Hello! I finally started working on my personal project and I think I finally have a good story to share here with all of you.

I changed my mind a lot during the past weeks while trying to develop the story, and even though I don't have every single detail completely clear, I have already written the main points and I feel that they are good enough for what I want to do.

I thought about just writing my ideas down, but felt it would be better if I drew them and that took a lot more time, mainly because I'm not a graphic designer and I'm not sure how to make logos lol

The title is Candy Zone! (for now, I haven't thought of anything better.)

A story about four girls trying to survive a zombie apocalypse caused by a crystal parasite used in candy!

I wanted this project to be a lot more fun and colorful than common stories about zombies that are usually a lot more horrifying. I love horror, but I also love really cute things, so why not mix the two?

The logo on the far left was my first idea, the one in the middle is the one I like the most and with the last one I was trying something different but I wasn't completely convinced.

Summary:

A crystal containing properties similar to sugar is discovered in an underground mine, giving rise to popularization of a small candy company on the verge of bankruptcy called "Aprico" and the creation of new and more addictive candies in a city known for its Halloween celebrations.

On Halloween day, tourists and locals enjoy the many different events, such as a circus performance, a baseball game, a small music presentation, and a Halloween parade, alongside the delicious candy. But as night falls it becomes apparent that something is wrong with the people, crystals begin to form inside and outside their bodies, turning them into zombies with a very high appetite for sugar, sweets, but especially anyone who has consumed the new and special kind of candy.

As the days go by their desire for sugar gets more lethal, and in greater numbers they can become an overwhelming threat for anyone they come across.

Background of the city:

"The city of Monteclaire is surrounded by mountains and is known for its extensive and colorful forests, this being the main attraction for many tourists for its various activities such as hiking, mountain biking, or camping. During the fall, the city comes alive with its numerous Halloween decorations, giving rise to important events such as the candy exhibition and the Halloween parade.

With the increasing popularity of the candy company “Aprico” a greater number of tourists are expected during these dates to try their newly launched sweets at their multiple stores. They will also be participating at the annual Monteclaire candy exhibition to showcase their new innovations, share their knowledge on crystalline sugar, and the process of making candy with this recently developed ingredient."

I want the story to be set in the early 2000s, so I wrote this thinking it might be a travel blog review.

The photos are from a trip I took in early October three years ago. I haven't drawn the city or any places yet, but the photos show what I want the surroundings to look like.

I don't know why I thought Montclair was the name of a cake, but apparently it's not true??? I named the city "Monteclaire" because it seemed like the name of a sweet, but now I'm starting to think maybe I should choose something else (｡· v ·｡) ?

Some places of interest could be: the Halloween parade street, the Aprico store, the stadium, a cemetery, a police station, a circus, or even a state fair, but those are just ideas for now.

Crystalline Sugar

A new type of sugar found in an underground mine near the city of Monteclaire. Quite similar to normal sugar, except for the conditions in which they are grown, the taste it's much more addictive, and the crystal is a type of parasite that gets stronger with the uncontrolled consumption of it, finally taking over the body of the consumer after some time.

The world has been experiencing a sugar shortage for several years now, with production decreasing due to climate changes, droughts, and restrictions, so candy companies have been desperate to find something that can replace sugar.

The discovery of the crystalline sugar is a great achievement that paves the way for the discovery of many more mines like this one in various states of the country and abroad, opening up new possibilities for mining companies seeking to profit from this new product.

I'm still debating what kind of candy they should sell, but I want it to be really sweet.

When I was trying to think on a name for the candy company I wanted something short and that had good pronunciation, so I ended up with "Aprico" I think it sounds very nice, and maybe their specialty is apricot flavored candy. (╭ರ_•́)

I wanted the logo to give antique vibes, and I thought that adding the fruit would make it really cute, but I had a lot of trouble trying to figure out how to do it. Hopefully I'll learn more about logo design as I continue working on this project.

Zombies

The infection process can be very slow or very fast. Consuming anything made with crystalline sugar immediately infects the host. The parasite travels through the body until it eventually reaches the consumer's brain, where it can remain dormant for a long time, awakening only if more crystalline sugar is consumed, this process can take months or years depending on the individual. Bites are the fastest most effective way to infect people, and it would only take a couple of hours until the final stage of infection was reached.

