Category: Creative Process

And here she is! Kyra’s first final design.

The thing that I liked the most out of this one is how expressive I made her. I knew that her personality was going to be somewhat cocky, but also friendly and inviting.

A shortcut often used in character design is to use many sharp edgesto indicate that a character has some hostility in them. That is why the biggest shape is the roundness of her head and the big eyes is there to make her feel approachable. The next part of the design to make her evoke some stability is an overall triangle shape with the bottom edge flat near the ground. When this is done, it subconciously evokes a secure foundation.

Now, there are still some problems with this if I was to use this in a comic. She has a lot of embelishments on her belts and the wrappings around her boots. This would be fine if I was focusing on illustration and taking my time. But for the sake of speed, I needed to simplify the character even more.

This was the design I had in mind to use for a long time until you see her final final design.

After my friend’s comment about Kyra looking like a well-known League of Legends character I knew I had to iterate on her design even more. So this time around I did a full-body sketch.

At the time I didn’t know much about how cloth works. So the lines for it are just straight, and the clothing doesn’t have any feeling of depth. The design is pretty flat. But I went forward with it anyway. I knew that somewhere I’d come up with something I was pleased with.

I knew that skill came with mileage. I didn’t know that there’s more to getting better at drawing than simply drawing a lot. Purposeful studies have helped me more than anything and I’m still bad at giving myself permission to do style studies instead of drawing the comic all the time.

The thing that I enjoy a lot out of this is seeing how much I’ve improved since I did this drawing. If you have a problem with comparing yourself to others, then I invite you to just look at how far you have come. When we say someone is “talented” it’s only because we’re seeing the end results and not all the hours put into honing a craft.

Keep drawing, making cool shit, and being creative. Never stop!

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!