Developing a character for the story (U9: P6, M2)

Developing a character for the story (U9: P6, M2)

Learning outcome 3 (U9): Be able to develop ideas for an original character in a planned story

Ava Fae - Main Character

Mood Board - Images referenced from Pinterest.com 

Summary of Ideas

My idea for Ava fae as the main character is to be ambitious and outgoing. She always steps into danger without a second thought and is constantly dragging round her unwilling best friend. I was thinking of having her hair a bright colour to stand out, whilst her clothes are more neutral, muted colours just to make her look like she actually fits into the rest of the world. Ava is always active and plans to take down Lady Steel with the help of her friend.

Another character to include would be Zinc Jones, Ava Faes best friend. He is cowardly and apprehensive to all of Avas ideas. He is a bionic, but hides his ion arms with gloves in order to stay in non-bionic territory with Ava. Zinc would be coloured with more muted tones as he isn’t as adventurous as Ava, however, his gloves would be a bolder colour as he does eventually save the day at the end of the comic.

Lastly, another featured character would be Lady Steel. She is essentially the villain in this story as she divided the bionics and the non-bionics. She would be dressed in all black signifying that she is the villain as dark colours are typically associated with badness. Lady Steel will also have red eyes just to really enhance the fact that she is the villain of the story. Lady Steel’s hide out will be snuck into by both Ava and Zinc, and Lady Steel would be taken down and thrown into a cell.

Spider Diagram 

Initial sketches and Ideas 

Explanation of characteristics and features of Ava Fae

Ava has ginger/orange hair which is always kept in a ponytail. This is a fitting hairstyle, as she is always active and on the go, it’s good to keep her hair out of her face and out of the way. Naturally she has black eyes, however, after she puts her bionic contacts in, her eyes change to a pale blue colour, signifying that she has the contacts in. Ava also has a scar which goes across the bridge of her nose. This is really fitting as Ava is always diving head first into danger, so it makes sense for her to have some battle scars to show for it. She also wears earrings, there is no real reason for the earrings, but I thought it would be better to have more than one defining feature of a character. She wears a black sleeveless turtle neck, the sleeveless means that she is still cool when she is running around doing activities all day, yet she still has some protection on the rest of her body from the sun, as she is pale, so therefore tends to sunburn quite easily. Another clothing garment she  are khaki shorts. These are a generic piece of clothing, but shorts allow her more movement in her legs compared to if she were wearing trousers, and also help her cool down when she’s out doing activities in the sun. Lastly she wears combat boots on her feet. These shoes can be seen commonly throughout sci-fi character designs as these shoes can help traveling on uneven, gravel grounds, and also act as walking boots from when Ava goes exploring and hiking.

In terms of facial expressions, they are very easy to do with Ava as a character as she has no face coverings meaning we are able to see her full face. By altering the direction of her eyebrows and eyes and changing the position of her mouth we can show emotion. Anger is shown by tilting her head, eyebrows and eyes downwards. This emotion would be shown in situations where Ava is in battle potentially. Sadness is shown by angling both the eyes and eyebrows up and making the mouth into a frown. I have also added tears to enhance the emotion. This emotion will be shown when Ava is upset with something or someone in potential stressful situations. Ava is mostly happy thought the comic, so this emotion is important. To express happiness, the eyebrows will be raised and the eyes stay as a normal level and the mouth will be brought to a smile. This emotion remains a constant with Ava throughout the comic as she is typically very happy.

Most of Ava’s physical characteristics are in her clothing. She wears an all black sleeveless turtle neck with a circle in the middle. This piece of clothing is slim fitting yet also flexible meaning she can move around quickly without any loose clothing getting in her way or catching on anything. In the drawings above I have two running poses of Ava. This is also a defining feature as this garment of clothing will allow Ava to be recognised in scenes with other people The one on the left is the running motion in which she would use in battle. The pose shows that her arms are behind her which allows her to be more streamline and therefore move faster if she was trying to dodge something. Whilst the running pose on the right is more of  a regular running pose for if she were trying to get somewhere in a hurry, or running away from someone such as a guard. Also shown in the image above is how Ava wears shorts. These shorts, like the top she wears, are for easy movement. If she were wearing trousers, this could limit her movement if they were too tight, and be too heavy if they were baggy fitted. These trousers are white in the comic as they need to contrast the top in order to be seen as a separate garment of clothing, however if it were to be coloured for a front cover for example, they would be a khaki colour. This light colour means it doesn’t absorb as much sun and cause her to get too hot as her top does. The pose at the bottom is a drawing of her on the floor. This shows the pose she would be in if she were to get injured in battle and falls on the floor. In this pose you can also see that she is wearing combat boots with socks coming out the top of them. I have chosen the combat boots as Ava is typically going out and exploring and hiking, meaning a sturdy pair of boots will come in handy, and the socks out the top are so that the boots dont become uncomfortable with friction on the skin. Lastly, Ava’s pony tail also will enhance the meaning or movement as the positioning will change depending on the action. For example, you can see when she’s running, the pony tail will blow in the direction the wind will be hitting her face. This ponytail is a distinguishing factor of Ava as this pony tail, along with the top, will allow readers to spot her out in scenarios with lots of people.

Colour scheme ideas

(referenced from https://coolors.co/000000-eeeeee-ffca66-8af3dc-d6ebf1)

As the publishing company in which I will be publishing my comic through predominantly publishes black and white comics. However, as my comic needs to entertain and grab the interest of more western audiences, I will be using some accents of colour within my comic.

The colours above are back and white (and shades of grey in-between) representing the main ‘colours’ my comic will be. I have an orange and blue colour which is the colour of my title, as well as the onomatopoeia bubbles. Then lastly, the light, pale blue on the end is the colour I will be colouring Ava’s eyes when she puts the contacts in so that readers can clearly see the difference.

Back Story

When the attack of the bionics commenced bionics and non-bionics were drafted to fight against one another. Both Ava’s parents were sent away to fight leaving Ava all alone as she doesn’t have any siblings. Time passed, however Ava’s parents never came home, so Ava had a hatred towards Lady Steel and vowed to take her down one day to avenge her parents. Zinc now lives with Ava as whilst the fighting was going on, Zinc disguised his bionics and fled to go stay with Ava as they both used to be best-friends before the separation of the bionics and non-bionics. Now they both live together in non-bionic territory.

Unique character traits/abilities

As Ava is a non-bionic she doesn’t have any supernatural traits or powers that those with bionics have. However as she trained herself for the day she takes down Lady Steel, she has great intellectual knowledge when it comes to battle. She is also quite witty which she can use to distract her opponents whilst she concocts a plan to take them down.

Relationship to other characters

Ava has a best friend Zinc, and although he is a bionic, he is a lot more cowardly and shy than Ava is. Ava is always dragging Zinc against his will on her little adventures and constantly regardless on if they’re dangerous or not. Ava and Zinc have been best friends since they were younger, and during the Attack of the bionics, he fled to go stay with her as they both got left alone when their parents went to fight.

Lady Steel is Ava’s sworn nemesis. Lady Steel doesn’t know anything about Ava, yet Ava has sworn vengeance for her parents, and her one goal is to take Lady Steel down to restore peace against both communities, the bionics and non-bionics.

Along the way, Ava encounters many guards trying to bring her mission to a halt, but she manages to get past them by talker her way out of any conflicts.