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Vanilla is a product of Lussumo:
Documentation and Support.
Culturegasm: Artists! Give us an education in ORIGINAL CHARACTER DESIGN.
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CommentAuthorlexmachine
- CommentTimeNov 22nd 2009
I'm interested, for various reasons, in the process of illustrated original character design. So, Whitechapel, I have come to you for insight. Most of the questions will be phrased as if I'm asking you about a single character/team designed for a client [author, publisher, whatever]. If you are one of those multitalented Miller/Mignola-types that does all this for yourself, or have some other similar circumstance, feel free to reword some things in your head and respond accordingly. This is already lengthy enough without trying to make it apply semantically directly to each of you, but I do want to hear from anyone who has ever designed characters, commercially or personally. I want to see similarities and differences in the process across many projects.
So with that in mind, I grill you thusly:
The project:
- What was the character designed for? A comic? video game? role playing game? novel? webcomic? children's book? product packaging?
Everything from busty, scantily-clad mercenaries to anthropomorphic squid pirates for lines of school supplies. In other words, what did/do you design and for what purpose?
The process:
- How was the character information communicated to you? Email? phone calls? twitter messages? singing telegrams?
- How much information were you given at each step? Did you recieve a general character description? have to read an excerpt from a story? a whole novel? drunken notes on cocktail napkins?
Examples:
This is where, provided you have the proper permissions, you give us some examples of the descriptions, excerpts, whatever, and then examples of your designs and sketches from beginning to final design. Basically show off/promote yourself here.
- Did you nail it on try one?
- Did you spend six weeks going through tiny changes and improvements?
- Did you have notes for a character lying around somewhere for two years?
Give us the meat of it, man.
And again, for the sake of legality, ONLY POST DESCRIPTIONS, NOTES, SKETCHES ETC WHICH YOU HAVE LEGAL RIGHTS TO. Otherwise, describe these things generally to the best of your ability for us.
Turnaround timetable:
- How long did this process take?
- How long does it typically take, for the type of work you do?
- Do you have a design that took two minutes that you love and another that took six months that is less than stellar?
Your general opinions and whatnot:
- Do you enjoy the process of designing characters?
- What kinds of projects are your favorite?
- Do you hate drawing vikings?
- Do you love working for a particular type of client?
- Do you have a lot or a little experience in this sort of thing?
Give us some random inside information about you, your process for this particular challenge, and how you feel about it.
Feel free to add anything you feel I've forgotten to ask.
And just because I feel like I might need to clarify, we're talking about original designs here, so even though some of the same concepts apply, please leave the Remake/Remodel characters in the R/R thread.
Thanks. Very much looking forward to your responses. -
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CommentAuthorAudley Strange
- CommentTimeNov 22nd 2009
Okay. I've created a bunch of characters for my own webcomic which hit it's fifth year last week. W/r to creating the characters each was developed based simply on what the name evoked. For example Audley Strange came about from me speaking about Lizzie Borden to my good lady, my friend then turning up with a comic book about Lizzie Borden and my wife saying "that's oddly strange". So I knew right away I wanted a female psycho with an axe. The name though reminded me of Beryl the Peril or Minnie the Minx and so I wanted to go for a Beano style cartoony type of kid with a big axe. When I got something I was content with (even though I was shit at drawing) then the whole concept of my story came flooding into my head.
This lead to other characters, which were also evoked out of names. The first was her sidekick who I wanted her to have a kind of Calvin and Hobbes relationship with. At first he was merely Beelzebub. But I changed that to B.L.Z and made him a big great oaf with goat horns which worked. Then I needed an antagonist. Since it is set in Hell I thought Satan was clearly going to be the antagonist, but since I was kinda modernising Dante's map I decided that President Evil worked as a better name. So I just made him a shadow with horns and white angles for eyes
wearing a suit.
Once I had these characters it was simply a case of developing my skill in drawing them. I'll be honest, I started from nowhere and am only recently getting to a stage where I am satisfied with them.
Here is my first actual page with my characters and a more recent page to compare.
In short though. The name is everything I think. The R&R threads are actually a good example since I only contributed when the name of the character inspired me. -
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CommentAuthorBrendan McGinley
- CommentTimeNov 22nd 2009
Lessons Learned from Pigeons, or, How Geist Came to Look Like Cobra Commander
This was an ongoing thing around other projects, so it's tough to put a timeline on it. We did all collaborations and conference over email/IM. I'd say all told, it was a week and a half of design and testing, you know, once that seed took, once the various sketches had found their hook.
