Bridget (Early Concepts)

Here's another set of early concept drafts of my characters! This time, it's all about the brainy engineer Bridget Boltron.

Wait a minute...is this even the same character?!

Yup...out of all the gals I've been designing lately, Bridget is the ONLY one who had her whole genus changed in the process! She started early on as a goth girl mongoose with a rebellious streak...admittedly because I wanted a token goth.

This would become a problem.

While her refined Mongoose design turned out pretty solid (see images 1 + 2), I did end up feeling like I wasn't sure what I wanted to achieve with the "token goth". Months would pass with her concept in limbo. I tried a few things like make her an hockey athlete or punk rocker...but these vague ideas never stuck.

At some point I decided the issue might have been her species - her facial structure and overall shape didn't stand out very well. This was when I started experimenting with her Mouse design instead. Stumpier legs and large ears made for a better overall silhouette.

All this while, I was also struggling to design the world she lived in. At one point it was even post-apocalyptic, where she was kind of a scavenger/biker instead.

It would take MANY more months before I felt confident enough to overhaul her one more time - this time swapping her personality completely into the nerdy and overly energetic engineer she is today. When I redrew her from the ground-up this time (see the last image), I immediately knew...

...This was finally the one.

A design that was equal parts spunky, cute, and eye-catching.

It's definitely a shame that I had to cull the goth aesthetic from Bridget - but in the end, I recognized that it was holding her back from having a more outlandish and memorable vibe.

That band-aid bikini still looks like fun though...hmmmm. :3c