Character Design and Worldbuilding
This post will cover the character designs and worldbuilding, in one Medium post. We all have ideas of designing the characters for our scroll-format webcomics for both Tapas and Webtoon and also have our own dedicated websites for our webcomics. Webtoon’s policies and guidelines are very strict since you can’t have too much blood or nudity, and you can’t censor or blur inappropriate parts or words. I own how-to-draw anime and manga books from Chris Hart (except the Action Manga one by Tuttle, which I also own). I would rather have my main protagonists being precocious, instead of “childish heroes” or “book dumb.”
During the production of the upcoming webcomic series (creatively titled “Radical Flannel”), here are my influences of the popular shonen manga artists, anime series, and video game series that developed my art style:
- Akira Toriyama (Dragon Ball and Dr. Slump — RIP)
- TOYOTARO (Dragon Ball Super, illustrator)
- Hiro Mashima (Rave Master (called RAVE in Japan), Fairy Tail, and EDENS ZERO)
- Shinobu Ohtaka (MAGI and Orient)
- Street Fighter video game franchise
- Guilty Gear video game franchise
- Fighting Force (known as Metal Fist in Japan)
- Jet Set Radio Future (Original Xbox)
- Sonic the Hedgehog franchise
- Streets of Rage series
- Pokémon franchise (where the main protagonists can walk the earth with little or no adult supervision)
- Digimon Adventure + 02
As a freelance illustrator and manga artist (close to professional), you see popular anime and manga including video games as inspiration for building your own web manga series. Still, I wanted to create a web manga series about the three brave teenage Kyokushin karateka that predominantly fight in 1990s/Y2K streetwear instead of martial arts uniforms, as they can stop the powerful crime syndicate from destroying the world in an urban setting and not be destructive saviors — something that reflects the upcoming series is all about. The characters were originally drawn with an XP-Pen Artist Display 15.6 Pro (and before that, a Wacom Intuos tablet) and currently an XP-Pen Artist 24 Pro. When going to art school (which I refused to go to), they’ll have the text reading “Drawing from observation is recommended” on the art schools’ official website, such as the New York Academy of Art and the University of the Arts (Pennsylvania). Drawing from observation? Screw that crap.
Let’s draw the characters.
Sketching Phase
The clothing they will be fighting in was heavily inspired by 1990s and Y2K skater clothing, with a very Jet Set Radio-inspired look — it fitted well with the theme of Radical Flannel as a whole.
Enlarging your sketch before the inking/coloring phase is recommended so that people won’t complain about your character designs being too small for their eyes. Don’t forget to add their features (such as the soles of the sneakers, and what they look when they are shirtless for male characters). None of the characters in the upcoming series including my works have visible nipples (this is to avoid violating Patreon’s and Ko-fi’s rules). I use 8000 pixels wide and 5000 pixels tall for the character designs.
Inking and Coloring Phase
Add a vector layer on top of your sketch layer and use the Pen tool. Don’t forget to experiment with other sub-tools before you are comfortable with the one you want. Shonen anime and manga are often characterized by bold and dynamic artwork, featuring strong, muscular characters, detailed fight scenes, and dramatic special effects. The vector layer will let you erase unwanted lines before starting the coloring stage.
On the coloring stage, add layers to the bottom of the line art, use the “set as reference layer” on the line art, use the “auto-select” tool, and choose any parts you want to color (for example, tank tops, pants, sneakers, etc.). You will need a color scheme for your characters when someone draws fan art of your characters unless your artwork is at 100% JPEG or PNG quality. Don’t forget to clip the layers below for shading and adding details (such as the writing or symbols on the clothes or sneakers). While shading, you want to use a dark gray color on clothing (#6B717A), and warm gray color for the skin (#939CA3), and make sure the blending mode is set to “linear burn” and set it to 50%.
