#2. A Character A Day - Hyui-Ma (FAIL!)

Today I'm posting about a character I FAILED to construct.

To be frank, it was pretty annoying, but well, this kind of thing happens.

This character is called Hyui-Ma. (휘마) It is not a usual name, and he doesn't have a surname either.

Because he is a soul reaper. A newbie.

And he is a pretty incompetent one, too. I wanted a soul reaper for my fantasy drama story (Crossing, http://blog.naver.com/haejinsung) who messes up everything, including switching souls of my main characters with one another.

A soul reaper in Korea typically looks like this:

Image from here

Recently there was a drama about a soul reaper in Korea called 49 Days (49일, SBS, 2011).

The drama shows a modern version of a soul reaper, who has permed hair and wears both all-black suits and vividly colored clothes (when he is not doing his duty as a soul reaper).

Image from here

Which I thought was pretty interesting. Because I also wanted my soul reaper to look contemporary.

But he is a newbie, an incompetent, clumsy, gullible soul reaper, so I didn't want him to look too fashionable or savvy. I wanted him to look a bit awkward as a contemporary youngster. 

So, here is my initial sketch made a few days ago.

Actually I liked this pen drawing until I RUINED it with some reckless shading.

Then I totally... how shall I say, got it wrong in my second drawing.

This is my third drawing.
Notice that this guy looks extra LONG? That's because I wasn't really thinking about his proportions while I was drawing half asleep.... :P I intended him to be around 160-170cm, but I am afraid he looks more like around 200cm in my drawing... :(
He wears a loose-fit cardigan, t-shirt, and a 3/4 length trousers, all in dark, blackish colors. For black and dark red is the fashion code for the underworld ;P

Fortunately, I didn't forget to include the details I had in mind before drawing: 

He holds a gadget that looks like a cell phone but which is actually an underworld product designed for soul reapers. I love the string attached to it. It's a white tiger's tail. Not real, but who knows. 

He is also wearing that .. outrageous pair of shoes for a guy to wear. 

Teenage school girls usually wear something like this. Adult girls could, too. But as far as I know, guys never. But when Hyui-Ma was preparing his wardrobe to go down to the human world, he liked this pair of shoes because they were shiny and had cute straps. :)

Images from here and here

But I didn't like this drawing--let alone the Manneristic elongation but also his face was not what I really had in mind. So today I sat down to draw him again.

Starting..

Then failed.
I wanted him to look dazed and gullible but not ... er.. full of tears in his eyes?

So I tried a different look. He looks more sharp. Actually I regret erasing off this version. I could have kept this and just modify. :P

Because I didn't like the next version.

I tried to change his image....

Then I gave up and just began another drawing.

.....Not what I wanted. I couldn't find anything special about him.

And the third drawing ended up like this.

The reason I am a bit annoyed is that I felt like I didn't really get what he looks like. I mean not his precise appearance but his overall image.
Oh, well, I'll draw him again next time. :)


But I like his character. I have a particular fondness for characters who are not skilled at social life and at what they should do in this world in general. Maybe it's because I am partly one of them :P

#2. A Character A Day - Hwangjae

This week I tried to catch up with what I couldn't post last week.

So it means that I have only two days left for this week's project--designing a character a day.

You can see my last week's project (designing a place a day) in the following links:

Day 1. A Flower Shop

Day 2. A Convenience Store

Day 3. A Corridor Wall

Day 4. A Mysterious Bookstore

Day 5. Crossroads

Day 6. A Real Estate Agency

Day 7. A Street Vendor

So, here we go, a character for today!

(for my new TV drama script project, Crossing)

His name is Hwangjae Do (도황재). He is a 27-year-old gang member. 

I like his name because Hwangjae in Korean has similar sounds to the word for "emperor" (Hwangje).

I chose this name because I wanted his appearance and behavior to be rather haughty. 

I am not so sure I successfully captured that in my drawing. Maybe not. :P

But anyway, he is a person who looks like he is shut inside. He does not hang out, he does not talk much, no one really knows what he is thinking and is doing in his free time. But he does what he does (..) pretty well, so no one bothers to bother him.

In this sense, he is similar to Miso, another character in my story. She is a young melancholic writer (age 17).

(You can see my drawings and ideas about her here.)

In fact, Miso and Hwangjae know each other, and the nature of their relationship plays quite a role in my story. But their relationship hasn't been so significant before I drew Hwangjae. That is, after I drew him, I liked him, so I increased his role in my story. :P 

I guess this is an example of how doodling one's character helps a writer construct a character and the relevant story lines.

ENOOOUGH pre-talk. Below is the first step of my drawing. An image of a rather haughty young man.

It took only a couple of minutes to draw this, and I was thinking, wow, it's going to be easy to construct his image. Well, it wasn't. I got stuck.

I couldn't decide his hairstyle.

Hairstyle, you might say. What is so important about a character's hairstyle?

