Stashra is a project that I have slowly been writing in my spare time for years. It is a story following three characters, who may, or may not have superpowers. It follows a typical structure of the protagonists fighting the antagonists, however it deals with the internal struggles of each character; A queer woman from a country who hates her kind, to a boy who has nothing but love, yet everyone gets taken away from him, and to the girl who has everything, but is scared to show who she really is, to anyone. My hopes for the story is to include a diverse range of readers, to make them feel understood, to pose morality questions, but overall, have a great experience reading and to enjoy my fun visuals.
Here I decided to show the concept art for my characters. I wanted to start by showing the revised concept for each main character, along with a description, showing their personality. It then goes on to show a revised version of the main trios original look, then I include a couple more concepts that I drew in the process.
I wanted to make each character feel real, I tried to manage this by splitting up my own identities, Sian, representing the side of me that is the leader, alongside my experiences of growing up Asexual, and with the experience of my home life growing up. Ez, another character shows the repression of my sexuality, my insecurities and anxiety, really coming to terms with himself. Tash showing my dominant side, what I want and what I will get, Tash also takes from my boyfriend, who over the years I know as much as myself.
Some other characters and even these, experience things that I can't, or haven't, such as loosing a parent, being a person of colour, being an immigrant, and other things, so I used my friends, my family and strangers on the Internet, I asked questions that could impact how the character acts or behaves, and I asked questions to find out what they wanted showing.
