PERSONALITY
I knew I wanted the Yellow Sower to be tormented; tormented by visions no one else could see, his power is so vast it’s basically a curse. The more I read about Van Gogh, the more determined I got about making his mental illness a crucial part of this character. Because of this, the Yellow Sower is mostly withdrawn and his personality “contained” (thanks to the ultra helmet he wears). Without such helmet, his visions could wreak havoc impossible for him to control.
AESTHETIC
There were two key elements I kept closely in mind when working on this design: the helmet and the color “yellow”. The helmet would have to be simple, yet imposing, and the color yellow either a significant part or an accented area in his suit. At the end, I decorated areas of his suit in yellow, including a diamond pattern across his chest, symbolizing a row of sunflowers. I wanted to keep his overall suit design simple and smooth, so as to keep the focus on the alien-like helmet.
REDESIGN
The idea behind the original design from 2017 (below) was similar: a character in floating Lotus pose, haunted by a bright light or vision. I stuck with elements like the pose, his beard, and the diamond pattern, but changed other elements of the design, such as his physicality, his outfit, and the addition of the helmet.
In an even older version (below), this character had an incredibly disturbed nightmarish personality, but I quickly scrapped it — I didn’t want to portray Van Gogh’s mental illness as some kind of “evil madness”.
NAME
Initially, I really wanted to include the word “yellow” in there somehow. “The sower”, a recurring motif in Van Gogh’s paintings, came later but rapidly proved to be the perfect choice to complete the moniker. For Van Gogh, the sower symbolized the eternal cycle of existence. Sowing brings forth new life. All in all, Van Gogh made more than 30 drawings and paintings on this theme.
POWERS/ABILITIES
Telekinesis, energy manipulation. He can give the impression of warped reality. Astral projection. He can “sow” thoughts/visions into other’s minds, no matter the distance, making him the ultimate manipulator. His Cerebro-like helmet helps him control his abilities, but without it, there’s a risk of unleashing a force stronger than any of the other Seven Luminaries, one he, himself, is unable to control.
KEYWORDS
Visions, yellow, haunted/tormented, needs to be contained. Infinity.
OLD 2017 SKETCHES
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"The Seven Luminaries" is a fictitious team where iconic visual artists* are reimagined as Animated Series/RPG superheroes, supervillains and everything in-between, with inspirations drawn from comics, movies, anime, and shows across the ages.
Project was originally conceived in 2017.
(*for this specific project, I narrowed “artists” to those who create static [no moving pictures] works of art.)
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely on purpose 😏
