#rsbs art

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EK has done most of the art of Peregrine so far, but here's my version of him! The sketch on the left was the first time I ever drew him and was me figuring out how to draw his face, and the one on the right is from the page of Dan sketches that I did, which was in order to start pinning down the style that I'm going to eventually use for the comic proper. I'm very fond of this grumpy bird boy, he's great. 

You may have noticed that each of our characters has a colour associated with them- Dan is sky blue, for instance. Peregrine's colour is this sort of darker green, as opposed to Patch's lime green. You'll see more of the colour association thing as we start to draw more of the gang! Keep an eye on that, it may or may not have narrative reasons behind it... - Mairi

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Here's a better look at Patch, another of our robot characters! These are some preliminary sketches that I did to figure out their general shapes, and from here I'll be able to iterate the design a bit and make it look a bit more convincingly tech-y. Patch was originally a spaceship repair bot, which is why they have multiple sets of arms and thrusters built into their feet. The top rear set of arms has magnetisable clamps for latching onto the side of a ship in flight, and all of their limbs are telescoping for maximum reach. 

Patch was inspired by a bunch of different characters that fit a similar sort of vibe and/or look, namely Pidge from Voltron, Peridot from Steven Universe, Entrapta from She-Ra and Penny from RWBY, and if you're familiar with those folks you can probably guess that they're a bit of a gremlin who doesn't really get people and is more interested in tech. They're very fun, and I'm looking forward to developing their design further. - Mairi

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These particular drawings came about because I wanted to pin down exactly what Dan looks like in the main bulk of the story, as well as figuring out what they'll look like in some planned backstory flashbacks. Plus, it's always just a fun challenge to think about how aging affects a face. (They're approximately mid-40s and mid-30s here.) - Mairi

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You may have noticed that we have a silhouette cast lineup as our header image, and here’s a little bit more about the folks that you can see there:

On the left, in orange: Georgie (she/her), the team's legal expert and also boisterous bruiser, equally qualified in legal minutiae and knocking heads together! One of the more experienced members of our main team of agents, Georgie and Dan have worked together for forever and are old friends. Likes: hugs, working out and having a good laugh

In the middle, in green: Peregrine (he/they), Dan's protege and the team's resident paranoid android. Short, trans, grumpy, and possessed of giant bird claw feet (not factory issue). Dislikes: new people, anti-robot bigotry, nodding and smiling politely, and anyone messing with Dan

On the right, in blue: Dan (they/them), our protagonist and team leader. In their 40s, originally trained as a doctor-for-robots before becoming an agent, chronically helpful by nature, and an equally chronic team dad. Likes: their team, bothering their team with dad jokes, and the rare times that they get adequate sleep

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Welcome to Red Shift Blue Shift, a sci fi webcomic in development from Mairi @spacecapart and EK @yourfriendlyneighborhoodenby!

This is Dan (they/them), our protagonist! (And in the lower left, Peregrine (he/they), their protege and team’s resident paranoid android/angry bird.) It’s the distant space future, and Dan works for an organisation that works to protect the rights of robots and AI now that they've been integrated into society as equals to humans. They lead their own team investigating crimes against and by robots, and slowly get caught up in something much larger thanks to the machinations of a mysterious masked individual who seems to have a particular interest in Dan and their team...

We hope you’ll follow along for more character art and news on the development of the comic!  

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Continuing with the cast line-up, here's three more members of our main team!

On the left, in pink: Bob (he/him), everybody's grumpy robot uncle who was built as a military bot back before AI were legally recognised as sentient. Old as balls, and will make sure you remember it. Iconic accessory: fridge magnets

Up top, in yellow: Cobi (they/them), a spaceship AI, hence being represented by a speech bubble. Cobi doesn't just fly the team's ship, they are the ship, and any other vehicle with compatible systems. The newest team member before Max showed up, a disembodied ball of sunshine, and prone to sudden unexpected sarcasm. Iconic accessory: themself, running simultaneously on a second vehicle

On the left, in lilac: Max (ey/em/eirs), the actual newest team member, recruited under wacky shenanigans circumstances and still finding eir feet. Max is a human but was raised by robots, and had a bit of a reputation for arguing with certain professors when in training, but only when those professors were Wrong. Iconic accessory: cool jacket

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This was the very first art of Dan! (Originally posted on my art blog, @spacecapart.)

They actually came about as a thought experiment combining a few of my favourite characters and tropes, and the whole webcomic idea spun out of that initial brainstorming. The characters in question were Hotch (Criminal Minds), Harrison Wells (The Flash) and James Ironwood (RWBY), some perennial favourites who live rent free in my brain. Mashing those guys up and playing with the genres that they’re from gave me the idea that Dan ought to be a member of some sort of law enforcement-adjacent organisation in a sci-fi future, and their combined vibes resulted in a character who is too tired for this nonsense but well aware that unfortunately it is in fact their problem. As for why they’re transmasc nonbinary? The real question is ‘why not?’

- Mairi

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This Dan came about from redrawing some screenshots from in order to practice drawing them, and I really like how this face turned out! Figuring out interesting angles like this slightly upward one is important so I can get a proper 3D image of a face in my head, and once I've got that down the next step is going to be pushing the expressions and figuring out how this specific face emotes. I do enjoy training my brain to draw a new character, it's a fun process! - Mairi