Some real early expression sheets for Stan. Afterward we both agreed that he looked a little too laid back, with a " I'd rather make pottery then street fight" attitude. I then did the set of sketches below to 'liven' him up a bit.



It was'nt just his eye's that were the problem either. Stan was a project me and Jamar had tooled around with in prior years and in prior sketches he was more on the skruffy side. When I picked the character back up I was in this Manga school of thought where everything had to be clean shaven. Stans' design was influence by Spike Spiegel of Cowboy Bebop, so I suppose after awhile I sort of got lost in the sauce, losing the true essence of the character. The moral of this story? Sometimes references can either work with you or against you. There's a point where an artist must learn to work on his/her own feet.