Story before and afters: how have your characters evolved over time?

LostKelp 2024-05-24 05:46:58 UTC #21

This reminded me of some out-dated character sheets I filled out at the beginning of making my comic. So I thought I'd redo em and put them here. Out of all the MC's Najm has definitely the most consistent characterisation (which is that they're nice and kinda boring and dissociate sometimes)

i'm putting this in a summary to make it less annoying to scroll through if you don't wanna read it

another notable thing is that they got worse at commnication, more unhealthy and less empathy but more charisma. Which is gonna be important for later.

Alya shows a shift from being cool collected, patient and passionate, to being impulsive, confident, wild and scary. not too big of a shift really.

Qamar has a huge shift in characterisation because I wasn't super clear on what I wanted from Qam in the beginning, so initially I just wanted them to be kinda cold and clinical. And they are! because they have to be for their job. but outside of their job they turned out to be really caring, so given time to get to know their coworkers, they warm up a ton. so i don't really see these characterations as incongruous, they're just context-dependant (like real people).

where Qam took a big W for turning out to be kind and caring, Rahat took and L for being selfish and amoral. The initial idea was for Rahat to be the starry-eyed idealist to contrast the other chacters. and they are, kinda, they have a positive outlook on life and want to live, but they don't care that much about people and they always put their own needs first. They aren't a particularly bad person, they're just a product of their shitty environment.

overall, the general trend of the characters is that they're sadder and don't give a shit about broader social issues like truth and justice, except for Qamar who is now the only person who cares more. which I really like as a development honestly. they're also older and taller. the older thing is because when I started the comic I was 16 so they were a year older than me which seemed ages away at the time. Now I'm 18 and it seems unreasonable to me that 17-year olds can pilot spaceships. I understand that once I reach my thirties anyone below 25 will seem like incompitant fools. but I'm not 30 so whatever.

Leyelle 2024-05-25 13:11:51 UTC #22

This actually sounds quite a bit like Mrs. Moon. When I started writing her, she seemed like the sweetest person on planet earth. I'm not disappointed by this evolution, but as it turns out, a lot of factors in her life have led her to only prioritize things and people she finds worth her time. sometimes this does not even include her own family and lover.

Leyelle 2024-06-06 16:41:52 UTC #23

When I first started designing Essence's mother, Dorine Walker, she wasn't very sympathetic. Now, she's still kind of a bratty middle-aged lady, but I can understand where she's coming from and why she spends so much time miserable and complaining (NOT that it's acceptable.) It would be hard on anyone to deal with a stroke when they're only in their 40s, and she's not coping with it in a very good way. She's also understandably upset about the lack of sympathy most people seem to show her.

Leyelle 2024-06-17 02:00:02 UTC #24

(post withdrawn by author, will be automatically deleted in 24 hours unless flagged)

Leyelle 2024-06-18 12:44:23 UTC #25

This is more of an aesthetic thing than the character's personality developing or changing, but I suppose the evolution of characters' visual designs are still worth noting.

Over time, I developed my FL's visual design more clearly, and was able to both write and draw her with a more concrete idea of what she looked like. To be completely honest, when I started writing the novel I had next to no idea what she looked like, though I knew what the male lead looked like, because the novel is narrated from her POV. Overtime she got more fleshed out, and her hair got curlier, went from black to chocolate brown, and she became...squishier in build lol

The evolution of me trying to draw my female lead from my novel "Damsel in the Red Dress"

The last one is the most attractive incarnation yet imao, as it should be. Alicia has gotten chunkier over time lol. When the novel started, and I initially imagined her, she was quite petite, and I left that canon, but at the point the story is out now, she is very not lol. I just decided to make her weight gain canon, as the way I imagined her changed over time.

Leyelle 2024-07-14 14:52:57 UTC #26

Essence has gone from a character who WAS emotionless to one who simply has trouble processing and understanding her own and other people's emotions, leading people to get incorrect impressions of her, regardless of how much she actually cares and tries to love people.

Leyelle 2024-08-07 16:02:55 UTC #27

I mean, you can see it here. She was a lot thicker, and her hair cut changed before i decided on her final build hairstyle and texture

Leyelle 2024-08-26 15:28:40 UTC #28

Mora and Christopher George were both a little flat in their first designs. Their inherent roles were still there, but their hobbies and behavior weren't as strong. As I added nuances, they became fuller. Mora is a mermaid but she loves running, which I think is fun and unusual. She's a very athletic girl but also girly. She likes straightening her hair but hates smells like perfume because of her shark-like sense of smell. All these things help her to feel more dynamic and complex.

One random day Christopher George's uncommon mannerisms self-inserted themselves into my head, and from there the nuances of his identity became clearer to me as well. He has a habit of turning his head in people's directions without looking at them. he'll fleetingly look people in the eye but never maintain eye contact no matter how much he likes or is comfortable around a person and so on. All these things helped him to feel different from the cliche he might be associated with as a well built 6'0 blond haired blue eyed high school boy in a story revolving around teens lol

Leyelle 2024-09-15 13:15:26 UTC #29

Here is a visual evolution of my attempts at drawing Mora (with her vitiligo masked)