An Array of Characters- Bette Nyeleffe and Maisy Verray

Right, next assignment. For this one we had to design a character from the past and create their back story as well as a turn-around of the character and two sheets of emotions. This was a really fun assignment and was welcomed by most of the games students as it was one of the first assignments that was aimed at us. 

 Bette Nyeleffe

At first i created an elderly female called 'Bette Nyeleffe' who's story was centred around her incredibly bad luck with men, being married and widowed nine times. 

Bette in 1957 and 2007

Bette in 1979

Her background was supposed to emote sympathy as the readers learned of her husbands' untimely death and the rumours that started to spread about her, leading to her nickname: 'Bette Ninelives'. I drew her throughout her life, every ten to twenty years ending in 2007. I thought that this would help me get an idea of how i wanted to draw her in my finished piece but instead found that there were too many looks i liked (the above being my favourites). This character also seemed to have far too much story that wouldn't have been appreciated in such a minor assignment, and so, i scrapped this character in favour of the seventeenth century German acrobat, Maisy Verray.

Maisy Verray

Ignore the one on the right- she got rejected

Maisy Verray was based on a jester/acrobat and required a huge amount of research as i wanted to make sure her character could be plausible and historically accurate. This was quite hard as acrobats were only starting to surface in Europe when most countries had  deemed the role of a royal jester useless. Luckily however, Germany had started a travelling circus featuring acrobats in the late sixteen-hundreds which hired a lot of Europeans, meanwhile in Spain, the jester was still appreciated in the royal court, giving me a gap of about fifteen years for this character's story.

Maisy Verray on the flying hoop

 'Verray' entertaining! ;D get it?....

Maisy's story told of how she joined a travelling circus at a young age and quickly became the most popular performer, especially amongst the men of Europe. After being bought by the current king of Spain, Charles II (read up on him by the way, he's surprisingly interesting), as a court jester. After a few years Maisy became deeply depressed as it became obvious the king was no longer interested in her performances but yet she was still not allowed to return to the circus. After the king's death Maisy was abandoned and had to fend for herself on the streets until finally being recognised by fans. (FYI, the king's second wife is also very interesting too, read up on her here!)

First signs of depression

(That's silk not a pole)

Maisy forgotten by the king but forced to stay

I didn't want to do a particularly happy story because after researching the seventeenth century, it became apparent that very few people lived happy lives. Even the servants of the Spanish king suffered as the royal family plummeted into debt. However i didn't want the story to be completely depressing, which is why she is found and recognised by her fans. 

Here is the final piece:

Maisy Verray emotions/ positions

MOAR emotions/ positions

In hindsight i would have outlined my work in a black pen to make it stand out more and perhaps make the second sheet neater, although the business of the page seemed to interest the tutors. Overall though i am happy with Maisy Verray and how her story turned out, i hope i get the chance to focus Bette Nyeleffe too someday.