Final Character Design

His story started out as a young kid from Britain, somewhere outside of London where it was flush and beautiful. He started out growing up in a nice family estate his parents worked so hard to get throughout the years. Now James is a rather curious child and a wild one at that. He would cause so much wreckage all over the estate  playing his toys, rolling up colored ink on the walls and even putting ketchup on their VHS tapes. This was because he was filled with so much joy he couldn't control himself causing mischief for his parents. Back then until he met someone, he didn't smile often until one who he would meet One night he would thank for. Back to present he foolishly thought his life would be ok..... Until one night.

After a very harsh talk with his father, who despite causing trouble for him he really loved him in spite, who got fed up with his antics calls out the one thing that will haunt him simultaneously also serve as reminder to live by, is why couldn't he be well.... a bold person or a bold gentleman for once?!
Heartbroken he ran to his room and his father too frustrated to talk went to his room as well.... (Draft of first part)

Before we get started, THIS was how dedicated I was! THIS is my specialty!

 

I was THAT dedicated to get this right!

Poses:

 

So in truth I've been working on this guy since 2016, and to me this character represents myself in an oddly exaggerated manner with events that have happened to me to great lengths. After awhile, post-senior year at high-school, I wanted to go with James as his first name. There are many different reasons why, but it's mostly down to just being named in honor of some great people who are called James, The New King James bible my late-grandfather owned who I've never met but heard great things about him. I thought up giving the birthdate of September 15th (my date), in the year 2000 (to make sure he stays relevant with old technology like cassette tapes, VHS etc...).

Most of James' powers continually grow throughout the story as it first manifested in self defense during a near fatal injury by an armed street punk when he moved to Hong Kong at the age of 12. It wasn't until long the his power became self-aware and eventually 'he', started speaking to him one night while the student's at Mr. Hiragizawa's Opera house were asleep and introduced himself simply as "Infinitus". Infinitus explained that he actually helped him one day as a poor man with no food or shelter to run to after escaping a group of superhumans / scientists that he himself also, were called the "Great Beings", people who far exceeded the limits of the human brain who was said to have been granted by God Himself. 90 days had passed since he escaped and James tried to ask why, but Infinitus refused to answer.

He explained that in addition to the energies that the Great Beings possess to power their machines and weapons as well as their combat capabilities, that his own unique power actually came to him from God Himself. He didn't understand why he blessed with such extreme raw power that suprisingly was tamed, but he did know that actually gives him unlimited amounts of energy and other unknown powers that he has yet to access.  And the Great Beings misused and abused him at a very young age hundred years back just to use his unknown powers for warfare.He had no mother who was told by his father, Omnius, a Great Being himself who was the only who truly cared for him, which James somehow remembered that name, was killed after trying to escape the Great Beings when they discovered

He then explained that they are also the people responsible for taking his Dad by explaining that he might have something to do with Infinitus' dissapearance and surpisingly he was in a joint partnership with Omnius as well decades back, which gives James hope that they could eventually find him one day but in addition to that, he formed a contract with Infinitus after thanking for him for providing bread to him when he was 9 and promised him he'll blessed with a bright future ahead but in turn it erased his memory that day to prevent any misuse of the Infinite energy at a still rather young age until he could control himself.

WIth that in mind James thanks Infinitus for telling him the truth for what happened to his father and both he and Infinitus promised to set things right for each other. And one of the first things he learned was to immediately learn instantaneously in terms of combat and knowledge. During that point he also wanted to make sure to remind himself daily that he will fix his family and become a "bold man" he knows his father would've wanted.

 

This composition took merely 2 days to complete, one day for lineart then to inking and then to scan and finally image trace. It was then colored with Live Paint along with other effects from Photoshop. This frame is symbolizing James as he gets ready to walk toward the road of redemption along with his "Guardian Angel" he calls, Infinitus.

On the wall is a timeline from a young depressed James locking himself in, blaming for the night that he never forgave his father and being abducted before James ever got the chance to apologize. Then scroll depicts him around 12 to 16 practicing Wing-Chun and Jeet Kune Do from the Opera House as well as dancing and acting giving him newfound interests. Then a frame of James playing both drums (ON A LEFT-HANDED KIT MIND YOU) despite being right-handed wanted to do so because why not? Other drummers have done drumkits right handed while being left-handed (Ringo Starr of The Beatles fame, Stewart Copeland of The Police fame...) but it was listening to Phil Collins that he was so inspired by his voice sounding so tender and majestic to him that wanted play drums on lefties while being rightie (Pretty much me)! Even listening to John Deacon's bass playing from Queen also made him want to pick up bass playing as well since he thought that drummers and bassists are criminally underrated.

For his costume design, because of staying at China and in Japan as well, he wanted to create a costume that combines both the eastern feel of China and Japan, as well the gentleman elegance Brits have.

 

Next I moved on with his accessories, such his hat. The hat idea I got was from an old photo of a young Walt Disney (Circled in blue) with his brother Roy wearing I believe is a newsboy cap.

I found this particular way of Walt wearing that cap pretty cool in my eyes which why I eventually wear my own cap like that most of the time with the brim sideways. Other characters such as Jotaro Kujo from Jojo's Bizarre Adventure (Part 3) wore their caps like that often that I just had to get that look right.

