Character Design

I tried a few different variations for Dr. Cruz. She’s part of a series I started for an NIH grant exploration.

These characters are part of a set I designed for a prospective NIH grant aimed at increasing underrepresented populations into biomedical research. Dr. Cruz is a doctor who inspires our character to become interested in medicine. Ariel and Vic are our character’s parents. It became important to me that our hero be Afro-Latina and that the piece be framed from POV.

This was an internal project that didn’t come to pass, but I loved creating characters for it! The premise was Trick-or-Treat, going through the usual suspects of who will show up on Halloween night, with a twist. We have adorable children, rascal youths and unaccompanied pets. Our twist was planned, but never finished—I’d like to try a vector version of the concept art for our monster. What happens when candy comes to the door? (spoiler, nothing good)

If you’ve ever made characters for an rpg, especially Dungeons and Dragons, there are a series of stats you assign to said character. My partner gave me a handful of story backgrounds and stats to create the playable character from scratch.

Above you’ll see a warlock bound to their octopus deity, through whom their power flows. They are a water genasi and also take on the physical characteristics of sea creatures, specifically an octopus. I chose this idea based on one of the gods in the Polynesian pantheon of deities. I took this kind of studied approach with the following 3 characters as well.

These characters come from a series designed for Dash Studio’s Mentorship program. They were an exploration in color palette, clothing, disability status, race, and age.