Hey everyone - time for another character design post for Tugboat.
This one is Mag, pictured below in her pilot's licence photo! What a cutie.
Her design is much more refined from the initial concept, pictured below. As with Adeline, the main adjustment is that she got much rounder. She also doesn't wear her glasses over her eyes anymore.
At the beginning of the first issue, which Hailey and I created for a comics class that I was taking at the University of Southern California, I realized that her face wasn't expressive enough. The goggles were cool, but didn't allow for the full range of emotions that I wanted her character to be able to convey. While she isn't as wild as Adeline, the two characters play off of each other in almost every scene. Mag is almost always the straight man for Adeline's antics - it needed to be clear what Mag was thinking at all times, so the goggles went up onto the forehead.
Next I did some different age tests - both for Mag and Adeline. Since part of the first issue included a flashback to several years previous, I had to figure out a consistent look that fit their characters appropriately.
And then I did a few combat sketches to see how they would move in a fight scene.
Then I practiced to make sure I was comfortable drawing her over and over again.
And then I made a turnaround for her!
And that was the development of Mag, our pilot! Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed!
As always, you can read the comic from the beginning at this website: https://zserbin.wixsite.com/tugboat