Something a little different this WIP Wednesday! Here I have some conceptual scribblings and discussion of Paisley, the sad, anxious vampire from We Don’t Bite (Much). At this point I’ve got his shapes pretty worked out and his face’s design overall simplified to the point where I feel comfortable with the idea of eventually redrawing it over and over again.
“This creature trembles like a freshly-shaved purse dog. The mere sight of you has him flinching back towards the door. Strange—shouldn’t that be the other way around? There’s something sad and haunted in his eye. And yet, there’s a trace of that hunger there, too. You need to be careful. A bite out of fear might be worse than a more deliberate one.”
I’m very much going for a late 2000s/early 2010s emo anime boy look with the massive side swept bangs. He’s meant to look droopy with teardrop shapes throughout his design. The freckles are intended to be a subtle reminder that he used to be a human that could go out in the sun and the scarring on his neck from a vampire bite blends in with them.
His clothes definitely still need some work because a fashion-minded person I am not but I was lowkey playing around with the idea of him with a hoodie here to add in more teardrop shapes with the hood and sleeves in tandem with his hair/eyes/face shape.
These ink sketches are from today, but I also have some older concepts from way back in early September when I was still trying to get a feel for him. The pencil sketches below definitely communicate a point where he was a more smug, bold character.
Fun fact, Paisley was the first character conceived for WDBM. The story was originally going to revolve entirely around him before I conceptualized the others. It was less about vampires helping protect you from a mysterious greater threat and more about some vampire just kind of intruding on your life. While I do have interesting sketches from that era, the worldbuilding for the magical realism setting was ultimately really flimsy and Paisley didn’t have much of a motive (beyond the obvious blood-sucking one).
I hope to reach a level of detail with the final result of his design digitally that combines the fluffiness of the hair I’ve got going on here and the succinct shapes in the ink sketches. As much as I like the cute upper lashes, it suits him a lot more just to have them pointed downwards. Less glam, more droopy. Unfortunately had to nix the earrings because of plot reasons, but I might give him some subtler studs back eventually. Very much a fan of the big teeth also but I’m leaning towards allowing Ren to be the one with the more exaggerated fangs. Smaller, more understated ones better suit Paisley’s reluctance to drink blood.
And finally, some digital attempts at working out his base skin and hair coloration from early- to mid-September. Again, note the nervous but still-smiling face before he got shot with the “I am two seconds away from a mental breakdown at any given time” gun.
Paisley’s signature color is blue. Ren’s is purple, Zack’s is pink, and glorified side character K’s is green. My idea is for both the characters and the backgrounds to have limited, fanciful color palettes.
To conclude, some flirty beta Paisley dialogue that is 10000% out of character at this point in his development but has been somewhat reintegrated into Zack’s personality.
If you want to know more about We Don’t Bite (Much), be sure to check out the pieces of writing I have for it thus far!
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