Heist is a comic about the world's greatest super-villain. The heroes have no idea he exists, and the other villains who hire him have seldom seen him. If he ever leaves evidence, it's deliberate to frame some other, known crook.
Designing the main character, Geist, we thought pretty hard about what would be an exciting design for someone whose entire outfit had to be low-key. The source of his powers is his ring, which can tweak his appearance and generate an outfit, so we weren't worried about quick change or hiding his clothes as he infiltrates a place. Our basic rule was going to be the ring can alter you only as much as you could alter yourself. So he can't sport a new face, but he can look older, younger, thinner, fatter, any change you might have over time, and it would cobble up pretty much any outfit needed. I guess that's The Venom Rule.
He has ghostly powers, so we first thought of robes and cloaks to lose him in, something ethereal. The problem is, Geist can only stay ghostly for a couple of minutes, tops, and if there's one thing you don't want to wear on a burglary, it's a loose, flowing garment. So we decided he'd be in something pretty well locked down. Not form-fitting spandex, because he's not there to show off his physique, but something unobtrusive. Very tight gloves so he won't leave fingerprints, but can still pick up things with dexterity.
We still wanted a ghostly element, and Geist can't leave anything exposed in a world where superheroes will be scanning for even a scrap of DNA, so he got a full hood. Here the loose fabric helps us, making it far more difficult to map Geist's face, not that he ever lets anyone see him.
So with all that in mind, here was one of my sketches to Andres:
He did what he does with my straw, and spun it into gold:
That visor didn't really work for me, so we nixed it. He's our main character, so we did need a little connection to him, as opposed to Blackbird in Invisible, Inc., who's supposed to be completely remote. We decided to go ahead and show his eyes.
Still not really there, so we figured we'd just draw eyelets and indicate with the coloring that there was some kind of translucent sheath. Even that eventually fell by the wayside. Call it a conceit. But by this point we had pretty much the look down.
Time for colors! As we avoided spandex, we also deliberately ran screaming from bright costumes. Or even dark costumes. Grey or dusty brown make the best camouflage, and our entire concept for Geist was a supervillain so damned good at his job the heroes had no idea he was out there. But grey is really, really visually boring. A guy slinking around in grey is extremely generic. It undoes all the great design work Andres put in there. You saw above Andres used some muted blues, which was a good idea, so we stole from that and used two shades of grey to keep things dynamic.
Almost there. Almost...there just needs to be some kind of element of color. But why? And how? What's the reasoning?
That's what was tumbling in my head as I walked to the subway and noticed the pigeons...
Grey all over, but with wandering iridescence. A little splash of purple and green, a bit of oily attraction for our anti-hero. Yeah. Yeah...pigeons, right under foot, but you don't even notice them. Pigeons, going anywhere in the city, seen as just wandering idiots by us, while we think we control the world. A perfect idea for Geist, who passes as just one of the citizenry looked down upon by the jingoistic Patriot.
What if certain sections of his costume, say, the dark, tight bit under the lighter grey, was green while he was using his powers, turning more and more purple as things became critical and he needed to return to solid state, or else risk falling into that phantom zone hazard we'd imposed on his powers? Seems silly, designing your character after an extremely dumb and harmless creature, but it's so silly it was perfect for our needs. The look was right, at any rate.
By this point, we'd acquired Rocio Zucchi as colorist. She's the greatest. She nailed it instantaneously, and that was it! We had our man.
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CommentAuthorTim Bishop
- CommentTimeNov 22nd 2009
If there was a yearly award for Best Use of The Sticky, this would be a strong contender. Only two replies so far, but... fascinating.
I shouldn't be surprised, but Whitechapel as a community is obviously loaded with talent and a willingness to share.
And I'm not even an artist. Thanks, all. -
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CommentAuthorWilliam George
- CommentTimeNov 22nd 2009 edited
I'm just going to answer the applicable questions because my process is: Doodle, and then doodle some more. Which isn't very descriptive. Generally, ALL of my designs start life as a doodle. Sometimes I try to create a comic to fit them.But most of the time, they sit in a sketchpad or notebook, waiting for me to start work on a comic that I can fit them in as supporting or main characters. These are all for my own webcomic projects.- In other words, what did/do you design and for what purpose?
