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Description
FINAL VERSION
Shaded and gave it a better background (and a new title). The background is a photo of the Santa Barbara skyline, rotated, motion blurred and lightened.

EDIT 08/01/09 02:44: Done with most of the colouring. Simple background added. Starting on the shading tomorrow.

This is an alternate version of this image [link]

Different character but using the same pose. Since I tend to have a problem with faces in profile, I used a little cheat. I rotated the character so that the arm hid most of the face.

As for the character himself, the information is below.

Alex Henderson (no relation to Ryan)

Alex is an average looking 12 year old boy. He is 1.54m (5’0” ) in height and weighs 44 kilos (97 pounds). His medium-length blond hair often falls in front of his face. There are freckles just under his blue eyes.

Alex lived on a council estate with his mother, stepfather and older stepbrother. His biological father left before he was born, not wanting anything to do with him or his mother. After he was born, his mother went through a series of short-lived relationships during which the boy was often seen as nothing more than an unwanted nuisance or hindrance; his presence merely tolerated at best.

His current stepfather married his mother three years ago. James Henderson has been in and out of prison a number of times over the years for a variety of violent offences, mostly drugs and theft related. He’s a known figure in the local criminal community and has recently become involved with organised criminal gangs. His relationship with his stepson has never been good, bordering on hostile at times.

Alex’s stepbrother is six years older than him and is no better than his father. In some way’s he is even worse. When Stuart is around, Alex learned to stay out of his way as Stuart took pleasure in tormenting his younger stepbrother knowing that there is little he can do to retaliate. Stuart was a member of one of the local gangs and pressured Alex to get involved with its activities.

Two years ago, a large flaming piece of debris crashed into his primary school in south Manchester. The International Space Station had just exploded, showering Western Europe with radioactive debris, most of it crashing down onto the UK. It was a small miracle that the impact had happened during lunch time when the children weren’t in lessons when the classroom block was hit. Although a number of people were seriously injured, no one was killed. Despite being close to the impact, Alex was very lucky to escape without any injuries.

That night, Alex couldn’t sleep and he lay awake into the early hours of the morning; listening to the sounds of sirens outside and the news reports filtering through the floor from the TV downstairs. As he stood at his bedroom window, looking out at the night sky, he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his head. Crying out, he fell to the floor, unconscious. He awoke several hours later still lying on the floor. Over the next few months, Alex’s performance at school slowly improved; he went from a poor student, to a good student, to an exceptional student. At first, he had no idea what has happening to him but eight months ago, he suffered another series of headaches and he found he understood science and engineering principals on an intuitive level. Very soon, he began to experiment with principals and theories that were well beyond a normal twelve-year-old. By this time, stories of people with strange abilities had become common place in the news and it didn’t take an IQ of 300 to work out where his new mental abilities had come from. As far as Alex could determine, when he passed out something happened to his brain. If the human brain is like a computer, then during those few hours his memory was defragmented, the transfer rate of his neural pathways increased, new dedicated processors installed in various regions and an entirely new operating system was installed. His brain was running faster and processed information more efficiently than before.

He has seen his newfound mental abilities as both the best thing that has ever happened to him and the worst. Because of the fear and paranoia the public has regarding “mutants” he has kept his abilities secret. Alex hates his stepfather and is afraid of what he might do should he find out about his stepson’s abilities. He has often voiced such things as “the only good mutant is a dead one” and “they should put the freaks in camps so that everyone is safe”. However what scared him more is that his stepfather is also the type that would force Alex to use his abilities and gadgets to help his criminal activities.

Two months ago, Alex finally had enough. After his stepfather came home in a drunken rage, Alex spent the night barricaded in his bedroom hiding under his bed in fear as his stepfather beat against the door. Realising that he could no longer live like this, he decided to leave. In the early hours of the morning, Alex packed a bag and climbed out his bedroom window.

After living on the street for a week, Alex was fortunate to find a place to live. The owner of a small computer repair shop allowed Alex to use a small storeroom above the shop in return for a few hours work every day. Finally free of his abusive family, he has never been happier although he does miss going to school.

Personality
Because of the lack of parental responsibility displayed by his parents, Alex has pretty much been left to raise himself and as such, is very self reliant and unwilling to rely on others for help. You would expect him to be a bitter youth, probably only a few court cases away from a young offenders prison, but instead the opposite is true. Alex is usually very optimistic, willing to work hard to get off the estate where he lives but unwilling to do it by criminal means. He has a very strong sense of right and wrong, despite the influence of his stepfather. Like other twelve-year-olds, Alex can be mischievous, impulsive and reckless, and he loves practical jokes. He often doesn’t think of the consequences of his actions.

