I wanted to start this post with one of the first ever drawings I did of Flynn, waaaaaaay back in 2005.  Sadly, I can’t find it!  Somehow, my obsessive-compulsive need to backup files has failed me.  Anyway, it was a splendidly bad drawing.  I drew his head too thin, among other things.  I’m sure Tom remembers.  Maybe, one of these days, when I’m cleaning out my closet, I’ll stumble upon it and have a good laugh.  And then post it on the interwebz.

Anyhoo, let’s start with something fairly early on… Something like this:

Early Flynn Drawings, circa 2005

Egads.   So lifeless.  And a ‘tude face!  Aaaaaughghghghg.  I’d forgotten that I’d originally designed Flynn with curly hair.  How ’bout that?

Shortly after, I made the “illustration” below.  Interestingly, it was also my first attempt to create an entire piece of artwork in Adobe Illustrator (the tool I use today to ink pages of “Overtures”).

Early Flynn Illustration

I could not possibly have chosen a WORSE place for the fencing foil.  Seriously.  I facepalm so hard every time I see this, but it is quite amusing.

Oh yeah, that reminds me!  You may be wondering about the marks all over Flynn’s face.  Well, originally, Nemneblairi and Merifianans had etching-like marks all over their skin.  It was this peculiar property, along with metallic skin and hair tones, that made them stand out like sore thumbs compared to humans.  If you were wondering why Flynn’s skin and hair look rather oddball in “Overtures,” now you know why!  As for the etchings, Tom and I decided to do without them, having concluded that they gave me too much work, and made the face hard to “read.”

At some point or another, Tom and I started talking seriously about me doing illustrations of characters both from “Overtures” and another story he was working on.   One of the things we tried was figuring out the various appearances of humans in the Altair setting, based on country of origin.

Physical appearances of differen human nationalities

My sense of caricature was total weaksauce back then, and my “visual vocabulary” quite limited.  It’d be interesting to see what I would come up with nowadays.  A random piece of information: this was drawn during a phase in my life when everyone I drew had long noses.  I don’t know why, they just did.

Let’s see, what else do we have in the old files…?  Ah!

Early Wardrobe Design for Flynn

Flynn's Ball Gown

As you might see from the drawing on the left, Tom was nice enough to give me some leeway on Flynn’s costume in terms of the era it came from.  Even though much of Overture’s clothing design will come from the 1600s and 1700s, Flynn will often have a slightly more Victorian taste to his clothing choices (of course, this being a fantasy setting, a mixture of styles is more or less expected, I would think.)  I “explain it away” by believing that Nemnebliar is a little ahead of the game compared to the human nations when it comes to fashion.  Of course, the rest of the world just sees their style as downright queer, and – dare I say – foreign *sniffs*.

Early Attempt at Ophelia

A wee bit manly looking in this sketch, isn’t she?  Looking back at these old sketches, I’m realizing I’ve forgotten somewhat important things… Like that Ophelia’s hair is supposed to be curly, for example.  D’oh!

Ophelia Reclining

This is probably the “sexiest” drawing I have ever done to date.  I should try doing sexy drawings more often, just for laughs.

Flynn Has a Close Call

Hey, lookie here, Flynn and Ophelia having a bit of a scrap!  Is this going to happen in the story?  You’ll just have to wait to find out!  You may be wondering why they’re nekkid.  The reason is that I lost interest part of the way through, noticing how badly executed the drawing was at that point, and couldn’t be buggered to finish it.  This happens a lot in my sketchbooks, incidentally.  I’m not one to waste time trying to cover up a crappy drawing with a bunch of detailing; a polished turd is still a turd.

Oh!  Speaking of Flynn and the ladies…

Flynn and MYSTERIOUS (bald) WOMAN in an Embrace

He and this MYSTERIOUS (bald) WOMAN are in a embrace!  Who is this MYSTERY (bald) WOMAN, and is she in the story?  Who knows?!  (Well, Tom and I know, but uh… Yeah.)  This sketch was left mysteriously unfinished.  Weird.  It’s not that bad of a drawing.

