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Chance, of all the characters – except maybe Honeybear – went through the most iterations as Josh and I went back and forth on design. This first one was pretty swingin’, and I believe Josh was going for an angular design to contrast everyone else. But it almost seemed a little too sharp to me.
This next iteration went almost into the opposite direction… The trench-coat made him a little too much like Honeybear, and the face didn’t look Asian-American to me anymore. In fact, I think what Josh said was, “It’s really hard to make him look Asian-American to me anymore. Fun fact: did you know Chance was Asian-American? He is! Diversity!
This is the final-ish version of Chance Josh sent back… Without out and out drawing the guy, I suggested taking a look at Daniel Dae-Kim, particularly how his high cheekbones define his face. His handsome, beautiful… Point is, Josh figured out what I meant without actually doing what I asked, which is why he’s a good artist, and I’m terrible at describing what I want.
That said, I think the suit nails it.
Above is the first version of Ballard Josh sent to me, when we were throwing around designs. I don’t think I had much input, other than, “Maybe some more stubble? I dunknow.” Josh did that, added a donut, and magic was made:
I guess he also got much fatter, and more skeptical, which is also pretty consistent with the direction Ballard went in script wise. Yeah, that seems plausible. They bought it right guys? Guys?
Over the next few days, I thought it would be fun to highlight some of the great character designs Josh did for the lead up to Detective Honeybear. First up, Chief Dannon O’Neill! Who didn’t change too much!
That was Josh’s first take on him, and I think he nailed it right off. In fact, my non-artist comment was to push all the other characters in “that direction,” because I have no idea what I’m talking about. Also with this take, though, Josh sent a first look at what these characters might look like in a noir world:
Tomorrow: someone else!