02: Oretta

Character Name: 
Oretta

Brief Bio/Description:
Oretta is an obnoxiously curious member of her family, and is well known in her tribe both for getting into terrible trouble, and making wonderful discoveries. She is best friends with the tribe chief’s children, despite being considerably older than them. She hates to be idle and has an insatiable craving to move and discover and try new things. Many of her tribes’ men and women admire her, but are sure to let her know about her short-comings. Having a large ego is frowned upon in her culture. Even still, the efforts everyone seems to make to keep Oretta from getting too big an opinion of herself also serve to make Oretta feel more like a burden than a blessing. At the core of her excitable, happy, and restless personality is a dark sprout of inadequacy and insecurity.

Style Commentary:
I started Oretta with a slightly different alien female in mind. I wanted a slight, androgynous frame and a body comprised primarily of straight lines and very slight curves. Oretta began like that, but as I hashed out her legs, I felt the need to make her more muscular and earthy. I was also excited to rediscover some incredible pencil-like brushes I’d purchased in Photoshop, and went to town with the sketchy quality it let me build on my digital canvas. I almost left her as just a sketch, but I really wanted to add a splash of color to her. So I blocked in her body shape, slapped on a clipping mask, and used some selective soft-edge, pressure-sensitive opaque darks and lights and reflective gold to throw some extra life into her. I’m really excited with how she turned out.

Category: 2013, Fantasy, Scifi