Been a bit quiet post MCM, however I have been laying groundwork for my next volume behind the scenes.
One area I thought I might highlight are these reworked model sheets for Apothecary Supreme’s central duo of Greta and Burkhard.
My original concepts for the characters were done a long time ago and frankly they haven’t aged well. Burkhard in particular wasn’t initially meant to be a mainstay and thus I drew relatively limited designs with what I now consider unsympathetic features.
The bigger problem arises from the fact I simply didn’t plan out all the details or take account of how the characters would look and move from every angle. As such, volume 1 has some slightly clumsy character evolution across its pages as I explored the designs and found looks that worked. Here, I’ve tried to stay reasonably close to the original look for the characters so they don’t appear too alien in issue two, but simultaneously ironed out inconsistencies and moved towards a more attractive aesthetic rather than the ‘figure it out later’ approach I of issue 1.
To emphasise the difference, I’ve included my original early concepts from years ago (below) to draw attention to what’s changed and what’s stayed the same with these designs. For the most part, I think the improvement is massive and at the very least boasts greater consistency across the various angles. Not to mention; Burkhard’s expressions don’t just include snooty and condescending…
As usual finding time for the comic between the day job is an uphill battle, but the pieces are falling into place nicely for issue 2. All being well my next meaningful update should be soon.
Growing Branch 