Character Design: New Direction- Story and Villain Development

Last night, I spent a long time figuring out what was wrong with my villain for not being interesting. And I found the answer: he was boring- a normal cowboy thief. Not interesting whatsoever. So I decided to add a tint of magic and fantasy to him.

Initially he was a thief and  the thing that he was after was the Power Source which sustained the Small Chinese Kingdom hidden in the caves. I had this idea of him being punished for his actions by turning into what he mostly desired- which means less human and more of a mineral. This was mainly inspired by the Greek Myth of Midas, a greedy King who wished that everything he touched became gold and because of his greed he became gold himself. 

After talking to Justin we decided that what would fit perfectly for my Eastern/ Western story was Jade- a symbolic mineral for Eastern cultures. My villain could be gradually turning into Jade after being exposed to the town's power source: The Jade Sun  (or maybe pieces of it). The way this Jade Sun could work was to give powers to whoever was exposed to it, but the Jade Sun only gives power to those who deserve it and to the ones who have a pure soul and are going to use it for a good purpose . Ada herself was exposed to the sun and got the Power to control the Desert (hence her given name which means The Sand Priest). But Wyatt did not get any sort of power. Instead, he started forming into jade and took him a long time to notice that his transformation was actually making him weaker. 

I really like the moral of the story: Being responsible for your powers. (like in Spiderman)

This story could give the potential of more episodes: Who gets hold of the rest of the Jade sun pieces and what powers do they get? Ada needs to make sure the pieces fall into the right poeple's hands.

These are some rough sketches I did for Wyatt as he's being transformed. He gradually becomes a monster with no feelings and is conquered by the Jade Sun's Power.

Rough sketches for Wyatt

Rough Sketches for Wyatt 2

Patterns and Colours from Jade