Hi again! I started the pre college program and it's been great so far. The classes are really serious but the professors are awesome. My professor from comic book class worked for Marvel and Pixar and all these huge companies to animate movies! It's so cool. I got to literally hold his sketches and designs in my hands and I was just like omg wahhhh!! 😱😱

In comic book class, we're learning how real comics are written and drawn and then we get to make our own first few pages of a book. For the book, we had to design some characters so I invented two new OCs. (My story is more of a manga than a comic book but they're similar enough.)

So here is my first character, Hikari's reference page...

My story is kinda similar to Spirited Away where Hikari walks into a small town and is surprised to find out that the residents are not normal humans. Instead they are magical creatures such as unicorns or witches or monsters. She was summoned to the town because she had magic too, but her whole life she hadn't known. Only in a near-death situation does she realize she has the ability to turn into a dragon. Here's a closeup of Hikari in dragon form.

So Hikari is the main character, but in the town she meets another girl named Aquois who can turn into a mermaid. Here's her reference sheet...

She was born in the town so she knows a lot about magic and how it works. When she meets Hikari near the border at the beginning of the story, Aquois informs her on how things work in the magical town of Aristia. By the way, when Aquois transforms into a mermaid, the top half of her body stays the same and where the skirt starts, her tail grows from. In mermaid form she doesn't have the jacket either; I just thought it looked cool and added more to her character.

Hikari and Aquois both have a human form and a magical creature form too. Some of the other residents have only a magical creature form while others appear to be normal humans all the time but have magical powers hidden inside.

I don't know if all that was very clear, but what do you think of my characters? If you have any ideas on how I can improve them, please do share. I wanted to make their personalities contrast with their magical form. Like how dragons are expected to be big and loud roaring creatures, but Hikari is more calm and shy. I tried to express her personality by her innocent-looking outfit. I did the same thing for Aquois by putting her hair up and giving her the unique jacket and boots.

"Contrast creates contour." -my morning class Professor 😛