Jelani-Akin
Character Design - Molly Saber
This character started off as a 30-minute sketch challenge, along with a trio of characters... and then took on a life of her own. Below are some of the steps her design took.
The initial sketch, born from a 30-minute sketch challenge I accomplished on stream back in 2012. Molly is the central character, while the other two essentially went unused.
At this phase, I wasn't sold on her color scheme, and I attempted to go a different direction with her afro, applying a head scarf to he design in an attempt to make her silhouette more stylized and quickly recognizable.
At this point, I'd started fleshing out her backstory, as ell as the world she'd exist in and the tone of the story. With it going in a much more humorous direction, I also wanted the character designs to include more exaggeration and cartoony proportions. Molly's appearance was nearly there, but she still needed a color scheme and a general theme aside from "girl with an afro that loves swords."
The color scheme came together once I'd decided on the red and white flame motif for her scarf. Having her hair be a bit of a natural dark red, her pants black and her shirt purple made the scarf "pop" really well. At this point, I thought I was pretty comfortable with her "final look..."
...then her role in the story changed, particularly with the addition of Star Saber and Cobra Nagi, and the removal of her older sister, Claire, Molly was now the mature character in the story. However, I didn't feel her look fit what she was portraying, even though she was still the primary source of humor - now she was the silly character despite her strength, if that makes sense...
This look was getting more in line with what I expected her to appear as. And once again I was pretty satisfied.
...then Cobra Nagi (who was still in concept) sorta stole her style, and I also realized she and Star Saber looked too much alike, even for siblings.
Cobra Nagi WIP and Star Saber WIP, respectively.
At this point, I attempted to find a middle ground for her design between what I had before and the new pieces I liked...
In the end, I arrived at a design pretty much in line with her original one, which gave all three central characters of Reckless a distinct look. She still needs a full character sheet done, but the general idea is in place!
Combined header of Molly Saber and Cobra Nagi, to show how their looks compliment each other while still looking distinct.