March WIP - Kit or maybe Piper, the Lady Explorer

[baileyvidler]

I am really excited about this month's prompt! Here's a quick overview of the character I'm drawing:

Her name is either Kit or Piper. She's 12-14 years old and from the Victorian era. She's an explorer and a scientist. She's inspired by the Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge which funded people to go study nature and make scientific discoveries. She's curious, confident, and head-strong. (And really, really stubborn.) She's on a mission to make the most ground-breaking discovery the world has ever seen.

Here are my scribbly costume thumbs.

I've narrowed it down to these three, which I'm trying to decide between. I'd love to hear what you think and which is your favorite!

[Asyas_illos]

Definitely b!

[shereen said]

I like C!

[carrieannebrown]

@baileyvidler I like c but maybe with pants like b but more volume. And hair of A

[Valerie Light]

I LOVE these! Even from your rough sketches, I would want to pick up a book with her on the cover. I'm drawn to the strong silhouette of B, but maybe with a hat. Really they're all strong options.

[braden H]

My vote's for 'B'

[Jeannelle]

I like B. I can see the curly hair helping you out with the poses for when she's being stubborn and maybe getting herself in crazy adventures.

[Jacy13]

@baileyvidler I'll also vote for B

[Niels]

I like the silhouette of B, but think C works the best for your description.

[baileyvidler]

Thanks, guys for your input! I really appreciate it! This is one of those situations where I was totally leaning one way and then literally everyone picked the opposite of what I was planning, hah.

I was enjoying her chunky gloves, so much that I thought, "What if she was a falconer??" So now she has a bird, which veered a bit away from my initial concept, but I think it may be a tad more interesting.

I might change the hat. It's more "cowboy" than I had intended. Does it look "cowboy"?

Here's my sheet composition, which I made through some marvelous copy-paste hack-and-slashery of my final-ish design. Tomorrow I'll redraw it in the correct poses.

Thanks for looking!

[Jacy13]

@baileyvidler I love the falconer concept! I think it does add to her overall story and gives her more character

As far as her hat goes, I think it looks good. I didn't read it as cowboy, but maybe some others can chime in and tell you what they initially thought.

I'm excited to see the finished piece!

[baileyvidler]

Thanks, @Jacy13! Plus, who doesn't love a good animal companion?

Glad to hear that it doesn't look like a cowboy hat to you! Maybe it'll look clearer once it's more cleaned-up!

[Niels]

@baileyvidler Now you said cowboy I can’t unsee it ;). It would be interested to see what multiple hat designs do to the ‘character’ of your character (does this sentence make sense in English?). A small thing though, and of course this is just a rough sketch, but it feels a bit like her hat is floating on top of her head instead of really on it.

[KevinTreaccar]

@baileyvidler My 2 cents: I didn’t see Cowboy until you said it and color can pretty easily distinguish between outfits that are pretty similar to begin with (cowboy and outdoor explorer/scientist). Just make sure you don’t have chaps and stick with a greener rather than browner outfit and it will lean more toward a forest environment instead of western desert aesthetic.

[baileyvidler]

@Niels Hah! As usual, I am the instrument of my own downfall! Thanks for the tip on the floating hat! I do that ALL the time, so I'll make sure to keep an eye on that.

@Kevintreaccar Good point about color! Although a shame on the chaps; I personally feel like chaps enhance EVERY character design!

[KevinTreaccar]

@baileyvidler Exactly. I want to remind Will Terry every time he’s building his list of what’s needed for a character – CHAPS!

[baileyvidler]

Progress! I'm trying to focus on making my characters less stiff, as that's a tendency of mine.

I did one version with a hat and one version without. I think I like the hat.

[Kevin Longueil]

@baileyvidler I like it with the hat too. Love the running pose!

[baileyvidler]

@Kevin-Longueil Haha, thanks! I think that was my favorite pose to draw. Nothing like an angry herd of wild pig-rhinos to get your cardio in!

[ruth]

@baileyvidler She's great! With the hat gets my vote! Don't forget to switch her arms in the running pose - opposite arms and legs