Some more work in progress.

IDW’s Sonic the Hedgehog issue #57 is out now!

Sonic the Hedgehog: Scrapnik Island #1 1:10 Retailer Incentive Variant

Art: Diana Skelly

This is so beautiful and took a lot of patience!!! ✊

Kit (and Surge) Design breakdown!

Ok! With Impostor Syndrome #1 out, I'm finally allowed to show the design process for Kit!

For those unaware, I co-designed Surge and Kit with Mauro Fonseca; he took the lead on Surge, and I did Kit, but we were discussing and swapping ideas back and forth the entire time. If I say "we" in the descriptions, that's who I'm talking about.

(partially a copypaste from Twitter, but I'll probably go into a little more detail)

Step 1:

I think this was the first drawing I did of Kit, based on the written description from Ian. I was aiming for kind of a bulky, old-timey diving suit sort of vibe to match Starline's steampunkish style. I was also playing with the idea that his water pack was full of something more like megamack (that wasn't in the description, I did that on my own).

Step 2:

Messing around with the colors, and streamlining shapes. The glove/shoe design was inspired by the SCUBA flag; while it was a neat idea, the yellow/turquoise meshed better with Surge's colors, which were mostly locked in already. The water drop marking motif came out properly at this stage, as well as the jumbo ears. The big water pack was lost so Kit would be able to hide his powers and look normal when needed.

Step 3:

We were asked to make Kit's eyes visible, so I worked up a couple options-- also, his muzzle got a little more foxy. the water pack returned, now in the shape of a typical Japanese elementary schoolkid's backpack, to complement Surge's Japanese delinquent vibes.

Step 4:

The first pass at the model sheet, and some ideation on his moveset! In the end his moves ended up being a lot more Mario Sunshine than Doc Ock, so take these with a grain of salt.

Step 5:

At this point, we started getting notes from Sega, massaging the details to a point where everybody was happy. I changed his glove/boot design to better mesh with Surge's punk style (the boots were an unused Starline boot design), and the backpack got sleeker and higher-tech. His ears were shortened to avoid the implication that he can fly like Cream, and he got taller to be closer to Tails' height. Also, the bangs were changed to be less cute, which the added bonus of them looking wet all the time.

Step 6:

And here's the final model sheet! Kit came together pretty quickly compared to other characters I've done.

Bonus step:

And I've got a little bit of Surge stuff! While I was there every step of the way as a sounding board and second opinion on Mauro's process, my main drawn contribution was in the form of alternate costume ideas. You can see her silhouette coming together in option #2.

I've hit the image upload limit, so that's that! A huge thanks to Mauro, David Mariotte, Riley Farmer, and Ian Flynn for collaborating with me on these designs!

So the last couple times I brought up the villagers who showed up in the 2019 Annual and today’s Issue, I had people bring up to me that they aren’t Wolves who could somehow be related to Whisper and are instead Fennec Foxes, and that got me thinking… Is there any evidence to support that they could in fact be Fennec Foxes and not Wolves? And inversly, is there any other evidence to support that they’re Wolves and not Fennec Foxes? 

I did a little digging through my old posts and on the Sonic Wiki to see if there was any other info on them that could give us any clues, and what I found was that their species isn’t actually brought up at all when they show up on the Wiki, meaning that what they are is left kinda up in the air and they could technically be anything. The Wiki also doesn’t mention any possible connection to Whisper though, but because I’m going purely off of visual similarities, then that makes sense. If there isn’t any more evidence to support that they’re related at all outside of just visual similarities, then there would be no reason to outright say that they’re related or that they could be related on the Wiki.

Also, I threw together a bit of a side-by-side comparison of the villagers and Whisper so you can see what they both look like and similarities between them that could be relevant…

Now, while I do agree that the villagers DO kinda look like Fennec Foxes (mainly because of the size of their ears), there also are so many similarities between them and Whisper that it seems like they were specifically designed to go along with her. While Whisper’s ears are a lot smaller, the style of them is pretty similar to the way the villagers’ ears look, and the facial coloring, their tails, and especially the fact that some of them have closed eyes like Whisper are the main things that make me think just by visuals alone that they could be related to Whisper, and if they are, then they would logically be Wolves. It is TECHNICALLY possible that they are in fact Fennec Foxes but are still related to her (like maybe their really distant relatives, or maybe Whisper is a hybrid between the two), but I still think it would be more likely for them to be Wolves, and the elder of them that shows up in both of their appearences could be like her Grandmother or something like that.

Another thing to consider is that we now have an actually confirmed Fennec Fox character in IDW in the form of Kit, and while he also shares a couple similar features to these villagers (such as the look of the ears and the cheek fur), there are less similarities I see between him and Whisper to them, so if I had to make a bet which of the two is more likely related to them, I’d still pick Whisper.

And now you’re probably wondering… Why the hell did I just break this down piece by piece when these are fictional characters and at the end of the day none of this means anything? Well, if you think about it, Whisper is the character in IDW with probably the most lore surrounding her, and there also are still quite a few things we don’t about her and the rest of the Diamond Cutters (such as how they came to be and the whole thing with Slinger apparently having a backstory), so I can see these villagers being related to Whisper as yet another layer of that that could tie the whole thing together. Maybe Whisper was somehow seperated from them or had to leave them to join the Diamond Cutters for some reason, or maybe someone else related to her was also a member of the group at some point before she stepped in to fill their place. Maybe the other Diamond Cutters were aware that Whisper was once a part of this group of villagers (possibly a Wolf pack) and they told them to go into hiding because of Eggman and that’s the reason why they were seperated and are now looking for her. There’s so many possible directions I can see this going, so to me, their appearences and the fact that they could be connected to Whisper seem like something that could very well become a very important plot-point at some point, and the fact they just now showed up again while Whisper is off doing her own thing means that that point could also be approaching.

The similarities aren’t a coincidence. The script for the annual story merely said the denizens within the pyramid base were "ultra cute fennecs”. Their designs beyond that were left up to artistic interpretation.

I wrongly assumed Whisper was a fox at the time. Or at least was borrowing previously approved design conventions. I made the Fennecs a snuggly family unit who were scrappy and resourceful enough to assert themselves in an abandoned base of all places. Hence why they’re using fabric and found objects that would be scattered about the base. 

Short in stature to portray vulnerability, but definitely a force of reckoning in their unity. I casted the most assertive Fennec in the script as an older, crafty grandma. A makeshift authority figure over the others in the absence of any big strong tanks to pummel any nefarious visitors. I made the concerned fennec in the script an anxious, younger kit who is using the shell of a dismantled e-series as a protective helmet.

The Fennecs do seem to keep popping up. While I’m not sure Whisper would be rekindling with Egyptian relatives, I do know the IDW team likes to keep the world connected in it’s own way.

"But how do you work around the whole 'no humans' thing? Do you make her a bird lady? Do you put her face out of frame?"

*GUSHING FOUNTAIN OF TEARS.*

idw prediction

ayo i found 2 pages with head angles of humans and animals, could be useful to anyone reading this

hoomans

animals

New animatic! In celebration of the upcoming IDW miniseries Bad Guys!

This is beautiful.