I remember mentioning sometime ago that I was feeling that FuZioN fever hitting me again and that I would possibly venture back into the TJ FuZioN Universe soon. Well, it's finally happened and today I present to you the New TJ FuZioN!:
 |
| Just don't ask me why he looks so surprised |
Well, maybe that was a bit of an exaggeration. It's more like a slight redesign of the old TJ. In fact, I decided while I was drawing that If my job was done right, then it shouldn't look like I did anything to him at all! I just recently realised that there are a quite a few adjustments to make when converting a character who's existed in black and white for so long into colour. Especially when it comes to my drawing style! Certain things just don't translate very well. Gone is the half-drawn grin thing that I liked so much (I know he's not grinning in this picture, but I just wanted to give an example of the sort of things that were considered during the process) as are the random "gaps" I left in his hair. There's also a more conscious consideration for shadows overall, which is where I think the most notable change comes from. I never used to shade his nose at all and it was a surprisingly long process to try and get it to look just right... and I still don't think I'm quite there yet!
While drawing these pics is the main focus of this entry, I also have another surprise. During the FuZion redesign I decided (on a whim) that a new signature/logo was needed for 2011. The old one was kind of random and a bit of a rip-off(which I openly admitted before!), so I worked on something a tad more original:
It's still random as hell, but at least it's all me! No. I didn't go through the "proper design" channels, so yeah it's somewhat unbalanced. Yes. The tail of the "Z" not 100% smooth. But you know what? I DON'T CARE. I like it. So there! Anyway, back to TJ: ...Actually, I think I've mostly said everything I could about the redesign... Except maybe I should mention that I didn't follow my usual MO when redesigning TJ(I guess I'm just a rebel like that) since I felt I already knew the character well enough to just wing it. Weird how it worked out almost exactly how I wanted it to...
The rest of these are just me playing around with different expressions and "face poses". I ended up adding a slight gradient on TJ's skin in an attempt to make his overall appearance more... 3-Dimensional. It's fairly subtle, but I think he ends up looking so much rounder and... bouncier. (always with the overwhelming vocabulary!)
This was just me messing around with overlays and textures. Just to make all this fairly simple mugshot that much more interesting.
And of course, I couldn't leave out the adorable Strike. Even though he's gone through a bigger change than TJ, all I basically did to him was make him fatter and more... defined, I suppose, along with the addition of the bare belly, which he never used to have. (how could I have left that out the first time?!) Y'know, what's actually quite amusing, is the amount people who were surprised that he was red. What other colour could he have been?!
I still have a long way to go before I'll be comfortable with starting the TJ FuZioN comics again. Not only are the characters going through a stylistic revamp, but the whole universe is getting a makeover. It's still gonna have a lot of the whimsical, offbeat humour(more like, attempt at humour) and the pubescent awkwardness that was so prevalent in the comics I did in high school, except, this time they'll also be a lot more at stake. This time there'll be real consequences! This time it's for realz.
