Tails Anatomy Chart

This was just a teaser shot of what I was working on based on this post. But all the final charts of Tails will be posted on this entry. :) Still have to do a chart showing his clothes; which wont be hard seeing how he only wears shoes and gloves, haha...

12-9-11 :
Was going to do a back view of his clothes but they're not all that necessary due to the simplicity of their design. Either way; finished Tails reference! :D Now I have to finish Geoffrey. :B

Progress : Tails Body Chart

Super huge thanks to my friend, MITC for giving me some much needed crits along the way. They're a pro at anatomy.... don't believe me? Check out their art!

This is just showing the progress of what I like to call "tone it up, tone it down." TIU-TID for short. Which means I start off with a heavily detailed anatomical study of what I want the character the approximately look like; and slowly tone certain elements down without the hopes of loosing the main points learned from the original sketch.

I was going to work on Geoffrey fist but decided to go with Tails since he is the smallest and it would be interesting to see me draw a younger Mobian that adheres to some aspects of the official designs while taking my own twist on him. This is still a wip; so things like the weirdness going on in the legs will be fixed - haha...

Anatomical Differences

The anatomy is, of course, meant to represent character demeanor and species. So below are my more finalized concepts of the characters in that respect. These will be cleaned up with front and back references. :) Ignore out of character elements. These were doodled at work with out my typical references lol.

Tails:
He's the second youngest of the group and has a little buddah belly. Personally I think it makes him look more childlike as well as dorky for some unexplanable reason which is what I was going for. Plus he spends more time tinkering than going outside and having fun. ;) Also his hair, tails, and cheek tufts are poorly kept.

Geoffry:
As explained here, skunks are stocky animals. So therefore, stocky Geoffrey! This would get him in trouble since he has to be a silent sniper. but thankfully he has the longest shooting range of any Mobian. You'll notice that he's slightly curvacious as well which is atypical in most Mobian species save for rodents and feral cats. But is more common than what's seen in Overlander and human species.

Sally:
She's been problematic. I to want her to have a slight pudge but I also don't want people to mistake her as "fat." In the refined look she will have a smaller bust. And the legs will be fixed to have a slightly more feminine stance despite her tendency to slouch. But this is pretty much her look.

Antoine:
He's the thinnest considering his height and again, the tallest (unless you count his father who's a smidgen taller). His shoulder blades and ribs are also the most prominent close up and without clothes. Some might mistake him as anorexic, but he just has an extremely high metabolism.

Batty Foxes

Not sure what's going on here. All I know is that I wanted Rouge to look like an actual bat. Also, she may or may not have a brief appearance in my story. Depends.

Still don't have a wacom so more sketches via sketchbook! When it comes to anatomy I tend to tone up each character to figure out how everything would be placed or exaggerated then town down to match the other styles. Thus explaining the super detail going on with Rouge and Tails here.

Feet & Overlanders

Slightly older Jacque (18)and young Manic (11) as seen from here. They're not in the main story whatsoever and appear only in minor bits of side stories.

And some random studies on Mobian feet possibilities. Because they're humanoids in my universe they have several cross overs with human anatomy. Although these charts are not absolute so some elements can be broken because of it.

Robotnik and Nate Morgan. I tend to draw people more realistic then tone them down to match the more toonish style of the Mobians. Doing them this way helps me get the facial structure right though.

Robotnik needs a wider jaw so that his creepy as hell smile is more prominent and foreboding. It's what makes his character, so yea - need to work on that lol. You will also notice that most of the Overlanders in my universe are cybernetic to some extent.

FAQ

Q. What inspires the designs, development, and stories?
A. Mostly the real life aspects of certain species, personal experiences, and imagination! But some aspects are inspired by preexisting concepts seen in the Archie comics. For example, a color mistake (presumed) on Geoffrey's left hand in an older Archie issue made it into my design of him. :)

Q. That's cool! Mind if I use them?
A. Please don't. As evident of the existence of this blog, I spend a good deal of time fleshing out the stories and visuals of the characters and their universe. You wouldn't like it if I took an idea of yours, would you?

Q. Hey! Your ___ reminds me of ___'s ___! Were you inspired by them?
A. I do not read any of the current or most of the old issues of Archie or any other written element from the Sonic franchise, despite really wanting to. I only skim enough to get a good basis and personality of the characters and then add my own twist from there.