I don't think it is very important. But the fact that I couldn't decide on his hair meant that I didn't really get his personality and lifestyle. Just take a look at people around you and you will notice that you can learn a lot about that person from his/her hair. So when I draw a character, I usually draw his/her hair first. 

The initial hairstyle for Hwangjae was inspired by this character (구준표) from a Korean drama (based on a Japanese manga) "Boys over Flowers," played by Minho Lee.

I didn't take a picture of that hair, but I tell ya, it was damn awful.

What can I do? Of course I searched the internet. 

After searching for "male hairstyle,"I settled on one particular celebrity, TOP from Big Bang. He is a famous Korean rapper. I think he has a very distinctive style. 

 (Google image result for Top's hairstyle)

I picked a few options from here and tried them out on my character.

 

Hmm... mediocre. Maybe looked tooo young? I wasn't sure.

 

What the...

Baaaaaaa...

Oh, this one seemed better than previous hairstyles.

You see, if you change someone's hair his/her image really changes.

Shading process..

Trimming...

And the final product! 

I think he looks a bit stronger (?) and more masculine than my initial sketch, don't you?

I also gave him a beige jacket and a turtle-neck shirt.

Many, or most of the gang members who appear in Korean movies or dramas wear black suits (or white... and often outdated and unrefined).

Well, I thought that giving Hwangjae a bit of atypical attire would tell something about him--not really belonging to the gang he has been working for.

But then of course I will have to do a lot more things from now on to really construct a character. :)

#2. A Character A Day - Day 7 HyeonSook

Final day of my second seven-day project: develop a character a day!

Today I took a break from Pierce and made a rough drawing and basic concepts for the main character in a completely different project.

How nice to just pick up a .7mm pen and draw your way without any means to correct previous lines or ideas! Yes, it creates a rather crude (??) form, but I kinda missed doing things this way.

...After making a drawing like this, which took me 3.5hrs...

Pen is definitely quicker, and as long as I get the basic idea, no prob. ;)

So his name is HyeonSook (현숙). Haven't made his surname yet. Maybe he usually goes with his given name.

HyeonSook is an extremely unusual name for a guy in his twenties or early thirties. Actually it is for women, and it is kinda old-fashioned as well. It was the 10th most popular name in 1958 and 1968 in Korea. 

(http://ko.wikipedia.org/wiki/%ED%95%9C%EA%B5%AD%EC%9D%98_%EC%84%B1%EC%94%A8%EC%99%80_%EC%9D%B4%EB%A6%84. I got the name from the list. Fufu.)

(So you see I am the world's greatest colorist ever... fufu)

He looks placid and ordinary-looking. 

He wears vintage (I mean, kinda timeless) check shirts and a worn pinkish- jumper that looks rather.. vintage or ridiculous.....

Actually, you know what, I just realized that I might have gotten the idea of a pinkish jumper from Drive (2011), where Ryan Gosling wears that kind of jacket. All right, I'll give HyeonSook something different then. :) He can go green. Or orange. Or fuschia. Or lime. OH, LIME.

A couple of other pictures: 

A note where I calculated what genres I create. (from 2010 till today)

Thrillers - 36

Drama/psychology - 21

Fantasy - 19

Crime - 18

Romance - 11

Family - 11

Etc. - 5

So..... it seems I love thrillers, huh?

HyeonSook is in a fantasy drama, not a thriller, though. :)

And my room last night. 

Full of notes and pictures.

But not quite so full of them yet.

I need to create more and more stories! :)

#2. A Character A Day - Day 6 Pierce III

My second seven-day project is to develop a character a day.

From day 4 I am developing only one character (and I haven't finished yet).

Well, cuz I was busy, and also because it is difficult to develop a character whose life and work have so much to do with the most essential problems in the whole story.

The latter is the reason I got stuck after writing off a bit about Pierce's life yesterday.

There were a lot of bloody tricky (and big) questions embodied in his life!

So today I took a bit of different approach: to tackle his job. 

Sometimes, like the above, I jot down (this time I searched the word "surveillance", which was his main job, in thesaurus) words that (seem to) relate to his work. Then I gradually get a sense of what he is like.

In this page, I began comparing Pierce with two other characters whose job (or role) in my story is to observe or stalk the same person that Pierce is watching. I think it helps to compare and differentiate characters and define their roles in the story. I am not finished yet. :P

Also, I guess that in this way, I'm not just developing one character. Well, isn't it nice? :)

#2. A Character A Day - Day 5 Pierce II

Today I am continuing my development of this character, Pierce.

Taking over from yesterday's notes:

I like scribbling those little figures and words while I am working. Because it's fun, it does not have to be nice, and it helps clarify my thoughts. It's also convenient when you come to these pages later, because you can easily spot what are the main things and concepts here.

Wow, I am pretty busy. I only managed to write about three pages! But as always, taking time, even a little time, to sit down and jot down my ideas about my stories totally worth it. :)

#2. A Character A Day - Day 4 Pierce

Today's character is Pierce.

