Reality? (Patreon)

OK, let's talk about the characters, or better, lt's talk about their designs...This was actually a design choice which was pushed by my husband. But I was not very happy when he came up with it.

The whole flashback was overall a real pain. I wanted a more serious and romantic story. Only issue(s), switching gears from a goofy comedy to a drama, even if it's only for a short while, often doen't play too well. Also we were lacking the time to do a proper flashback story. I mean to show the proper bonding between the two characters would've taken us months...and that was definitely not an option (seriously, we haven't even gotten properly into the whole HubbsXEllie stuff and people are already getting impatient )  

So instead we had to come up with a more short and humorous version of their first meeting. 

The story itself was pretty quick figured out and the idea of having it switch between Sedine's dreamy Sailor Moon version and Sam's unappetizing memories came along...just the designs were the big roadblock. 

This was my vision of them:

Sam was still Sam, just a bit grunge with dark circles under his eyes and him chain smoking.

The country theme on Roy and Sedine was planned right from the spot, but she still kept her femininity. Roy....well, no changes here.

Why did we change the characters at this point? Well, the story takes place in the past and it would be kinda disappointing if only the wardrobe of the characters changed since then. So I went over the characters again:

As you can see on the doodles on the side, this was the point were my husband stepped into the ring.

For Sedine I had a 'little slugger' punky-country girl in mind. My husband thought she still looked too sexy with the poofy hair and the skin tight tanktop.

For Sam I had longer hair and some scruff intended...The hubby wanted it longer and wilder.  

So back to the draft board...

And this was how they looked like in the end. Husband wanted Sedine's hair even shorter....but I couldn't stand it. This was definitely the shortest I wanted to go. Otherwise she wouldn't look like herself at all in the end....

Also Sam's lion mane took forever to get used to it....although he's kinda hunky with a ponytail....maybe that's what Sedine saw in him on day one 0///0

...

The idea behind those designs were that we intended the story to be like 'the princess and the frog'...with the difference that there was no princess but two frogs instead. Sedine was meant to change but so was Sam. And just having characters dress up nice and stop smoking wasn't enough.

On top of that their looks also should say something about the emotional state of either of them. Sedine is kinda a 'lost girl', wild, needy and passionated  but also clueless how to take care about herself and communicate properly.

Sam on the other side...tried his whole life long to fit in and finally gave up on everything (including himself). Do I really have to say more? ;)

Of course, as some already figured out anyway, Sam's memories of the two of them might not be accurate anyway. But it's definitely more true that Sedine's. I'm not sure if I'll ever revisit this flashback with a third person's perspective. 

So far you have to connect the lose ends yourself ^^