This may come as a shock to some folk, but the majority of the limited amount time I have to draw is spent developing my TJ FuZioN character as it's a project most dear to me and something that has been with me since I was 13 (and as a man at the ripe, old age of 22, I can comfortably say that this is a pretty long time). So naturally I'll have more pictures of that world than any other, meaning that the meat of this post will be almost entirely "FuZioN-U-centric". If TJ and friends have never been of particular interest to you, now would be the time to stop reading (although objectively speaking, I'd advise you to stick around just to see exactly where this whole thing's headed).
Now, as I'd mentioned, in my last post(all those years ago) I'd devised a new and hopefully more organised method of presenting new characters, which oddly enough means I'll have to sacrifice presenting these posts in a chronological order in order to present the characters' development chronologically(I say this all the time, but just to reiterate: This blog is a few months behind the amount work I've actually put into my drawing. Hopefully one day I'll be able to catch up and all will be right with the world). This entry, We focus on the "newest" addition to the H.A.W.K.E Industries roster, Raex Lipton!
Yes, Raex Lipton. Questionable naming-skills aside, Raex's character, along with just about all things associated with the Hawke, is a part of the entirely fictional aspects I decided to put into TJ FuZioN this time round. He's part of the team that will essentially help TJ realise his purpose in the world(I was going to go with "destiny", but it's such a loaded term nowadays) and take him in when the world turns on him. As such team H.A.W.K.E. are a sort of surrogate family that adopt TJ. That he's entirely fictional (instead of being based on someone I knew) says something of his metaphorical implications... but that's neither here nor there.I suppose.
These sketches were the first I did with the conscious thought of including Raex in the FuZioN-U. I hadn't entirely fleshed him out and was toying with a few notions (One of the notes suggest that he was going to be Merlin Hawke's son!). The final design and personality is incredibly different from this one. This one's a lot cooler and more conventional than the current one, although I think the development is for the better. Certainly makes for a more interesting character to write. What's interesting is that, although this is the concept art, and thus one of his earliest incarnations, this is one of the more recently coloured images. So at this point, his colour scheme is is final one even though his appearance isn't. Weird!
Here's yet another picture using the early Raex. Here, I was just playing around with Photoshop and this is the result. That H.A.W.K.E. Industries Sign Still feels so... "Vector-y"
At this point the appearance and personality of the character was a bit more concrete in muh head so I felt more comfortable drawing him. I really loved how moronic his face looked, despite him being something of a genius. Those balls of light are a clue as to the purpose of those black implants and lines on his arm and neck are, which I have intentionally avoided discussing as the story is still hush-hush for now(and I also don't wan't to contradict myself by stating something so early in this whole thing, only to change it later).
Right now, pretty much all the main characters are done and the story (which is almost 10 years old) has neatly rewritten itself around the new elements I've introduced to tie everything together. What's left is for me to make the villains more intrinsic to the story-line and pace everything right. I really like all the stuff I've come up with and I just want to package it all so other people will like it too, which means tightening up character designs, developing vivid locations, and writing a good script. This all sounds obvious, I know, but it's nonetheless important, because as legendary comic-book writer Jeph-Loeb once said: "there are no bad stories-Just stories told badly"... At least, I think is was Loeb. Yeah. I'm cool with giving him credit for that.
