Nate Morgan (but mostly Robotnik)

I'm pretty sure this guy is based off of Morgan Freeman, just a hunch... Anyways, since I did that image of Robotnik I was compelled to explore Nate more. I've done so in the past, but I thought it would be interesting to draw a younger Nate to compare to the old one in present day. 

SPOILER: 

You will notice a lot of images that take place in Ivo's (Robotnik) youth show him interacting with Nate a lot. In fact, it is Nate who surgically repairs his eyes and it is Nate who becomes his physical therapist. 

At the time Robotnik looses his eyes he's around 10-13 years of age; Nate's around 23-25. Robotnik views Nate in a complex manner, that of a friend and a servant. Although he doesn't have much empathy that one would consider normal, Ivo does have a habit of expressing it towards him, at least in their youth. 

// END SPOILER // 

Anyways, both Nate and Ivo are Overlanders. Unlike Robotnik, Nate has more human proportions while Robotnik shows traits more common to Overlanders, that is, anatomy being way out of proportion in comparison to one another. This is due to them being partially composed of animal DNA and are the human equivalent to the Gremlin race (beings like Lupe, Big, Rouge, ect)

I haven't decided wether or not Nate will have more dwarf like proportions or not. Snively was intended to fill that role (for the sake of anatomical variety) but I think Nate looks a bit too human, and could benefit from some alterations in his anatomy to make his race more apparent. 

I should also note that all Overlanders have cool colored mouths. With tongues and gums ranging from blue, purple. and black in appearance. I don't why I'm sharing this, has no significance considering this is colored. That being said I felt as though it was an important minor detail.

These sketches right here are a few months old. Anatomically I like them, especially the top head, reminds me of the 90's sprite of Robotnik in his ship.

Image from here.

Call me nostalgia based, but I much prefer the older Japanese design of Robotnik. I think it's design left more to the imagination when I was a kid. But I also liked the 90's version of him to from SAT:AM.

My version of him is aiming between a cute and cuddly but nightmarish dictator with a child's mentality.

The major characteristic about my version of Robotnik is that you never see his eyes. As a child, he wears glasses and the lighting is always such that his eyes are hidden by the shadow reflection of his lenses. That and he's "eyes" you do see are very mechanic and make noises like a camera when focusing or changing modes from daylight, infrared, or night vision. I've always had a fascination of showing the deadness eyes possess when seen from a mechanical standpoint. And the design of my yes were inspired by the squiddies from the animatrix and Hal 9000.

Level 1

Short story time! But ti does contain spoilers. :U

He looks normal here, because Overlanders don't mutate until they're in their mid to late teens. He's in his early tweens here so he looks pretty normal, except for the black tongue and gums. :B


+ + + + + +

Beep, beep beep, beep, beep… His eyes darted, but there was nothing.

Beep, beep, beep, beep… He felt a chill coming from the left of him, and a soft, almost comforting and familiar warmth from underneath his hand.

Beep, beep, his hand rose to his face. He halted, from the hall he heard the rolling of wheels on a smooth surface, moaning and brisk commands shooting down as he darted his eyes frantically, still noting.

Amongst the clatter a soft gait could be heard. Shoes, he knew it was the sound of shoes, nice ones; not like the ones he had. Maybe this being's shoes even had shoelaces, or sturdy soles, the boy was momentarily preoccupied by the perceived comfort these shoes must have had for their owner.

"Hello, boy."

The boy didn't respond.

"How are you feeling today."

"My name is not boy." He replied curtly. Paper flipped clumsily as he darted his eyes, still nothing. "Well we will have to call you boy until you give us a name."

"Where am I?" He heard the sound of something thin and light falling on a cushioned surface. "I cannot tell you that unless you give us a name." The boy's mouth pursed with a queer grin, "why so secretive?" A short pause, "there are no secrets here, we just want your name."  The boy smelled the room, felt the rhythms of the people in there with them, there was much whispering and ginger movements and he could feel the man's feverish heartbeat in the breath that hit his face.

"You found my blaster and want to know how it works." A stifled silence entered the room as the boy listened for a response. "To be more precise, we want to know how a child got access to it." The man finally responded.

"You mean, you want to know how I made it." There was slight laughter in the room. "You're laughing, but you don't even know how to use it, and you know it doesn't have a serial." The room became silent again. "Plus it has technological capacities not located within our borders." The man's voice became serious, "And nothing like it has been made since the hundred year war… How did you come across writings for such a technology."

The boy looked around, still nothing, "Well it could be easier if I could see in here, seeing would be nice, but they ripped out my eyes. Might trust you more with eyes, but I already don't - so whatever." He heard the man shifting his position with agitation."You mean the Mobians." The man responded. The boy paused, "……. yea. Did you know they actually bathe?"

"Boy, how did you come across the writings for this technology…"

"Dolt, I didn't… I found an image of a man on a galonae like beast - a statue. In his hand he had a gun type thing. So I built it."

"You can't just build something that complex with no direction… Especially if the technology is dead - no reference. You needed -"

"You can if you're a god." The boy smiled even more, "I don't need books or algorithms to build what I see in my head. Or a calculator."

 The man scoffed, "you can't even read!"

"Does a bird need to read to understand aerodynamics? Does a termite need to understand pedology or the cat physics?"  The doctor recoiled, "They're beasts, of course not!"

The boy's mouth became stiff, "they're savants." His hand absently crept against the grooves of the covers until it came across something hallow and light, they became preoccupied and his face calmed."Give me eyes and I will explain my gun to you."

"Give me your name first."

