Adventure Character Design Sketches

For the adventure story I wanted a character that resonates with a modern audience. I looked at photographs from Justin Timberlake's first album Justified and thought he was the perfect character. He is cool and stylish, but not quite squeaky clean or perfect. His nose for example is not straight and in my character this could be from a fight in the past, a bit like Indiana Jones and his scar on his chin.


Like Indiana Jones, I would like the character to have a hat that is symbolic of him as a person, and I think this style is a modern day version that our audience will have knowledge of. I used the stripes around the hem ideally as black and yellow as a warning symbol showing the element of danger in the story and his line of work.

He does not have long hair as this would take time to animate, and I know from my experiences working on Pirates of the Produce Aisle that overweight characters cause more trouble. Furthermore he would need to be slim in order to carry out the adventure. I wanted to create a modern Archetypal character and I think I have succeeded.

However, the leather jacket harks back to James Dean and the lad about town image I wanted to convey. He is rough around the edges and wants to make himself out to be 'hard' or a threat to his surroundings. I thought this iconic image would help him do that.

I called the character Michael Clark, as this is a 'normal' kind of name to suit the everyman quality I want the audience to interact with. I think this suits the character.

I did draw a female character as an alternative to Michael, for a variety of ideas but also to maybe have a female love interest if the story went that far. I also thought she could be another adventurer after the same prize as Michael.

I wanted the character to be blonde to differ from Lara Croft and also Michael's colouring.

She also wears a leopard print top as some form of camouflage ( a bit like Michael's hat) and this also links them to the nature/animal environment. They could also move like animals in some scenes as inspiration in order to get the King prize that they crave.

She is attractive in order to be a femme fetale figure, leading Michael astray or down the wrong dangerous path. I have no name for her so far however.

UPDATE: I called her Prada for the time being as I want her to seem quite expensive and seductive. She is flirtatious with Michael and even though she can 'rough it' wearing jungle wear, she can easily turn on the charm.

I thought there could be a flashback showing her either hiring Michael to get a treasure from the Mayan pyramid, or of encounters they have had in the past where she had double crossed him and he is catching up with her. She could have stolen a key or map from him and is using that to get to the prize first.