Minor Project: Franklin General Character Notes

These are my working notes for developing Franklin. I tend to design characters in a really uninformed way, so I'm investing more time in the background of the character this time around. 

At the moment, the notes here are somewhat scarce, although these are a snapshot of the working out over several notebook pages.

These notes will be added to throughout the duration of my character design process. 

Following this post, in the near future, you can expect to see some of the visual development for Franklin.

Motivations

• Pursue a lifestyle and career in hair and beauty
• To do what he enjoys, regardless of expectations

General

• Nine/Ten Years Old
• Old enough to confidently perform actions, without being overly concerned about the social implications
• Absolutely no interest in the expectations of his peers
• Thanks to his Mother’s obsession with her personal appearance, Franklin has had considerable contact with beauty magazines, catalogues and materials growing up. Whilst his curiosity was in the appearance of women in these magazines, it wasn’t necessarily in the way you’d expect. He was far more interested in the methods employed to transform these women from dull to delightful. Unfortunately, as a result of being reviled by his peers and his lack of local relatives, Franklin didn’t have access to a suitable subject to practice on. This resulted in Franklin poaching his neighbour’s pets and performing impressive feats of beautification, unknown to his parents and peers. 

Family

• Disinterested Parents
• Father, factory worker, a-typical masculine figure, interests in cars, football, drinking and sitting undisturbed in front of the television in complete silence
• Mother, vacant, distant, focused more on her outward social perception than her parenting prowess (unless it can work to her advantage)
• Both adhering to traditional gender roles
• Both fairly negligent
• Whilst they have an indirect influence on Franklin, they’re fairly individual people with very few correlating interests
• No siblings, cousins or other young relatives that are local

Life History

• Born into, and currently living in, an industrious English town
• Extradited by his peers since his early school days for having less than ordinary interests
• Generally considered unusual and creepy by his local community
• Although, he is not overly phased by his outward social perception, far more focused and concerned about his interests, hobbies and future prospects
• Thanks to having no siblings or young relatives that live locally, Franklin has always had very little interaction with children his own age

Research Notes

• Look into the childhood’s of 1970s serial killers for inspiration on their outward perception by their family and peers
• Jeffrey Dahmer (http://murderpedia.org/male.D/d/dahmer-jeffrey-photos-1.htm Childhood Photographs)
• Fred West (http://murderpedia.org/male.W/w/west-frederick-photos.htm Childhood Photographs)
• Dennis Nilson (http://murderpedia.org/male.N/n/nilsen-dennis-photos-1.htm Childhood Photographs)
• Harold Shipman (http://murderpedia.org/male.S/s/shipman-harold-photos-1.htm Childhood Photographs)
• John Venables and Robert Thompson (http://murderpedia.org/male.V/v/venables-jon-photos.htm Childhood Photographs)

Design Notes

• Mismatched clothing, as a result of having to dress himself
• Suppressed confident presence
• Gender ambiguous outfit choices (Nothing too masculine, nothing to feminine)