I decided character roles were important to establish for this project as if people can see character roles they can peace a narrative together from that. I also decided to plan the characters to be aimed at a younger audience who usually require a more black and white morality and role in their characters.
Initially I planned on having 3 sets of characters but decided 2 sets were better for the time constraints I am working with. The characters and contexts I decided on were as follows:
Firstly a trio of character conventions set within a farm environment, these characters represent the typical roles of Hero, Princess and Villain.
Hero: Woolly McGregor
Woolly is our hero, the strongest ram on the farm. He is always saving Friesia from the nasty Von Trotter. Woolly is a heroic character with a cheery attitude who always tries to do the right thing.
Princess: Friesia McMoo
Friesia is a cow and is the heroine of the farm always somehow landing in trouble. She is a little bit ditzy but she has a heart of gold, she also really admires Woolly. Friesia is believed to be the most beautiful animal on the farm which is what often causes Von Trotter to target her with his plans.
Villain: Hans Von Trotter
Hans is the villainous pig of the farm that is always up to his nefarious schemes, usually kidnapping Friesia in the process. Von Trotter has always mean which is what made all the other animals dislike him, unfortunately this only made him more determined to ruin everyone’s good times.
The second set are set within a Wild West theme where the indians are the heroes, these characters fit into the roles of Hero,Ally,Villain and Henchman.
Hero: Kuruk Red-Tail
Kuruk is an adventurous adolescent of the Red-Tail American Indians, always adventuring round the deserts. When Tex and his men kidnapped the other members of his tribe it was up to Kuruk to save the day. Kuruk is occasionally reckless but he always has the best intentions.
Ally: Moki Red-Tail
Moki is Kuruks best friend, however he lacks the bravery of his friend and will often flee from danger. However Moki is a loyal friend and even though he maybe cowardly if his friends are in peril, he will try his best to help.
Villain: Tex Colt
Tex is the nasty sheriff of High Noon, who is secretly a gold prospector who plans to blow up the grounds of the Red-Tail Camp to find a giant gold vein believed to be there. Tex also often uses his authority to manipulate the town people into helping his insidious cause. He is an intelligent man; however he is also short-tempered and insulting.
Henchman: Ginger Thompson
Ginger is one of Tex’s deputys who will often carry out his various commands. Though he deludes himself into thinking he is highly capable and skilled, he is in fact very accident prone and idiotic. Ginger also often chat back to Tex under his breath, though if he is ever heard his true cowardice is shown when Tex scolds him.
So far James has provided me with his take on the farm characters:
I've added a little watermark on the bottom there for copying sake, but overall i'm very happy with the results. Though the image in my head was a tad more cartoony the basic appearance of the characters was similar to how I pictured them. More importantly I think when presented together they do their respective jobs at representing their parts in the narrative, interested to see if people agree they fit the roles well.
The finished version of James's take on the Wild West characters is now completed:
I thought these characters effectively exemplify the roles they were intended to, to test this theory I also ask others (unaware of who's who) which roles they thought each character had and they were correct. This would suggest the characters effectively represent their role and the narrative as a whole.
Once again massive thanks to one of my best friends James Smith for working with me, hopefully has been helping in furthering his development as it has my own. Should anyone like his work more can be found at http://jamesbiff.deviantart.com/.
