Designing the main character I looked at the initial ideas that I did last week and I thought about how I would turn the sketches that I made into a character that could be effective and understandable with the prompts that I was given. The drawings that I did last week I felt didn't work well enough with the feeling that I wanted and by this point I was trying to really think of the story as even though I had an idea for the story it just didn't feel right there wasn't enough to go on from what I was thinking. So to start up with my designing I talked to a lecturer about where I should go from where I was at. I knew from the initial ideas that I really wanted oranges and reds to be the focus of this character design due to the visual research I did with my moodboards and I knew that the hair had to be a dark colour; it just felt like the correct way to go. But something about my initial ideas just didn't give the childlike feeling. I know they were only quick rough sketches but they didn't look like the visual research I had looked into the clothing wasn't right. I felt as though it started too far away from the Incan Peruvian place I was passing this off of. My lecture told me that with my work I work with a lot of energy but something I really need to think about is the difference between the backgrounds and the characters creating the foreground and midground and background. This further influenced my ideas on the colours that were flowing around my head before I even started drawing because if i am setting it within a jungley area it will be quite green and blue and yellow so the orange reds and warmer colours just fit better not make the characters distinct and eye catching to the viewer. Getting into the actual design I started on photoshop looking at different types of brushes to make sure I was using the correct pen for my drawing to give it the right feeling. Some of the brushes I looked at I was thinking when I get onto making the actual graphic novel I could use to create the background or include it within each panel to give it texture digitally. I started from the initial ideas from last week and drew some quick head shapes and it just didn't feel like it was right, the style was wrong I was going completely away from how I drew. I wanted to keep the shape stuff I had learnt in lesson but the style I was drawing in originally for this project was just not pleasing to me. SoI thought why couldn't I just include shape design with my style that I already draw in. With that Idea O came up with a design that was loosely based form my initial ideas, I gave her a hat and dark hair though her eyes weren't nearly as big but they still were far enough apart and sharp looking I think to link with a jaguar. I kept the hat because I know I said that the initial ideas didn't give me the right feelings besides colours but I did really enjoy it. The character wears some form of bright orange hat because within the culture I am looking at most people actually wear hats. 

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From my observational and silhouette drawing that I did last week as well I thought about the character's body type and how old she should be to be the lead of the mystery but also young enough as a child but independent enough to understand how to do certain things by herself. I chose to put her around the age of 12 because I felt like you are entering puberty and you're starting to become/learn who you want to be as a person and for the fierce dishevelled prompts I was given just having a young child felt right with those prompts. the body type I went with was slender due to the fact that by now the story was morphing and changing in my head even with a couple of sketches, yes she may be a street rat but what if I push that further she's fierce because she's alone, alone in a jungle with no family no protective guardian so she's had to grow up a little faster than most kids, what if she lived in the jungle by herself and something happens to her to show her the jaguar to give her that family the warmth and the care of an adult and a child. I really thought that I was going to go with the long skirt idea like I did in my initial designs but with the characters face and body type it just felt too posh and how would she run around effectively or traverse the jungle in a long skirt that could get caught in bushes or trees. Skirts and dresses like the ones in the cultures that I researched into just wouldn't work for the dishevelled feeling. So instead of giving my female character a traditional female look I decided to go with what the boys in the culture look like. I found out that they sort of just layer a lot of shirts and things, always wearing coats/cardigans and the boys seem to wear knitted hats more than the girls, the girls have things like bows and pretty hair. This is where I started having doubts about gender. Should I make her a boy?? But I thought I could just.. give her masculine clothes. I don't have to make her a boy, a girl can wear those clothes too. I tried out more solid ideas with purple over the top of the body sketches that I had done, falling in love with the simple design of a cardigan top and long trousers. I felt that it would be more effective to move around in the jungle as well as it felt right for her to not really understand her own culture as she is all alone no one has taught her things so why would she wear layers upon layers of dresses or shirts and cardigans, she's had to learn and grow at the age of 12, her outfit just made it see more mature like though had childish undertone as everything is oversized. 

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Now as i mentioned the story was morphing in my head at this point and I knew that I really wanted my character to have a weapon to traverse through the jungle, the weapon i originally thought about was paw gloves sort of like a jaguar but  after figuring out how I made the character look it felt to basic to give her sort of boxing glove as well as she is a small child she would not have enough strength to pull punches that would deal a lot of damage anyway. Developing the weapon helped me think about her as a character, her personality and I searched up online what sort of insects are native to the area that I am basing my story off of and something that kept popping up was dragon flies. THe reason I searched this up was because due to the alone feeling I want my character to have I wanted to make it that she really enjoys simple things like insects crawling around being her only source of interaction in a jungle all alone. The weapon that i developed was a long range small throwing blade to look like a dragon fly. It attaches to her via a bracelet being the only weapon she has. I like it being a throwing weapon with a chord attached to it because she can fling it around and make it seem like a dragonfly flying around though it never loses it. I also felt that this weapon described her a person being alone close combat or just closeness in general isn’t something she would be used to having a long-ranged weapon to swipe though tress fight her way through things felt like she doesn't even let the jungle get to close.