Armand! Who knew that such a vague character would become a favorite of mine. :) Similar to
Antoine and
Geoffrey; he was doodled just for shits and giggles when I first drew him. There was no story, no plot, and no consideration to his character and development of such.
But of course as time progressed he became more and more fleshed out when it comes to his nature and overall demeanor. Through baby steps of course but he eventually got there. :D A lot of his personality was based on the traumatic events of my mom's childhood; while the way he copes with trauma in his later life was inspired by my two uncles on my my mother's side.
And of course; when the tone or personality changes, the design and style generally reflects that change so for the sake of talking his actions seriously within the scenarios they're presented in; he became more muscular with a face that has a more demanding presence.
Originally Armand had a straighter chin with no scoop; but I wanted him to more closely resemble his
son so I mixed that around a bit to where he's still his own character but shows some genetic semblance.
His finale design doesn't reflect what he looks like in terms of his past life and experiences. In my story he doesn't appear until much later and so this look actually is his design for that point in the story. But if you want to know what he looked like beforehand (such as the above) just imagine him without the scars and a more calm/confident expression. :)
On another note the Russians within the
D'Coolette family have a golden fur color, shorter ears, and thick muzzles. The French, however, tend to have fur ranging from dark brown to black, longer ears, and slender muzzles. Other Mobian coyotes have fur that's gray/brown with the lighter coat being whiter.* Of course genetically things can bounce around. Which explains why
Dagre (who's half Russian) has a French phenotype but his son (who's a quarter Russian) has a Russian phenotype. And why Antoine (who's 5%ish Russian) has a slender French build but Russian fur color.
* If I am not mistaken the common hair color for Russians in rl are variants of blonde while a common hair color for French is dark blond to dark brown.
This is very interesting. I like how you evolved him and presented his physical characteristics based upon his genetic inheritance. I also like how you took into account Antoine's design and modified Armand to have similar characteristics yet retain his unique character.
ReplyDeleteIn particular, I like the whole fur color based upon hair color found in different cultures and races. I imagine the reason why the French hair color is more varied is due to the location and influence of surrounding groups of people. Whereas the Russian hair color may be due to the isolation of the people because of location and weather.
As far as personality goes, I find your Armand unique as a study of nature vs nurture. He could become as his father, or he could choose his own way. He could react and deal with the stressors of his life in the same manner as his father or mother, or not. I would love to read his story, and hear it from his voice.
Armand was and always will be my favorite character from the Comic, but that is simply because he had so much potential. I'm glad you are capturing that and doing something more interesting with the characters and world than what has been done in the comic.
@ AlcyoneSong
ReplyDeleteThanks! :D At first I just cut and pasted several elements of Antoine to Armand to some extent as seen in the first ever image of him lol... But his design turned out for the better I think.
I'm a bit rusty on my biology of humans but that sounds about right. Generally the people who are located in climates that have warm seasons tend to have more mixing than those who are isolated by harsh winters and mountains. Although there are some sub races within the major races that are mixed depending on whatever reasons. Like the sect of Chinese where my dad used to visit where most of the population as green eyes and some even have red hair.
Well (un)fortunately my mother and her siblings endured a lot of abuse growing up so it's really helped me in making the natures of Armand and Antoine a realistic and unique in their own rights. Without that experience I don't think I would have been able to pull (what's written down) off with out a lot of research beforehand as I've had to do with some other elements.
I think that's what draws me to him a lot. There's not a whole lot know about him so it allows more ease in forming his character. Especially since you're not really breaking any concrete characteristics.