Character development

Reference Images

It is important for me to look at reference images because I want to draw a consistent breed of spider and don't want the comic to vary hugely. Below are a few key images I found that show the kind of spider I want to draw. I think they are very identifiable and also aesthetic. Due to the fact that the spiders are the heroes of the story I wanted to make sure the spiders I drew were more acceptable and friendly looking.

Taking my reference images and planning how my spiders can look. I really liked a piece of art work I had done previously of a bee and thought that it would be really nice to incorporate that style into the spiders. I think this style would help the spiders look allot more friendly and would set them up to be the protagonists. I also looked at some more reference images to help confirm some design decisions such as the striped legs.

 This is a spread showing a 360 view of one of the spiders hanging which I thought would help me remain consistent within my design decisions throughout the project as I can refer to this. I also wanted to check that these designs would work on the orange background I planned to use so I added a sample orange section and I think they work really effectively together.

As a keen animator I couldn't help animating a 360 view of my spider hanging/spinning on a web. 

Cockroach reference images 

Similarly to the spider I continued to use reference images alongside drawing my final cockroaches which was really important because I didn't realise how intricate a cockroaches wings were. I also experimented with colour combinations one staying true to the colouring of my sample image and one which was inverted to keep with the Greek Urn aesthetic. I think for this project the Greek urn style works much better and an orange cockroach would blend in with the background too much.

More clean cockroach outcomes with the Greek urn style that I really like. I drew the cockroaches in multiples rather than individual images because I thought it would reflect more of an uncomfortable atmosphere which is what I aim to create with the cockroaches.