Crumbs: Concept Art and Character Analysis

Buckle up lovelies, this is going to be a long one.

Throughout this week as I am beginning work on developing the story, characters and relationships, I decided a good way to explore this would be through concept art. I intend to work on the writing aspects very soon but I consider myself to be quite a visual person and actually seeing the scenery, characters and so on are a must in helping me portray as much as I can correctly through writing.

I tried to do something different with each concept, exploring a character interaction or emotion that hadn’t yet been shown or properly developed. This is due to my desire to challenge myself and push Crumbs into something truly different and unique. I believe it’s all coming together nicely but I would definitely appreciate any advice or critique so that I can continue to aim for a high standard in my work. Please don’t be shy, you’d be helping me a lot and I’d be forever grateful!

 Here is the work I have done over the week. I aimed to get one finished piece of work a day at least and I am proud to say I have achieved that. In this entry, I am going to discuss the piece, the general idea behind it and what I like about it as well as anything I feel I could improve upon.

Tweak’s Flashback

Heh, sorry to say we’re starting on a bit of a sad note with this one. I can’t recall whether I was experiencing anything particularly gruelling emotionally to come up with this result. All I know was that I wanted to get more practice drawing a squab (baby pigeon to those not in the know) and explore a bit of Tweak’s psyche, showing why he is as paranoid and twitchy as he is. Whether this is just a horrible nightmare or an actual flashback of his hasn’t been decided yet. But it would certainly make a lot of sense as well as explain a lot about Tweak.

This picture was challenging in the sense that I’m not known for drawing anything particularly violent or macabre and I wanted to see what I was capable of on that front. I also wanted to create something that, while you didn’t see the full horror of what was going on, you’d get the idea from the shadow, blood and tearful baby pigeon. Ashleigh gave me the idea to make the shadow a red shade, which ended up being the reason most of the picture has a red tone. I think it works quite nicely for the most part.

 I like to think I’ve managed to achieve that and I’m certainly not disappointed in my first try but I think I need more practice and more opportunities to create such a piece. I’m also a bit worried that as effective as the red tone is, it’s distracting from Tweak, who is meant to be one of the main focuses. Any opinions on this would be much appreciated.

Cold but Warm

Drawn to make Rachel not kill me after making Tweak suffer such a horrifying vision and also to explore some of Tweak and Lilac’s relationship. Lilac has a very strong protective mother hen instinct with all of her friends and will always protect any weaker pigeon she comes across. This leads to Tweak becoming very close to her and adopting her as something of a surrogate mother, although this is neither confirmed or denied by the two. I don’t recall exactly why the picture became so winter themed but I’m going to assume I was cold at the time. Besides, it seems quite fitting.

I always want to improve my backgrounds and actually create a world for the pigeons to live in rather than have them float in midair in a void of nothingness. I think I’ve done quite well in creating a wintery early morning setting with that little bit of frost in the air. I actually feel a bit chilly looking at this... although that could just be the fact that I’m freezing at the moment.

I still need to get better at backgrounds and I’m a bit worried Lilac is quite hard to spot, blending in slightly with the sky. Again, any feedback is much appreciated!

I’m Outta Here

You might remember the sketch of Pink flying I did in Scotland last week.  It’s now been coloured and I decided to throw in a background and Green. Because... why not I suppose. This one didn’t really have any particular character interaction in mind, just an everyday scene you’d expect to see of a pigeon but with Pink and Green instead. Although I suppose you could say Pink got tired of Green’s bullshit and flew away. Whatever floats your boat.

I was quite lazy with this one I feel as I didn’t really have much to show in the background. It’s an angled shot looking up at the sky, all of which you can see clouds, sky and the corner of a building. I quite like the clouds and Pink and Green’s poses but other than that, there’s nothing particularly spectacular to mention, I think.

Flying High

This one needs a lot of context. It’s Rachel’s fault. On the way home from college on Wednesday night, she was saying how cruel I was to draw the ‘Tweak’s Flashback’ image and said that I could have put his paranoia and nervousness to a coke addiction- meaning the drink. With this hilarious understanding in mind, we both came up with the idea that Green, badgered by Lilac, decides to do something nice for Tweak and realises he has a love for coca cola. However, due to a misunderstanding, he ends up acquiring a bag of the powdered drug instead. He mistakes it for sugar, coming to the conclusion that “Eh, coke is mostly sugar anyway so what’s the difference?”

