Character design and character art are the illustrative strokes of visual storytelling that I’ve passionately embraced and continued to honed since childhood. While meticulously recreating an artwork from reference is crucial for mastering technique, it’s in the wild depths of my imagination that my marked line truly comes alive. Each of these characters embodies a spectrum of archetypes: from the insatiably curious to the hopeless romantic, and from the pure-hearted to the deliciously deviant. I play best in the provocative interplay of expression, style, color, texture, and clothing, crafting each character with layers of complexity with the hope that they challenge and excite.
Red Queen: An exploration of character art for my graphic novel creation
The Red Queen’s hypothesis is a hypothesis in evolutionary biology proposed in 1973, that species must constantly adapt, evolve, and proliferate in order to survive while pitted against ever-evolving opposing species1.
While creating my graphic novel series with this theme of Red Queen’s hypothesis has taken years to develop, I try to revisit my characters throughout the years. The series, based in a matriarchal alternate reality, explores a world where human evolution has taken an interesting turn. Below are some main characters I hope to incorporate and explore in the series.
Character studies for fashion and makeup advertisements
I had the pleasure of working with a photographer in the fashion and makeup industry to help develop a character study and mood study for a magazine photoshoot. Below are some preliminary studies I created to get into the space of this elegant character, who would be dancing ballet through an abandoned ball.
Kate Blair 