It depends upon the comic.
- In It's About Girls I needed a collection of 20-somethings that reflected the multi-ethnic reality of modern times. So they're all wearing normal clothing. (note: They were all designed in the late 1990s)
In a way, it was easy to make them since all I had to do was look around me for manner of dress. But then I had to make sure their faces and bodies were different enough for readers to tell them apart.
- Bang Barstal was supposed to be a throwback to an earlier age. A man who refused to accept change. So I made him a middle aged man with a mullet and a muscle car wearing a denim jacket with the sleeves cut off. That way not only would he be a throwback in the story, but he'd be a throwback to the reader as well.
The monsters were all also doodles where I just let my hand go loose and I tried to follow whatever strange image came into my head.
- My current project is in redevelopment because I disliked what I was producing... but it being an action comedy in a fantasy setting, I'm a bit more free to create outfits that normal people wouldn't be caught dead wearing. Since the leads are pretty girls, their costumes and characterizations are vital to tell them apart... Attractive people are that way because their faces lack interesting features, and there are only so many attractive hairstyles to work with.
The monsters in this one are a bit more traditional looking: Minotaurs and demons and whatnot.- Did you nail it on try one?
- Did you spend six weeks going through tiny changes and improvements?
- Did you have notes for a character lying around somewhere for two years?
- How long did this process take?
- How long does it typically take, for the type of work you do?
- Do you have a design that took two minutes that you love and another that took six months that is less than stellar?
The designs for the characters in the first comic I mentioned, It's About Girls, sprung from my forehead like Athena, fully dressed for battle. It think they were get-the-job-done designs. Not stellar, but not bad.
Bang Barstal was a doodle that got simplified in the drawing process. It's really easy to create this sort of detailed character with all sorts of junk on them, but then you got to do that consistently panel after panel, and well... stuff gets dropped. It took a few weeks for him to reach his final look. The problem was that I'm not skilled enough to draw his unusual features consistently, so things got pretty rough at times. I'd say that in more competent hands, he'd be stellar
The current project's set of designs have been tooled with for about six months. I don't know if I'm lacking confidence in my abilities, or have become really strict with with forcing myself to try and create above my normal level, but I've been fussing for a long time over what is going to be a really simple comic. I'm feeling confident that the designs both look good, and can be drawn consistently.- Do you enjoy the process of designing characters?
- What kinds of projects are your favorite?
- Do you have a lot or a little experience in this sort of thing?
1- I sure do. It's like being god. I also spend more time creating characters for video games that let you do that sort of thing than I do playing the games themselves, if that tells you anything.
2- The ones where I force myself to get better. The problem with this is I'm always doing things I'm not good at and ignoring my strengths as a creator. So in a way, I'm only presenting my weaknesses.
3- Despite my weak art skills, a lot. I've been doing my own comics since I was a teen.
Anyway, I hope this helps you find whatever information it is you're seeking. -
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@William George I loved Bang Barstall, read it a long time ago, and I always wondered what the creator was up to. Nice to fucking meet you.
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CommentAuthorWilliam George
- CommentTimeNov 22nd 2009
Hah! Thanks! Nice to meet you too. -
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CommentAuthorlexmachine
- CommentTimeNov 23rd 2009
@Audley Strange First post and already I'm surprised! I hadn't even thought about the name first angle, even though it makes a load of sense and I'm sure there are plenty of creators that work this way. Reminds me a bit of my own process of graphic designing from a font/type. It's a small detail to start from, but sometimes the most important. Thanks for sharing!
@Brendan That is fantastic, thank you so much for letting us peek at your process. I love how the color inspiration just sort of fell into place and I really, really dig the final design. Nicely done.
@Tim Haha, Thanks! I don't say much around here, but when I do, I try to make it worthwhile. I've got a few similar threads in mind already, so we'll see how this one goes, and if y'all are having fun, I'll try to make it sort of a regular thing.
@William You guys are rocking these replies. 3 totally different responses and all exactly the sort of thing I'm after. Mostly what I'm looking for is plain and simple curiosity slaking, I just want to see how it's done. And just like any other creative process, it's likely to be done pretty differently by just about everyone. I thought it also gives you guys a chance to pimp your stuff, and gives me some new work to look into both online and off. So far, so good.