The zombies have an uncontrollable craving for sweets, but especially those made with crystalline sugar. In the weeks previous to Halloween due to the large amount of candy around, those already infected start developing aggressive behavior towards others, culminating in chaos on the last night of October.

Most parts of the body of the zombie become crystallized. Crystals grow on the inside replacing almost every organ, except for the brain and the nervous and circulatory systems, which now work to the parasite's advantage. The crystals are what make the body move even when it is lifeless, and depending on the damage that the brain has received, zombies can become more lethal or intelligent. Crystals on the inside end up acquiring different shades of purple.

Depending on where the crystals appear, they can become a weakness for the zombie. If they appear in their eyes the visibility is much lower, if they appear in the ears then the sense of hearing diminishes, and if they appear in the mouth or throat they may be unable to make sounds. The crystals on the outside can have various colors, and can cover the entire body or just a small part of it.

This project was highly inspired in a mobile game I played years ago called "ZombieGirl-Zombie growing game" and the zombie designs were one of the things I liked the most. They could be really pretty and cute, but sometimes a little disturbing, and since I didn't want to go down the path of turning zombies into something nightmarish, I ended up making then more cartoonish.

But perhaps that could change in future development, it's not entirely out of the realm of possibility.

Because the story takes place during Halloween I have the freedom to make many types of costumes for the zombies, but the ones I made this time are simpler.

I made these props just to have a better vision of my main characters.

I haven't thought much about their background yet, but I'll share a few things about them:

• Hazel: Reserved and inexpressive most of the time, except when she’s performing alongside Daphne and their band. Her family only includes her and her dad. Genevieve’s childhood friend, but rarely talk to each other now.

• Genevieve (Ginny): A very energetic girl that loves pink and baseball, very kind to everybody around her, and has a great sense of survival that helps her with any emergency. Her family includes her grandma,her mother, as well as her cat. Has a lot of friends and knows Adeline and Daphne because they are neighbors.

• Daphne: Very creative but also mischievous, loves to play guitar and compose songs. Her family includes her mom and dad, big sister Adaline, and younger brother.

• Adeline (Ada): A 26 year old police officer who holds a great love for her family, the oldest of the girls and Daphne’s big sister. Has a boyfriend called Elliot who’s also a police officer (probably).

I'm still not sure about the ages of the other 3 girls, I think they would be finishing high school or starting college, but I haven't decided yet.

I also have designs for three of them except for Hazel, which has been giving me trouble, so probably the next thing I'll share will be the main characters, or I'll try to draw the city.

And that's everything I have for now!

I've had the idea for this project since last year, but I've actually wanted to do a zombie story for quite some time.

Other ideas I had were a love story between a wish fairy and a human girl, or the daily life of aliens working in a restaurant. The first one is a very recent idea that came to me in a dream, and the second idea, despite being more worked out, I still have many doubts about how to make the characters and their adventures, so I ended up choosing the zombies.

I'll take it easy now that I'm starting to make this project, the companion guide has helped a lot since the beginning, but I want to do a good job with this and not feel pressured about it, I also want to revisit old exercises, and make some more art! ٩(^ᗜ^ )و ´-

The hand is a very cool idea! I think it would be nice if the hand was holding the candy too, so I'll try to improve the logo for my post. Thank you so much for the advice! ദ്ദി(ᵔᗜᵔ)

Hello again! I worked a lot more on the project so here's what I have!

I tried to work on some more ideas for the logo and change a couple of colors. I decided that the main colors would be green and pink because I think it creates more harmony and looks prettier. I also think that the designs this time are more fun, and only changed the one in the center slightly because I still like the idea.

The next thing I did was the main characters. I wanted to do them first because I already had an idea of ​​how I wanted them to look, and it would help me visualize their stories a lot easier.

But these aren't the final designs, I changed my mind many times while drawing them and when I was done I had a lot of opinions about what I wanted to change, so I'll probably draw them again in a while.

• Genevieve (Ginny)

17 years old at the beginning of the story, and born on February 22nd. An extroverted and very energetic girl that loves pink and baseball, very kind to everybody around her, and has a great sense of survival that helps her with any emergency.

Her mom is disabled so they live with her grandma and her cat. Has a lot of friends and knows Daphne because they study in the same school, and live in the same neighborhood.