When drawing the laces for the characters’ sneakers, you want to use white (#EAE2DD, but not pure white unless you use warm gray for shading white parts when using pure white) or any other color (depending on the sneakers), and make sure the “border effect” is turned on (make sure the thickness of edges is set to 3.0, and use black for the border color). If you’re going to make the characters’ sneakers loose/untied (which I do nowadays), don’t forget to add the loose shoelaces at the topmost layer and the very bottom layer. I also included the CSP assets link for the shoelaces. I did some research on the characters’ clothing and sneakers from the 1990s and the Y2K, especially when drawn in mid-to-late 1990s anime/manga style, so I decided to lean on this era for the characters’ clothing, as the story is set in modern times when there are smartphones, tablets, flat-screen TVs, computer monitors and laptops, video games, and other technology. Think ’90s Europop, teen pop, Eurodance, and techno groups such as Ace of Base, Eiffel 65, Backstreet Boys, La Bouche, NSYNC, and Aqua, as well as ’90s R&B groups such as TLC and IMx (aka “Immature”), and clothing such as ultra-baggy JNCO jeans and shorts, Vans Knu Skool sneakers, Adidas Superstar XLG sneakers, Adidas Campus sneakers, Chuck Taylor All-Star sneakers, flannel shirts, and tube socks. The characters’ clothing is a nod to these sources.
Another big source of inspiration is having the characters of both genders wear ultra-baggy shorts and many tomboy characters wearing baggy overalls and reverse baseball caps like Alex Mack from The Secret World of Alex Mack and Jo McCormick from Big Bad Beeleborgs, as well as wearing either jeans or ultra-baggy shorts that sometimes sag so they can look cool. At least bringing back the clothing from the 1990s and the Y2K would resonate with people what they have missed as children or teenagers!
I also made adjustments (and tidbits) to the trio:
Daisuke Ninomiya
- His body is now a little more muscular like the majority of the Shonen manga’s main protagonists;
- His JNCO-inspired ultra-baggy jeans are baggier, though he still won’t trip when he walks or runs.
- His ultra-baggy clothes are made to last longer as they are always fireproof when he is in a burning building, such as when rescuing civilians;
- His spiky blond hair is modeled after Goku from Dragon Ball (though he is not a Super Saiyan, and he is not an idiot either);
- He now wears black athletic socks like his two best friends (he hates to wear white socks).
Hikari Kitayama
- Despite being tomboyish, she still prefers long hair (when her hair is down, her hair is wild, including while wearing an oversized reverse baseball cap);
- She now wears ultra-baggy jeans, giving her a more tomboy appearance, as she pretty much prefers sports bras and ultra-baggy jeans;
- She doesn’t mind wearing a green kimono (or a green yukata), which she wears occasionally;
- She is modeled after Yoko Littner from Gurren Lagann, as both are tomboys, but she isn’t tsundere at all (she also hates tsundere characters — be it anime, manga, video game, or anything in between);
- She and Daisuke have been wearing the same red sneakers since they first met as children, and she is not scared of anything (except for high heels, frilly dresses, and the color pink).
Keiji “Yohan” Matsumoto
- His chubby body is now a little slimmer, and his ultra-baggy tank top no longer shows his midriff;
- His favorite color is blue (mine too!), as he wears blue like my favorite Puyo Puyo Tetris character Arle Nadja!
- His ultra-baggy jean shorts go past his knees, as he prefers baggy jean shorts instead of baggy jeans, allowing him to run slightly faster;
- His large cross-shaped scar is now more visible, as his family inherited the cross-shaped scar on certain parts of their bodies;
- He can really move and kick high for a chubby teenager in his loose Adidas Superstar XLG sneakers, as he can do handstands and touch his toes without any disadvantages.
I also added the height comparisons for the main characters below. I was going to go with flannel shirts (hence the working title), but I decided to change it to tank tops and sports bras.
Character Profiles and Expressions
On a separate file, add the expressions to the characters for your series (happy, sad, angry/enraged, excited, determined…) so that your readers will know how the characters react (such as fighting gang members, interacting with people and places, etc.).
Before the characters come to life, the character profiles will be needed, in addition to the character sheets. The characters’ bios are as follows:
- The character’s name (including pronunciations for those who aren’t familiar with Japanese given names/surnames)
- The character’s age (how old the character is since many of the series’ protagonists are between the ages of 14 and 19 years old)
- The character’s birthdate
- The character’s height and weight (in both metric and imperial units)
- The character’s ikes and dislikes (applies to main and major supporting characters only)
- The character’s theme music
- The character’s short bio
These days, modern-day media (Western animation, anime, manga, video games, webcomics, etc.) will provide LGBT representation, and the creators themselves are coming out as LGBT individuals, which include the sexuality in the characters’ profiles and the “meet the artist” tag (stylized as #meettheartist). It’s about acceptance of their sexuality, and it’s wonderful that the creators will possibly team up with GLAAD. But it’s not for me, and it’s not for the upcoming series either, as I have nothing against the LGBT community (I’m a straight ally creator), and the main cast consists of three brave teenage Kyokushin karateka with the vibes of Street Fighter, Streets of Rage, Dragon Ball, Fairy Tail, and Jet Set Radio Future. However, none of the main and major supporting characters are in relationships, and none of the side or minor characters are LGBT, as it seems that the only couples consist of minor characters.
