From my research I was able to explore the origins of Caribbean folklore and the impact of the Obeah and Yoruba religion, and the way that folklore creatures are used in a game genre and environment. I also learnt the best ways, and the worst ways that a culture can be used as an inspiration for a game from someone in the game industry and by playing these games myself. I therefore narrowed down my list of characters to interpret and explore visually for my initial ideas: The Soucouyant, La Diablesse, Mama Glo, Jumbie, Douen, Baccoo and Shango. I decided that I would rather take a more horror-based approach to designing the characters, as I feel that many of the folktale creatures have a malevolent behaviour, and that a horror style game would well reflect the mystery and fearful nature of their descriptions. After all, most folklore tales are designed to frighten people, particularly children, so I am wondering if I could make the creatures scary enough to create unease for a wider adult audience of gamers.
I have included some of the initial drawings here but more can be seen in my sketchbook.
The Soucouyant was my first character to design. I began by sticking close to my photography edit experiments, focusing on the demonic-like fire aspect. In the Soucouyant tale she removes her skin and hangs it on a tree in the forest, and drinks the blood of men. I emphasised this by creating hanging and open skin that revealed portions of muscle and tissue underneath, and giving her glazed eyes and pointed fangs. However, I wanted to reuse the idea of multiple identities, so I looked at giving her four faces- one on either side of her face and one at the back. I also looked at her hands, her posture and figure, as well as what she could possibly look like if she was disguised as a person. I also looked at colour variations by photocopying my biro drawings and using Copic markers to colour over them, resulting in a large variety of tones.
I then looked at La Diablesse. I explored the type of face she could have- skeletal but skin covered, not quite human, as well as covered mostly by a large hat. I drew a hat larger than the one I used for my photography experiment as I wanted it to be dramatic and almost normal looking from a distance, so if a player saw the character in a game it would be hard to realise that she is in fact not a normal woman initially. I then looked at her stance especially, as she would have one cow leg and one human leg, so the balance of her weight would probably be more on her human leg than cow leg. Drawing diagrams helped me to figure this out, as I realised that where a human has knees, a cow has an elbow joint in its legs. As clothing reference I looked at the traditional clothing worn by islanders, such as the Madras Jupe and the white blouse.
For the Jumbie I used a lot of inspiration directly from the British museum African art. I thought about how some of the Moko Jumbies at the carnival portray the spirits of slaves from Africa and wanted to present an almost vengeful and terrifying spirit according to this description. I considered the type of material that the Jumbie would be made of or appear as, for example mahogany or mango wood like the traditional Yoruba craftsmen would have used. I also thought about exaggerating the limb proportions completely to create something that evidently was human at some point, but is now beyond the point of appearing human. Finally, I considered dressing the Jumbie in chains to reflect the devastation of slavery on the lives of Afro-Caribbeans.
The Mama Glo is the water creature that appears beautiful and kind at first, but soon turns into a malevolent beast when angered, drowning people in the rivers and sea. Initially I gave her an almost completely aquatic appearance, but I then decided to get rid of the fins on her face and just emphasise her water environment with larger fish-like eyes whilst maintaining a human hair type and physique. I then created an 'angered' version, where she becomes almost completely fish like, resembling an Angler fish in the face, with the tail of a flying fish, common in the seas of the Caribbean islands.
Next was the Yoruba god of thunder, Shango, who is still worshipped in Obeah religion in the West Indies. Again, I used the mask and clothing research from the British Museum to fuel my inspiration, using the sacred nails in the mask and the Ax head that is symbolic of the god. I also experimented with textile patterns and colours, opting for red, yellow and green which is commonly used in African and Caribbean art and textiles.
The Douen, an evil child spirit, appears with a straw hat and backwards feet. I wondered how I could create an even scarier version of the Douen akin to its description, so I tried adding a twisted appearance to the legs, and a distorted twisted face to mach the Douen's facelessness. At first I exaggerated the lengths of the limbs, but decided that it did not look quite right for the character as it was hard to tell that it was supposed to be a child. Therefore I maintained regular proportions and experimented with the waist wrap styles and hat styles.
Finally, I looked at the Baccoo, a genie-like spirit that lives in a glass bottle. I tried manipulating the facial stricture, by putting the eyes sideways, in between the nose and mouth, placing the face upside down on the head, or even completely removing the face altogether. I decided that I liked the printed appearance, where traditional patterns could be seen on the body, and the body takes on the shape of a traditional spirit.
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