This week has been dedicated to creating the characters and writing their descriptions. These descriptions were both what the character look like, but also how they behave, how they speak and how I will be showing this in the final graphic novel. As a complete typography nut (not as some people on the internet, I’m sure but a nut nonetheless), the lettering in this book will hopefully be something memorable (whether it’s good or not is debatable).

The thing that made an impression on me however was how the character descriptions were manifesting themselves. I basically wrote the name of every character on a separate piece of paper (the name sometimes was a description itself) and then I’d basically pick up a piece look at the ‘name’ and then start coming up with ideas and tangents. Everything would be written down, no matter how silly or ridiculous. I basically let my imagination flow, like a mind map.

Several times I’d write where the inspiration for this particular character was coming from. Was it a movie, was it a costume, was it an historical figure, all of this was written down. At this stage I’m not worried about the research as I am about putting down ideas down on paper. The research can come in the next stage of the design, as this is still all the early concept stage. These descriptions actually then inform the original draft script as it adds another layer to the story.

‘Aitus Moralis’ has over 50 characters that I have to design. Sometimes the characters would occupy several pages of description, while others were merely a couple of paragraphs. The amount presented is irrelevant; this is all about getting a base from which to start from.Some are obviously more important than others, but they all need to be designed in one way or another, but like lightning, ideas struck and characters were born.