#whitewake

It always takes me a couple attempts at drawing a character before their face starts coming to me more naturally, so I really just sat down for 2 days and drew these two a bunch of times. I'm still not fully satisfied (early 20s Mars still feels like he's not hitting right, and the only Sebastians I approve of are the early 20s high ponytail, and the ones on the last page) but I definitely feel on more secure ground when it comes to drawing these characters.

I mentioned earlier in this year that I wanted to try incorporating more of my ocs into my posting schedule, so here's me delivering on that promise! I'm not sure how many of you are here for my original work - no hard feelings if not - but my current original project is called Whitewake (general synopsis below) and I've been having a very good time tinkering with the idea recently.

Synopsis: The world faces down an existential threat in the Whitewake, a other-worldly phenomenon that appears via fissures in the ground and absorbs anything it touches without distinction. Against it stands Wavebreak, an organisation that trains people from a young age to research these rifts as well as eliminate the various, misshapen monsters that crawl out of their depths. Sebastian Aalto is one of the best Wavebreak has to offer - serious, regimented and effective - but the re-appearance of Mars, the former star-talent of Wavebreak who was considered dead for 6 years, threatens to change everything.

The majority of the story I have planned takes place within Wavebreak (the organisation tasked with fighting the phenomenon called “the Whitewake”) as well as its training academy WBA, so figuring out the uniforms of both the students and the employees was really important for me to get down first. The design choices here are going to inform most of the clothing characters will be wearing for the story after all.

The employees uniforms are only for the Agent Department of Wavebreak since Sebastian and Mars are agents and they’re the main focus at the moment. Really wanted to get them down pat as a first priority. There are two other departments in Wavebreak, Research and Communications which, when combined, are still smaller than the Agent department.

I wanted to approach this design process with a couple things in mind:

Redrawability: designs couldn’t have too many details as it would get old very quickly to draw them over and over again in comic format

Distinction: there needed to be a clear visual difference between student uniforms and agent uniforms while it still being clear they belonged to the same institution. I tried to convey that with a more sporty vibe for the school uniforms, and a more business-y vibe for the agent uniforms.

Personalisation: I wanted the uniforms for both students and agents to be enough of a blank slate that I could also show off character traits and personalities based on how they wear separate pieces. For example: Sebastian is always buttoned up while Mars has a looser, more relaxed fit but they’re clearly still wearing the same clothes.