Meet Aqua
I've had this in the works for a while now.
I have a habit of keeping information about my characters under lock and key unless I'm around people I'm close to. This helps me think ideas through when I'm developing them, but it doesn't help me reach a wider audience and establish connections with other people in my field. I know enough about animation, game development, and entertainment as a whole to know that the industry isn't a one-mand band; keeping my projects only to myself will only work against me, so I need to be proactive about developing my characters and worlds enough so that the public will take interest, followers will become more engaged in the lore behind everyone, and more opportunities will open up for me both art-wise and connection-wise. After all, how can someone write a character if they don't know anything about them?
This is the second attempt I've done at a character sheet, but the first one I've taken seriously. My first attempt at character sheets took place around 2017, when I designed them for a story called Ani-Mental. Although I dropped the story a year later, remnants of it occasionally find their way into my art, such as when I redesigned two members of the cast in 2022 and how I plan to incorporate them (along with the rest of the cast) into a newer story as tertiary characters in the future. Though Ani-Mental was short-lived, it's left a significant impact on the direction my art is taking.
I had two goals in mind when designing Aqua's character sheet: first and foremost was designing a layout that I could use consistently for more characters that doesn't distract from the characters themselves. My second goal was to strike a balance between showing enough of her personality to reel people in and keep them invested in her while avoiding revealing so much about her that people would lose interest in her or risk cluttering the character sheet. These may seem like easy goals, but they were more difficult than I expected because there was so much I wanted to say but couldn't without risking the structure of the piece.
Since I was at a stalemate between the amount of information I wanted to share and the design layout of the sheet, I took to Pinterest and did some field research. I wasn't satisfied with the examples I found for character sheets, but I received a few recommendations for sheets that had one simple title: Meet the Artist. I found a lot of references I could use, each with their own visual appeal and distinct art direction. From the fonts used to how the information was mapped out and which colors were chosen. After analyzing a couple dozen sheets, I found that most of them had these things in common: name, age, height, zodiac sign, sexual orientation, ethnicity, likes, dislikes, illustrations of their favorite items, and possibly even a few facts about themselves. While I was against including zodiac signs and drawing what certain objects of hers would look like, I chose to include everything else I mentioned. After spending a while writing, I had enough information to include on the sheet and all that was left was the layout.
Now that I knew what I was working with, the layout was much easier to work on. I took a simple yet practical approach by keeping Aqua and her starry background on the left, her information on the right, and I carefully arranged the blocks so there was just enough space between them. I may have to resize some things for future character sheets, but overall I'm happy with how everything turned out.
Aqua's character sheet will be the first of many I intend to make. I want to start sheets for the SPACE characters, but I think it's optimal for me to focus on making character sheets for my other mascots before shifting gears to one series entirely. I can't say when the next one will be finished, but I have ideas in mind for tailoring the layout to each mascot's universe. I'll post their entries here as they're completed, and I'm excited for the rest of the world to learn more about my characters!