Extended Practice - Mindmap, Drafting and Moodboards

For my extended practise I wished to present my own variations of heroes who go against the usual stereotypes of conventional heroes. Therefore, they will be called 'The Unconventionals', referencing super hero titles like 'The Incredibles'.

To begin with I made the above mind map, listing what is considered to be a stereotypical hero, either male or female. This allowed me to identify conventional aspects of a hero and consider what I could do to challenge these. The aim is to widen the definition of what it means to be a hero. Aspects that I identified include appearance and how they behave morally. I also explored aspects of the 'anti-hero' because they are a subversion of the conventional hero.

Drafting out of hero designs:

Hero that looks evil

An old feeble man in appearance but is a strong hero

Development of evil looking hero,
giving him a kinder face to indicate his
nice personality while keeping him looking sinister

Another variation of an old person hero (old lady) and
concept of a muscular "cool" looking guy who transforms

into a flamboyant magical girl outfit.

This is to go against always having to make a male character look
"cool" and instead have him wear an outfit most stereotypical of a female character.

Concept look for flamboyant "cool" muscular guy

Concept designs for female hero focusing on the concept
that a female hero doesn't have to be a "perfect" sexual symbol for

the male gaze.

Here I am focusing on creating unique facial features in contrast to the type of body

stereotypical of conventional heroes like Wonder Woman.

Using facial features some may consider odd looking for a female hero.

Concept of how I imagine a conventional female hero body in contrast with unconventional facial features

I conclude that a comical approach is appropriate since these character concepts are ones that people are not familiar with in the context of heroes.

Is is not just appearance and abilities that truly makes a character a hero but their actions, e.g. saving people or self sacrifice.

The video below shows a scene from the anime series 'My Hero Academia', which follows the main character, Midoriya Izuku (aka Deku), and his entrance into U.A. High School for heroes. The series explores what it really means to be a hero in greater depth than I would expect from franchises like Marvel and DC.
In this particular scene, Deku and other examinees have to fight robots to score 'combat points'. Deku is too scared and timid to fight and it looks like he will fail the exam and not get onto the school's 'hero course'.
However, he reveals his powers and heroism when he attacks a robot worth zero combat points just to save a fellow examinee.
3:06 "Embody what it means to be a hero. Nothing is nobler then self sacrifice" - All Might.
Deku demonstrates the self sacrifice referred to in this quote since he becomes seriously injured when he uses his powers. Despite scoring zero combat points in the exam, the examiners conclude that they couldn't possibly let down a hero willing to risk his life for others and award him 'rescue points'.
The examiners deliberately hadn't told the examinees that points could be scored for rescues as well as combat. This was because the exam wasn't just a test of their combat skills (as the students thought) but a test of their heroism as well.

My moodboards and images of existing characters (some are rather unconventional) which I used as inspiration:

These are the various designs I used as inspiration for my
concepts of facial features I designed above

The hero at the top, Puri Puri Prisoner (from One Punch Man), was my main
inspiration for my flamboyant "cool" male hero along with existing

male characters in magical girl looking outfits.

I also used the character in red on the left, Ban (from The Seven Deadly Sins anime),

as inspiration for the body type and cool looking appearance

Taking existing characters of heroes and villains who look evil in appearance.
I will use the heroes especially for my version of a evil looking hero

Existing old hero characters used as possible inspiration for my old hero character

Just thought this contrast was funny (it's both the same character)

I prefer her original appearance showing her as a creepy looking lady

who is more of a good character.

It's an appearance some may expect of a psychotic looking villain... she is a bit psychotic
Which, unfortunately, is a character trait she doesn't show a lot off  later on in her series (HunterXHunter 2011)