Character and Creature Design 2020-2021
By Arianna Boling
Index Pages 1 & 2: Character Design 1 - Cole Haywood Pages 3 & 4: Character Design 2 - Del Pages 5 & 6: Character Design 3 - Nova Pages 7 & 8: Character Design 4 - Cole(Monster Hearts) Pages 9 & 10: Creature Design 1 - Coat of Arms Pages 11 & 12: Creature Design 2 - Scourge Pages 13 & 14: Creature Design 3 - Farconan Pages 15 & 16: Various Designs - “My Cat”
Character Design 1 Cole Haywood Cole Haywood is a character I designed during the 2020 pandemic for fun and as an exercise. I wanted to make a scarecrow character and Cole was born from that. Design wise I wanted to keep it simple as I have a tendency to get really detailed with my characters. While this is not necessarily bad in character design, an over detailed design is pretty difficult to use in animated media. Story wise, I wanted a character rooted in something spooky as I love ghost stories. Cole as a character is dead farmhand who is possessing a scarecrow that used to be on the farm he worked on as a living young man. The time period that I had in mind for this was 19th century America, probably around the time of the civil war or before. This is a time in American history where homesteads and farms were still very common. This is a loose inspiration however not intended to be the world I would put this character in necessarily, but just a guideline for what the world around him and his story should look like. To give a shortened version of his backstory, Cole was born out of wedlock, which was somewhat of a social taboo. His mother sent him away to save her own social standing, and thus came to live with the Haywoods on their farm. The Haywoods would eventually earn the suspicion of the town reverend, who would eventually lead an angry mob onto the farm and massacre them. Cole was tied to the post of the very scarecrow he would come to inhabit after his death and was left to die. Now a scarecrow, Cole took his revenge and isolated himself on the farm. Eventually the town was abandoned, the forest surrounding it now overtaking it. In modern times Cole is an urban legend to the nearby town of Sleepy Brook, which is a modern rebirth of the original town now covered by the forest. During halloween in Sleepy Brook, its not uncommon for children to put out treats to appease “The Haywood Scarecrow” and treat him like a local bogeyman.
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Character Design 2 Del Del is a character I’ve had for a relatively long time, but have only recently given a design to. He was created for fun and to toy with some ideas. I love old fashioned jesters and wanted to create one for a collabrative story. At the same time I wanted to make him a fantasy creature of some sort, so I made him a selkie. If you do not know what a selkie is, they’re a mythological race in celtic folklore with the ability to turn into a seal. Selkies have a pelt that they use to do this, and if you were able to find the pelt and steal it then you effectively married that selkie since they cant return to the ocean without it. I thought this would be neat for a jester character since circus seals are pretty famous in pop culture, so why not a selkie emplyed at a circus? I made sure this is at least somewhat hinted at in his human design, so he has his pelt wrapped around his waist like a belt as you can see to the right. From there I looked at some classical depictions of jesters to design his outfit. The only thing I did not like was the traditional hat so I gave him his little crown headband. Del’s back story is not as well defined as Cole, but in general he comes from a family that has long been apart of a traveling troupe. Del would be born mute, which upset his parents as of course being able to sing was a large part of their livelyhoods. Still, Del still found a way to be a performer, just of the more acrobatic variety instead.
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Character Design 3 Nova This design was one I did as a request for a friend. Currently, my friend is running a game called Monster Hearts, and Nova is one of her NPCs. Nova is a character my friend has had for a very long time so it was no surprise she would appear. Nova has never has a concrete design, so Maggie asked if I could draw one so she could show our other players. Nova is a witch, in the classical sense and Maggie wanted her to look goth. More specifically, pastel goth. I love pastel goth fashion so it was pretty fun to design her outfit. Otherwise, her hair and eyes were decided by my friend. Deciding the color pallete was probably my favorite part of this. In the world of the game, Nova is a college student in New York state. Monster Hearts is a Powered by the Apoloypse game, where you can play as monsters living amongst humans. The game puts a focus on relationships and is supposed to emulate young adult drama. Players can gain dirt on each other and owe favors. Each monster has their own abilities as well that can give them an upperhand. Our campaign like is set at this college that Nova attends and the story revolves around solving issues in the monster community while trying to deal with relationships and the players not outing their true nature to the humans. Nova is a oretty important character in this and is the best friend of my player character.
