Author: flyingweaselman

We’re getting really close to a design that I was satisfied with. I still sorta do, but I’m very much okay with what I end up with.

I made this and a close friend of mine was like, “That looks like Vex from League of Legends.” I don’t play League and I looked her up then immediately went, “Dammit!” haha!

Sometimes you can’t help but have your characters be similar to something else that’s out there. I think there are artists and writers who are afraid of that and I totally get it. These days, if a character of mine happens to resemble another more popular one, I think “Cool!” and move on if the design isn’t too similar. And then if someone recognizes the influences I pulled from I go, “Yeah! You like that too?” and promptly geek out with them.

I always get pleased when someone knows what I pull from. It means we have something in common and that’s what I like to see.

I was being a major doof and procrastinated on doing the artwork.

I’ll only say that a big reason for that is some real world issues I’m currently fixing that are taking a lot of my energy. I’ll spare the details on that unless you ask me for it.

In the mean time, I’ll show you more on the creative process in creating “The Forester”

This was Kyra’s first design when I started sketching her out. As you can see, there’s a lot there that make it into the final design. Her hair shape and ears are starting to get more refined. Her coat takes shape and the belt she wears gets its first iteration. She has that fluffy tail that I really wanted to work. At this stage, I was just happy to get it down onto paper, but it was very, very far off from where my personal tastes lay.

Again, character design is iterative and the more and more you develop ideas and draw the character, you’ll get the result you want!

So now we get into fine-tuning Kyra’s design. I found from the test silhouettes that I liked having her with a long coat and belt. She gets her distinctive ears and the cowlick in the middle, called an “ahoge.” The term is Japanese and it loosely translates into “idiot hair.” I prefer using the term the “fool’s cowlick” because it sounds a little less hurtful.

At this stage, she has a great, big, fluffy tail! I wanted her to have a chibi style appearance in this phase. There is an artist on Twitter I used to follow in a personal account I deleted a while back. I wish that I could remember so that I’d give you a link to check them out. Their art was very inpirational to this project.

Kyra is still very rough in her design and in future posts, I’ll show you how different her design was compared to the final design you see currently.

I don’t know why I’ve suddenly become so excited to post on social media. It might be because I’ve finally got my comic launched. A big part of my life is now tangible! I’m super excited to share it with everyone and especially to make new friends!

Here’s another part of the design process I took to draw Kyra. Once I figured out the type of silhouette I liked, it was time to narrow down some details. I remember how I used to be so in love with having a fluffy tail on her.

Designing a character is very much a “fuck around and find out” sort of a process. You have to iterate as much as possible. One of my college professors would always push the mantra “Fail faster!” to encourage us to draw as much as possible until we find the right one.

Well, Kyra started out way different than she did today. Here’s the first bit of exploratory drawing and silhouettes I went through to design her.

Ah, yes, “triangle with hat.” It’s gotta be one of my favorite genders. haha!