I'm going to do a series of posts here about my process of designing, and in many cases re-designing, characters and elements of my The Circle comic/illustrated story. I think I can safely say that none of the initial designs from the 8-page Chapter 1 are going to be left unscathed. Some will have physical alterations, others will have origin re-imaginings, one will even have a name change!
I am doing these things only because I want this story to have legs and longevity. So I want to do it right and proper. To do this, changes are required.
So I've been working on some stuff with Dryad. I think I had her pretty close the first time around, it's just more about fleshing out her personality and locking in her origin. So here are some Dryad design pages from my trusty Cahier sketchbook.
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I've been doing these designs in my lunch break, mostly. I normally wolf down some food (usually a homemade salad, because I'm sometimes a good boy) and then get right down to it.
I've probably been a serial offender at not giving the design process the full attention it deserves in my desire to move on to the finished product in the past. Which was silly of me, really. Because it is in the design process that those magical moments happen when just a few little scribbly marks can lead to a true eureka moment. I had one on the first page where I wrote that bit about Dryad's emotions being tied into the shapes of her horn-thingies. Up until that point, I had imagined them just being rigid objects that served no other purpose than to look somewhat interesting and be a means of making her recognisable, even in silhouette.
As for Dryad's origin... well, it wouldn't be at all fun for me to give that away just yet now would it! But here's a little bit of new information about her that doesn't give anything too serious away:
Dryad, like all of her kind, has no name of her own. She is of the Dryad, and that is enough. Each Dryad is the caretaker and spiritual embodiment of their own area of forest.
Dryads live forever, really, after they are 'born.' Once they are attached to their own wood, it physically pains them to be apart from it and they cannot endure long without renewed contact with it. Other woods can heal them to a great degree, but they are only ever whole while as one with their wood.
And that's all you're going to get out of me regarding Dryad for the moment. I still don't think I have her design 100% down, but I'll keep working away at it and you'll definitely see more of her in the future.
I am doing these things only because I want this story to have legs and longevity. So I want to do it right and proper. To do this, changes are required.
So I've been working on some stuff with Dryad. I think I had her pretty close the first time around, it's just more about fleshing out her personality and locking in her origin. So here are some Dryad design pages from my trusty Cahier sketchbook.
I've probably been a serial offender at not giving the design process the full attention it deserves in my desire to move on to the finished product in the past. Which was silly of me, really. Because it is in the design process that those magical moments happen when just a few little scribbly marks can lead to a true eureka moment. I had one on the first page where I wrote that bit about Dryad's emotions being tied into the shapes of her horn-thingies. Up until that point, I had imagined them just being rigid objects that served no other purpose than to look somewhat interesting and be a means of making her recognisable, even in silhouette.
As for Dryad's origin... well, it wouldn't be at all fun for me to give that away just yet now would it! But here's a little bit of new information about her that doesn't give anything too serious away:
Dryad, like all of her kind, has no name of her own. She is of the Dryad, and that is enough. Each Dryad is the caretaker and spiritual embodiment of their own area of forest.
Dryads live forever, really, after they are 'born.' Once they are attached to their own wood, it physically pains them to be apart from it and they cannot endure long without renewed contact with it. Other woods can heal them to a great degree, but they are only ever whole while as one with their wood.
And that's all you're going to get out of me regarding Dryad for the moment. I still don't think I have her design 100% down, but I'll keep working away at it and you'll definitely see more of her in the future.
Back super-soon!