Today, since the majority of my current work is a little spoilerish for the main story, I thought I would discuss something I haven't really touched upon yet - that being the characters. So, to start off the character talks, I'll be discussing the main character of the series, James Remington, who I affectionately refer to as 'Rem'.
"It's here!"
Sorry I have yet to have a fully coloured version of Rem when he's not terrified...Anyway, so Rem - or rather James Remington, since the Rem thing is more my nickname for him right now - is the main character for Dreamwalkers - you might recognise his hair from the silhouette on the front cover design. He's an aspiring author who just so happens to be suffering from reoccurring nightmares that are the key point to the Dreamwalkers story. He was also the first designed character for the story, closely followed by Somnus. Its funny, as his design closely resembles another character I made for the Potty Comic (a kids comic that we were tasked to create in our second year under the brand 'Potty' - because it was a comic based in the Potteries) - though perhaps I should say Chris resembles a much younger version of Rem, as I created Rem first, despite having not got around to utilising him until now.
Makes me think I should do a spin off story though. Nadia and I joke that perhaps Rem and Chris are actually siblings. lol. Could be fun to do. Rem, being of age, does live on his own, so who knows, they could be!
I was inspired to create Rem at the same time I was inspired to create dreamwalkers, as he literally came into creation at the same time. The main inspiration for the story and Rem was a Swedish song (a lullaby, I think?) called Byssan Lull, specifically the version sung by Carola. This is the song, if you're interested:
While at the time I didn't know the meanings of the lyrics (not that the lyrics have any terrible meanings or anything. It sings of things that come in threes, which is ironic as I initially made three main characters as the first of the SOS crew before I actually discovered the translated lyrics. lol). I think its because of the lullaby tone in how this version is sung, but it made me think of some kind of dream based world, while its haunting sounds made me think of darker aspects of dreams and somehow I ended up creating the story, and subsequently, Rem and Somnus as the first characters.
I'll speak about Somnus another time, however.
Rem, I wanted to make him a fairly ordinary seeming kind of guy, since he is the one who needs to be mostly related to as the main character who's adventures we're following. So for the most part, a chose a fairly simple design in that he isn't other worldly, while at the same time giving him interesting aspects to his appearance and personality so he wouldn't be too dull either. For example, I gave him green eyes mainly as a personal choice, as while it is a colour that people can naturally have, its not a common eye colour either. I also needed ways for him to be recognized as he doesn't have one outfit he always wears either (again, in real life you dot exactly see people with a wardrobe consisting of a single outfit), so as well as the eye colour, I designed his hair to be unruly so you could tell its him in a silhouette - due to that, the hair that constantly stands up on his head (to use the manga term 'Ahouge', or 'Idiot Hair') seemed like a natural progression.
Personality wise, I tried to make him a personality which would counterbalance the more mysterious and slightly whimsical manner that Somnus portrays himself as. So, Rem ended up being the (usually) more down to earth, sarcastic and suspicious kind of person, although most of this seemed rather tempered when I realized that reoccurring nightmares of being hunted night after night that are getting progressively more realistic might psychologically effect someone. Thankfully, assuming everyone likes Dreamwalkers, once the first volume is over, Rem's personality gets far more time to shine.
I did also mention his aspiring author status. Well, that wasn't just my own ideas trying to burst through there as a comic artist. lol. It actually does have a point to Rem's story, though how, I wont say just yet.
Currently, Rem is the character I have drawn the most so far in Dreamwalkers and is one of the most fun to draw, mostly because while somewhat simple to draw, he is also the most expressive of the characters currently, especially as he is discovering the Dreamwalkers world alongside the reader, so I have a lot of fun expressing his thoughts and feelings, even before I touch word balloons. As they say, actions speak louder than words.
If nothing else, the 'many faces of Rem' will be good for my portfolio. lol.
I'll be showing more panels involving Rem at later times, as I dont want top spoil too much, so dont expect too much context with the images. At least until the comic is released.
On a note about the comic, as an update, I have a rough script to about midway through the story (note this is going to be a long story, surpassing the 24 pages of Susanoo once it is complete - 24 pages is not even mid point!), I have the thumbnails done to page 18 so far, with three pages complete (but waiting text), and 9 pages sketched and waiting for final line art and colour. For next week, my goal is to have all the thumbnails sketched to scan ready stages, maybe having one more page ready for the sound effects/speech to be added. Since 16-24 pages are the minimum I'm hoping to complete for this term, I'm hoping that I'll soon have 24 pages ready to go.
Oh, not sure if I'll have a colour picture for Somnus ready for next week, so might do these character talks every alternate week.
I'll let you know if my plans work out next time, however.
So, until next time!
Tara
No comments:
Post a Comment