Category: Character Development

Using the final lineart, I have now tried four different colour combinations that I think would work with how I would like to portray the Sin of Envy.

The first one (top left) is the most realistic one – I wanted to create a character that would look similar to how many women looked in Ancient Greece. Thus, she has a tan complexion, with dark brown hair, as the climate in Greece is very warm and sunny. There are some small highlights in green, as it is the colour most associated with jealousy.

Much like the previously mentioned first combination, the last one (bottom right) had a similar aim; the only difference is that this is a much more striking and sinister version, as her himation and mask are a darker colour, almost as if presenting her as an omen of demise.

The second version (top right) is a somewhat fantastical idea of mine; I wanted to experiment and see if I could bring her physical look to an even greater fox-like resemblance, hence the vibrant orange hair. Her himation is also the most realistic one of all, but I do not think this version shows my aims well enough to be considered as a final outcome.

The third combination (bottom left) is what I came up with by thinking of creating a more deathly, almost sick-like appearance for this character. Her skin tone is much more pale and lifeless, almost grey, and her himation is dark like in the last version. I ended up not particularly likeing how this turned out, as the whole idea of my research is that the character should look alluring form the outside and then monstrous under the mask, rather than monstrous off the bat.

I chose this design to refine as I thought it showcased my research the best; a woman, seemingly fitting the social beauty standards impeccably, but with a disfigured, fox-like face hidden underneath a mask, as well as a physical sign of envy through a rough sketch of a collection of faces stored in a box.

I wanted this character to show that the sin of Envy might not be as visible as other sins, such as Lust or Greed. Thus, I kept the physical features of the woman mostly human. My aim was to show that the real sign of Envy is what lies underneath the mask the woman holds in her hand – which is implied to have been a once beautiful face, now disfigured and changed into an almost manic fox-like grin.

The box of faces is there as an idea of a stronger emphasis of the destructive force of Envy. I wanted to imply that the character, who was once supposedly beautiful, now takes her revenge on fate by stealing other beautiful women’s faces. I want it to be more subtle, however, as I do not like how the box fits the composition.

As I began to explore the different characters I could create using the research I have done, I decided to try and explore as many of the more intriguing silhouette ideas as I could to try and broaden my design ideas.

One of the first ideas I had was directly related and taken from my research on Kitsunes, and the idea of (usually) a woman luring her human prey to steal their knowledge, power, etc. I thought this would be a good base for me to also begin to brainstorm on ways I could feature the idea of a mask to symbolise the two-faced and untruthful nature of Envy.

As I have mentioned before, to me, Envy blooms where Pride has been taken away; so, I decided to try and explore the idea of beauty being taken away, and then hidden by a mask, possibly closely followed by a thirst for revenge (driven by envy) . This resulted in the creation of the two women in the top and bottom corners.

I also wanted to explore the possibility of more animalistic features and structure, all the while keeping close to the idea of Envy driving the character to hurt those who have something they do not anymore. I quickly thought of various motives, including lost eyesight, which stood out the most and drove me to create the more humanoid fox characters in the above picture.

The rest were experiments to try and see if I could have the reverse of the humanoid characters: a fox-like body wearing a mask. I did not like how these turned out, so I decided against developing them further.

As I continued to explore the relationship between Pride and Envy, I found that my attention was too scattered to really find an idea I could follow wholeheartedly. Thus, I decided to focus on Envy, as I thought that it had the potential to let me go much more in debt into my research and exploration of ideas.

The more I began to brainstorm, the more I realised that Envy stemmed from a feeling of insecurity; so, in reality, Envy blooms where Pride has been taken away.

I’ve decided to keep this idea at the forefront of my mind as I start to refine my ideas so that I can relate this to the overall design of my potential character. Envy is hard to show on the outside, as it seems like a very private feeling, but I want to make sure that I find a way to really emphasise the character’s nature, even from an outside perspective.

Some of my initial ideas include:

• using a mask
• using disfigurement
• small stature, low on the ground
• idea of ‘luring victims’, inspired by research on Kitsune
• fox-like features, inspired both by research on Kitsune, and knowledge of Kuma Lisa, a fox character in Bulgarian Folklore usually presented as a trickster