Q. Why don't you read ___?
A. I don't want to suffer what I call "writer's pollution" where I'm unintentionally inspired too much by a preexisting work both official and fan related. The only written work I do read that is sonic related are works by my friend's MITC and ES. Even then, we make sure that specific universe elements don't cross.

Q. Do you mind if I tell you my fan fiction?
A. For reasons explained above, I would prefer if you didn't. If I feel as though a comment is getting to in depth about your own personal work; I will mostly disregard it.

Sticky Doodles

Some more sticky note doodles done while at work. :) Still getting the kinks out of Tails. Decided to make his hair wilder and more free to make him look less reserved and more youthful.

The sketch to the right and below him are of a fan OC who's an Overlander and henchmen of Snivley (on the right). Snivley's position is a lot more important than it was in the comics initially and with everything else in this reboot; a lot darker.

Rotor! I've been needing to draw him. So here's an attempt. Might give him less neck fat. For the sake of contrast of a typical walrus I'm going to make him chubby but not fat. Lol... maybe?

PS! To see the images full size - click on them once then right click and select "view image." :D

Armand Evolution

Armand! Who knew that such a vague character would become a favorite of mine. :) Similar to Antoine and Geoffrey; he was doodled just for shits and giggles when I first drew him. There was no story, no plot, and no consideration to his character and development of such.

But of course as time progressed he became more and more fleshed out when it comes to his nature and overall demeanor. Through baby steps of course but he eventually got there. :D A lot of his personality was based on the traumatic events of my mom's childhood; while the way he copes with trauma in his later life was inspired by my two uncles on my my mother's side.

And of course; when the tone or personality changes, the design and style generally reflects that change so for the sake of talking his actions seriously within the scenarios they're presented in; he became more muscular with a face that has a more demanding presence.

Originally Armand had a straighter chin with no scoop; but I wanted him to more closely resemble his son so I mixed that around a bit to where he's still his own character but shows some genetic semblance.

His finale design doesn't reflect what he looks like in terms of his past life and experiences. In my story he doesn't appear until much later and so this look actually is his design for that point in the story. But if you want to know what he looked like beforehand (such as the above) just imagine him without the scars and a more calm/confident expression. :)

On another note the Russians within the D'Coolette family have a golden fur color, shorter ears, and thick muzzles. The French, however, tend to have fur ranging from dark brown to black, longer ears, and slender muzzles. Other Mobian coyotes have fur that's gray/brown with the lighter coat being whiter.* Of course genetically things can bounce around. Which explains why Dagre (who's half Russian) has a French phenotype but his son (who's a quarter Russian) has a Russian phenotype. And why Antoine (who's 5%ish Russian) has a slender French build but Russian fur color.

* If I am not mistaken the common hair color for Russians in rl are variants of blonde while a common hair color for French is dark blond to dark brown.

Tails Evolution

Tails has been the easiest to fine; but he also went through several changes when I was in the process of trying to figure out what style to go with; and how to integrate the style in the other characters. As with almost any revamp I've done I wanted to draw inspiration from various sects of the official media to show my appreciation for each creator's take on Tails through his 20 year existence. :)

This is my second concept of him; the first one has yet to be found but when I do find it this post will be edited.His build was a bit more blocky and closer to older / newer depictions of him in the game. But then when the tone of my stories changed calling for more age appropriate anatomy; his entire eventually changed as well.

Compared to all the other males Tails lacks certain general masculine phenotypes: lack of thicker black or brown lips, thick brows, thinner lashes, and thinner brow ridge. He's more feminine in his look and it shows almost through his entire age up until he's an old  fart.

Sticky Doodles

Well, I ended up turning down the large commission for various reasons; mostly a disagreement on pay. Too bad... but other opportunities will come! :D

Other than that news, been super busy with work, freelance, and secret group projects I've been working on. But here's some doodles I've been spitting out on super small sticky notes while I take mini breaks at work.

Geoffrey, Antoine, Sonic, Tails, Antoinette (FOC), and Robotnik. Tail's design has changed to be a bit more catlike. You'll also see that when he smiles his top canines show just a little bit. That's because red foxes have the longest canines of any canid. Also gave him am ore slender muzzle and a more egg shaped head.

