Still going back through the archives, fixing old posts, making them public, categorizing them and adding headers… currently about half way thru 2002. I’m hoping maaaaaaybe I’ll be done before I go out of town!
I know I’ve talked a lot of website, old stuff, old art, etc lately, because that’s what I’ve been filling my time with — I’m not going to get back in my sewing room until after the next Disney trip, so I’ve just been focusing on all this old stuff… just bear with me a couple more weeks and it’ll be out of my system. I think.
Last night I stole a sketchbook of Chase’s, because I wanted to draw my SunDowner characters and just compare them to how I draw now. I scanned them in today — did a few quick fixing of levels, moving a few things to correct proportions in prep for inking on the tablet, but I went ahead and put together comparisons:
Piper in 98 or 99 (I’m thinking 99), one of the character reference designs from 2002, and the sketch on the right is the one from last night.
Somehow Piper regressed in age over the years, I tend to think of her more as a 11-12 year old now rather than… I don’t know, I think she was 16-17 originally?
98/99 on the left, 2016 on the right.
SOMEHOW I only have two full length character references of Madison and they’re both from 98/99, I guess I never did one in 2002 which is ridiculous because he was SUPPOSED TO BE THE MAIN CHARACTER. But I kinda always hated his outfits I designed for him, I had tried to keep all of these to their first appearance outfits but I gave up at Madison because I hated his 1st outfit so much. I’ve got to fix his lower legs/feet when I go to ink, they ended up running off the page and then got cut off by the scanner so I had to piece them back together.
Britan’s first outfit, 98/99, 2002, 2016.
I really don’t have a lot to say except I’m pleased with how I apparently subconsciously mirrored the original 98/99 pose.
Didn’t have a 98/99 full length colour reference for Miles — had to use a sketch. Then 2002 character reference center, and 2016 on the left.
I think he de-aged a bit in my head too but then, he was always short.
98/99 on the left, 2002 center, 2016 right.
Ocha — I’m not 100% pleased with the 2016 sketch on the face, I’ll prob tweak it a bit when I ink. She really hasn’t changed that much since 2002, I think.
Qudiar is a sad case but I literally only have 1 “finished’ image of him outside of the comic and it’s this old “fighting game character select screen” version from 2001/2002. (From when I did the SunDowner character page a fighting game character selection screen… one of my fav web designs and I DO NOT HAVE A SCREENSHOT).
I never considered him a main character but people liked him so I kept him around but never really did any character references for him. He only ever had this one outfit but that’s kinda my head canon for him, he’s a slob who probably has like 2 shirts and one pair of pants total.
I think Kyte the lemur got more of an upgrade than Qudiar.
98 on the left, 2002 center, 2016 right
Yfandes — I’ve got some more clean up work to do on the 2016 sketch, like the Madison one her feet got cut off and had to be pieced back together and I think her proportions are off, especially on the right side — her hip/leg on that side aren’t looking right, something to fix in inking.
But she changed a lot, like I completely forgot she was supposed to have bangs all the way in her face but I like the swoopy hair a lot better. NOT EVERYBODY HAS TO HAVE GIANT BANGS FLYING OFF THEIR FOREHEADS 2002 KELL
Seriously in messing with some of the 2002 comic scans one of things I keep going in and doing is shrinking the bangs back down to a more manageable size.
All that being said… I do like these sketches a lot and I’m going to work on inking and colouring them a bit over the next couple of weeks. I don’t think it’s “the” SunDowner style though, this is still the gold standard for my SunDowner characters.
Anyway. Again sorry for boring those of you who are like “wtf is sundowner what is she talking about what is this I came here for costumes”…. MCX tomorrow! Yay! Costume time!