"You know you can't use the technology without me, did you try already? I made a special key." He began playing with a notch located in the back of the hollow object until it could be twisted no further. "And killing or torturing me would do no good, I don't feel pain like most of us." He let the object writhe in his hands. "So give me eyes and I will give you my clubhouse."

A hand snapped to someone in the distance as they walked away briskly. "How about this, give us a name for your eyes, and your services for your freedom, Overlander…"

The boy clasped the figure in his hands, preventing it from moving as the mechanisms halted. "So you're not me. But you smell so much like me. Interesting…" He  gently caressed the toy, "You're not a threat, but I like games. Do you like games? I do…. So this is level one, and player two needs a name. What is yours?" The man readjusted himself, "Prometheus."

The boy's face brightened.

 "Ivo. Let the games begin."

St. John Family Busts

For some reason I never feel comfortable moving on with a present character's plot role unless I establish the parent's. I consider that a good thing because it makes the plot less "random" and things connect better. That muscular dude up there is Ian, Geoffrey's dad. His goofy and submissive personality is based off my grandfather (who was murdered by my grandmother) The condition of his eyes is based off my  aunt who has albinism so he has nystagmus. Despite this he's a very good marksman but outside of that he's very clumsy.

Skunk on the left is Geoffrey's mother. Her narcissistic, OCD, and mentally abusive personality is based off of said grandmother mentioned above. Their relationship (Ian/Eli) are similar to my grandparent's in real life, except for that whole murder thing.

These characteristics rub off on her son (far left) but despite being an asshole like his mother, he does have a soft spot for people he cares about and makes it known, more or less.

SKUNKS. They're assholes in real life, and in my universe to. Hate, hate hate hate, so much hate skunks have...

Oh, his mom's name is Elizabeth "Eli."

Jules & Bernadette

One of the areas that I've started tackling more during my hiatus was the hedgehogs, they are the main species after all. ;) Below are some of my first attempts tackling Bernadette "Bernie" and Jules.

I hope that it's more apparent where Sonic gets certain attribute from and since Mobians in my world are chimeras between people and different animals, some have more hedgie attributes than others depending on the line and location of that "hedgehog" Mobian. There's a reason for this in a veeeeery distant past I have written out, but that is for later of course. :) Much much later.... like - near the end later.

They were aged down here to compare their designs to Sonic's But in reality they're in their 30's-40's in the present time of my comic.

Jules and his brother are engineers, more specifically they're second hands to their father, Regis. Jules and his brother work for his father's shop, repairing broken machinery on their home island. Despite this, both have a heavy interest in robotics. Jules focuses more on mechanics and Charles more on AI.

Jules is snarky and a bit of prankster much to his calmer and more perceptive brother's chagrin.

Bernadette is a tinker. She's a housewife but is very skilled at fixing things as well, and is often found in her husband's inherited shop. She is a bit more stoic and focused on doing things effectively the first time and is great at time management. Which is why her father in law, Regis, takes such a strong liking to her. ;) Don't tell her husband she's taller than him, it makes him puff with agitation...

Aaaaaand I'm Back!

Whoa... I know, I've been absent from here for - what, five months? Five months!!! How crazy is that?!

Well, the explanation to that is... life. Life had occurred. Another big project of mine has taken up a lot of my time and energy and promotions at work kind of got in the way of this project temporarily. Although I've been drawing art related to this project and posting elsewhere, this blog is supposed to be the main base of this project; and no, I haven't dropped it. ;) If anything, I've been focusing more on story, background characters, and working on environments. All of which will be posted here in the near future.

Until I organize those posts however, have some pieces that were done mostly for fun. :) Although some of them do have a slight back story.

These contain some spoilers so don't read if you don't want that!

In my universe, Sonic, Antoine, and the Freedom Fighters do not know each other nor do they live in the same lands. Sonic and his adopted brother, Tails, live on a tropical floating island; while Antoine lives in an inclosed oasis in a desert and the FF live in a massive biotech forest. Well, slight correction, Antoine does know the Freedom Fighters, but has not seen them in a long time and specifically chooses not to for reasons I will not spoil. ;)

Despite being one of the shortest and stockiest of the bunch, he's actually the most physically flexible. With Sonic and Antoine being equal matches in slightly different areas.

I've always thought it would be kind of cool to have Max as the energetic one and Armand as the reclusive and more quiet of the trio, that trio being: Max, Armand, Ian. Armand's personality and past are heavily inspired by my mother's young personality and most of her past, which actually builds a large plot element with Armand in the future that is more close to the present.

But this piece takes place in a past before any real troubles affected Max or Armand and they were, for the most part, kids without a care in the world. In this particular piece, this is before they become close friends.

This was drawn after visiting a friend of mine from Dreamworks. His children were such a pleasure that their present and my past have been molded to form Antoine's before things end up going horribly wrong in the future for him and everyone involved. :(

I've only drawn Bunnie twice, and my has she changed... Odd that she ended up looking like my good friend, Dana. Accident, I promise! 

Bunnie has been renamed Jackie and is a hare/rabbit for many serious puns... Jack Rabbit, "Bunnie" Rabbit, and she likes hair. Haaaaaaah - I'm lame.

While I was away I've apparently been evolving. For the better though! So yaaaaaay. Compare the old art to the new. His back story changed a lot and I do mean a LOT. When I eventually get to this point of hte comic, and it has passed, I will probably go into detail how much his personality, purpose, and past have changed from my original concept. He's normally not this emo. But in this particular case he has a good reason for sobbing. Again, it's one of those plot elements I wont entirely spoil. But this conceptual incident takes place a few days before Sonic and he meet.