This is the process to create the character of my personal project of comic book story, Tuíra.
Tuíra is an indigenous young woman who lives in the of 2520 in Brazil and is the last from mebengokre nation. The story happens right after the prophecy of Pajé Yanomami about the end of the world.
These are the references to build the character. Once the time is way forward than ours, the story happens in 2520, so most of the resources to build the accessories are gone. However, the facial painting still remains because it´s an important feature of mebengokre nation. The ornaments of bracelets also came from this nation and the painting on her right arm is right the same of the fourth bracelet, which represents the drawing of Tatu (a typical animal of brazilian backwoods) and means strong person.
The reference for shapes and style got between Scott Wills of Samurai Jack and Bruce Timm of Batman and Justice League. I love those styles. It´s easy to produce, fast to apply the final art and easy to animate (just in case).
These were the first attempts to build the character. However, as I said, it seemed too Disney for me and it didn´t have the dynamism that I was looking for.
These are some attempts to imagine the environment that I would put her. Some vehicles and neon lights. As you can see, the dimensions and proportions of the character related to the vehicle are quite okay, but the shapes and dynamism aren´t still there.
So I came back to the sketchbook and tried many times to reach the ideal look. These are just some failed examples (lol). But the more I drew the more became more natural to illustrate her and play with the different possibilities. And suddenly I got a thought: "What if I change her hair? Maybe tied, like a warrior need to tie the hair so the enemies can´t find this weak spot, right?" So the last two drawings I could come up with something really solid for Tuíra.
Right below you can see the model sheet.
This is the final look of Tuíra with some concepts of environment, action movements and covers.
I hope you like it!
For those who draw, it´s not really an end and there´re always different possibilities to make your character. Maybe I can change it for better in the near future. ;)
For those who draw, it´s not really an end and there´re always different possibilities to make your character. Maybe I can change it for better in the near future. ;)
About the project:
This name came from the real indigenous woman from mebengokre nation, she fought many years against powerful men, engineers, government, to protect her land and her people.
This is my humble attempt to bring indigenous people like the protagonists of a story where I explore a universe that everyone can consume, not only indigenous and its descendants. This is an attempt to end this misconception about indigenous people where they can´t live in urban areas or even being part of boring stories. It´s about time to bring our native culture to the center of main medias and occupy spaces.
