Plots…they usually come to my head when:
- I want to express a feeling
- I want to persuade others to my cause (whatever the cause may be)
- A line of dialog popped into my head
- There is a character in my head that needs to come to life
- I dream something interesting.
- JAZZ is probably the most developed one and I used to produce my Narrative Construction project last year. I used half of a chapter to develop into storyboard and final illustrations. All characters have a long background story and are extremely developed. The story itself is set in an alternative future where entities who are responsible for creating life on earth seek refugee from a war that is happening in their own world. The main character, Kenji, is sent to earth as a bounty hunter to kill those who ran away. But as the story goes, Kenji learns about a past he had long forgotten and finds on those he was supposed to kill a reason to live by his own rules and will. Jazz my ‘baby’ and one day, hopefully, I’ll turn it into a 2D animation.
- UNDER YOUR CHARMS, is a love story with a sci-fi twist. It’s not as long as Jazz and it was written with a friend who usually co-writes with me. It’s a more adult story because it deals with a homosexual relationship and has lots of violence in it…. So I guess I’ll just keep this one for the pages of my comic.
- STRIKE, is one of those plots I had to write to persuade people to my cause. It deals with a not so bright future, environmental problems, social issues etc. Strike is actually how the main character is called throughout the story, his real name though, is unknown. He runs away from the factory that owns him (yes, corporations own people in this story) to see the world for himself and to find the so-called ‘dream land’… the only place on earth that is not occupied by artificial ecosystems. He meets this young boy on the way who’s running away from his family, a very rich one. Strike doesn’t want a companion though, especially that one who turns out to be the son of the people who owns Strike. I believe this story could make a cool animation… or a film packed with CGI.
I have many other stories, but those are the ones I constantly work on, writing the plot, filling up holes in the story, developing character, designing… etc. I’m going to add some artwork I’ve done for them at the end of this post.
Character development is one of my favourite parts of all the process. It’s amazing to see how even their names end up influencing in the personality. Like I said earlier, characters tend to come to life and develop on their own as they speak to me in my schizo-mind, of course… so from a drawing, a word, a name, a habit, I can created someone believable. After choosing the name, or the lack of name, I give the character flaws. No one is perfect so a perfect character is hard to empathise with and for that reason, he/she is not a likable character. Flaws make them ‘human’ and that’s the main thing. Doesn’t mean they have to be like a human in their day-to-day life though, the character can be a superhero chicken saving Earth from Armageddon, but if given human/believable traits it’s enough for people to like, or hate them.
My most developed character is called Kieran. He was created for a role-play game but became much more than that. He has a complete past life (not part of the main plot), a middle and an end… yes, he dies, so sad ;_;. Anyway, this is Kieran’s character analysis sheet…. A brief one, believe me.
Name: Kieran Matsuki/Flanagan
Age: 25 (beginning on the story)
D.O.B.: 10th November
Height: 6f5
Weight: 11st (on a good day)
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Blond (naturally, but he dyes it red usually)
Skin: Pale
Occupation: Painter
Fashion/Appearance: Outside his flat Kieran wears a black long sleeve turtleneck top, jeans and Doc. Martins style boots, either black or burgundy. He also wears 3 hoop-piercings on is left ear. When indoors, he wears only his jeans or jeans and a white t-shirt. He has a special pair of jeans just for when he paints. At least three times a day he showers, so he always looks fresh and clean.
Physical Description: Kieran looks a bit ill. He smokes a lot, sleeps badly and drinks lots of coffee. His body has many scars from when he was young, scars that he obviously didn’t make himself. To contribute to his ill appearance, Kieran is very thin, looking somewhat anorexic. Despite all that, he has his charm and a beautiful and flawless face.
Intelligence: He’s not extremely bright because of how he isolates himself from the world. All he understands is art and how to express himself through it. When in public, during his exhibitions or interviews, he gets really nervous and stressed. To put up with it all he pretends to be this outgoing seductive man, but it’s all a façade.
Diet: Not very fond of any kind of food, but he eats to keep himself alive. The only thing he can’t eat is meat or any animal, so that makes him a vegetarian. His food must not be salty or too sweet. Anything with too much taste makes him sick. Mostly he lives off coffee and fruits.
Cultural Background: Kieran was born in Ireland but at the age of 8 he moved to Japan and was brought up by a Japanese artist.
History: Born from a drug addict teenage mother, at the age of 4, he was put for adoption. Not long after he was placed with foster parents who were art lovers and had many contacts in Japan. When he turned 8 his foster parents took him to Tokyo for holidays. One afternoon they visited a friend, an artist called Yoishi Matsuki, who looked after him while his foster parents had some ‘business’ to do. The couple never came back. Yoishi, despite being quite famous, was an antisocial man, who didn’t speak English and couldn’t be bothered to learn. So deep in his own world, Yoishi took Kieran in but never reported to the police the disappearance of his parents. Kieran never attended school in Japan, all he was taught was how to speak, read something here and there and paint. When Kieran turned 12 he began to ask questions, he was irritated most of the time, became aggressive and as a result, so did Yoishi. From them on Kieran lived in hell and learned how to put his emotions into his paintings. Naturally talented, soon the boy caught the art media attention and Yoishi grew jealous of it all. Through illegal documents he made Kieran his adopted son and put everything he owned in his name. During one of Yoishi’s psychotic attacks he almost killed Kieran and took his own life. At the age of 16 Kieran was alone. But the Matsuki name and galleries weren’t the only thing Yoishi left him, he also left a debt to be paid to the Japanese Mafia. Kieran saw himself involved in money laundry that was being done through the sales of his paintings. When the main story begins, Kieran is 25 years old and living in a huge hotel suite where he is constantly working on commissions.
Personality: The events that took place the day Yoishi died are not clear to him and he has a hard time remembering a lot that happened in his teen years. They usually come back to him in form of nightmare, so obviously, Kieran hates sleeping. He is very obsessive about lot of things (including daily routines, people he has contact with, food he eats and even sex). He showers a lot, can’t stand too much noise and hates when anyone (usually the hotel maids) touches his paints and canvas. When triggered he can be violent. There are only 2 things that keep him sane, one is his art and the other is Orian, the maid that is assigned to clean his room and the only person he would give anything to protect. But of course, he is obsessed about Orian too and very jealous.
Kieran’s Rules:
- Doesn’t matter how happy he is with Orian, he will always be linked to Yoishi and will always feel guilty for his death.
- Never will Kieran draw a portrait on canvas.
- He will never be faithful
- He’ll always be rich, famous and attractive
- He’ll paint something everyday
- He’ll always be emotionally unstable.
……………….
That was long, there’s much more to say but I believe that shows how deep into the characters I can get sometimes. If I feel passionate about a story or a character I always end up developing as much as I can.
This is a concept idea for Strike:
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