Sunday, May 15, 2011

Background characters, by request!

As hinted at in an earlier post, I asked readers in my forum to help design some background characters for Precocious' current big city arc. Now, the nature of background characters means they are, uh, in the background - which, due to perspective and whatnot, means they appear rather small. If I'm going through the trouble of creating this things for the readers, it benefits both parties to have something to show for it that doesn't end up 10 pixels high in the final product, so do enjoy these character sketches I made!



The next character that is needed for drawing the strip is a security guard. After reviewing the requests I had, it seemed obvious to give the Eurasian wolf request the job. I have two versions for you, the public, to choose from. Male or female?



Next up, we a Precocized version of a reader's former pet, a bobcat mix - wearing camouflage because he's a born hunter - and a less-threatening-but-still-lovable stubby corgi!



Two users wanted to use their avatars, which both happened to be unusually-colored felines (not that you can tell in pencil), so it made sense to make them a couple. (They are funly colored because they are crazy art students who dyed themselves. That work?)



Finally, I got a request for a lynx wearing something black, like a hoodie. Since I only had one background female (maybe two, if chick guard get public support), and this reader didn't specify, I decided to go lady lynx. The black suggestion made me think goth. That was the plan, at least. I started out by making the eyes a little flirty by accident, and then it all snowballed. My goth lynx in black became... kinda sexy lynx in white? Whatever, I kinda like it. (I'd like it more if my final attempt a tweaking hadn't derped her eyes up, but I'll live.)

Aside from the guard, who is popping up on Friday, I don't know where and how (or if?) these characters will pop up in the strip, but they are ready to go for when the time times! I'm still taking requests, so chime in if you want to design a petting zoo person and I'll do my best to accommodate!


(Note: Unfortunately for the first guy to make a request, I came up with this idea *after* his choice had been incorporated into a comic. But, hey, he got to be a foreground character in that one, so he get his time to shine!)

1 comment:

Iron Ed said...

I vote for the female wolf. Looks really competent and she's kind of a counterpoint to Max, even though she's obviously a lot older.

Some really nice looking characters here! You did a really great job of characterizing Cookie's avatar especially.