Character Design - The Adventures of Phezi Model Sheet

Character Design - Final Line Up

Character Design - Resolved Villainess (Alaba)

Character Design - Alaba Costume Designs

Just at the end of the designing stage...where I feel I understand and like what my characters look like, I wanted to redo Alaba's costumes again, I was satisfied with the previous thumbnails. I did hesitated to leave her (on the majority of thumbnails) topless, but as my show/animation will be aimed at an older audience I felt I had the freedom to do it, as it not uncommon for a zulu woman to be topless; as this was a major influence on the show. I imagine her lair in the woods, not much contact with other humans...she has a crystal ball or an enchanted rock she uses to watch Phezi and plans ways to extract his power.

Character Design - Possible Face Masks for Alaba (Villain)

Although I've been working on Alaba's face...It's possible it could be covered by a mask....it's common thing of witch Doctors to have this prop, each with a different significance.....the mask may not be on the final posed character but if this was a real show, she would have to put in on at some point, it's important I explores this....I'm more drawn to the first sheet...I imaging she'll have a collection of masks, each with a different significance. 

Character Design - Villian Expression Sheets

Character Design - Understanding Alaba Design (Villain)

 I found Alaba the hardest character to design, there were a lot of things I had to think about, like what she wears, what are their significance, what type of hairstyle does she have..I decided to make her a 200 year old Witch Doctor who keeps a youthful looks using part of her powers. I had to think about this because her goal is to acquire enough knowledge and Power so she can reach the gods...why would she then use part of the little she already has to keep her youthful looks? her biggest flaw is that she a self loathing narcissist and she doesn't know it; so she loved how she looked when she was younger, but at the same time she's hindering herself by using a percentage of her power to keep her youthful exuberance.

Character Design - Alaba Costume Designs

Character Design - Villain (Faces)

Alaba's Origin starts her out as a benign witch doctor; not really evil or kind. She learnt the ways of the old religion from her mother, her only goal at this point in her life was to save her dying son, so she researched old potions, mastering and uncovering more and more secrets until she was powerful enough to save her son, unfortunately and ironically for Alaba...given her chosen profession...."Some things are not ours to tamper with. Some things....are God's." At this point she in too deep, she starts obsessing and plotting, she needs more power and like an addict yearns for more; this hobby of her's later became the reason for her son's death. Oblivious to what she had done she blamed the gods for her son's death, and vowed to conjure enough power to one day reach the god and confront them, she's distroryed whole villages in search of more power, she's killed babies, scarified albinos, but still she nowhere close of meeting her goal, the viewers are introduced to Alaba as she discovers Phezi, she now plans to drain him of his powers and let the god know of her fury.

At a point I wasn't sure weather to make my Villain an old typical witch archetype or a young seductive female, but I decided to make her both, as Alaba is narcissist and she's got no family to look after, as her son is now dead....I thought it fitting for her to use her abilities to retain her youth. She's really 200 years old, she's been killing people and obsessing over power for a long time now....so if Phezi kills her in the season finale, the viewers will be shown a really wrinkly rotten old witch as she dissolves, or explodes....something really disgusting nevertheless.