The goal is to use commercial fonts in place of personal use-only fonts (not just for the webcomic, but for the logo, too!) … but my old Windows 7 laptop, however, couldn’t deal with commercial fonts since Microsoft ended support for the operating system in early 2020. I have upgraded to the iMac 27 inch as the Mac can handle any commercial fonts. I also have a list of my favorite fonts, too!
Logo Design
The logo design takes inspiration from rave posters, but we’ve decided to use flat colors instead of shiny and reflective surfaces and use a single color, along with black and white. Some of the designs remind me of the Y2K techno music and the early internet, I did have AOL and CompuServe when I was a kid, but I couldn’t visit any of the sites I liked because of the parental controls.
But with the Internet Archive Wayback Machine, you can view the sites you’ve missed as a child/teenager, though some of the images may be missing and the Adobe Flash Player stopped working in 2021. People will still think the designs remind them of the Dreamcast days and the old internet. You can also view the Magazine Rack on the Internet Archive as you can read the magazines you missed as a child/teenager.
I don’t have Adobe CC at this time… yet, though Adobe has stopped supporting Creative Suite and does not work on newer operating systems. I don’t want to do font combinations with chapter titles, instead, I want to use one font with the chapter number and titles such as “Prologue” and “End of Chapter XX,” and the “all persons fictitious disclaimer” would have this:
This webcomic is a work of fiction and it does not bear any resemblance to actual persons, events, or groups. These stunts/moves performed by the characters are extremely dangerous and should never be attempted by anyone in real life.
Worldbuilding Phase
We will have two settings, as the story will take place in Tokyo (Japan) and New York City (United States). We use Unsplash and Pexels for the photos, the story will not be in the post-apocalyptic or cyberpunk world, and will not include any nationalistic or xenophobic tones of these messages, like the Tokyo Shinobi Squad manga, which failed to make an impact following the said tones of these messages, low sales, and low popularity in Japan. Removing (or intentionally modifying) the logos would be the first thing to do in the story so we can avoid any copyright violations, even though the sneaker brands are mentioned in all but names. The story is about three brave teenage Kyokushin karateka who are on a journey to stop the powerful crime syndicate from destroying the world, as opposed to being gang members committing crimes.
With the webcomic series still in prototype, there will be no “hyperloop” system. The red-light districts have been omitted from the story since the main protagonists are teenagers between 14 and 19 years old (despite Japan lowering the legal age from 20 to 18).
The goal is to have a dark-skinned, spiky blond-haired main protagonist who is half-Japanese and half-African American. When there are black male characters in my works, they are never as stereotypes or gang members, as they will always have either blond or red spiky hair. In some forms of media such as anime, manga, video games, and Western animation, there will be black male and female characters who are members of a street gang in hood settings with ridiculous actions such as wearing Timberland boots or bandanas or having their heavily tattooed bodies with ear piercings. I won’t portray them that way. I write and draw black teenage characters who are brave, friendly, and precocious, as I always wanted a black teenage character with spiky blond hair who is more of a “skater dude” who wears a tank top (that is not white), ultra-baggy jeans, tube socks, and Vans Knu Skool sneakers that are always untied, as he can fight enemies rather than turning to gangs and crime.
I also don’t like female characters who are submissive to male characters, are tsundere, or to the situation they’re in. In most forms of anime and manga, tsundere characters either berate or beat up the main character with ridiculous results. I won’t portray them that way either. Chubby male characters in my works need to be lovable instead of bullies or otaku. I write and draw male protagonists who are precocious and discover their independence instead of being “idiot heroes” as the story progresses, or who already know they are independent and precocious but have tested against a series of challenges.
In the end, I hope you enjoyed this post on Medium. Thanks for reading!
