I started out drawing up some rough sketches for the main character, the female teenage character whose perspective the game will be in. I produced a series of pencil sketches in a sketchbook first before considering going on a computer to draw. I find it easier and quicker to get my ideas down on paper first, before transferring them onto computer and working on them further.
She comes from quite a poor background, so I used clothes that aren’t particularly fashionable and wouldn’t be the latest trends in the time period that the narrative is set in, so they would be a bit out of date. I browsed through a few different clothes catalogues that have come through he door in the past few months to get some ideas. I liked the idea of having the oversized coat that doesn’t fit her, it could have been something she picked up somewhere on the cheap or got handed down to her from someone else. I wanted to keep her clothes quite simple, shirts, jeans and baggy jumpers were the general things I was looking for, nothing fancy or too elaborate.
She has very long hair that she keeps up in a messy ponytail so it is out of the way, especially when she is at work. She works full time at a local café to save up so she can move out of her parent’s house.
These were a few refined ideas showing her regular clothes, her work clothes and then her outdoor wear, which is her normal clothes just with a big heavy coat over the top. She either wears boots or converse on her feet and changes to black jeans, a white t-shirt and red apron for work. Normally she wears a short skirt, a striped long sleeve top and a long baggy knitted jumpers over the top.
I did the same process for the second main character, a young man from England who is a natural magic user and has transferred parts of his consciousness into various different magical devices. Even though he only talks to the main character via her mind he also projects a mental image of himself so it is like she is talking to an actual person rather than just a voice, I thought that this would be better visually and would make it clearer who was speaking. I wanted him to appear in more modern attire as he came from a wealthier background sort of middle to upper class. He went to quite a fancy school in England etc. So I wanted him to be a bit more refined than the outspoken lead character. It was hard to know what sort of clothes to design, as it would be a mental image of what he wanted to be wearing, as his body would currently elsewhere. Again I looked at more modern looking clothes in various clothing magazines.
Above are the two final designs for the main characters.
After deciding on their appearance I scanned the sketches into the computer to colour them.
I chose to stick with quite earthy colours for Anna and I gave her red hair to match her quite fiery personality.
With Oliver I couldn’t decide what colour scheme I wanted, so I tried a few different variations, then posted them on Facebook and asked people for feedback. Most people liked the one on the far left, coming second was the middle so I combined the two.
This is the final design.
Another key character is an old man who runs an antique shop. He acts as the two main character’s mentor. I found drawing older people quite a challenge and racked up a lot of test sketches to try and get something I was happy with.
These are some quick sketches for the main characters boss at the café, I had some trouble deciding what I wanted her to look like, but as she only appears for a few panels I didn’t want to make her stand out to much. She is more just a generic looking character that wouldn’t be too difficult to draw.
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