Here are some of the initial designs for characters on our new show “The Secret Keeper”.  This is our main character, (the “Secret Keeper” from the title).  He has a library of crime related books which make him an ideal person to act as detective for our murder mystery series.

You will note that he is wearing mismatched glasses frames (one square, one round).  This is because they do not have the resources/skills to create new pairs of glasses; so they cobble together what lenses they can find from different sets of glasses (whatever they can find that is mostly okay for their eyes).

We wanted him to have a gun/guns for a weapon.  The future in our story is a dangerous place where people have to protect their resources from others, (who might try to take them) so being heavily armed is the norm.

We are assuming that as a lot of skills and resources have been lost there would not be much in the way of futuristic “new made” weaponry.  They are largely re-purposing things that they find.  So we came up with the idea of a nail gun using a pressurised gas canister as a weapon.  Electric battery operated ones would not be a reliable option.

Our main character’s daughter is his bodyguard so we came up with a very heavily armoured/armed look for her.  She is designed to look intimidating to others so that (in many cases) a physical confrontation can be avoided.

She has a broadsword and a crossbow which presumably have been reclaimed from an old country house or a museum collection.  Bones of cows would be an abundant resource to make things out of so we decided to stick a cow skull on her shoulder for added intimidation factor.

She has another hidden side which is quite fond of delicate girly things and pink (the toy unicorn on her helmet is not quite so hidden).  We decided on a double french plait and lots of butterfly clips when she removes her helmet to reflect this.

We will be starting to post subscriber only content on this blog soon, where you will get to see more “behind the scenes” content like this.  This will include pictures, commentary and some videos too.

Meanwhile for those who haven’t seen it already here is my “Puppet Dracula” sending a big thank-you to the Beverley Puppet Festival for the prizes I won for making him.  CLICK HERE to see the “making of” post for him and CLICK HERE for the original Puppet Dracula video.