Another Comics Character Design

This is another character concept sketch for The Transsexuals, the comic I'm going to be drawing in the coming weeks and months. The first version I drew of this character was a bit wrong, so this one is shorter and chunkier. The description Natalie gave me for this character calls for a somewhat heavy trans woman of color who appears to be cis, but who isn't particularly beautiful. I don't know if I managed this

A lot of designing characters is costume design, and this drawing is working a lot of that out, particularly given that a lot of heavier women I know dress themselves in ways that disguises their shape. I don't know if I'm communicating that or not. Probably not.

This is also purely digital, drawn entirely within Photoshop out of my head. I haven't worked like this a lot in the past, but I've got a newish Wacom tablet, so I might as well use it...

More Character Concepting

This is another concept for the comics project I've taken on. This was drawn in Photoshop with my spanking new Wacom tablet, so it looks a little rough. I'm still not used to the tablet. Give me time. I'm probably drawing the comic itself with pen and ink, so it'll be a LOT cleaner when I actually draw it in the book. This is mainly to get the idea down on, er,  paper. The pose is very consciously John Buscema-ish.

Basically, the idea behind this is that this is a knight of mirrors, who reflects your weakest secret self back at you, whatever that may be. So Batman would see a ten year old boy crying over his murdered parents, for one example. The way Natalie described him to me was interesting, but I couldn't get the image of a guy dressed up like a disco ball out of my head. I've tried to avoid that. Instead, I wanted something jagged and weird. Probably hard to draw long term, but I'll burn that bridge after I cross it.

This is another of the lead characters. Headshot. Not fully developed, yet. Pitt pen over red col-erase pencil. I've been looking at a lot of Ross Campbell's stuff lately and it's seeping into the way I draw women. I feel like a piece of silly putty, taking impressions. It still looks like my work, but the influence seems obvious to me. Ah well.

I'm bound and determined to avoid the kind of same-face look that even some amazing artists indulge in. My characters will be individuals. This means models sheets, which means lots of work before I even draw a page of cartoon (and I even know what the first page looks like already, but I need to be scrupulous about this and not dive into drawing it yet). Anyway, I'm excited about the project.