After Tweak has some, Green becomes curious and tries it as well... and... well... this. And yes, this is going to be in the comic. Goddamnit, Rachel.

This one took me all of Thursday to do. I had a bit of difficulty with the space background as I didn’t want it to appear juvenile but not too complex or busy either. I wanted to make it obvious they were (or believed they were) in space, totally tripping balls. I’m happy with the lighting and shading, I believe I’m improving on that part. Also, those faces crack me up. I made it my new twitter header pic. It looks like they’re looking up at me in wonder. I AM YOUR GOD NOW. BRING ME YOUR VIRGINS.

Crumbs Secondary Cast Line Up

Here we have some new character designs, although the middle one you may recognise if you’ve been following this blog for longer than a year. Scarlet’s design, mainly the legs, have been revamped. In all honesty, I didn’t really have much of an idea of what to do with her character from the beginning, hence why she hasn’t made much of an appearance until now. However, I’ve always intended to have her in the series and have been working on developing her post haste. I will also discuss a little bit about the three pigeon’s relationships with one another.

Scarlet is a Pouter pigeon that has been shown in many pigeon shows and won many awards due to her unique form. Now, she intends to bring down the Breadwinners, enlisting Blue’s help and training her to become an effective fighter should things get nasty. She has a very low opinion of Ginger, seeing him as a “snivelling brown beaking coward”, not worthy of her time or sympathy. Putting her views of the Dove Above aside, she is fond of Hope and admires her ability to forgive others for what they’ve done. Scarlet is much more likely to hold a grudge.

The other two pigeons have not been introduced before. The one on the left is named Ginger (different from Underdog Ginger, I should stress), a tumbler pigeon working in the breadwinner society. He is aware of their corrupt behaviour but his need to feel respected and admired is higher than his morals and principles. Because of this contributing to his low self image, he is quite easily offended, paranoid of other pigeons opinions of him and prone to hopping on anyone’s back if they disagree with him or voice their low view of the Breadwinners. He comes across as despising Blue but is secretly jealous of her bravery towards the society. He is quite cowardly, easily mislead and despises himself for getting in too deep with the society. Ginger is terrified of Scarlet, secretly relieved that she keeps away from him as much as possible. He has strong romantic feelings for Hope but feels that due to his self hatred and position in the Breadwinners that he is not worthy of her.

The one on the right is Hope, a devout believer in the Dove Above. Born from a 'long pure bloodline' of doves, she lives her life by the stories and morals that the Dove has taught. However, she is aware that they are not to be taken literally and what tales are outdated, which has her at odds with her family and say the Dove punished those thoughts with her disability, where she was born without front toes leaving her vulnerable to attack. This is one reason as to why she avoids physical conflict (although she keeps her beak sharp if need be) but it is mainly due to the fact that she doesn't want to spread anymore fear or hatred in the world as “there is more than enough already”. She is kind, accepting of others regardless of lifestyle and very forgiving but she can be quite wary of anything new or unusual, preferring to avoid Jay. She admires Scarlet’s bravery but is slightly scared of her and disagrees with her methods, especially disliking that Blue is her student in combat. While she doesn't agree with the Breadwinners or Ginger’s general attitude, she feels he is worthy of redemption... but that he needs to realise that for himself.

Anyway, that’s everything from this week. However, I figure I should also share a Christmas Card design that I did featuring Jay, Green and Pink. Some of you will actually be getting this on a card! Aren’t you all lucky? Run, RUN FOR THE HILLS!
I’m not gonna bother analysing this one, just a little funny Christmas caper.

(Don't worry, when the comic starts, I won't be using my own handwriting for the speech bubbles.)

And that's pretty much all I have to share. Whoo, what a long ride. OK, everybody off, glad to have you, don't forget to visit the gift shop!

Seriously, if you actually read all of this without wanting to kill me, thank you <3