o alongside our main character Vanessa, I’ve been developing artwork for other cast members. Lyra is an antagonist character we briefly meet at the beginning of Episode 1 and will stay haunting us like a poltergeist for a while after.
Lyra is a hater, first and foremost. She has positioned herself as Vanessa’s senpai but otherwise hates her and wants nothing good for her. I love writing hater characters because it helps me explore the people who have hurt me in my life. What motivated them? Why do they make the decisions they make? I’ve attached some script to show how disrespectful and manipulative Lyra really is.
Side note: I can’t wait to draw Philippe, the terrible boyfriend, even though he’s such a tertiary character.
Back to Lyra. Her design was a bit of serendipity. I had been developing her look in a local art class I help out at, and I ran out of time to color her in, which is why I ended up with a sketch of her half done. But I thought it looked good. I liked the mostly white vibe of the private school uniform. It has this look of private school anime that I love. (Revolutionary Girl Utena was a formative experience for me). So I kept the jacket mostly white.
And Lyra’s ghost white skin has a story explanation. She’s what is known as a Silver Skin, which means she’s got a weird UV coating to her skin that makes it look gray. I drew influence from this early colonial painting I happened to see while on a museum trip with my mom. And like…those people in the paintings were white. Like creepy ghost white. I know the Spanish came from Europe but damn that was some white skin to the point the characters looked gray. Why the Spanish thought that creepy gray white skin was anything other than a blistering criticism I don’t know. But it’s to all our benefit cuz it looks cool in the story.
Anyway I’m gonna have more cool stuff to share next week now that I’ve got Storyboard Pro working. Whee! We love the progress.
-love Joolz