{"id":1237,"date":"2021-12-10T07:30:00","date_gmt":"2021-12-10T07:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beaniebopdesigns.com\/caroline517443OCA-Graphic-Fiction\/?p=1237"},"modified":"2022-05-04T10:41:02","modified_gmt":"2022-05-04T10:41:02","slug":"exercise-create-a-superhero","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.beaniebopdesigns.com\/caroline517443OCA-Graphic-Fiction\/part-4\/exercise-create-a-superhero\/","title":{"rendered":"Exercise: Create A Superhero"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Brief<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

For this exercise the brief is to create your own superhero. This is an opportunity for students who love superhero comics to really indulge their interest and go to town. However, it need not exclude any students from attempting to create their own character. Your superhero does not have to be serious, or realistic, grim and gritty. Your comic creation could be your own heroic creation, or someone in your family, someone you know, or a celebrity or politician transformed into a costumed character.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You need to produce a model sheet showing your character’s physical appearance, costume and powers. This means drawing them face-on and also their back, so showing their costume and style of drawing that appeals to you.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also produce some sketches showing the world they inhabit, and maybe some supporting characters. The aim is to build a small portfolio comic book elements – perhaps a cover sketch for the first issue of the character’s own comic book, or a sample page showing the character embarking on an adventure.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Research<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Although I was already familiar with many of the famous superhero characters, such as Superman<\/em>, Batman<\/em> and Wonder Woman<\/em>, I have never really read any of the comics. I would say I was more aware of many of them due to the film\/TV versions that have some out over the years. Out of these more well-known, obvious superhero characters, I always liked Superman<\/em> and Spiderman<\/em> the most, but after watching some of the more recent screen versions, I would also add Wonder Woman<\/em>, Captain America<\/em>, Captain Marvel<\/em> and The Scarlet Witch<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started this exercise by looking up all of the named characters in the brief (please see References). Out of the more eccentric examples, my favourite was Too Much Coffee Man<\/em>. I thought it was quite effective in sending up the genre and relatable to the average person trying to do their best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Too Much Coffee Man<\/em> by Shannon Wheeler. Source: Shannon Wheeler<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

I also started thinking more broadly of superhero characters I remembered from my childhood, such as Bananaman<\/em>, SuperTed<\/em> and Mighty Mouse<\/em>. The final example in the brief that appealed to me the most was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles<\/em>. I was such a fan of them when I was younger and would spend hours trying to draw the protagonists, particularly Leonardo and Raphael. However, I never realised they were based on a comic book as I used to watch the cartoon series and live-action films.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles<\/em>. Source: Comic Art Community<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Next, I created a Pinterest board<\/a> with examples of various superhero characters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The final piece of research I did was to look at examples of character model sheets and I found a particularly inspiring reference page titled 100+ Character Model Sheets From Animation History<\/a><\/em>. I thought it was fascinating to see the artists’ notes regarding how to build up the designs and certain characteristics. They make it look so easy!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Might Mouse<\/em> character model sheet. Source: Concept Art Empire<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Ideas<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Initially I had a few ideas for superhero characters including one with the ability to heal, which then developed into a superhero who could clean up the planet, e.g. oil spills using his\/her special powers. However, these ideas started to become quite complicated in my head and I ended up confusing and diluting my initial ideas. I was not that convinced by these and decided to try something different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I reminded myself it was not necessary for the hero to have superpowers, as in the examples of Batman<\/em> and Black Widow<\/em>, and instead rely on more human abilities, albeit extremely enhanced! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have always liked anthropomorphic characters and, having been reminded of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles<\/em>, a seed of an idea began to develop in my mind. I came across the images below on Pinterest<\/a> and I particularly liked the style of making them quite gritty and intense, by the use of shadows and a non-saturated colour palette. I also thought they were very effective in showing each character’s individual personality. The use of ink spatter reminded me of the Frank Miller artwork I had seen in a previous exercise. Unfortunately I could not find out the name of the specific artist who created these examples (update: my tutor kindly led me on the path to discover that the artist is Dan Duncan<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n