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Character Design 4 Cole (Monster Hearts) If you’re wondering why this character looks familar, well thats because he’s the same character that I showed before on page 1. Yup, this is Cole Haywood, but it’s the version of him that exists in my friend’s game of Monster Hearts. Cole as a character was fairly new when we started the campaign so I really wanted to use him as my player character. Though this means that while they are technically the same person, this is a different iteration of Cole and does not have the same history. Cole is also a college student in this universe and uses The Hollow playbook. In game, hollows are artifically created beings, so it fit well with Cole’s scarecrow themeing. In story, he used to be a normal scarecrow, but his mother animated him in hopes of bring her deceased daughter back to life in some way. This failed however and what she really ended up doing was creating a new person entirely. This version of Cole is constantly at odds with his “mother” due to her strict nature and her constant need to force her daughters identity on to him. This leaves him with very little self worth or confidence, with his only friend at the beginning of the campaign being Nova. Design wise, all I really had to do was make a human interpretation of Cole. This doubles as what Cole would have looked like alive, minus the stitches and modern clothing.
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Creature Design 1 Coat of Arms So I realize this is not quite a creature design per se, but I did have to design a creatue in a style I’m not accustomed to, so I’ve included it. This is a fictional Coat of Arms for a fictional fantasy country of my creation. Mortemis is intended to be a fantasy version of realworld Scotland, so I looked at the real coat of arms of Scotland as inspiration for this. That is why a unicorn appears just like in the real scottish coat of arms. The other beast is a fictional creature created by myself and is native to Mortemis. The Farconan is featured again later in this booklet in it’s actual design. Here, they are depicted in Heraldic fashion, which was a challenge. Before this I had never tried to emulate the heraldic style used in medieval banners, tapestries and of course, the coat of arms of various european countries. I think it was a nice exercise to try and take a creature of mine and try to figure out what medieval people would interpret it as, since very few heraldic animals are accurate depictions of the real animal, when it was a real animal in question of course. Farconans are large, dragonic shifters in a similar fashion to werewolves. They were revered and respected by the ficitonal people of Mortemis, so it only makes sense that they would be depicted in the royal coat of arms.
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Creature Design 2 Scourge 11
Scourge is an aquatic drake that I designed as part of a collbrative story. I wanted to try designing out of my comfort zone with dragons, and so I made a wingless sea dragon. In universe, Scourge is a fiercely territorial dragon well known amongst sailors. Many have tried to slay her, and failed. In truth, Scourge is merely trying to keep humans well away from her last egg.
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Creature Design 3 Farconan The Farconan is a fictional creature of my design. I mentioned them earlier while talking about the Mortemis Royal Coat of arms. The Farconans are a race of shifters very distantly related to dragons. In their true forms, they tower over humans and have mastery over lightning. As a society, their culture is based on the fuedal clans of Scotland. In the far north of Mortemis lies a large peninsula known only as “The Expanse”. This regions is a large plateau flanked by mountains that is almost contantly covered in storms. The clans thrive here and have friendly relations with the human side of them kingdom, lending their stength whenever the kingdom found itself at war. Design wise, they were heavily inspired by games that I like. Over time I’ve grown them into something more distinct, though of course the design process is never over. Farconans may look very different ten years from now. Even so, Farconans as a species and as characters will remains near and dear to my heart.
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Various Designs “My Cat”
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This comic is inspired by some real behavior from my own cat. I have a calico named Mocha, who isnt always very bright. When I work in my office I often keep the door slightly open. but not fully closed. It’s easier to hear if my grandmother is calling me from down the stairs this way. Well, my cat doesnt know what to do if the door is not open wide enough to squeeze through. My mothers cats figured out how to pull a door toward them with their paw, but did not teach this to my own cat. So instead of doing that she either meows at me until I open it for her or she tries to smoosh her face in the gap(unsuccessfully).
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