Character biography Name: Benito Herrera Height: 6ft Weight: 225lbs Birthday: Unknown Time Period: 17th Century Benito Herrera was found by a Spanish blacksmith, Cortez Herrera who was based on the coast of Jamaica. Cortex was brought over from Spain to be the head blacksmith for the Spanish fleet in their fight to keep control of the Caribbean, also known as the Spanish Main. Growing up was hard for Benito because even though he was of Jamaican origins, Jamaica was mainly controlled by the British Government so he spent most of his time inside helping his father. Benito spent many hours a day helping his farther mending and making swords for the navy as well as mending their muskets and cannons. When his farther retired as the navy blacksmith they decided to sail to Puerto Rico which was considered far safer for Spaniards and left with the a Spanish fleet. Unfortunately the fleet was hit by a pirate knows as Captain “Calico” Jon Rackham who was known for his colourful attire as well as his “colourful” methods of executions. The Spanish put up a good fight but Benito’s ship was held captive for 3 days. In this period Benito watched as his fellow sailors were murdered in plain sight of the two convoy ships that refused to negotiate with Calico. On the third day of the standoff Calico selected Benito’s farther Cortez, to be his next victim and stated that if Cortez was to pass his tests he was permitted to walk the blank without restraints. This was his chance to be free, if he managed to pass the tests he could attempt to swim to the Spanish boats. As the day dragged on Cortez finished the humiliating tasks given to him and was allowed to walk the plank with the thought that his son would be joining him soon and Benito was happy that his father was about to be free. While Cortez Herrera was preparing for his jump the two Spanish ships caught sight of a second pirate ship headed towards them and recognised the ship which belonged to Bartholomew "Black Bart" Roberts. Who was notorious for the amount of ships he had raided in a very short period of time. The Spanish ships were forced to set sail without delay which resulted in Benito watching his father jump into the sea with nowhere to swim to. A battle took place later that day between the two ships under control of Calico against Black Bart. In this fight Benito saved Black Bart from a piece of debris from a cannon blast, which resulted in Benito losing his left eye but gained the trust of his new captain, Black Bart. Benito joined Black Bart’s crew that day and swore to find his farther and punish Calico and the Spaniards for all that they have done to him.

Visual Influences

Jack Sparrow from: “The Pirates of the Caribbean” considered one of the most famous pirates second only to Captain Hook from J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan. Sparrow’s outfit was one of my main influences because I felt it was the style which best suited the game. Left: Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. Right: Hook in the Walt Disney version of Peter Pan.

The reason I have put in Bob Marley is because he’s Jamaican and even though I looked at a few Jamaican pictures to see if there are any features which are commonly stereotyped as Jamaican I think that the dreadlocks are the most recognisable.

Character concept Benito’s head is designed to be a Jamaican male with long dreadlocks. The beads and other items in his hair represent the friends and family he's lost since he was first joined Black

Bart’s crew. The scar is from the piece of flying debris which hit his eye after pushing Black Bart out the way. He has found that his eye does have vision but only around extreme light. He first notice he could make out figures and objects better with his left eye when he was trapped in a burning room on one of the ships he was raiding. He thinks that this is due to the many years of helping his farther in the black smiths and staring into the fires and forging swords.

His outfit is a very simple costume which consists of a long coat, a waist coat or topless, some trousers and boots. He is meant to be recognisable as a pirate but only slightly, he still remembers that he was once just a black smith and that is was a pirate who did this to him.

This is a rough idea of what the colour scheme will be. As you can see it will be mainly browns and dark colours which follow the standard colours for low level pirates. Below is an attempt at painting the image in Photoshop to give myself more of a reference and an idea of what the colours will be like