Kick-ass Cute Girls - The Beginning #01 (Patreon)

I've decided to take a bit more time on this "throwback" to my past art posts.  It benefits me to re-remember how I began these processes and gain some of that fresh perspective I had at that time. So lets see what I was playing with before Akumi was born...

In 2004, during my time at Revolution Studio, working on the failed movie "Lil Pimp", I was already tired of working on other people's projects and knew I needed to work on my own animations.  So I began sketching and working out the details of a female character I would use for my first full-color animation. I knew I wanted her to use a sword of course and I wanted to to look Asian.  I started experimenting with hats that resembled samurai helmets. I can't remember why I gave her a jersey. I think maybe I was looking at a lot of soccer girls at the time. You'll also notice I have her drinking a soybean drink in a few of the sketches. Little did I know I was already introducing a new character through her beverage.  

I could never quite grasp what her hat would like from all angles.  So I drew it ALOT. The great thing about drawing one thing over and over is you gain a lot of momentum and naturally improve your skills.  Near the end of this series of drawings, I veered off from the hat look and began to make her non-human with bunny ears and a chipmunk nose. And with that, our "hat girl" began to evolve into the character, Soybean.

I still enjoy the look of this character and her hat so I think I might bring her back as a new character. Maybe I'll draw a modern version of her here.

Next time we'll dive into the sketch series and evolution of the character, Soybean!