And I don't think your art skills are as "weak" as you think. I'm not the be all, end all of art critics, but you definitely have ability. I think from here, what I'm seeing is that you have a particular style, and you maybe want to be able to accomplish a certain other kind of style. Maybe I'm wrong, but I think if you embrace what you're able to do [which you seem to be doing, just by keeping at it] you'll eventually find a style you're really happy and comfortable with.
FWIW I love Fifi's outfit. Someone needs to steal that two belt, one buckle design so that I can buy and wear it, for real. -
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- CommentAuthorKen Miller
- CommentTimeNov 23rd 2009 edited
Okay, these are character designs for some toys/gifts, rather than characters intended for print, but I thought some of you might be interested in the process.
For a few years I was the 'Brand Guardian' (one of those silly creative department/marketing terms) for Sugar Puffs. I came up with ideas for the in-pack gifts, scamped them, visualized them, etc. There were quite strict guidelines: the toy inserts had to be small enough to fit into the packs but be big enough not to choke a child if swallowed. The items also needed to be cheap to make but be open to multiple uses to add to the play value.
One series of characters/creatures I designed were called DINO TOPPERS. These were a set of plastic dinosaur characters that could be used as pencil-toppers - but they could also be split in two to reveal a hidden fact sheet. These fact sheets were two-sided and contained various bits of info, including (on the reverse) an illustration of the dinosaur's skeleton and a human figure positioned next to it for scale.
I think I came up with these critters because I knew that Jurassic Park 3 was going to be released the next year (I had to work in advance to allow for the production of the items in Hong Kong.) As dinosaurs are, of course, public domain, the toys could cash-in on the interest created by the Jurassic Park movie without the need to pay for expensive licensing rights. Creating something that will hopefully intrigue consumers who like an existing/upcoming license is called creating ‘borrowed interest’ (another wanky marketing term!)
These are some of my initial designs. As you can see: I had to make sure that the items were a certain length (so that they couldn't be swallowed by a child), even when the items were split in two so that the fact sheet could be accessed:
Close-ups of some of the scamps:
These are the finished characters (I also oversaw their creation at a model-making studio before the prototypes were sent off to Hong Kong.) The other items in the photo are Sea Squirters (mini water-squirting toys fashioned to look like sea animals):
Shots of the Dino Toppers (I had to design the critters with tails that wrapped around the side of their bodies because of size limitations):
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CommentAuthorWilliam George
- CommentTimeNov 23rd 2009
Sweet dinosaurs!... Er, toppers.And I don't think your art skills are as "weak" as you think. I'm not the be all, end all of art critics, but you definitely have ability. I think from here, what I'm seeing is that you have a particular style, and you maybe want to be able to accomplish a certain other kind of style.
Thanks for that.
And maybe you're right about the style thing. I'll have to keep it in mind. -
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CommentAuthorlexmachine
- CommentTimeNov 23rd 2009 edited
@Ken Ha! I KNEW there'd be someone around here that had designed something weird and cool like this. I love comic/toon character design, but this is equally fascinating to me. Anyway, that was crazy awesome and I really appreciate you sharing. It's interesting [because of some sort of dark wash?] to see the difference in the original pantone color swatch and the final look of the toppers.I remember being a little kid, maybe 10 and looking at my cereal box one day and realizing that it was someone's job to draw the cereal mascots on the box. It was a FANTASTIC day for me, because I realized that somewhere, out there, even if the people doing it hated it [because living in poverty at age 10 all you know of jobs is that everyone hates them] there was some sort of creative job waiting for me somewhere that *I* would love. -
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I will try to be as coherent as possible!
Here is my process/the road to creating Space Shark. The idea had been in the back of my brain for a couple of years. I was just bored in bed one night and imagined a slot machine, but with nouns. Then the words "Space" and "Shark" lined up and I thought "Haha, that shit writes itself!" But I left it in my sub-conscious all this time up until early October.
It was while I was collecting Wednesday Comics that something clicked for me. I wanted big paged episodes like that. But not episodic, more like an arena for me to do anything. But also I am giving myself one big page to say what I gotta say and then get out. I intended for him to be a instant mythical guy, like Batman. He'd be interpretable in many ways. I think that idea got thrown the hell out.
These are my initial sketches of Space Shark from September just to give myself an idea on how he would look and how much detail to put on his suit. I did not know what to DO with him just yet.
A couple more of me getting closer to what I want.
