Comic: Black Cat Page 2 [Process & Character Design]

Page 1 | Page 2

Alright! We got page 2, everybody! This page was significantly easier to do because it wasn't just 4 panels of highly detailed background in perspective, it's just character close-ups and dialogue, and I could KINDA SORTA get away with copy-pasting some of the lineart, because I'm a cheater and cheaters do prosper.

For today's process, I'll talk a little about how I designed these characters! I'm going to be honest with you, I'm not the biggest fan of my own style of drawing people. It's stuck somewhere between realistic and stylized in a way where I'm not happy with either, but one of my many motivations for starting this project was to see if I could change that.

So there are two main characters in this comic: Theodore "Theo" Reyes and Victor "Vick" Bonaire. Here's how they were officially introduced in the script:

They're supposed to be opposites, personality-wise (Vick's the skeezy bad-boy and Theo's the innocent anxious kid-brother type). The dialogue makes that clear, but it also has to come through with their visual look.

I started with Theo. In my mind he was the bigger challenge because he's the sympathetic character, the Heart of the Story, and he carries a lot of the emotional elements of the plot. So his design has to serve all the emotions he gets to have. I knew I wanted him to be soft, round, friendly-looking, and expressive. Here is a small selection of the million billion development sketches I did of him.

(Hot tip, drawing a character design x100000 really helps solidify their design and gets you consistent at drawing them. Don't dive into a project with a beautiful & detailed character sheet for a character you've only drawn once because you WILL suffer.)

So you can see, I really focused on a round jaw, round nose, poofy hair, big eyes, and big ol' eyebrows. All things that point to him being a Soft™ boy. Later on I gave him EVEN BIGGER eyebrows, slightly longer hair, and some accessories (pierced ears), but the rest of him remained about the same.

My friend does this "face claim" thing for writing where she thinks about what real-life actors she'd "cast" in the role to help her visualize their mannerisms, and I've kind of gotten into doing that, but for aesthetic purposes. So for Theo, I referenced the actor Tony Revolori for inspiration, particularly the hair.

Next was Vick. I had a pretty clear image of what I wanted him to look like, which ended up being a bad thing because I COULD NOT MAKE THE SKETCH LOOK THE WAY I VISUALIZED HIM. So I guess, life hack, don't get too committed to a design in your head unless you can execute it, which clearly I couldn't.

Here are some of the sketches:

Compared to Theo, he's pointier — sharper lines, narrower eyes and eyebrows, piercings because it makes him look more punk. I kept changing his features except for his slicked-back hair because I felt like it suits his greasy-ass personality. I referenced the actor Chase Williamson for Vick because he has that exact same smirky loveable dirtbag vibe going on (as an aside, I love Chase Williamson, he's hilarious and makes the best facial expressions and I wish he'd be in more things).

Here's a very quick awkward messy sketch of both ya bois:

With their faces settled, I did their outfits. Since this story mostly takes place over the course of maybe 2 hours, they don't get any outfit changes. Despite my love of zany fashion, their clothes aren't super complicated, because as my actual comic artist friend told me: "the best character design isn't a cool one, it's one you can draw easily, because you WILL be drawing it a hundred thousand times." Words of wisdom.

I had Theo wearing a tracksuit in the script, but I decided I didn't want him to look like a Jersey mobster, so I put him in a big old hoodie, jogger sweatpants, and generic sneakers. I was into how soft and slouchy his clothes looked, which seemed to fit his personality. That white square design on his sweater is actually the most crucial detail about his outfit because he spends most of this story (spoilers!) holding a black cat (title drop!), and you had to be able to see the cat against his chest against the hard shading. Just. As a fun fact.

In the script, Vick's wearing a camo military jacket (based on a jacket I own lmao) but camo is hard to render in black-and-white, so now it's one of those trendy bomber jackets. I know every bad-boy character gets a black leather jacket, but a black leather jacket with all the black shading would just be too much. He also gets a v-neck t-shirt, cuffed jeans, boots, and rings. I really feel like he, unlike Theo, would be the kind of guy to put some effort into his appearance, so he gets to be more fashionable and flashier and punkier than his pal.

Anyway! That's all I have to say about how I designed these characters. Here's this page in the script, and how it translated into the finished product, from sketch to shading. It's ... much messier than the last page, since shading human beings is HARDER than shading inanimate objects.

Okay! That's the end of that NOVEL on character design that I'm barely even qualified to write. If you made it down here, thanks for reading, and stay tuned for Page 3 y'all!