Still need to do ref sheets for many mobians, humans, ect.

Peace! ♥ *goes to work on commissions*

Oh, will update this blog with more stickies and hopefully, more finished works.

Hiatus

Not for super long, I hope!

Just wanted to let you guys know that this blog might be on hiatus for a few months due to a possible huge client coming my way. If all works out, I will not only get to work on a fantastic project, but bank big. :) So for the sake of priorities, I will have to put my fandom to the side a bit in terms of producing art.

I will still be writing for a possible full comic, most certainly for short stories, but for now; there will be little if any updates.

If things change then I will let you know! ♥

Preview : Amadeus

There's a post I'm not done with yet but it explains a bit about the canine races. Foxes along with cats are two of the few races that are physically androgynous. However, if you want to tell what the gender is of a fox or any other species; look no further than the neck. ;) it can give a lot away.

Needless to say, Tails did not inherit his father's eyes. :D And as another side note; Amadeus' brother and he are identical twins. Except for the fact that Merlin has a mole on his right cheek.

Mobian Culture : Clothing

A friend of mine bought up a good point about how awkward it would be for anthropomorphic animals who have more human qualities to their anatomy would be partially clothed. Often going bare in areas that would need the most closure. ;) I can agree with them on that actually!

It's never explained why certain animals are more clothed than others in the comics. In fact, there are some who are more realistic in anatomy that go full bare while others who are more toony are only seen fully clothed. This seems to be a gender issue in some areas depending on the age of the character among other things ect. But that's only a guess on my end...

So! Here's where I try and bring some logic to the way Mobians dress. :D

In my story, Mobians are sentient hybrids of various animals (with human DNA) that generally act in a humanoid or human fashion. Although they're part animal and therefore have some special gifts depending on the species; they also inherent a limited expression of these traits. For example; Caniform mobians can smell very well but they cannot track like a dog. Feliform Mobians have very good night vision but cannot see as well as an animal cat. And the same goes for very specific species such as Skunks; they've got really good visual depth and are thus good snipers, but lack the ability to spray like animal skunks.

Because these hybrids (Mobians) have more human mentalities and beliefs; they also manifest more complex cultural values. And while each clan or race has their own philosophy about the world; they also have their own philosophy about clothing.

Most Mobians who reside in places where few humans live wear little to not clothing. The most a Mobian might wear are shoes if their feet are exposed to harsher ground. But as a general rule, many Mobians find clothing to be unnecessary when they have fur or other physical attributes that keep them comfortable in their environment.

Mobians that adhere to this are mostly nomads, or dwell beyond human or Overlander contact.

Like any highly intelligent being; Mobians sometimes do things that other Mobians may consider unnecessary. See Derps wearing sun glasses? He doesn't need those by-golly! But Derps believes that he does need Sunglasses because they help define his character based on prescribed meanings to them. So regardless if they're functional or not; they are a status symbol a form of communication.

Despite the presumed superficial reasoning Derps has provided for his eye and wrist wear; other Mobians do make exceptions as to why they wear clothing that's not physically necessary.

Mobians that need to express social hierarchy in complex communities generally go partially clothed like Derps. Mobians that are law enforcers, rulers, generals, ect. often wear only what's required to define them as such from an abroad stance. This can range from top uniforms, hats, or a mix of both.

Mobians who adhere to this generally have had minimal to maximum exposure to humans and Overlanders.

Although one could argue that they should go fully clothed; many Mobians do not like the concept of clothing to begin with. When in motion, clothing can get caught in the fur, hair, scales, feathers; or other sensitive areas that can cause personal discomfort. Which is why many, when allowed to do so, do not wear pants; but may opt for a skirt or kilt in areas where it's considered uncouth to allow the exposure of your nethers.

Mobians who go full clothed generally live near or in Human and Over lander societies. While some human / Overlander societies are more tolerant to partially clothed or nude Mobians. Other societies generally penalize and often fine such a visual "offense."

Although this sect of Mobian society constitute as a few; there are some who actually enjoy being fully clothed and even promote it. Some do it for vain reasons; but many enjoy it because it's what they were raised into. Those who cannot wear most clothing such as some birds, hedgehogs, and other animals will either modify their bodies, or their clothing.

Overall, clothing and the use of it when it comes to Mobians depends on the policies, raising, and culture.

