The Chronological Wheeler - Part 1: 2002-2008

I’ve been looking forward to covering Wheeler because he’s the oldest of the Lesser Than Three cast by far - the earliest pic of him I could find is from 2002! You wouldn’t know it by how irregularly he appears in Lt3, but he’s probably the favorite child overall (Don’t tell Eli). Hopefully he’ll get more chances to shine in the future!

2002

The absolute earliest Wheeler I could find! Don’t ask me what’s up with his legs, I’m assuming that was some kind of Sonic the Hedgehog influence - or I was just bad at drawing, that’s a fair guess too. Keep an eye on his outfit, he will continue wearing a variation on this one straight up until modern day.

He’s a little edgier in the second picture (And now he’s got Gum-Gum Fruit powers in all of his limbs, apparently). I wanted to say that was because of Bleach, because I distinctly remembered taking some mild inspiration from Ichigo when drawing Wheeler early on, but that would have been closer to 2004 so I guess he just decided to be edgy on his own. What in the world kind of shoes are those? Why do they have a handle? No wonder he stopped wearing shoes.

2003

Quick redesign that I wasn’t quite happy with so I ended up abandoning it. The one thing that stuck for a while is that he’s more or less proportionate from here on out.

2006

As I said, back to his 2002 look with minor modifications. At this point I really didn’t have any plans for him, and I don’t think I gave much thought to his personality etc so he doesn’t have much going on. Part of the Bleach influence is probably how lanky he is - while Wheeler has definitely grown out of that look, I do think it would be a fun challenge to design a tall, lanky bear character sometime. This vest design in particular is where you can really see the inspiration for his modern vest with the thick collar, oversized zipper and the style of the trim. He’s settled into a pair of shoes that look mildly more normal as well.

2007

Up until now he hasn’t looked that much like a bear, funny enough his first picture is the most bear-like so far. I decided I wanted to tackle that a bit. Technically it was a success, but can you say he looks more like a polar bear? Maybe not, but it’s still an improvement. This was the first time I colored him (Copics and Photoshop!), and his palette is pretty similar to what you’re familiar with. His vest was simplified a bit by removing it’s pocket.

This was probably the most ambitious picture I had drawn at the time and I still look back at it fondly. The guy on the right is Chos, Wheeler’s buddy who had some pretty severe growing pains as far as his design - this is around when I started getting satisfied with Chos' design, and the couple of more modern pictures I’ve drawn of him actually aren’t too far from this one. You might be able to tell from here that his personality is one that’s currently very lacking in Lesser Than Three, I’d like to re-introduce him sometime down the road.

2008

And here’s one I do not look back on fondly, but it’s still worth including. The pose was a little too ambitious for me at the time, but how did that bleed into the face looking so off? Notice his guitar is a Guitar Hero guitar and realize how many of my interests you can see through this guy up until now. Remember this pic for 2009 and then forget it right after, please.

Whether it was a response to the last pic or not I took another stab at Wheeler’s design and this one set the standard for quite some time. While Wheeler’s current design was definitely the right direction, this one is still really nostalgic for me. It’s also probably the record for how long he will wear a single pair of shoes before he stops wearing shoes entirely.

I'm doubly glad I made this design change in 2008 because the thought of ending this post with the guitar hero pic made my heart sink for a moment.