The Design Process

The first semi-coherent iteration of this story began in 2022. I've selected a few older pieces of art to showcase the character design process.

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May 2022: The earliest color drawing of the characters. Featuring (from left to right): The Entity, MICHAEL, M. Leigh and Shelly (and MICHAEL again for some reason).
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Jun. 2022: MICHAEL was supposed to originally wear one of M. Leigh's former wigs. I ended up dropping the wig idea in the end and just gave him a severe combover instead.
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Jun. 2022: An early version of Charles and Lillian. The aesthetics for The Saucer People at this point were pretty different.
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lmao
Jul. 2022: I just thought this one was funny. I'm still kind of proud of this piece.
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Aug. 2022: M. Leigh was supposed to constantly cycle through a bunch of dresses from the 1910s. This ended up being more difficult to draw than I expected. Also featuring MICHAEL wearing a blond wig.
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Sept. 2022: Maria (named Margaret at this stage) was originally supposed to be Ben's twin.
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Oct. 2022: Shelly went through so many different hair/outfit changes. Here we can see a blonde version of her.
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Oct. 2022: Charles and Lillian were a real pain in the ass to figure out design wise. Here's an unsuccessful drawing featuring their younger selves. Also featured in this drawing are a young M. Leigh and Shelly West.
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Feb. 2023: The brunette on the end was originally supposed to be Ben's ex-wife. I ended up using the design for Lillian Armstrong in the end.
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Mar. 2023: A drawing of M. Leigh's family tree and an early Gloria design that I did not end up using. I ended up using an older character's design for Gloria in the end.
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Apr. 2023: An early attempt at a comic.
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Nov. 2023: I was trying to create a brush/stamp to use for texture in the comic. The drawing you see here is the first successful result. This helped create the general look of the comic going forward.

©Vincent Mena 2023