Next was his sword. After watching Rurouni Kenshin where a wandering swordsman wields a reverse blade sword where the hamon (sharp pattern of a katana) is on the other side, thus the blunt side of it is on the opposite side to prevent any murder whatsoever to hold his rule of no killing. I love stuff like that and another good example is Vash the Stampede from Trigun who like Kenshin avoids killing anybody by aiming his gun at non fatal spots to prevent any bloodshed and holds pacifism to heart. Much like me I don't think highly of taking another one's life and James is no exception to this hence forth, the reverse blade sword made out of a indestructible metal from the Great Beings. And the sheath allows for quick deployment thanks to backpack that will immediately warp any gadget he requires from within his "hammerspace". Look up cartoon physics and you'll understand or how Ratchet from the Ratchet & Clank movie how he summons weapons!

 

Up above is James' gear for musical enjoyment and gigging. Bottom is the aforementioned Drumkit based on Phil Collins' Gretsch USA Custom kit along with their measurements. Top is his choice of Bass and Guitar. I thought if people keep saying which is better, the telly or Strat, I thought.... screw it I'M MIXING IT UP THEN! Behold a hybrid of Fender....err... umm... Loopy I guess?....

....I'll see myself out.... 

In the meantime, for bass it'll be both the P-Bass (thanks to John Deacon of Queen, just want to play the Invisible Man with that!) and the Rickenbacker 4003s (Thank Paul McCartney during the late 60's like Hey Bulldog & The End in particular, and ESPECIALLY Chris Squire of the Yes band, blame "Roundabout" for that bloody bassline!) 

His shoes in particular since I want to take up parkour and I want James to run around freely across neighborhoods and city blocks are based on Soap Shoes for grinding rails. Sonic The Hedgehog is the best example of Soap Shoes which btw are awesome to look at!

 

For this idea, watching too many people retract their masks and helmets got me thinking....

What about shades??

That's when I thought up well... how about the shades warps directly to a warp point on the neckband which will then extend to allow a spring loaded mechanism to which it'll loop over James' head then proceeds to clicks in place between two grooves on his glasses. Voila! ^_^

Speaking of glasses, I wanted to try between either rounded classic like Vash the Stampede of Trigun, or John Lennon, Harry Potter or more modern looking particularly Hideo Kojima during the making of Metal Gear Solid 5.

Would love those specs! Anyway you may have noticed an Infinity pattern going on here on James' hair and his glasses. That actually started when my teacher Sir Osbert Mjojo (They call our teachers in Indonesia Sir sometimes and that last name is pronounced "Mi-Yo-Yo", did ya get that?) my physics teacher in high school and possibly my favorite teacher, did a sermon one day at our Friday morning service one day where he bought up an interesting analogy on the concept of "forever" by bringing up how the devil would be released from his prison after a 1000 years according to Revelations how after the war with Heaven's forces he'll be thrown down back again to his prison which then bought up the idea, "Forever doesn't technically mean forever, as there will be a moment for it to stop and then resume." That got me thinking, maybe he's right. Say you have an unlimited supply of ammo but then you stop shooting to catch a break and it'll resume afterwords....

What if James and Infinitus' energies/powers DID have a limit then and how can I experiment with that idea?....    Interesting....

The Mobius strip is another symbolism on that concept as well for their emblem.

 

As you can see from the picture, I decided there would be slash to represent that nothing truly does last forever as well on a play of initials on both James and me. J would be on left shaded in black while R on the right represents me in blue. Finally in addition to that, it would also symbolize both of James and Infinitus faith in God through Christianity and mine as well almost shaped like a cross and that wearing it would meant that we're essentially bringing God with us no matter the distance.  

At last the design process. After coming up with his backstory built upon years of inspiration and hard times to me, in addition to his gear and powers, it was rather easy except this time I wanted to try scanning then image trace around it using the same techniques I've been using throughout the semester.

Another thing I forgot to mention is that pattern on the poster with James playing his Rickenbacker, is that pants idea actually was inspired by Will Smith's pants during Fresh Prince rapping to the periodic table (that's one way of studying!) which really looked nice since I still have some 90's vibe sticking to me! And that spinning and swinging his arm like a windmill is directly inspired by Phil Collins Dance Into The Light album cover, Scott Pilgrim Vs The World Teaser Poster (also has a Rickenbacker!) , and Pete Townshend's windmill motion, ROCK ON!!!

Here's another concept for his blazer to go with those pants!

Here are the inspirations for both looks and clothing ideas.

Yes you James.

One thing to take note of is that I tried to figure out which eye form to use since my work for this story is pretty much anime inspired but still keep that look of westernization to his face as well. Moses from Prince of Egypt and Spike Spiegel from Cowboy Bebop were the best contenders for the eyes. Another thing is that there's certain hair on James' neck which I like to call the "backstreak" hair is because whenever he uses Infinitus' power his backstreak will act like a exhaust fume leaking the energy creating a spike-like look. That's where Hub Hikari from Megaman Battle Network comes in with that streak of neck hair. Rentaro from Black Bullet, Plutia from Neptunia, Casshern, and Joker were the best ones the get the hair right. 

Eric Clapton (another influencer of mine in music) was another contributing factor to James' hair on his top right (his right) streak.

Seriously I LOVE that hairstyle.

Before I sign off, another thing to add is that when it comes to speed and dodging I remembered the Tengu sequence from 47 Ronin with Keanu Reeves. I loved the way how their clothing flows with their movements and dizziness to confuse their opponents which is on James' costume there's these 2 shoulder pads that eject these strings of energy which will then come in variety of ways like extended arms and makeshift whips. But also to mimic the furious but calm flowing waters to follow Bruce Lee's advice on fluidity. Here's what I'm talking the Tengu's movements (they don't look like that really, they're supposed to bird like demons).

 

And that concludes my research for my personal character. Thank you and good night.