Been messing around with this story idea I had a week or so ago.  It’s different in the fact that I’ve actually got an idea of the story as a whole and where I want it to go, which is kinda nice for a change.  I just have to refine it all down a bit, but I really wanted to get ahead of myself and design the main character, because I like thinking visually more than writing it, so I’ve been trying to balance.

The basic thrust of the story is a girl who learns dark animal magic and tries to use it to protect her family.  I want the setting to be fantasy, but a little more modern than what you typically see.  Buttons and some cars and printing presses and such.  She starts out 12 or 13, so that’s where I decided to start.  I wanted a combination of a small, seemingly naive and complying with frustration and unreleased energy.  I’ve been doing a lot of writing as well as all this designing, but this is kind of just my process of pinning down something I liked for her hair and clothes.

I find it easier to search for what I want visually and explore all the idiosyncracies, so I had to find everything  I didn’t like.  Took ages, and I was getting frustrated with the ambiguity, so I tried to at least decide on a simple appearance for today.

This was just figuring out what kind of hair she had.  Curly was a favourite.  Then I had to go nuts with thumbnails to find some clothes I didn’t hate.

I knew the climate would be kind of cold, and I wanted the clothes to look halfway between primitive and modern.  I love the shapes of traditional costumes, but like it was in a more modern setting.

I don’t really know why I ended up favouring the poncho, I just kept coming back to that diamond sort of silhouette.

Colour combinations.  Ended up looking like my brother’s poncho, hehe.

Pretty happy with where this is heading.  To be continued.