I was inspired by a Facebook post by Usedbooks to think about this one.

Designs and art can often change a lot over time on main characters and often you don't even notice it.
I would love to see how people's characters have change over time!

Bellow are pics of Pinky and Cc…

Earliest Ccs from 1997.


1998


Cc from 2007:


2016:

Pinky from 1998:




Pinky AND Cc from '98


More from '98




Pinky AND Cc from 2000:


Pinky and Cc from 2003


Pinky from 2004:




Pinky from 2013:

Neat, oz! I like seeing the different art media as well as how your style and concepts changed. (I always dig the vibrant colors.)

I haven't been drawing nearly as long as you. My characters were “born” at the beginning of 2007. I figured I'd pull out this original concept art for my main characters (Kaida, Seiko, Yuki, and Jiro)



Instead of looking at a timeline, I took a snapshot at periods in “comic time” (page numbers) around every 200 pages. I figure it's a good measure for how many times I drew these characters.

Kaida:

Seiko:

Yuki:

Jiro doesn't evolve at all.

Cats remain constant. No matter how much everything else changes, they remain the same.

That's cool UB
It's really a treat to see how characters evolve over time! I wish we had some more people posting examples here.

Yeah, I remember seeing your style change as you've been posing updates on DD over the years. A lot has changed!

Wow Ozone those are so cool, you've been working with those characters for a long freaking time! Those paintings from 98 of Pinky's face are downright rad!

Usedbooks, it's great to see how your characters have changed as your art improves, I like how you categorized it by page count I wish I'd done it that way! (I was going by month on one of mine haha it's too big) Jiro remains consistently adorable :D

I've got another one with Zeno almost done, but here is Charby's evolution!



(Not pictured but there was a noticeable slump in the spring of 2006 that continued into 2007 when I was deeply depressed and updating slowed to a crawl I went from daily to every-other day to maybe once a month at that time) 2012 I had to go to a ReVamped page because he didn't appear in the main story all that year but I was working on ReVamped at the time! I included a comparison of old vs ReVamped at the bottom too!

Like me, they've only gotten sexier.

Here's Zeno



2006 Zeno looks like he wanted to die too. Isn't it weird how you sometimes think something looks fine at the time then go back and it's like someone else entirely drew it?

2012, much like with Charby, didn't feature Zeno so I put in a drawing I did at the time for the hell of it.

Wow Amy! There's been so much Chart in that time!
Chevy and Zeno have both evolved from ultra cutesy demonic imps into sleek, lithe, Gothic gentlemen.

PIT_FACE wrote:
Like me, they've only gotten sexier.

true

It's neat to see the metamorphises, Amelius! I can see how your style adapted and was refined.


I started with a “how to draw manga” book, but the “anime” proportions were awkward for me and I never could get it right. So it morphed into a more comfortable style.

Seeing characters and artists develop is one of the special beauties of webcomics. Love this idea.
So I decided to dig up some of my earliest character drawings and have a go, too. Hope you enjoy.

bravo1102 wrote:
Cats remain constant. No matter how much everything else changes, they remain the same.

Well, bravo, let's see if you're right:

Ok, you probably are. ;)

And one more - as we say in Bremen: “three times is a Bremen citizen's right” (meaning something like all good things come in threes, usually as a kind of toast).

I'm just loving seeing these transformations over time!! My comic has only been active for 4 years so my character concept (how I see Kimber Lee) hasn't really changed any… just my ability to depict has improved a bit!

Jupiter and Otto about two years ago:



Jupiter and Otto now:

Okay, I'll play.

Here are some comparisons of one of my characters “The Maniac” going back to 1979. I've been drawing him since 1977 or so.

@plymayer Wow that guy's been around a while. I like the look of him.

I recently made a montage of all the images I could find of my character Ben, who I've been drawing since I was 7.



He hasn't evolved that much, but he has taken on a few different forms. I try to keep the essence of the character, even if I'm drawing him as a red-headed tenticle monster.


He never appeared in my main comics, except for this short strip.

Panman wrote:
I recently made a montage of all the images I could find of my character Ben, who I've been drawing since I was 7.

I really love this behind the scenes kind of stuff. Nice to see where things have been before we go into the future.

I really love this behind the scenes kind of stuff. Nice to see where things have been before we go into the future.

Yea I tend to view my past drawings as a smorgasbord of images and characters that I can raid for new projects.

Here's my characters Phineus and Sara from 1991 thru today.

Claudita through the years. My only recurring character in Brood Knight and MAG-ISA / PARA-SAYO.

That's pretty cool.
Love all the new stuff.
Phineius, Jupiter, Mag-isa, Master and Tiger, Maniac!
It's call the changes they go through.

Do you guys prefer the current looks to your characters or the past looks?
I think my fave Pinky is 2004 Pinky.

I'm still a work in progress. :P So my most recent pages should always be my preferred.

I have to say my favorite styles are the fan art. I'm partial to Luminous's renditions:



This was the third piece of fan art I got, so it was made with only my 2007 (<100 pages in) “art” to reference:


Seriously, the cutest style.

GOOD point!

This pic by Alejkhan influenced Cc's outfits in in the pages I did afterwards:




This pic by Noelle Dreves gave Pinky a level of hardcore badaresery I haven't achieved with her yet… But she'll get there eventually :)

Just realised my character Candy/Candice is about a decade old since I started drawing her in 2006.

This is how she originally appeared in the comic that was a very early version of Capefall:


This is how she appeared in the short horror comic Blood Zombie in 2008:

(Full comic http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/The_Curse_of_the_Blood_Zombie )

This was my experimenting with different designs in 2008-2009:


This is her current watercolour version from Capefall (2013-present)

http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Capefall/

Hmm well, visually:









As you can see, from passed out drunk to fully rehabilitated. Now not so much carrying the stigma of his alcoholic origins.

(Yes, the initial one is done in HeroMachine). As you can see, there has been the odd character design change since the initial concept. xD

I actually prefer the colour effect in the initial version but I haven't been able to replicate it since. :( The appearance of the suit itself is constantly changing so it's actually okay that it looks different from appearance to appearance.