This thread is mainly just a bunch of unfinished or scribbled out doodles for this MASSIVE idea that I have had running around in my head for the past year and a half. I plan to finish them all in due time, but I thought i'd clue you guys in on just what I was cooking up.

So basically i've been really fed up with how everything, whether literature, television, or media in general has been sticking with the same ol' stick for.......well, for forever. Everything has a set of rules of which things apply to: for example, if people are creating a traditional fantasy setting they stick with kingdoms, knights in shining armor, dragons and hordes of orcs, magics and wizardry. For sci-fi material it's aliens, the cosmos, and seriously advanced technology. It's been re-used and enchanced for centuries, and I for one am just bored to tears.

What I want to do is basically say "fuck you guys, i'm creating my own shit from scratch." I don't want to rely on the predetermined rules and laws that have been laid out for generations to come, I don't need to take a layout that's been spoon fed to audiences and simply add my taste on it. This is about taking the little things that I like and (quite literally) building a new experience from the ground up. That being said, I searched long and hard to find some idea in literature that hasn't had it's full potential brought to the table yet.

What I found was The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.


I know what you're probably thinking: "What a cop out. You talk big about creating new boundaries and you're using another person's character! Lame."

Bzzzt, wrong conclusion chief. What i'm trying to do here is take the very core essense of the idea and strip it down till it is just the basic theology. Once i've done this I try to construct an entire theory, personality, nature, and world that would result in a complete reanimation.

What i've managed to construct so far is my take on Mr. Hyde, whom I simply dubb Hyde:






(Edit: This last picture is super old)

Let's lay some basic ideas out on the table: Everyone knows the story of Jekyll and Hyde.

Guy tampers with the dual natures of man, does a little experimenting, drinks a potion, yada yada yada he releases his murderous intent. Back in the day, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was the shit in the literature world. Nobody had really heard of such a concept (at least not to this extent before). It layed out the foundation for a protagonist's "dark side" in an endless amount of works. It really was revolutionary for it's time period.

But since the book was written such a long time ago, that once fresh take on the nature of man has become stagnant and dull. I mean, is it really that big of a deal when hero #3526875932-056 is confronted by his malicious dark side nowadays?

No; in fact, it's almost expected a good chunk of the time. Builds tension in the story. A classic struggle for survival aganst oneself kind of deal. The sad cold truth is that it's no longer an original idea, and unless something is done it's going to stay this way.

So here's what i've decided; My version of Hyde will not be evil. I'm ditching that major character trait so I don't have a viable crutch to lean on anymore. You wanna play with the big boys you get rid of the stuff that makes you weak. Instead of focusing on the evil intent that Hyde now no longer has, i'm solely going to focus on the unexplored chaotic nature that has been tossed aside by many. This also means that Hyde is not a fighter of the light, or a savior of just and pure.

What would pure, uninhibited chaos look like? How would it act without the aid of evil in its stead? This is what I am trying to accomplish regarding Hyde; He is pure chaos and nothing more. He has no intents other than whatever he feels like doing. In a sense, he has achieved ultimate freedom.

You see, another trait that i've given Hyde (compared to what the rest of the world has) is that he will become the smartest being in existance. That is Hyde's strongsuit; his creativity. However, he is not a genius in mere regards to information or talents, but of the sheer fact that he's achieved an understanding of his surroundings and himself. The only way this is possible is to become completely insane, but that is only because of the standards of society, when ironically it's the opposite way around.

I have a massive expanation for this character to add on to the already large one i've typed, but I figured i'd simply just move on and post some other concepts that I had in mind.




This loose speed sketch of what I hope people can make out as a figure is Sherudo, A.K.A. "The Trainsurfer."
He rolls on even ground with Hyde in the fact that he too has "figured it out." He is wise beyond his years, but it's not his intelligence that got him to his current stature so much as his actions.

You see, a few years back Sherudo was diagnosed with Leukemia, a cancer of the blood cells that was too far in the advanced stages to be cured. The doctor informed him shortly after the diagnosis that he had a solid year to live before the cancer would rob him of his life. As a result, Sherudo (whose name was not this originally) deemed that he had nothing to fear in this world and spend the remainder of his life pushing the boundaries of death-defying stunts and feats. His favorite one in particular was a sport entitled "Trainsurfing", where the participant would ride atop a speeding train car and "surf" atop of it, much like the name implies. Sherudo decided to take it a notch up and not only pursue only the world's bullet trains (which go in excess of three-hundred and sixty miles per hour) but that he would ride on the side of the car, using nothing but a poor man's air pump to latch onto the window of the car.

Sherudo knew full well that this pump could very easily break off and end his life without a second's pause, but did not fear such a feat and in returned experienced unbridled freedom when riding these carts. It was in the middle of one of his rides that he "figured it out" and was transported to the same venue as Hyde, the cancer cured instantly and himself completely unbound by the limitations of the world.

That last part was really hard to put into words and is absolutely terrible in my opinion, so i'm going to try my best to change it to where the general idea makes better sense.

Here is a sketch of what Sherudo looked like prior to him "figuring it out"; it takes place in the height of his trainsurfing glory days:




Another character that i've recently taken great interest in is Don Quixote, but since i've yet to really explore the character all I have is a poor man's speed sketch and zero understanding of how to take him to the next plane or level.

Here's an extremely fast doodle of him, but i'm going to scrap this and find a way to meld old with new:



And finally, another character I had an idea for but it's a terrible scribbling and will be disected and reworked extensively. The only thing that I can tell you is that her name is Toni and that she's a mechanic:




Here's a work-in-progress comission for the Penny Arcade Battle Tournament:



The woman on the left is Reanna, a girl that fights for La Revolution. The character in the background is Kaza, one of my own characters that will also be actively involved in the Hyde story.

Here is a piss-poor speed doodle of the same point in time, only the camera has been altered to be facing Kaza instead:



This really wasn't supposed to be anything other than to clue the audience in to what the mystery woman looks like.


To do this project successfully is going to take a lot of work; almost inhuman so to speak. I know that i'm only a high school senior who's only been in the business of art for a year, but I really want to bring this project in animated form, and the only way i'm going to be able to do this is if I study the holy fuckballs out of the human anatomy (for starters). Once I get that down, I can spend more time on the other aspects of art, such as landscape design layout, creature design, you name it.

As a result, I am going to spend seven hours a day drawing, four of those hours nothing but anatomy study. It will consist of this regiment:

Hour 1) - Skeletal study

Hour 2) - Muscle/nerve study

Hour 3) - Skin/facial study

Hour 4) - Gesture line/various pose study


Once the four hours are up, I can decide what I want to do with the other three hours: Either continue one of the studies that I had to drop once the hour time limit was up, use them for creative brainstorming, do a casual doodle to test what i've learned, etc. I really can't afford to be stumbling on simple things like anatomy regarding this project, so i'm going to have to push myself past my limits if I want to make this vision a reality.

And just to show you guys that i'm not totally full of shit, here's a few life studies i've already done:






The skull one is actually more horrible than the rest due to the fact that I had to scrap the original halfway due to a soft drink spilling all over my work area :x . It's still no excuse however. Also, the shoe one is quite old, and illustrates just how much work I need on shading. There's far too many mid tones and it needs more dark shadows to really bring the drawing out.


Anyways, I thought you guys would be interested in what I had running around in my head. I've got a ridiculously long way to go before i'm able to even convey the concept in even mere sections.

Edit: I'm also going to be focusing heavily on this emblem. It will be the core basis in which everything is applied to:




It's known as the Penrose Triangle. I created this picture rather than just digging for another one on the net.