After I got comfortable drawing him. I decided to just go for it and hit the ground running for his first episode:
I drew that one on a 11x14 bristol board. But for future episodes I threw out the rule book and began to draw most of the panels separately so I can draw bigger and get more detail. Then i will scan each drawing and arrange the page in photoshop. Example here:
Every panel was drawn separately on a board you get with your comics, or scanned from my sketchbook. I did not see it this way in my head, but in the process it takes on a life of it's own and I am pretty much collaborating with something invisible. It is dictating what it wants me to do until we join back together as one satisfied being.
Turnaround time: One episode can take me an entire week. From doing each drawing, scanning, photoshop wizardry, and lettering. The photoshop part takes the longest because I can be stuck sitting at the computer all damn day figuring out how to arrange everything on a blank document until the whole thing clicks together and my mind decides "Fuck it, it's finished!"
I don't know if I can be clear about this, but every Space Shark so far was not what I wanted, but I get satisfying surprises because of it. A lot of times I mean for it to look very clean and cartoonish, but then my sub-conscious will make me add some grimey texture to it all and it will end up looking gritty. I realized earlier today in the shower that is is just the truth rising to the surface. Sometimes I want sooo bad for my stuff to look slick and clean like Mike Allred/Darwyne Cooke, but the truth takes over and what you see it what you get: the bastard child of Saturday morning cartoons, and Templesmith comics. I'm very comfortable with my style, but I am constantly hungry to present my style in different ways, kind of like Becky Cloonan did on DEMO. Space Shark is pretty much my arena to do what I want.
I hope that was helpful/informative. I'm nobody, really. But it feels nice to share your process once in a while. -
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CommentAuthorlexmachine
- CommentTimeNov 23rd 2009
@Chris Again, thanks for sharing. Costume variations are, I think, the most entertaining difference to see in the process of comic character design [it's like playing "spot the difference"] And the word slot machine name creation is a pretty fun concept, I might borrow that idea to title some photos.
Also, totally unrelated to character design and sort of off on a logo design tangent, I LOVE the star "A"s in that second logo. -
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- CommentAuthorKen Miller
- CommentTimeNov 23rd 2009
@lexmachine - I really enjoyed working on all the Sugar Puffs insert toys, it was a hoot. Re: the dark wash on the Toppers. I worked with a company called Premium Factory that liaised with the guys mass-producing the insert toys. They came up with a painting process that allowed for a dark wash to be swiped across the models, accentuating the skin details (well spotted!)
Sometimes I've been asked to redesign a character, rather than come up with a completely original one. I had to re-imagine the polar bear character featured on the Iced Gems and Choc Gems packaging. The original dude looked too much like a gopher or something - so, of course, I made him look more like a bear:
Here he is snowboarding, proudly holding aloft a prized Choc Gem:
And here are some scamps/designs for a branded gift. The bear-camera was made and I own one (which I've never used, so I don't know if it worked!):
These are a bunch of animal characters I designed for a Cow & Gate relationship-marketing publication. The small B&W image shows the original character designs, which I tweaked to make more stylized:
These are kung fu puppet crustaceans I designed for a Jonathan Ross TV show. The TV series (which was a celebration of Asian martial arts movies, hosted by Ross) was going to be shown on Sky1 and called 'Dubbed And Dangerous' - but it finally appeared on (what is now) BBC3, and was retitled 'Stop! Kung Fu!' The puppets never got made (partly because of the move from Sky to the BBC), but I got to work on the show anyway (I was the guy who got to choose all the kung fu clips to be screened!):
@chris g - I just LOVE Space Shark! -
Wow - this is fascinating to read!
@Brendan, thanks for sharing all of that - really great to see a character come together like that - he looks amazing (as do the pages), and so true about the eyes adding an element of connection.
Sadly I don't tend to keep older sketches these days, so I don't think I even have any progress work :(
One point I always make when running workshops or the like is about level of complexity. I've seen some amazing character design work at shows when looking at people's portfolios, but when working in comics especially, we need to draw that character over and over again....so keeping a design simple but instantly standout and recogniseable is important. Complex may look awesome in pinup, but you'll be grateful of a simple design when you've draw the same character 200 times, haha XD
My own design process varies according to the job a lot;
On my own projects, like Dragon Heir or Violet, my characters are often born of their environment and their story background because I know them so well. So I consider: are they likely to need protection, do they have money, how confident are they, are they a lover or a fighter...^_~
On the flip side, i've been doing some work for children's magazines in France recently, and the character design process is totally about the visuals. I'm designing characters before I even have a story sent to me, based purely on 'what's fashionable, what will look appealing to that market'. It's a pretty different angle for me, but quite fun in its own way. In those cases I rely a lot more on my editorial team.
