A Bit on the Side

Originally, I planned on using rather realistic art for Machine City. The problem with that was twofold. One, although I can do that style on paper, it's extremely hard for me to do it on a tablet. Two, it takes too much time. Through the tablet, that would have produced characters looking (uncolored) something like:



Then I got into a cartoony-cartoon kick. Cartoony-cartoons are great. They're expressive, easy to draw, and clear as a bell. Using a cartoony-cartoon style, the characters would have looked more like...



or



While these cartoons have many advantages, they also have a big disadvantage: they're funny. At first glance, people will assume it's a comedy. That's not the end of the world, but it's not suitable for the mood I was going for, which was not purely comedy. (I've never been able to write pure comedy. I always get sidetracked by, you know, substance.)

So I ended up with characters that were simplified but not too incredibly cartoony:



These are relatively easy to draw, which means I can draw a lot of them. That's important, since it's just me, and there's at least two dozen characters all in all. Many of whom need literally dozens of graphics. That's not including enemies, backdrops, weapons...

Anyhow, I'm back on the job.