Character Design
Alder is an original character I created in my 2019 concept design class my junior year at VCU. The idea for this character was based on a myriad of personified trees in fantasy stories, and how they awaken from the earth when they are called to protect their home. The design came from a love of every instance I saw nature overgrowing and covering a man-made structure.
The robots who protected the garden in Miyazaki’s "Castle in the Sky" were the principal inspiration behind this character. Their large, loping figure, weathered form, and silent care of nature are at the heart of Alder.
I imagine Alder as a nature spirit that emerged from the ground to perform some inherent duty on Earth. Perhaps to protect it or to heal it. Alder is made from twisting roots and vines and as he grew from the ground he picked up scraps of rusting metal that was abandoned there in years past. He used those metal pieces to his own advantage to build a structure he could walk the earth on.
In the loose story outline, there was a young girl with freckles and a tangle of red hair that joined Alder at some point in his story. She is the one who named him and made the mask that he wears. I drew inspiration from Celtic masks and the tradition of the Green Man, this gave me examples of a neutral but benevolent face with decoration that would feel cohesive with his twisting form. I also wanted it to be a kind face, one that the girl would be comforted by and would fit her new friend.
Environment Design:
Following this character sheet assignment, my next task was to create an environment illustration showing Alder in the world of his story. My attempt was not very successful and my frustration with learning Photoshop in this class did not help me.
This is where I left Alder for a while, maybe someday I'll return to this environment concept and continue to grow my skills.
Illustration
Later in 2019 I took an oil painting class, and while I loved the class and getting to use the medium for the first time, my rushed projects rarely had the depth or detail that made a finished painting.
In 2022, after I had graduated from VCU, I was looking for a fun project where I could use my oil paint again. I kept returning to Alder’s character sheet, I wanted another chance to put him in an environment illustration that would do him justice.
Then I saw an image of a Moss Frog that I fell in love with, and I knew exactly the delicate and caring nature spirit that would guide a tiny Moss Frog back to safety. I even plucked Alder’s pose for the painting directly from the original character sheet!
I didn’t start with a plan for the rest of the environment, I just knew I wanted it to be layered and push myself to really lay on the paint (which I struggled with in the painting class).
After I blocked in Alder’s form, the first brush strokes of the sky behind him felt like a sun beam coming through a light but constant shower of rain. That informed the whole scene. Now it was Alder coming upon this frog after a rain that flushed him from his home. Alder is stooped on the path between tall grass and wildflowers, where the water was pooling up and reflecting the light, and with all his care, lifts the frog so he can deliver him back home.
I took my time with the painting, coming back to it every so often over a couple of months. With each layer I tried to define each element of his body while keeping the environment loose and vibrant. The sky behind him stayed constant, as a thin sheet of brush strokes, while I tried to create texture on Alder and the foreground with a thicker application (or at least as thick as I was willing to go then).
I saved the detail of the frog and the mask’s face for the end because I was nervous to get their features correct. The mask especially, his expression is so subtle I was afraid of ruining the whole tone of the painting if it came across wrong. Even in these photos I have here, it’s not until the very last stage of the painting that I had those essential details where I wanted them. Funnily enough, with the mask it turned out to have worked to my advantage. The surface of the mask is so smooth and untouched compared to the rest of the piece that it really does appear to be a completely different material than the worn and organic textures of Alder’s body.
Written October 2024