New Sam, who dis? (WIP) (Patreon)

I'm chipping away at the Samuel redesign, and it's turning out quite a bit different. I mean... it's VERY MUCH is a redesign.

I didn't anticipate it honestly, because Sam is one of the characters I felt worked pretty decently right off the bat, and people enjoy the design as well.

But the original pose just felt a tad clumsy. I wanted it to have a bit of swagger because of who  Sam is, but it just felt a little off like a little low energy, hunched over, which is fair enough. Over time, one of course gains a better understanding of the characters and how they should feel, so it makes sense that this might happen.
When I started and experimented, it just eventually led me down the path of a complete redesign because the current pose felt like it didn't allow me to do what I wanted to do.

So this is where we ended up here! The belt situation is a little cleaned up and will make more sense and be less "design for design's sake." Some added details like a clasp knife, and the biggest one is the redesign of the head.  Again, what I want to avoid is messing up the essence of these characters with the v2 design. Both because I do enjoy them, but also because people don't want the characters they enjoy no longer to be the characters they enjoy.
So the hair/fur/mane needed to work from this angle and still be Sam. The head shape got adjusted a bit, but still be Sam. And the former markings were a bit of a mess. There are just so many crisscrossing sections of dark fur that cross over both medium and bright fur sections. Not to mention that the scars Sam has ended up merging with the dark fur.
So I ended up simplifying them and bringing them a bit closer to the natural maned-wolf coloration with tweaks here and there to have it still feel like Sam.

Still big WIP as is clearly visible, but I figured I'd get it out early in case everyone just fucking haaaaaaates it. But I like to think that even with that many changes, it still is a straight upgrade to the Sam, we all know and love in the eyes of you all. :)