My Process for Redesigning the Color Scheme of Sylvia Light’s Armor
Last night, I spent some time working on costume redesigns for one of my characters from an upcoming webcomic project. Specifically my main character Sylvia Light, also known as Aurora Light. I was redesigning her basic look.
The idea of Aurora Light came to me a few years back when I was challenged to create a superhero team for The REPLICANTS Project. Sylvia is one of Lilith’s warrior daughters and the greatest warrior in her army.
In her original look, Sylvia was a blonde with gold and red armor. Here’s a blog post with her original character design. I wanted to switch things up for her redesign and make her a brunette. Here’s a blog post where I 1st attempted to redesign her look. I also experimented with different hairstyles to see what would work best for her. I drew her three times with small variations in her armor and hairstyles to see what would look best.
Armor Color Schemes by Ralph Contreras
I placed tracing paper on top of the sketches and used markers to come up with different color schemes for her armor. I tried out several color combinations, including yellow and black, gold and yellow, gold and black, and gold and red. This helped me to narrow down my options and find the best color scheme for Sylvia’s new look.
Redesigning Sylvia’s costume was a lot of fun for me. I’m someone who loves world-building and character creation, and working on her costume redesign was fun. I’m happy about the changes I’ve made to Sylvia’s look.
Day 3 of the Inktober challenge. I inked a redesign of my main character from First Legacy, Sylvia Light (aka Aurora Light). This is a redesign of her basic look. I’ve changed her from a long-haired blond to a short-haired, darker-skinned character. I’ve had her redesign in mine for a while, this is my first attempt to place it on paper. I used a 102 nib pen and a #3 sable brush for this inking.
Shiphrah, Eldest High Daughter of Lilith by Ralph Contreras
30 Characters Challenge 2013 – #6 Shiphrah, Eldest High Daughter of Lilith
Character Back Story: Shiphrah is one of Lilith’s first daughters, she is one of the Eldest High. The Eldest High are the strongest and most ruthless of Lilith’s warrior daughters. She was raised from childhood to hate and pity the “Children of Eve” and to rejoice in their destruction. Throughout the centuries Shiphrah has battled angels, demons, and men for her mother. She has an unquenching desire to see all mankind burn.
Shiphrah has been the leader of an execution squad put forth by her mother to eliminate all decedents of Eve’s child Abel for the past century. She has successfully murdered thousands of potential decedents with no reservations. Only one has escaped her, a child named Chasya Ableson. Shiphrah, her sisters, and her brothers have been searching for Chasya for 10 years. Chasya has had help from Cain the Devil Killer evading her and her death squad. Little does Shiphrah know that Chasya and Cain are planning on taking the fight to her and her mother Lilith in the near future.
Behavior Traits: Violent, Brutal, Leadership, Cunning, Strong Willed, Loyal only to Lilith
Powers / Abilities / Skills: Invulnerability, Flight, Super-Strength, Swords Master, Hand to Hand Combat, Expert Combat Tactician
Notes: Shiphrah is a character set in my comic project First Legacy. It’s a comic/story where Lilith, Adam’s first wife is planning on declaring war on the Children of Eve (mankind). With Shiphrah I’m putting a face to the murder of Abel’s Decedents. Other Daughters of Lilith I’ve written backstories for are Racheland Aurora Light.
Aurora Light – Character Design for The REPLICANTS Project
The idea of Aurora Light came from a challenge to create a superhero team based on an existing team. The REPLICANTS Project was created by Dean Rivet. The inspiration for Aurora Light came from Wonder Woman. What I did was look at what makes Wonder Woman a cool character. She has a rich history centered around Greek mythology. She’s an amazon warrior for peace. She’s also in this world, but not of this world. I took these core elements in the creation of Aurora Light and Sylvia Knightley. She is from another world, a world of monsters and angels. but she is on earth as a protector of humanity. Instead of looking at mythology, I centered her world around folklore. She is Lilith’s daughter, also known as Adam’s first wife. Like an amazon, Sylvia comes from a world of warrior women. She chooses to protect humanity from the dark evils that wish to harm it.
Art Process: Here are the different steps I took to create my character design illustration of Aurora Light. First I penciled out the original drawing. I used a .05 HB mechanical pencil. Then I scanned the pencils and turned them into blue lines in photoshop. I printed the blue line version on card stock paper. I used a nib pen and a Kohinoor Rapidograph Technical Pen .50mm to ink it. I did most of the inking with the nib pen though. Once I finished the inking I then scanned it again and sharpened the contrast in Adobe Photoshop. Then I created flats in photoshop and used them to help in digitally coloring the illustration. It was a fun challenge.
Character Biography: Before Aurora Light became the heroine of humanity she was taught to despise the children of Eve. Aurora Light’s given name is Sylvia, the warrior daughter of Lilith. Sylvia’s mother Lilith was Adam’s first wife before Eve. Lilith declared that she was Adam’s equal and would not be his subordinate. She flew away from the garden of Eden to find her own destiny in the world. But God sent three angels Senoy, Sansenoy, and Semangelof to take her back. When she refused they declared that she must permit one hundred of her children to die every day. Lilith’s sons were creatures of darkness and her daughters were born of perfect beauty. Lilith allowed her sons to die and raised her daughters as cunning warriors. Teaching them that the world was rightfully theirs and not the children of Eves’
Through the many centuries, Lilith slowly created an army of her daughters that she planned to take back the world. The strongest of these daughters was Sylvia. Sylvia was a natural warrior. Besting her sisters in training battles and tactical exercises. She was her mother’s most devoted follower, believing that mankind needed to be eliminated. These feelings changed though when she encountered Sansenoy, one of the angels initially charged with taking her mother back to Eden. On one of Sylvia’s daily running exercises, she discovers Sansenoy, and she is taken aback by his angelic beauty. Sansenoy and Sylvia began a secret romantic relationship. Meeting every day during her runs. Sansenoy had a true love for humanity and shows Sylvia the great potential and wonders that mankind could achieve. She slowly sees that humanity is not the great evil her mother has taught her. She starts seeing them as brothers and sisters. She keeps her new insights private for fear of her mother’s wraith.
Her relationship is interrupted when Sansenoy has to leave to prepare for a great battle. She soon learns that the great battle is with her mother and sisters. Lilith was mounting an attack on humanity. Sylvia is given the lead of the army, but she is torn between her loyalty to family and her new love for humanity. On the day of the battle, thousands of her brothers and sisters fight as many angels. Both sides take heavy losses, but Lilith’s army begins to take ground and the battle looks to be swaying in her favor. It’s at this moment Sylvia sees Sansenoy battling her sister Rachael. Rachael overpowers Sansenoy and Sylvia sees him take his last breath. Sylvia decides at that moment she cannot allow her lover to die in vain. She turns on her sisters and fights with the angels to stop her mother’s dark army. The surprise is enough to turn the tide and give the angel’s army the battle.
Sylvia leaves to earth and swearers to protect humanity from all evils, especially her mother. She moves to San Diego as Sylvia Knightley and takes the name Aurora Light when she fights evil. She choose the name Aurora Light in remembrance of the northern lights, where she and Sansenoy would spend time together.
