Black Voyage characters

Every comic needs a cast and Black Voyage is no exception so here I am going to show you the main cast of Black Voyage and talk you through the designs.

Elizabeth Celine

     Elizabeth is the main protagonist of Black Voyage and the only character in color. She is in her mid twenties when she develops Ego-Syntonic and is used be Sophia Martinez, before the incident she was a kind a caring woman who loved everything around her. She was very naive in that she never thought true evil existed that was until the incident occurred.  Now Elizabeth is cold and does not feel remorse or sympathy for anything or one.

This design was the hardest to do as I could never get her face right, however I think this design best illustrates Elizabeth and works on a proportional level. Inside the comic her face does change a bit, this is due to my ability to be consistent. I am not 100% consistent but the inconsistency aren’t major as she is still recognisable in each panel.

Elizabeth will be the only character to have color in the comic, this will come from her dress. This was a decision I made to make Elizabeth standout  and be recognisable no matter where she is in the scene. I used a printing technique to get the dress pattern as it give the dress an interesting pattern and give the dress a fabric look. The color red was chosen to illustrate the hidden anger inside Elizabeth and red symbolises blood which is sort of what she is after in this book.

Sophia Martinez

   Sophia Martinez is Elizabeth’s ‘quest master’ as she is the on who set’s Elizabeth on her journey. Sophia looks in her possible 30’s but is hundreds of years old, she is a gypsy that has a secret mission that has been on hold until now. She has the power to shape shift and bring people back from the dead.

When I was designing Sophia I wanted her to have the appearance of a temptress, this was a visual clue to her nature of tempting unsuspecting souls with deals they couldn’t refuse. This design isn’t perfect however, in the comic she look alot more animated than she does here.

This design is in color because Sophia is a character that appears in all my comics and some of them are or will be in color. So I produced a colored design so when it came to them projects I knew what colors I would be using.  I chose these color because of there association with magic and being seductive.

John Rossetti

  John Rossetti doesn’t have much of an appearance in Black Voyage but where he appears affects direction of the story. He is a rich georgian socialist who is married to Mary and a serial womaniser. He was close friend with Elizabeth.

This design is nowhere near as good as the previous two, this is because he look too stiff and fake. The facial features on John are almost non-existent as they are very basic. The main point of John’s design is his clothing as I wanted it to stand out without any color. I think this design does that justice.

In the comic his face looks different, this is because I refine his details and give he some personality.

Mary Rossetti

 Mary Rossetti is the wife of John Rossetti and life long friend of Elizabeth Celine,  She was to the outside world a sweet and caring person who would never hurt a fly, unless they were poor, however, to a dark inner circle she was a twisted manipulator who plays the victim to further her and John’s agenda.

I really like this design however, there are some flaws. Her side profile the bone structure looks completely different to the full design. This is something I overlooked as it is her brow that is misdrawn not the whole face. I am also unsure is the design is too short as she seems in proportion but the and her legs seem a little short, this may be due to the hair distorting the way the image looks.

I colored Mary because when I was writing her I wanted to visualise how she would look to the public as the blue is a very calming color, which is how she is perceived. The colors made it easier for me to get that across when she speaks as the comic has no color.

The English

 The English or more specifically the Navy play a big role towards the end of the comic. This is because the big bad of the story is BlackBeard who is on the run from the navy. There designs weren’t difficult to draw but were when trying to make them recognisable without the bright red.

I think I did a good job with that as I gave the era accurate clothing and a hat which I didn’t give to any other male character so the English stood out. This design is alot better than my John design as it has more personality. This design is also well drawn from head too toe.

 

Jack the Ripper and Blackbeard

Jack the ripper and Blackbeard make quite the appearance in the comic however I did not produce full character designs for them.  This was because I decided I could get the essence of them if I drew them straight to the page in the comic. This worked better than expected as it gave them a life that would of felt manufactured if I was redrawing a design.

This is an approach I will probable not do again as it was very risky and could of gone wrong in any panel.

These are my character that will appear in Black Voyage and why they look the way they do. I f you have any questions please leave them in the comments.