To help Wing with the character design, I made up two lots of mood boards filled with photographs of both me and my sister. I'd seen Wing's character design before and I loved the style she worked with, so I didn't give her any instruction on how I wanted them to be drawn; I simply told her I wanted my character to have the parting in my fringe, and I wanted Maressa to have pigtails and to be shorter than my character as she was younger.
Young Mood Board
Old Mood Board
Wing started off by drawing the two of us based on the images I had sent to her. I told her I liked the style, but they were more realistic than what I was expecting. Later, Wing showed me sketches where she had focused on making the characters simpler. I was very pleased with how they were developing, and we discussed which elements of which sketches I thought worked best. Though to be honest, I liked them all! In the end we decided a combination of all the sketches would likely work the best.
Wing's Initial Drawings
Simplified Sketches
She had also made a start on drawing the adult characters, but I later told her that I had changed my story idea slightly and that I wouldn't be needing adult characters after all. However I told her she was free to complete them if she liked for her own portfolio of work, and that I would still feature and credit any designs in the art book.
Wing's Adult/Child Sketches
The character designs were completed by the time we had come back to work after the Christmas Holidays, and I was really pleased with how they looked. It's been a pleasure having Wing create my characters for me, as she took on board what I had to say about her drawings and always seemed enthusiastic about the project. I've had no issues working with her as we kept consistent communication about progress, and I would love to work with her again! She's really gone above and beyond what I was expecting.
Me
Maressa
Character Comparison
