for interpretation. But in time colour scans were created by fans, as well as officially. As well as this several anime series and movies began to be released. In all of these mediums, colours used for characters and locations differentiated. Fans questioned this and in an interview Araki was asked what the official canonical colour palette for certain characters, and he stated that there was none. He wanted use of colour to be free and fluid to change to invoke certain reactions and reflect certain emotions.
This concept can be seen used to great effect in the newest anime adaptations by "david productions," in which colours for characters hair, eyes and costumes is changed between episodes and even scenes, often used in dramatic ways to create immense, almost psychedelic feeling effects, as shown below:
I have opted to create my comic in black and white ink, as this reflects my inspiration from original manga comics, which are typically drawn and printed in black and white. This will create the stylistic effect of my project being an original manga style comic.
Evidently, The issue with this decision, despite the stylistic benefit, is that my comic won't gain from the complex character symbolism and emotion that colour can bring. To resolve this, I have decided to go for a majority black and white character design, but in certain panels that are crucial to the story, I will add splashes of colour, reflecting the scene and characters emotions. This allows me to maintain the classic manga comic style whilst also invoking emotion with the use of colour.
This also allows me to be creative and have a lot of freedom with my use of colour to invoke different emotions and create symbolism. This is a technique that was inspired by the manga and anime series "JoJo's Bizarre Adventure" and it's creator Hirohiko Araki. The main manga for this series was done in black and white, leaving colour up for interpretation. But in time colour scans were created by fans, as well as officially. As well as this several anime series and movies began to be released. In all of these mediums, colours used for characters and locations differentiated. Fans questioned this and in an interview Araki was asked what the official canonical colour palette for certain characters, and he stated that there was none. He wanted use of colour to be free and fluid to change to invoke certain reactions and reflect certain emotions.
This concept can be seen used to great effect in the newest anime adaptations by "david productions," in which colours for characters hair, eyes and costumes is changed between episodes and even scenes, often used in dramatic ways to create immense, almost psychedelic feeling effects, as shown below:
Character features:
Having discussed and developed more vague and changing ideas of colour use and theory for my characters, I will now discuss and develop more concrete ideas for my characters physical features and traits.
Firstly, I want my character to be aspirational and hard working, though young and naîve. I want these personality traits to reflect in his design and physical features.
To reflect the aspirational nature of my character, I want him to have wide eyes and a glint in his eyes, which becomes more prominent in scenes where he's feeling particularly excited or motivated (e.g in the scene when he's about to buy the guitar/looking at it in the shop window.)
As he is 17 years old, and still developing and learning, he will have little to no facial hair, and a small amount of acne and scars, but this is not to be a central or prominent feature. I don't want him to be an action hero, and as my comic is grounded in a realistic setting, he will be an average/slightly skinny build, and not particularly strong, but with clear work put in to his physique. This still makes him a character that others can relate to and be inspired by without creating unrealistic expectations, or making the story less believable.
Firstly, I want my character to be aspirational and hard working, though young and naîve. I want these personality traits to reflect in his design and physical features.
To reflect the aspirational nature of my character, I want him to have wide eyes and a glint in his eyes, which becomes more prominent in scenes where he's feeling particularly excited or motivated (e.g in the scene when he's about to buy the guitar/looking at it in the shop window.)
As he is 17 years old, and still developing and learning, he will have little to no facial hair, and a small amount of acne and scars, but this is not to be a central or prominent feature. I don't want him to be an action hero, and as my comic is grounded in a realistic setting, he will be an average/slightly skinny build, and not particularly strong, but with clear work put in to his physique. This still makes him a character that others can relate to and be inspired by without creating unrealistic expectations, or making the story less believable.
Clothing:
As this story is set in the modern day, and my character is an aspiring musician who idolises bands and artists that he enjoys, His clothing style will reflect modern fashion trends and artist inspired styles. For example, he will wear a mix of popular clothing brand inspired clothes such as adidas and doc marten, as well as unique vintage clothing styles. This somewhat reflects my own fashion sense, as I want my character to relate to people my age . Of course, I will change some of the branding slightly, so as to avoid copyright issues (e.g using a brand called 'Adidis' with a slightly different logo as opposed to the actual Adidas logo.)
Abilities:
As my story is set in a close to realistic earth setting, and my character is an average teenager, he doesn't have any special supernatural or fighting abilities like you would find in action or superhero comic. He does have abilities to speak of though, such as his ability to speak some japanese learned from classes. As well as the focal point of the story being his guitar playing and musical ability.