Hi Everyone,
When I started this site, I wanted to have a small gallery of concept sketches of "Newt and John"...showing the various designs I created, that evolved into the final characters.
I finally had some time to put it together today, so I've gathered many of the earliest quick-sketches I did when trying to get a 'feel' for the characters several years ago. I included some early reference images, the first Flash Designs, and other details.
All of the designs should load up in the long Jpeg image below this blog entry.
Many of the early concepts were just quick thumbnail sketches in the first stages. Then, when I could see where the characters were going, I'd spend more time on the poses, and expressions, to give the characters personalities.
Newt evolved quicker than John. I knew his design would likely be simplified to the basic shapes. Initially, Newt started out as John's pet, and walked on all-fours. I figured if I was going to have any real dialogue, or create fun adventures with the characters, the 'all-fours' pose would be really limiting. As soon as I had Newt walking upright, his personality came out... and the design improved. I tried different eye styles, but the good old 'cartoony eyes' seemed the most suitable... and matched what I was designing with John. When Newt's design was brought into Flash, I gave him a smooth and clean flowing line design, where all lines lead back up to the character's eyes and mouth.... which is where all of the emotion and personality is shown.
Newt's colouring is based on a pet newt I had when I was a kid. There are really only 2 colours that I know of for newts. "Firebelly Newts" which are black with an orange belly, and these green 'speckled' newts, with bright orange spots on their back... which is the more suitable colour choice for a cartoon character. I gave him a lighter green belly to define the front side edge of his body, which helps define his 'front' when he's in various bent poses.
John took more time to work out. It was his face that I just wasn't happy with... that is, until I put the glasses on. As soon as he was wearing glasses, his eyes weren't too far apart around his spherical head, and there was a lot more 'character' there. I also wanted John to be the 'Brainy Scientist', so the glasses, and little bow-tie seemed to suit him well. In the early sketches, I went through so many big-head / simple body designs. I wanted John's arms and legs to be a single bent line, as I knew they'd be built in Flash, and a single line is very easy to bend into any pose. This concept made the most sense for his design, since ants have very thin legs.
John's colouring is obviously based on a red ant. There are only so many ant colours... black, brown, or red. I could have made him purple, blueish or another more cartoony colour, like the ants in Pixar's "A Bug's Life" for example, but knowing that red is a complimentary colour of Newt's green, it seemed like a reddish brown colour was the right choice.
When I designed these characters, I thought I'd do something right away with them... but life and work got in the way. It wasn't until a while ago that I felt I needed a new 'creative outlet' while working on my daily animation work. I was going through the many sketches in my "Idea Drawer" again, and I thought if I created a comic series with Newt and John, it would be a fun way to do something different that I haven't done before... as most times when I've designed a character, it's for animation projects. It's been great to be able to write creatively again, and have some fun with the dialogue. I hope you've enjoyed it too.
Cheers,
Mike Hogue - June 30th / 2007
