Last week, I introduced the idea behind MISSES, a comic book series (or potentially, a series of graphic novels) I've been developing since mid-2017. To see what I talked about there, you can find the post here.
So far, I have a total of ten characters with conceptual art, and so I plan to reveal one a week for at least the next ten weeks, and if I end up with more, extend it.
The hardest thing about this is knowing where to start. That doesn't just include this post, but the story of MISSES, too. I've had a number of beginnings in my head, so I need to narrow that down. For the purpose of these posts, however, I'm choosing a sequence and going with it.
Meet MISS Inform
Jayn Tael started attending the Millennial Institute of Social Sciences (MISS) when she was 14 (the majority of MISSES will take place while she's 16 to 18). She was accepted, just as all the young women are, because of her suitable mastery of the four MISS benchmarks—modesty, intelligence, spirituality and strength. She was also picked because she had a knack for getting things wrong.
Now, that might sound a little strange, but MISS is a cover for the MISSES Endeavor, and for some of the people behind the scenes, having the ability to do anything, even something negative or seemingly worthless, could be used for the good of humanity.
So Jayn, along with all the other girls, received a nickname that was specifically fashioned for her—Misinform. The hope was to turn that unfortunate ability into something worthwhile.
And it happened. Through a series of events that will unfold in the pages of MISSES, Jayn went from a tattletale who always got her information wrong, to being able to cause others the same problem, to what she is today—MISS Inform, with the ability to provide accurate and timely information out of thin air for those who need it.
She can see things as they happen. She can tap into all knowledge, past and present. She does so naturally, without any technological aid whatsoever.
While she will occasionally go out into the field as the situation demands, she is primarily an integral part of MISS Support.
Concept Art
The Sketches
The image above, along with the next two, is where the art for MISS Inform began. I commissioned the art through guru.com, which has been a good source for me of artists with more or less reasonable prices. I first used Guru in 2010 to get three novel covers drawn, and returned to it in 2017 to produce the characters for the MISSES comic book stories.
You will note that MISS Inform went through a couple minor iterations before her final form was chosen.
And actually, her look as far as hair, height, body shape, etc., didn't change that much at all throughout this process. What did was the goggles/glasses she's wearing.
I wanted something that would represent what she does visually. I suggested some kind of eyewear so it would be obvious that she was able to see things. But when the sketches arrived, I wasn't that happy with them, and while I got a couple of versions of it, I decided to forget the goggles/glasses all together.
If you've ever worked or collaborated with someone else, especially long distance, you may have some experience with what happens during this creative process. In the case of MISS Inform, it was mostly trying to manifest her powers in a visual way, but then not really being content with how that was being portrayed. So, instead of pushing it further, I decided to just stick with her character. I figured the rest could be worked out in time.
(This will become a reoccurring theme, by the way, with varying degrees of success, so you can watch for that as subsequent posts unfold.)
Thus, the above image is ultimately what I settled on for the look of MISS Inform. Since she really doesn't need technology to do what she does, it's just basically her in her MISS Support uniform.
Inked
Not much change here aside from the cleanup from sketch to inked version, but there is one difference I really didn't want. Her uniform goes from something resembling something looser, or not quite as tight fitting, like a T-shirt and sweat pants, or maybe even a band uniform, to something else resembling lycra or rubber.
In the order of characters drawn, MISS Inform was one of the last, and so by that time, as mentioned above, I just wanted to get the character finished more than anything else. So, before actual comic book production starts, I will need to have her uniform revisited so that it's not like a wet suit.
Colors
That look (the wet suit) probably becomes more evident in color. Those (the colors) are subject to change, too. I wanted something to differentiate her from other characters, and the color combination did, so we went with it. As for her own coloring, that's pretty much it. She's a redhead from a race of humans similar to those found in Scotland or Ireland.
Art for MISS Inform was created by Graphics Manufacture, an illustration/graphics company headquartered in France. Overall, I was very happy with their speed, communication, turnaround on changes, and their art, and I highly recommend them (if someone on STEEM doesn't fit the bill for some reason).
And that's MISS Inform.
Images courtesy of Glen Anthony Albrethsen