Then, somewhere in the middle, we have adaptation character designs. This is a really odd one as you're creating a character that's already loved; so the pressure is on! With Hamlet, I wanted to maintain an element of Shakespeare's classic look despite the futuristic setting, so made a kind of meld of billowing sleeves and leathers. Originally he was designed with blonde hair because, hey, he's Danish. But the editors wanted something more unique and recogniseable, and so the black and white style came around...and I think they were right!
When Much ADo came along, it was a little different as I didn't have to worry about any sci fi elements...but I also didn't want to just recreate Brannagh's film version. I came back to my personal design process for that: considering character and personality and designing the visuals from there: so a fiery character like Beatice ended up as a red head. Benedick's laid-back attitude and lack of regard for social status meant that he often slobs around in loosed military gear.
Some, like Claudio, were helped by Shakespeare's descriptions in the text. 'he performs in the body of a lamb the feats of a lion' etc...
In very shallow moments, I like to consider what I can see looking good in future story points: eg, got a character who leaps around a lot? give them flowing clothing/a scarf so that we can make some cool visuals out of that trait. My fighting spirit (furose) in Dragon Heir has long black hair because I wanted to use the hair visually in later scenes when he's in full fury mode...shallow, as I say, but hell - we're drawing comics, they should look good XD
I'll enjoy seeing this discussion grow! ^_^ -
- CommentAuthorSoarerSC400
- CommentTimeNov 24th 2009
Wow this is awesome stuff. Loving everything posted so far. -
Seriously quality thread. Thanks for all the detail. Nice to open a door to people's processes.
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CommentAuthorPaul Sizer
- CommentTimeNov 24th 2009
Great thread, I LOVE seeing all the sketch processes people use. I always have a concept/sketch section in my books, so I figured I'd already said it once, so why not just show?
From my second graphic novel, MOPED ARMY:
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CommentAuthorAdam Rosenlund
- CommentTimeNov 24th 2009 edited
Well, I guess I'm kind of the odd man out in that I don't do much conceptual work before I begin on a project. It's not that I don't do any, but I tend to correct anything I'm not happy with on the initial sketch work that I do. In addition to that, most of the comics that I make don't involve much in the way of uniforms aside from minor characters or military/police. Most of the time I spend is figuring out the person's facial structure, body type, and how they carry themselves, but a lot of that is done on the page itself. I guess I've grown confident enough in my abilities as an artist that I don't like relying on sketches that I'll inevitably second guess when I put it into action anyways. This mainly applies to comics work, as any video game or small film work I've had I've had multiple sets of revisions, etc, but those are a different animal than working on comics.
This project is an anthology type of comic drawn by myself and written by my studio mate, Ethan Ede. They're all two issue stories revolving around the theme of love and relationships contrasted against technological or societal advances. The first in this series is Thought Swarm. The only real bit of off-normal design work was that the main character has small hair piece that covers the node that was implanted into her frontal lobe. I did some quick pen and brush sketches in my sketchbook to get across height differences, potential looks, etc. Again, I don't go much into the details, because the story takes place over the course of over a decade, so styles change, work outfits change just like yours and mine, and the characters mature.
The meat of the design work took place on the page after establishing the basics about the characters. When the character first appears, she's 12.
Here she is again at 16. I tried to take elements of her look in that first page and age them a few years into a snarky teenager in the throes of puberty. The character is also company-raised and has little contact with other people thanks to the thought interpretation device they gave her at the start of the story, so I tried to convey that she doesn't know how to do her own makeup, communicate with peers, and other stuff that most teenage girls would learn communally. She only has television/media to ape, but she tries anyways so she can feel a sense of normalcy. Again, I'm not the writer, so these are all things that I have to convey sub textually through the artwork itself.
Another story from that same book is called Dumpster Dive, and it involves kids who are left to scavenge the remains of their town that was obliterated in an attack. Their attire consists completely of found material and items, and the only consistent pieces that they wear throughout the story are their large packs that they use to carry things they find in the rubble that they can barter away, and the helmet that the girl steals from a cop near the start of the story. This story takes place over the course of 15 years, so the characters age here as well.