As a child, she had a bad temper because her classmates bothered her, and although over time she was able to learn to control herself, from time to time she can return to those habits if there is something that really makes her angry.

I wanted the characters to have colors that identify them, and also simple designs that represented each one.

Because she plays baseball and is also a big fan of the sport, I decided that she would wear the uniform of her favorite team, although I have not yet decided on the name of it. I like the idea of ​​the design, but I would like to change the socks and maybe add a baseball cap.

He's also supposed to turn into a zombie, but I'll be working on that design over the next few weeks while I continue working on the main one.

• Hazel

16 years old at the time the story starts and born on November 30th. A reserved girl who attends a private high school and knows how to play the piano and the guitar, she likes to sing although she is a bit shy.

She lives with her father and has an extended family who rarely comes to visit. Her mom was a friend of Genevieve's one and that's how they met, but after her mother passed away from an illness they gradually lost contact.

She met Daphne by chance in a record store and they became friends due to their similar tastes in music, ending up being part of her band as a guitarist.

Her design was giving me a lot of problems lol. Unlike the other three girls, I didn't really have a good backstory for her, and because of that her design and story was the one that had and will probably have more changes.

Her main colors were going to be black and red, but because I wanted to stick to a Halloween color palette I decided it would be better if it was black and green.

The only item of clothing left from her original design was the plaid skirt and because of that I decided to have her wear a school uniform. But after thinking about it a lot I would like her normal clothes to be a little more gothic style, and even though I like her short hair I think if it were a little longer it would also look good on her.

• Daphne

17 years old at the time the story begins, born on August 3rd. Her family consists of her two parents, her older sister is Adeline, younger brother Tobias, and family dog Milo.

Strongly influenced by pop punk and rock, she has been writing songs since she was little, which she has shared with her friends, later creating a small band of which Hazel became a part of. She studies at the same school as Ginny so the two of them are also friends who support each other.

She has a very cool and mischievous attitude so it may seem like she doesn't take things very seriously, but she really values ​​the people around her and especially her moments with family and friends.

She was going to be a supporting character at first, but it made more sense for her to be part of the group along with her sister.

Although I like her design, after thinking about it a little more I think I want her clothes to look a little more punk, and make her main color purple. I'm also thinking about shortening her hair and using butterflies on her clothes instead of stars.

- Adeline (Ada)

26 years old at the start of the story, born on September 19th. A firearm instructor who holds a great love for her family, the oldest of the girls and Daphne’s big sister. Being the eldest of all the girls, she has a sense of responsibility to take care of all of them.

She likes going out with her friends, especially camping in the Monteclaire National Parks or making road trips, so she has quite a bit of knowledge about nature.

Her boyfriend's name is Elliot and he was in the military. They met through mutual friends and now they are living together.

Her design came to my mind very easily and is probably my favorite so I really don't want to change it much.

I think if I added some accessories besides the belt her design would be much better, maybe some necklaces or earrings. I wasn't sure what kind of boots I should put on her, so maybe that would be the only thing I'll change.

I did change her background a little because making her a police officer wasn't very convincing to me, and I wanted her to have a good knowledge on firearms. But I don't know much about those jobs, so maybe I'll change my mind in the future.

The last thing I did was draw the city. At first I wasn't sure about doing it because I've never drawn anything like this, but I wanted to have more than just inspiration photos. So even though it took me a while, I had fun doing it.

I'm not really sure about the layout of the city so the buildings don't mean much, but I wanted to capture the fall weather and the sunset colors, and I added the characters there because I wanted to see them together.

Drawing the main characters really helped me understand the story a lot more, so I finally have some ideas for the supporting characters! I'll be working on them next and hopefully by next week I'll have a good backstory for them too. ദ്ദി •⩊• )

Thank you so much! I had a very clear idea about the characters that I wanted to make, so I'm glad that my vision could be easily understood!

I do plan on giving them different clothes and even make their zombie counterparts, but for now I'm focusing on their normal outfits ( ˶ˆᗜˆ˵ )

Hello! I was a little busy, but I did some progress with my characters!

- Elliot

28 years old and an old acquaintance of Adeline. He was in the military for a couple of years before returning to Monteclaire and reuniting with her again. He met Daphne when they were very young and they ended up sharing many interests in fashion and music, even teaching her how to play instruments and sing.