Gadgets
His first invention was made for self defence. After getting mugged and beaten up on the way home for school, and seeing how ineffective the police were, he decided to deal with the thugs in his own way. Researching how pepper spray and mace worked, he created his own super strength, fast acting formula. Guaranteed to incapacitate anyone with zero chance of allergic reaction. Alex playfully called his new invention “Incapacit-X”. He loaded it into an old aerosol canister and went to confront the thugs with his hood up and wearing a mask. Using himself as bait, he lured the thugs to a secluded location, and as they moved in to attack he struck by spraying them all in the face. It worked, the thugs were incapacitated. Some of them were unconscious, some writhing around on the floor in pain. Kicking their still conscious leader in the groin, he took their wallets and ran off.

Resembling the bastard love child of a Sega Saturn and a Nintendo Gamecube, his “Cyberlink” allows him to wirelessly hack into and take control of computer systems, even if they are not wireless-enabled. As well as being a powerful portable computer it has a holographic display, voice activated controls, mobile phone and GPS functions, a VR interface (through Alex’s goggles) and accepts Gameboy and PSP cartridges. Naturally, the Cyberlink runs a customised version of Linux that Alex coded himself. One of its most distinguishing characteristics is its onboard artificial intelligence. Modelled on an upper class British butler, Link was constructed from code taken from a number of sources, cobbled together with a voice recognition and voice synthesis module slapped on that was “borrowed” from AT&T. Link has more common sense than Alex, often acting as a voice of reason and helping the hyperactive boy concentrate on his homework although Link consistently refuses to do it for him despite repeated attempts at reprogramming.

Alex’s board isn't a traditional skateboard either. The wheels have been replaced by a pair of anti-grav generators, each powered by four AA batteries and controlled through a wireless link via Alex’s Cyberlink. It is capable of flying at 100mph up to an altitude of two miles. Theoretically it could go higher, but that would require special clothing and an oxygen supply.

The first time Alex experimented with the board, he almost broke his neck after getting thrown off. At high speed, it was almost impossible to stay on the board due to wind resistance and the g-forces involved in high-speed manoeuvres. Alex solved this by turning the top of the board into a pseudo-magnet. Unlike a normal magnet which only attracts ferrous metals, a pseudo-magnet attracts whatever material it’s designed to. In this case, the strips of duct tape on the inside soles of Alex’s shoes.

Description
FINAL VERSION
Shaded and gave it a better background (and a new title). The background is a photo of the Santa Barbara skyline, rotated, motion blurred and lightened.

EDIT 08/01/09 02:44: Done with most of the colouring. Simple background added. Starting on the shading tomorrow.

This is an alternate version of this image [link]

Different character but using the same pose. Since I tend to have a problem with faces in profile, I used a little cheat. I rotated the character so that the arm hid most of the face.

As for the character himself, the information is below.

Alex Henderson (no relation to Ryan)

Alex is an average looking 12 year old boy. He is 1.54m (5’0” ) in height and weighs 44 kilos (97 pounds). His medium-length blond hair often falls in front of his face. There are freckles just under his blue eyes.

Alex lived on a council estate with his mother, stepfather and older stepbrother. His biological father left before he was born, not wanting anything to do with him or his mother. After he was born, his mother went through a series of short-lived relationships during which the boy was often seen as nothing more than an unwanted nuisance or hindrance; his presence merely tolerated at best.

His current stepfather married his mother three years ago. James Henderson has been in and out of prison a number of times over the years for a variety of violent offences, mostly drugs and theft related. He’s a known figure in the local criminal community and has recently become involved with organised criminal gangs. His relationship with his stepson has never been good, bordering on hostile at times.

Alex’s stepbrother is six years older than him and is no better than his father. In some way’s he is even worse. When Stuart is around, Alex learned to stay out of his way as Stuart took pleasure in tormenting his younger stepbrother knowing that there is little he can do to retaliate. Stuart was a member of one of the local gangs and pressured Alex to get involved with its activities.

Two years ago, a large flaming piece of debris crashed into his primary school in south Manchester. The International Space Station had just exploded, showering Western Europe with radioactive debris, most of it crashing down onto the UK. It was a small miracle that the impact had happened during lunch time when the children weren’t in lessons when the classroom block was hit. Although a number of people were seriously injured, no one was killed. Despite being close to the impact, Alex was very lucky to escape without any injuries.

