Hello there!
I said that I’d write a blog entry when I actually felt I had something to talk about and well, wouldn’t you know, today I have something to talk about. It’s actually Saturday as I’m writing this. I just thought I’d better write while it’s still fresh in my mind.
As you may know, Sass and Big Oonch are in the Burroughs right now. A new character has already made his first appearance and I’ve been working on another.
I was doodling during a team meeting at work (I was still listening) and drew Todrick, Cyran and Sass. One of my co-workers saw my doodles and said I needed to draw a turtle (apparently she likes turtles). In another meeting the following week (where I wish I hadn’t been listening) I decided to try my hand at drawing a turtle and came up with two designs. I refined the two and this is how they look.
Turtle A is my first attempt and is really in keeping with my other character designs. There’s a lot of Chae and Skitter in the head. I like it, but it’s kinda samey. Something I’ve always found distinctive about turtles is how they can sort of retract their head. There’s no way Turtle A could do anything like that. So Turtle B is my attempt at being a little more “turtle-like”.
So which one am I going with? Tough call. I like both for different reasons. Back when I was first designing Skitter, I had two designs and put them up on Facebook to see which one people liked better. I decided to do the same thing with my new turtle character. I expected that Turtle A would get more votes because he’s “cuter”. The results have been surprisingly even. As I’m writing this, the post comments show eight votes for Turtle A and nine votes for Turtle B, with one post saying the person liked both but wished they were smiling. I also got one Messenger vote for Turtle B. So while I can’t say there’s a clear-cut winner, this is more helpful than you may think. I was leaning toward Turtle B, but I just wasn’t sure if it was a good design. Like I said, I think Turtle A is cuter. For Turtle B to have a slight lead says I’m not entirely wrong in my choice.
Only one arm? In my original sketches, both turtles had two complete arms. As I was thinking about the character that this turtle would be, I decided that he might have a physical impairment and I went with him having only one arm. It doesn’t have anything to do with the story and as of now, I don’t think I’ll be addressing it in the strip. Not any time soon anyway. Is this social commentary? Maybe? Not really. It’s just the way he is.
Wristbands and knee pads? The awakened animals in Pelaria typically wear clothes (Skitter doesn’t (didn’t?) because he’s somewhere in between). I thought that clothes would cover up the features that make him recognizable as a turtle, so as a compromise I gave him the wristbands and knee pads. They’re orange because it’s my favorite colour and maybe as a nod to a more famous turtle who happens to favor orange.
What’s his name? Ah! Not telling! You’ll have to wait for him to appear in four weeks so you can see it in the tags. It might take a while for his name to appear in the strip itself.
By the by, there was nowhere near the same amount of work put into designing Franford, the mole who made his first appearance in last Thursday’s strip. The Burroughs are underground and I thought it made sense moles would live there. I’d already figured out how moles look like in the strip when I designed Chae and Diggle. His clothes are inspired by Big Oonch’s, in the same way that the robes Obi-Wan Kenobi wore in A New Hope informed the way the Jedi dressed in the prequel trilogy. Franford is very much by-the-numbers.
So there you have it, a look into my creative process. That’s all for now. Have a good seven (or more) and we’ll do this all again another Monday.