I had a very different idea for his design when I started drawing him. He was a lot younger and I think that shows in my drawing, I also changed my mind a lot when it came to his hairstyle and overall vibe, but it took me so long to get something made so I just left him that way.

I will definitely redesign him and change a lot of things. His body needs to have more muscle and I must better reflect his age, and his hairstyle should be longer and a lot more messy, but the clothes are fine, I would probably only change the shirt underneath and add a necklace.

For now, I'll just think of this design of him as when he was younger rather than his current appearance.

- Halloween Parade Grand Marshal

His real name is Albert and he is the current CEO of the Aprico company. He was selected for the honorary position as the Grand Marshal due to the great contribution of his company around the country and the economy of their town.

He's one of the strongest enemies in the story. The parasite in his brain makes him much more aware, so in his zombie form he is able to communicate and recognize what is happening around him better than normal zombies. However, he is still unable to speak in fully comprehensible sentences since this parasite still controls him, and his craving for sugar is much more uncontrollable, reaching the point of devouring other zombies as well.

His design was a little complicated, I knew I wanted to make something related to the Halloween parade and wanted his costume to be a eccentric one to differentiate him from all the other characters. I wasn’t sure if making his costume a musketeer or a pirate one, so I made something a little more ambiguous, but if I were to draw him again I think I would prefer to make him a pirate and give him a hat with the shape of a boat, and maybe I’ll keep his cape.

I wasn’t sure about what colors to give him, I really wanted a combination between red and blue in his costume but didn’t really like the final result. I think I should’ve added a little of orange and more white, although purple would have worked well too.

The flag he’s holding is just there for aesthetic purposes, But the more I thought about it, the more it seemed like a good idea to design a flag for the event, although I still have to think about the identifying colors and what other types of decorations will be used around the event place.

Even though I'm not entirely happy with this design, I think I managed to convey the concept and vibe I want this character to have, compared to the first attempt I made lol

I had a lot of things to do during these two weeks, and since I was having trouble with my ideas, it took me a lot longer to finish the designs. I also wanted to do another character, she would be part of Daphne and Hazel's band, but I couldn't reach an agreement with myself about what I wanted and ended up discarding what I had done.

This time it was much more difficult because my ideas were not entirely clear, but working on this helped me see the flaws and improvements I could make so I am a little satisfied. I'll be working on all the redesigns this week now knowing what I want to improve, and with those I'll probably finish term 7!

Hello again! I finally finished redesigning my characters, it look some time because I was doing some more personal art, but it's done!

The first character I redesigned was Elliot, I wanted to better reflect his age and change the color of his clothes a little.

I think he finally looks older, but I still think his design still needs a little work to make it look the way I want it to. I changed my mind several times while drawing it and looking at references, but I feel like I'm finally on the right path.

I didn't change a lot for Ginny. Her design is definitely my favorite and I think she looked pretty good already, so I just added a cap and I think that was all her design needed. I haven't decided on a name for the baseball team she supports yet, but I was thinking something like "The Monteclaire Foxes" but I also thought it would be funny if they were called "The Monteclaire Zombies" even though it's not very creative.

I changed Hazel's hairstyle because it looks more like my first idea for her design, and I honestly like it a lot! Her clothes remain the same, but I took into account that the story takes place during the fall so I decided to have her wear a jacket and a scarf over it, and I gave her the bag for the simple fact that I wanted her to have a different object than Daphne's.

Daphne didn't change much, but I decided to give her two pigtails so that her hairstyle wouldn't be so similar to Ginny's. I also changed her shirt a bit, and decided that instead of having the bat wing accessories on her pigtails it would look better if she wore them on her back as a costume.

I did like Ada's first design, but this time I wanted to try something different and with more color. I think this dress is much prettier than the previous one, but the boots not so much, and although the shorts looked good in her other design, I think this one deserves longer pants. But I still want her to use two guns!

It was fun designing these characters! I still need to do their zombie designs, but I think the more I develop the story, the better ideas I'll come up with. So far, I only had Ginny's zombie design in mind, but thinking a little about everything I've created, I felt like this idea would work well for a video game, and in that case, having a zombie design for each of the girls would be great.

Hopefully next week I'll begin Term 8 and getting started on prop design! ( ˶ˆᗜˆ˵ )