Bone Witch is a small piece of a larger world. It is a part of my in-progress urban fantasy novel that follows the main character, Genesis Blackwood, who has to learn how to live in a society that is against people like her—witches. The story explores themes of grief, death, religion, racism, segregation, and the different types of love and family we encounter in our lives. Within the world, there’s various kinds of witches. For this project, I will be focusing on the design of what I call the bone witches. 

A bone witch is a type of witch that can only get their power from dead things. For example, they channel their power by wearing bones and animal fur, or possessing cursed objects. A cursed object is an item that has enraptured a living thing, and only really powerful witches can create one. Two of the characters in this project have a cursed object. What is so fascinating about the bone witches is their design is highly detailed and unique. They always wear animal bones and animal fur, so this calls for interesting concepts for each character. 

My main priority for the Bone Witch project is to encapsulate how wardrobe and detail intertwine to make a character. Throughout the process, I was concerned on how these details help to form a real person, as if this series would go on to be a motion picture film. Therefore, each character’s costume is highly detailed and every piece of clothing is thoroughly planned. To further this study, I decided to bring one of the elements to life in physical form. One of the characters—The Death King is his name—wears a full length black fur coat with black feathers along his collar. In the story, he kills a black wolf and a crow to make this coat. So now the coat gives him power everytime he wears it. To witness the coat in person, I hope the viewer is able to easily imagine this coat being worn by the character themselves or an actor portraying them on screen.  

I aim to help people see how real characters can be. We read about interesting characters all the time, and watch them on the big screen, but to witness the anatomy and look at how every stroke brought life to a character is truly special. I hope this project builds a bridge to more diverse stories and gets people excited for the future.