This is one of the first side characters that I created in the earliest stage of my story project #10... in October 2010.

I think I made this drawing in less than a few minutes.... 

Basically I imagined him to be a chubby, normal-looking guy that you can see anywhere. (Well, he has a rather curly frizzy hair, that may stand out a bit..) But actually he isn't. He is a traitor and a very cunning and patient observer of his target. He pierces through people's mind.

And after I made this drawing about a year and half ago I just left him and never came back to him.

Today I tried to develop his character a bit further.

So... this is one of the ways I create a character. I designate a rough function/role for a character, create his/her life story, and then further define how he/she plays in the whole plot.

I was rather busy today, so I only went till his early adolescence...  :/

#2. A Character A Day - Day 3 Joel O. Popper

Today's character is Joel O. Popper, another side character for my story #10: The Devil's Protégé.

I had created this character a few months ago, as someone who's like Eddie Murphy and Chris Tucker--I mean, someone who could talk and talk and talk without stopping or being bothered by anyone else.

Today I made this drawing and developed his character a bit further.

- Full Name (not his real name--no one knows it): Joel O. (Oliver) Popper
- But people call him: Jello ;-)
- Species: Devil.

- Life story: He was born human in Africa, then was transported and lived as a slave in America. He died in the early 19C century and became a low-rank devil. Usually a low-rank devil in the devilsphere cannot survive for long for various reasons. But he is one of the very few who managed to and earned the right to live without being controlled by the devilsphere.

So, after two centuries of slavery he finally gained his freedom. He can do what he likes.
And living as an AV director in Japan is what he chose to do these days. He has a small studio in a crappy alley, and makes such surprisingly dull and trashy porns that nobody bothers to watch.

- Misc.: He likes his looks and is proud of his fashion choices.
He has a huge thing with chrysanthemums, so he owns several shirts with them and makes origami chrysanthemums as a hobby.... (So yes, he has a "delicate" side in him)
And of course, he never stops talking.


....I really enjoyed making this character. I can't wait to write a scene of him confronting someone who is his  opposite--someone who never talks and looks like he is 60 million years old but never moved once. :)

#2. A Character A Day - Day 2 Geun-Seok

#2. A Character A Day - Day 1 Saša

So the second project (again for seven days) is to develop a character a day. 

I may create a new character or develop further a character I have already created.

Day 1 character is a new one, and his name is Saša (Serbian, Croatian, and Slovene diminutive for Alexander or Alexandra; pronounced like Sasha).

Origin (?): Eastern European (of the above regions, but does not really matter)

Age: mid-30s to mid-40s.

(Note: I'm not so great with drawing. Especially with the body. Also, since I primarily make drawings to get an idea of a character, when I'm done with the face and once I got the idea, I find it really tedious to do the rest...)

His face looks rather.....brooding or ominous (at least that is what I intended to do).

That is because he is a devil. He is a side character (a pretty insignificant one, honestly, but I like to make such characters all the more interesting!) in my project #10: The Devil's Protégé. 

(a close-up)

He is the leader of the Level 3 operation team in charge of the northeast coast of the United States.

I do not want to elaborate here what exactly my story is about and what precisely Level 3 op. team does...

(too complicated + this is a blog...) 

But basically Level 3 op. supplies information and manpower for Level 2 op. team. Level 2 op. team devils, in a nutshell, design events what you would see in politics and economics sections of newspapers (or that aren't in newspapers when you should see). 

So, Saša is the man who handles meticulous details for the bigger operations. His job is considered inferior to what Level 2 op. team does. But Saša chooses to be in his position, because he likes dealing with particulars. And he is quite good at it. That's why he's been doing that since the early 1800s. (So he is about... 200 years old... not so old for a devil)

So I wanted Saša to look methodical and rather aloof (like many devils).

But I didn't want him to look vain or extravagant (he doesn't aspire to get a higher job, he's content with his present job). 

Also, since it was rather unconventional for a devil not to want to reach a higher status, I wanted him to look and behave rather unconventionally (within boundaries. He likes dealing with details and he is orderly...).

At first I gave him a suit (that a normal devil usually wears)...

Then I found it rather..... plain.

So I gave him a t-shirt and a casual jacket, but then he looked so.. well, plain in another way. :P

So for now I decided to give him a turtle-neck shirt and a jacket with -- I don't know what it's called -- the patches(?) in the right shoulder and elbows. Not a usual attire for devils and, to a degree, men who look like him.


Just to write few things down about Saša:
- he likes coffee, but not black--with a certain, precise amount of cream and sugar.
- he is appreciated by some of the Level 2 op. team devils. They know that Saša is good and they sometimes ask for or take his opinions in their operations. But when the system changes and when Level 3 op. members like himself become clearly differentiated and discriminated, Saša does not find that so pleasing. He feels insulted, though he would never show his anger externally.


I need to work him further and define his role in my overall story, but this is pretty much it for today! :)