Early Concepts for Sveringen's Face

This is just a small, small sample of facial variants I drew up as possibilities for Sveringen during the time.  Nearly every sketchbook I’ve filled since 2005 (which is a sizable collection, I assure you) is littered with various “Overtures” characters.  If I was ever without a muse, Tom’s writing and concepts were there to save the day.  I still like the face on the top-right.  It’s rather ratty, isn’t it?

Sveringen with his Wand

Sveringen with His Wand, Again

Sketches of Sveringen with his wand.  I think these were drawn mid-2006.  I can’t remember if I even ever showed Tom the second one.  Hm.

Preacher Man

These are early drawings of a character that appears late in the “Overtures” story.  Don’t worry, he’s receiving a design overhaul before he shows up.  Mega-overhaul.

Bruno!

Hey, check it out, it is – I think – the first ever drawing of Bruno’s face.  I see I was still fighting off the “everyone must have long noses” phase here.

Haughty Female

I had a class back in college in which we learned a little bit about Painter, a digital painting program.  On the first or second day of goofing around with the program, I thought of “Overtures” and drew this, a sort of generic background character.  Gotta love the melon boobs.

Flynn Heads

Uuuuuaaaaagh!  ‘TUDE FACE, ‘TUDE FACE, ‘TUDE FACE!  Evil!  Seriously folks, ‘tude faces are a sure sign of a lazy artist.  It is one of the most over-used catch-alls today, especially in animation.  And yes, Sveringen currently uses a lot of ‘tude faces in “Overtures”; I’m working on it.  ‘Tude faces are okay on occasion, inside the right context, but using it as a default expression is just bleh.

I think I’ve tortured you all enough with the old crap.  Now for the newer crap!  Wee!

There’s not much to say here (read: Amy is getting tired of talking about her own artwork), it’s mostly images of characters’ evolution in appearance.  You can also see where we started out with a much more “I ARE SERIOUS COMIC” look, and slowly made our way into a comfy place somewhere around “fun and stylized.”

Flynn's Evolution

Bruno's Evolution

Sveringen's Evolution

Drummond's Evolution

Drummond Caricature

I’m going to pause for a moment here, because the above caricature of Drummond was a pivotal moment in “Overtures”’s visual development.  This caricature ended months of struggle to find just the right look for “Overtures”; Tom and I fell in love with the tiny-bodied, mega-domed Drummond, and knew this is the direction we wanted to take things.

Looking on this (and the following image) with a fresh eye makes me realize that I’ve been flubbling horribly on Drummond since the second page… I completely forgot his adorably huge forehead!  I could just kick myself!  I kept wondering why my drawings of him lacked the appeal of my character sheet… it’s because I wasn’t USING the dadgum character sheet!  Gah, bad me!  I can assure you, this will be rectified in scene 02.

Drummond Character Sheet

Random Ophelias

Ophelia has given me problems from the start.  I have to say that I’m still not happy with the way I draw her, so she will likely go through many changes in the course of the comic.

Style Line-ups

A comparison of styles.  The top row is Before Caricature of Drummond (B.C.D.), and the bottom is After Caricature of Drummond (A.C.D.)

Here’s a little bit of randomness:

Flynn was enjoying his morning tea. UNTIL---!

If you’re interested in seeing a few more development images, you can see them at my sketch blog (which is in desperate need of an update.)  I will forewarn you, however, that it contains images of characters not yet seen in the comic, and may have spoilers.

Welp, back to the ol’ grind.  I hope you’ve enjoyed this little blast to the past.  This is Amy, signing off!

I know it’s been a while, but I’m pleased to report that our Map Room is fully operational, not entirely unlike certain planetoid-sized battle stations.  I’ve inserted brief descriptions of each location below its respective map, with copious links to our lovely Codex.

Also, there’s a new page of Overtures!