The Chronological Elijah - Part 2: 2016 - 2021

2016

The quest to make sure Eli looks like an otter continues! A decent amount of people could tell already, but I also had people asking what kind of cat he was so that was always in the back of my mind. His body moved towards more of an otter shape - especially his sloped shoulders - so he looks a little less like person with an otter head. My next thought was that otters tend not to be solid colored - so I tried playing around with his palette a bit. Giving him a slightly more ‘natural’ coloration kinda makes him look like a different character, doesn’t it? I ended up going for a middleground between the two here.

And the next thing was to get that snoot under control. Which was a good call, since this design is pretty close to how he looks today!

2017

In Sonic the Hedgehog terms this is where I went from ‘Classic Eli’ to ‘Modern Eli’. I merged the fur pattern I had experimented with with his original color palette and Lesser Than Three history was made. One of the last major revisions here is that I amputated a finger on each hand, because I actually kinda hate drawing five-fingered animal paws but kept doing so because he has five fingers all this time. No longer!

Remember that Eli I drew in the front of my sketchbook? It took six years but I finally filled it in! I’m glad I ended up doing this since the change in design was even more drastic than I expected. I’m not sure if this is the first time I drew them, but you can see his paws are webbed too! This might have been the last time I drew his original outfit too.

Incidentally, this was the last time I filled up a sketchbook even though I started two different books since then…

2018

For the most part he’s pretty consistent from here on out! I did stop drawing some of his wrist accessories on this particular outfit for whatever reason though. The original version of this picture had him looking all grumpy - this version was used for various banners and a bit of Patreon promotion. Enjoy the clutter-free smiling version as a bit of an exclusive!

I continued to make him a bit sleeker too and now he’s around peak otter. It’s also the first time I drew the outfit that would kinda be his new default. I really like the shapes in the top left sketch a lot, and even though I modernized the middle Eli for an avatar later, that particular sketch has a charm that I just can’t replicate, haha.

2019

Not exactly an update, but this is mostly where I started being completely happy with Eli’s design! He’s been pretty comfortable to draw from here out except…

… When I realized I managed to not to draw him from the side for quite some time. Model sheets? What are those? I struggles through this comic page before sitting down and really figuring it out later. I partially include this page to show the change in his side profile, but mostly because the last panel is still one of my favorites, ha.

2020

There! Now he looks like an otter from the side too.

2021

And that brings us to today! He’s pretty much the same as he has been for the past couple of years, but it’s of this year that I changed his nose slightly again to be a little smaller and more otter-shaped.

And there you have it! It’s taken 12 years and a ton of changes for Eli to be the otter he is today. I think it’s pretty natural for a character to change after so long, but I give myself a lot of leeway to make changes with my Lesser Than Three characters   even if it makes the comic itself inconsistent - as long as I’m happy with them in the end! I hope you enjoyed this look at Elijah over the years, it was pretty fun for me to put together! I’m looking forward to doing it all over again next month.