And that's my two cents on Mobians and clothes!

Sneak Peak : Armand

I'm working on commissions right now, but here's a wip to tide you over! c: More will be explained later of course.

After Much Thought And Consideration...

I have decided to move forward with doing a short comic series (related to my main stories) based on my short stories and revisions of the characters.

The reason I withheld this information was because I was not sure if I would be able to make a good story in a relatively short amount of time. Or whether or not I could design characters both physically and mentally that were believable and stayed true to their original counterparts while and essence of the various Sonic universes.

But surprisingly (well through a lot of work) things are coming together and the end result looks plausible. :)

There's still a lot of work that has to be done concept wise in terms or main, secondary, and tertiary characters. As well as environmental planning , story boarding, writing, and format. Because of this it may be well over half a year before I pump out anything comic related if I decide to do so.

Haven't had time to work on art due to work and commissions. But I've done a lot of writing! So there's some progress.

So Busy~

So sorry this blog has not been updated. ;_; Just got a full time job and those shifts last from 7am-4:30pm+ so when I get home I'm pooped! But I will be updating this place soon; mostly with turn sheets and evolution entries

Thanks for stopping by!

PS : Comments have been approved! :D So if you wrote something a few days ago I've responded to them. :) Be sure to check back on older posts! ♥

Shapes And Sizes : Antoine

Antoine was a bit tricky, mostly because all Mobians regardless of their species are generally shorter than Overlanders and Humans. For those of you don't know; there are three races of sapient beings in the Archie universe; humans, Overlanders, and Mobians. Humans (oops nvm on the people) and Mobinas are generally benign while Overlanders (human subspecies) are generally aggressive. So when it comes to height i tried to keep to a standard of how tall Mobians would be; according to the comics most of them are around 4 feet tall. Antoine however is a rule (badumksh) breaker standing at around 5 feet.

Another reason he's a rule breaker is because he has the most outfits that he goes between. C#1 is what he wears most of the time and what (if I wrote an entire comic) he would wear about 20-50% of the story.  He doesn't attain C#2 until later and there's a valid reason for that; but I wont spoil it. ;) I had to do some research on C#2 to make it more believable. It's based on British, Russian and French general uniforms mostly in design.

And just for comparison.

Size Chart

Size charts for several of the species. :) Each sheet had three characters that took all of 2min or each sheet. They were done on very small pieces of paper; no bigger than post its.

There are of course weird things going on here; mostly head size, if the head is too big there's an "s" pointing to it to ensure that those are made smaller on actual models. 

Here's Geoffrey's finished size and clothing chart. Antoine is next then Tails and Sonic. :D

Shapes And Sizes : Geoffrey

Almost every character has their own unique anatomical structure in terms of build (of course) and for the sake of consistency and practice, I wanted to do some studies of characters I thought I've established pretty well. (ie those with head turn sheets) Also want to apologize in advance for these being so mechanical; they're just to figure out proportions, clothing, ect.

Skunks have very downy fur so I wanted that to show on his shoulders and tail. It's not in the chest area though because skunks generally lack the same length of fur in that area. As a side note his dorsal marking fades from off white to a brown color as it gets towards the middle of his spine and tail base. It's mainly to keep his markings from looking too overwhelming.

I did some research on archers and realized the benefits of some of the tools the use. Although he has a crossbow I've always pictured him carrying a collapsible bow that he could use for larger targets. Because his fur could misdirect the strike or retard the speed; I thought it would be more logical for him to wear a bracer to prevent this. And instead of arrows for his crossbow he would use quarrels.

And yes, his left hand is purposefully white. :D It's based on a presumed color mistake I saw in an older issue once. But it works out really because his father was mostly an all white striped skunk (in my universe) while his mother was mostly black with muted white markings.

Geoffrey Evolution

This character evolved a lot faster than Antoine or the others. Maybe it's because he's a caniform and not as design oriented originally that he's allowed me to explore more in terms of design without feeling hindered.

When I first designed him I still wasn't thinking too much in terms of making any short stories or comics based on the franchise; I was still in the realm of doodling for kicks. So  he was originally drawn to be tall and light, almost feathery.

But when I really started to design the characters and get more serious about the forms of each species; he became heavier and stockier.