That night, Alex couldn’t sleep and he lay awake into the early hours of the morning; listening to the sounds of sirens outside and the news reports filtering through the floor from the TV downstairs. As he stood at his bedroom window, looking out at the night sky, he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his head. Crying out, he fell to the floor, unconscious. He awoke several hours later still lying on the floor. Over the next few months, Alex’s performance at school slowly improved; he went from a poor student, to a good student, to an exceptional student. At first, he had no idea what has happening to him but eight months ago, he suffered another series of headaches and he found he understood science and engineering principals on an intuitive level. Very soon, he began to experiment with principals and theories that were well beyond a normal twelve-year-old. By this time, stories of people with strange abilities had become common place in the news and it didn’t take an IQ of 300 to work out where his new mental abilities had come from. As far as Alex could determine, when he passed out something happened to his brain. If the human brain is like a computer, then during those few hours his memory was defragmented, the transfer rate of his neural pathways increased, new dedicated processors installed in various regions and an entirely new operating system was installed. His brain was running faster and processed information more efficiently than before.

He has seen his newfound mental abilities as both the best thing that has ever happened to him and the worst. Because of the fear and paranoia the public has regarding “mutants” he has kept his abilities secret. Alex hates his stepfather and is afraid of what he might do should he find out about his stepson’s abilities. He has often voiced such things as “the only good mutant is a dead one” and “they should put the freaks in camps so that everyone is safe”. However what scared him more is that his stepfather is also the type that would force Alex to use his abilities and gadgets to help his criminal activities.

Two months ago, Alex finally had enough. After his stepfather came home in a drunken rage, Alex spent the night barricaded in his bedroom hiding under his bed in fear as his stepfather beat against the door. Realising that he could no longer live like this, he decided to leave. In the early hours of the morning, Alex packed a bag and climbed out his bedroom window.

After living on the street for a week, Alex was fortunate to find a place to live. The owner of a small computer repair shop allowed Alex to use a small storeroom above the shop in return for a few hours work every day. Finally free of his abusive family, he has never been happier although he does miss going to school.

Personality
Because of the lack of parental responsibility displayed by his parents, Alex has pretty much been left to raise himself and as such, is very self reliant and unwilling to rely on others for help. You would expect him to be a bitter youth, probably only a few court cases away from a young offenders prison, but instead the opposite is true. Alex is usually very optimistic, willing to work hard to get off the estate where he lives but unwilling to do it by criminal means. He has a very strong sense of right and wrong, despite the influence of his stepfather. Like other twelve-year-olds, Alex can be mischievous, impulsive and reckless, and he loves practical jokes. He often doesn’t think of the consequences of his actions.

Gadgets
His first invention was made for self defence. After getting mugged and beaten up on the way home for school, and seeing how ineffective the police were, he decided to deal with the thugs in his own way. Researching how pepper spray and mace worked, he created his own super strength, fast acting formula. Guaranteed to incapacitate anyone with zero chance of allergic reaction. Alex playfully called his new invention “Incapacit-X”. He loaded it into an old aerosol canister and went to confront the thugs with his hood up and wearing a mask. Using himself as bait, he lured the thugs to a secluded location, and as they moved in to attack he struck by spraying them all in the face. It worked, the thugs were incapacitated. Some of them were unconscious, some writhing around on the floor in pain. Kicking their still conscious leader in the groin, he took their wallets and ran off.

Resembling the bastard love child of a Sega Saturn and a Nintendo Gamecube, his “Cyberlink” allows him to wirelessly hack into and take control of computer systems, even if they are not wireless-enabled. As well as being a powerful portable computer it has a holographic display, voice activated controls, mobile phone and GPS functions, a VR interface (through Alex’s goggles) and accepts Gameboy and PSP cartridges. Naturally, the Cyberlink runs a customised version of Linux that Alex coded himself. One of its most distinguishing characteristics is its onboard artificial intelligence. Modelled on an upper class British butler, Link was constructed from code taken from a number of sources, cobbled together with a voice recognition and voice synthesis module slapped on that was “borrowed” from AT&T. Link has more common sense than Alex, often acting as a voice of reason and helping the hyperactive boy concentrate on his homework although Link consistently refuses to do it for him despite repeated attempts at reprogramming.

Alex’s board isn't a traditional skateboard either. The wheels have been replaced by a pair of anti-grav generators, each powered by four AA batteries and controlled through a wireless link via Alex’s Cyberlink. It is capable of flying at 100mph up to an altitude of two miles. Theoretically it could go higher, but that would require special clothing and an oxygen supply.

The first time Alex experimented with the board, he almost broke his neck after getting thrown off. At high speed, it was almost impossible to stay on the board due to wind resistance and the g-forces involved in high-speed manoeuvres. Alex solved this by turning the top of the board into a pseudo-magnet. Unlike a normal magnet which only attracts ferrous metals, a pseudo-magnet attracts whatever material it’s designed to. In this case, the strips of duct tape on the inside soles of Alex’s shoes.