The character on the left is the main male character of the series, Tox. He tends to favor finding jackets and other clothing items that have lots of pockets so that he can carry around any number of tools to use when scavenging, while the girl to the right, Olive, doesn't particularly care about practicality, she just likes to wear things she thinks look cool. These are consistent character traits that follow them throughout the story.
The cops here I designed completely on the page. They only appear in these four pages, so it didn't seem like a great use of time to do a full round of concepts for them. There are cops that appear later in the story, but that is 11 years from this scene, and they will have some redesign to them to account for the passage of time. The other children on the page were also designed on the fly.
My webcomics are almost entirely concepted on the page. Pretty much everything in Light Years Away, for example, is made up completely on the spot as it comes up. I don't have the luxury of time to spend creating concepts for them since my deadlines are so tight on it every week, so I tend to just trust myself that whatever I draw in that strip will be good enough.
As for my other concept work, I take a different approach than my comics work. Since it isn't something that I don't need to repeat from panel to panel ad infinitum, I can kind of dive in and play around a bit more with the details. These are all personal drawings, since I'm under NDA for most of the concept work I've done, but they follow the same process that I use in my concept work.
I tend to be a real perfectionist when it comes to my comics, but for some reason I approach my other concept work with a much looser mindset, so its nice to get those jobs every now and then to work a different set of creative muscles than I usually do.
Kind of a merger between the two, I tried my hand at Project Rooftop's Wolverine redesign contest. I was one of the top entrants, which was nice. I tried merging his established look with some practical enhancements. I gave his cowl a more helmet like appearance and added an ear shape that doesn't cover up his ears like all of his other cowls do. My basic approach going into it was making sure that the costume didn't obstruct his senses, and was modular enough that he could do without any one piece. I left his fingertips bare so he could utilize his tactile senses better than with full gloves, but gave the rest of the glove gecko foot texture to improve grip on any surface. His boots I gave a set of retractable climbing claws. These are in the boot itself and not in Wolverine's foot. I tried giving the boots a bit of a pawed look but still maintaining a utilitarian aesthetic.
I've got a few other projects with concept work done on them, but I'll leave it there seeing as how I've pretty much flooded the page already. My concepting style is a bit esoteric and I wouldn't recommend it to most people, but it works well for me, and hopefully it shows in my output. -
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Working with Adam means that I have never been handed a page of artwork or a design that didn't look either exactly like I saw it in my head or better. Adam and I also both live in the same city and work very closely together so we talk a lot about characters. For us, early on we knew that we wanted to make science fiction comics, and that there were several things we wanted to do with in that. We never wanted our characters to wear costumes, we wanted them to wear clothes, that they -like most normal people- changed after they got dirty. This can be difficult in comics because your characters need to be instantly recognizable. So Adam makes sure that the characters have strong faces and unique ways of carrying themselves. But he touched on all that in his post above.
The other thing that we talk a lot about is the science in our work. Our webcomic Light Years Away aside, most of what we do is hard science fiction. I love hard science fiction and we are both huge science nerds, but there is a problem with a lot of prose hard SF, and that is: the writing can easily get too bogged down in the science and lose focus on character. Now because Adam and I feel that comics are the best medium for story-telling we used this to our advantage when we work on hard SF comics. We spend a lot of time talking about the science behind the comic an there is a lot of it in the script, but it doesn't come up in captions in the comics and characters rarely talk about it. We know how it works and that means Adam spends a lot of time drawing this stuff into the comic, but that the characters are free to take the forefront of the story. The science is in his background details and he is obsessive about it. I tend to favor the 'less is more' theory of writing when it comes to captions and dialogue anyway and working with an artist as strong as he is means I never have to worry about adding captions to clear things up.
So a lot of the design we do isn't for costumes but rather for the worlds our character exist in. We make sure we know how they work, but we don't bog down the story explaining it in words. For instance this page:
In this comic there is no artificial gravity in spaceships, they have acceleration based gravity if they are going fast enough but that is it. This is a small cargo ship and having crap float around banging into other crap in the cargo bay's wouldn't do. So Adam designed a strap system he calls Mag-Grav to secure shipping containers in a highly mobile fashion. Mag-grav is not in my script, but because Adam and I believe in a truly collaborative process, he thought about what the ship would need and designed and implemented it.