Skunks tend to have small heads and thick muscular bodies similar to their cousin; the badger. His jaw became more muscular, his muzzle thicker, and his chin longer. I deliberately gave his chest marking a shape similar to a shield symbolize his duty as a royal guard. And it also has the neat look of a pointed arrow head when he's fully erect. In terms of posture that is. :) 

This is the end result of what I'll most likely be sticking with. I went through three different muzzle shapes before settling on this one. But I think it suites his species and personality quite well.

Antoine Evolution

To be honest I don't know what inspired me to get so in depth with redesigning most of the characters from the Archie / Sat:AM universe; but if I had to pick one I have to say it would be Antoine. He has always been a favorite character of mine and so I think he is what sparked it. So below is a compilation of pieces from as early as late July to now that shows his evolution, mostly in chronological order of completion.

The first drawing of him. :) When I doodled this I was not really intending there to be a deeper darker story behind the character which is why he looks so much more goofy. To be honest, there was no story to begin with! This was drawn just for the heck of it.

By the time this was drawn I had been mulling around a back story for him that had more depth. From what I recalled in the original 100 issues of the comic not a whole lot was explored and little of it really explained his character. So this is where things stared to change in terms of design and background.

A lot of these facial expression still hold up to the model sheet that I've done recently. But you will see how his design changed from this image to the one below. And you can see why it's always important to do a model sheet before doing expression sheets. Hahaha.... LESSON LEARNED.

This piece actually has a story behind it; which will be left out for now but you can find the story here if you want to read it. :)

I was irked by the lack of believable aging you see in Archie comics, so I had my shot with that here. And now you can see how different his above child version is to this one. Lol...

Ignore the dead eyes I do a lot of model sheets like this to make sure everything aligns correctly. Welp! This is mostly his finale design. He looks more dorkish and if need be, paranoid which better suits his character.

The below pieces were two experimental things to A. see how his jaw would move and where his teeth would be placed ect. and the other was to see how fluidly they could move. They were both done before the above model sheet.

MXYL Kids

This is a project that I'm still wanting to finish despite the story in my arch not going this far or even exploring this concept. I hated how all the kids were clones of their parents with not genetic flow and to some extent; personalities. So here was my attempt to improve some things. These were all drawn in early August.

He's a lot like his father, maybe too much so... He's cocky like he is but lacks the humility when needed. He's very impatient, a bit of a whiner, and has a tendency to take on any challenge much to his determent. Despite this he's very loyal to his friends and tries his best not to annoy them.

I wanted him to be a different color than his dad so I took Sally's color and faded over an aqua greenish color. That way he had some fur mix between both his parents. When he gets older, he stays a bit more stocky and short compared to most other hedgehogs. (traits from his mom) He also has an unusually long tail and the brown around his eyes? That's the color of his broken dorsal stripe around the end of his tail. (also thanks to him mom's side) and as a joke people call him "Manik the shrew" much to his chagrin.

Sonia is the younger sibling and twin of Manik. She's way more girly than her mother but still has her no BS streak especially from her brother who loves to pester her.

Although she's just as impatient, she's a bit more cautious and wary than her brother and a bit smarter to. She knows when she's incapable of doing something and is more willing to hesitate in a serious situation. Sonia doesn't like to get dirty at all and she would much rather jam out on her guitar. She seems to have inherited Maxamillion's gift for gab because she never seems to shut up.

She inherited big eyes, bigger nose, ears, and extremely short tail from Sonic. Her brown eyes, small hands, and long hair are from her grandmother (Sally's mom).

He normally wears a translucent fencing mask but I took it off so you could better see his face.

Jacque is an easy going mellow kind of guy, confident but not a jerk-face about his abilities. He's also proved to be very paternal and often doesn't hesitate to look after his four younger siblings unlike his older sister Belle. He's also trilingual; English, Russian, and French.

Jacque was hard to do for some reason. I wanted him to be an even mix between Bunnie and Antoine but it was somewhat difficult due the high contrast in anatomy I gave the two species (you'll see Bunnie later). I decided to give him his mother's orange fur and his father's light peach mask. Other traits he got from his mom are his incredibly short tail, facial mask that reaches to the upper lids of his eyes, ear color (mixed) , dark eyelids, and short muzzle. He inhereted his eye color from his grandmother (Antoine's side).