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.
This blog post was originally published on my other website Comic Book Graphic Design and has now been migrated here to RSC Arts, Ralph’s Art Blog.
