It's a Brand New Day

And the sun is high, all the angels sing, because you're gonna die.

I have to stop starting my blog posts with whatever random thought is in my head.

Guess what? I've finally got a design for my character Eli that I'm actually happy with.

I've tried for so long, because when everything started way back when, he was just a demon, very generic. He looked generic, the most badass thing I could come up with was a bunch of unnecessary belts and an upside down cross earring. I was so cool.

I later redesigned him with the same basic clothes, only I chopped off all his hair and added heeled boots. Cause you know, nothing says bad ass like a pair of heeled boots.

From that point on, I've been staggering my way through designs and rejecting each of them. At first I just took the original design and ditched it totally, trying to come up with something else. I came up with a very tall, very thin blue guy with a tail, messy hair, and what was supposed to be tusks protruding from his lower jaw and growing up through the skin.

It didn't hold. My second design was just me taking the original, original, years and years old drawing I'd found, and trying to redraw it completely. I liked it, I developed a massive nose for him, as well as giving him back his long flowy white hair.

As writing went on, I stopped liking it. The design was still to generic, there wasn't enough to be afraid of, and he was too human. Sure, I CALLED him a demon, but what difference did that make?

And so, the third character redesign was rejected. Last night while at home, I decided it was time to try again.

I'd been playing with this idea for a while, the idea of rocks and rocky protrusions from his entire body, making him stronger, more invincible, and hopefully scarier. At first, I thought Eli could be some sort of rock gollum; the only problem with that idea is that gollums are normally created by a master to serve the masters purpose. They aren't very intelligent, and are basicly the equivalent of a moving potato sack.

Eli is incredibly intelligent, so that idea wouldn't work. But the idea of being a mash up between a human life form, and a rock, stuck with me. I'd tried it multiple times before, but the only success I had was in making Eli look like a teenager with a horrible bad case of acne, or small pox.

Last night, just doodling at home in ballpoint, I came up with this.

I liked it! Granted, he was naked, and I had no idea what I was supposed to give him as a costume, that didn't matter, because I'd come up with a basic character design that I actually liked, after pretty much five years worth of work.

Oooo.

I cut his hair from the original design (it was down to his ass) and I trimmed up his limbs. Though I wanted him to seem scarier by covering him in rocks and protrusions, I still wanted him to look like he could be beaten in a fight, so as to be deceptive.

I failed, I've been informed Eli looks like he could kick Alan's ass.

Oh well, I still made him very girly, and was horrified when my brother stepped up to inform me, "You should give him a rock junk".

I was so horrified I had to leave the room and laugh till I cried.

SO, this is Eli, incredibly simple costume to balance out the ridiculous amount of line work I need to put into his character.

This is also the guy who takes an unhealthy interest in my protagonist.

Oh no!

Annie

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