Spooky Comic #3 | Creating A Character

What Happens In The Dark

I have one more story featured in my horror anthology to share with you, good people of Steemit. This plot revolves around actual historical events in the late 1800s when graverobbing became very popular due to the hospitals' needs for cadavers to study. But this last tale is quite involved and is a story that I was very passionate about so I've decided to break this down into a couple of posts. For this particular post, I'm going to be focusing on the character development and sketches I worked on before I got into the nitty-gritty of actually bringing my comic to life.

The Main Character

I think most artists can attest to the power of having reference photos. Drawings generally look stronger when the artist has an example to look back to. This extends to character design as well, at least for me. Whenever I am trying to come on with a character design I try to find as many photos of I can of what the character looks like in my head. I find this also helps me keep designs looking more consistent and "on model" from panel to panel. Thanks to the plethora of photos easily found on Google, building your own library of references pics has never been easier.

The story took place in the late 1800s so naturally, I was looking for a lot of good references for the fashion and hairstyles of the time.

Photo Credit:
Vintagious

After the research stage, I finally started sketching. Had I not packed away my sketchbook, I would have more photos to share but you'll just have to take my word that I drew the main character's, Edith, head over and over and OVER again until I felt I got her look just right. Then I started doing sketches of her in various poses which ultimately lead to a character turnaround.

If you have the time to do so, I highly recommend creating character turnarounds for your main characters. It's very helpful to have a guide of what your character looks like from the various angles you'll probably be drawing them in throughout your story.

I ended up simplifying her dress even more in final designs

The Rest of The Cast

I won't bore you by going through every character design process since I took the same steps each time:

1. Find good references photos
2. Sketch your little heart out until you're satisfied with results
3. Draw said character in different poses & create a character turnaround

Just follow those three simple steps and you'll have your characters looking spiffy in no time!

Various Victorian Era characters including some main characters.

Edith and another character, Edward

Stay Tuned for More!

That's all for now; stay tuned for more posts about the development of this story and what went into making it. You can read my other two posts about my horror anthology here and here if you feel so inclined.

---

If you'd like to keep up with more of my work you can check me out at the following:

Instagram: @la.fumettista
Tumblr: http://la-fumettista.tumblr.com/tagged/art
Twitter: @TheresaChiechi
Website: https://www.theresachiechi.com/