[22/03/2019] The Main Character Designs

As the Sour Punch Kids are a group of three, I knew I wanted them each to have a coherent design to ensure that they all looked like a group. Although it isn't mentioned in my project, the kids are actually just three friends who have no parental figure to tell them what to do. Instead, the kids have a kind lady who refer to as 'Mama Pink' as she is a mother figure for the three; cooking them meals and giving them a place to sleep whenever they need it. To mirror the idea that the kids are messy and get themselves into trouble and aren't really looked for in the best way, I made certain design choices such as: giving each child a bandage on their face that resembled a slice of their signature fruit in a minimalist way along with giving all three bare feet and bandages on their legs after getting scraped.

The self-proclaimed 'leader' of the group, Zest is the main of the three, having a lot of energy and spirit to keep pushing even when things get tough. She is very goofy and chaotic, but is good at heart despite this. In order to go deeper into her personality, I created signature T-Shirt designs for each of the characters with expressive poses. This helped to explore her range of emotions from; strong and determined, goofy and silly to loud and energetic. Even though she is what I would consider a tomboy, she still wears a skirt as she likes the freeing feeling when she runs and zooms around.

Of the three, Zest has a very fun and simple design, hair being in a simple style with a white headband as a pop of contrasting tone. I knew that I wanted only a single colour within each of the main three with white as an accent colour. As Zest in inspired by an Orange, her colour was of course, Orange. I feel as though the orange helps show her bright and loud personality well.

The second of the trio is Citrus, the happy-go-lucky healer of the group. Similar to Zest, Citrus is an energetic kid at heart but with a much cuter and feminine aesthetic mirrored in her hair and weapon choice, being a parasol. Citrus often times is there to help keep her friends in high spirits and bandage them up when they need it. Almost like a miniature mother-figure for them, Citrus is often is found breaking up arguments between Zest and Tang, scolding where appropriate. As Citrus is more feminine, she has long hair tied up in a braid that falls over her shoulder, giving her a more interesting and fun design.

Like the rest of the trio, Citrus has one main colour, Yellow to mimic the colour of her signature fruit being a lemon. Along with the yellow she has white as an accent which helps her to have a bright and happy aesthetic as it contrasts less with her colour in tone as yellow is already a light colour.

To finish off the trio, we have Tang, the fighter of the group. He is the only boy within the trio, giving diversity and a more welcoming vibe to the group. Tang is incredibly creative and imaginative, creating his own weapons from different things he finds, such as his signature wooden sword that he used bandages to tie wood together to fight. His personality behind the fighting is actually timid, easily afraid of things but still happy and goofy when with his friends. He is easily swayed by cute things, having a deep connection with Mama Pinks pet Dog, 'loaf'.

Just as in the other two, Tang has a main colour of green to mirror the colour of the Lime that inspired him with white as the accent colour. This helped him to fit in with the girls whilst standing out, having a colour that is tonally more cold unlike Zests warm toned Orange, helping to contrast them and keep him from blending in.

This is 'Mama Pink', nicknamed by the three kids as such by how easily she blushes a bright pink all over. I had a difficult time creating her design, wanting her to look older than the rest but still young, around her late 20s. Mama Pink is inspired by a grapefruit, and so in order to achieve the right aesthetic to mirror a grapefruit, I wanted to make her build larger than the children and give her lots of round features. Her personality is very motherly and caring, just wanting to share happiness with the children she took into her home almost as her own children. To mirror her personality, I gave her a cute dress that looks cute but still adult with the collar and belt to contrast in tone. Like the children each have bandages on their face, Mama Pink has earrings in the same art style of the fruit slices.

As she in inspired by a grapefruit, It was hard to limit her colour pallet to just one colour with a white accent as Grapefruits have a unique quality in their colour that makes them look as if they are blushing as the orange skin has tones of pink whilst the inside is a vibrant red/pink. As a result, I decided she would have a limited colour pallet of orange, pink and red with green and white as accents to contrast the bright hues in a small but interesting way.

A small feature within my game to make the world seem more rounded and interesting, I decided that as the people were based on fruit and veg, the animals in this world would be made from deserts, snacks or meals made from multiple ingredients. In this image we have the following animals:

• Woolton - A Sheep inspired by candyfloss.

• Swiss Rollgi - A Corgi inspired by a swiss roll.

• Shibloaf - A Shibe Inu inspired by a loaf of bread.

• Biscat - A Cat inspired by biscuits.

• Snakhetti - A Snake inspired by spaghetti and meatballs.

• Sundhog - A Warthog inspired by a sundae.

• Caramool - A Cow inspired by caramel.