#charcterdevelopment

The design and turn for my character walk.

Another Artyum sketch.

(literary translated from swedish, meaning “on the one hand, on the other hand”)

I’ve been writing a lot lately. According to my word processor software my script consist of 50 pages, 16630 words or 103872 characters. Thats a lot of characters to draw! So I better get started. Let’s face some character design!

During the research process I scribbled down every single face, hairstyle and clothing detail I could find. Based on to the looks of the audience in the 1969 TV-show ”Fråga Lund” the formal dress in Sweden still looked very ’50s. Photos in the newspaper Arbetarbladet showed a less formal attire that was influenced by both the typical ’60s clothing and the upcoming ’70s. An article told the story of a dissatisfied retailer who had no success in selling long skirts, the minis were still very popular. I want my protagonist to be progressive, so her look is a bit more modern. Her hair is longer, her pants wider and she’s not wearing any lipstick, nor does she pick her eyebrows. Her large eyebrows makes her look observant too. Lena has a ”take no bullshit”-attitude.  I initially wanted her hair to be in a bun, but that made her look too much like Little My of the Moomins or a Johanna Rubin Dranger character. Though I enjoy the attitude of Little My my character needs a silhouette of her own. And then it struck me - Why don’t I base the character design on an actual character. In this case I chose the most Swedish letter of them all - Å.

PS. Translations of “å” noun stream, river. DS.