#sonic art reference

[waffletoast215]

I noticed there was no reference sheet/compilation of Tails in his pilot helmet from Sonic OVA so...here you go!

[sonicartresources]

Yuji Uekawa Can Draw Humans Post

Think that Yuji Uekawa can’t draw humans? Think again:

However, do note that Yuji Uekawa didn’t do the character designs for Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg, only the illustrations for it. He did design one of the alternative costumes for Hatsune Miku for the Project Diva series in order to promote the 20th Anniversary of Sonic the Hedgehog. -Mod. Miko 

[sonicartresources]

Do check out this guy stuff, he’s done two eps on Mario and Sonic 3D look and behind the Son Of a Glitch series as well.

[sonicartresources]

Speaking of making each echidna look unique I drew these designs up this week to try and make these four look different from one another! Hope it worked! :)

—————————————------------ One way to make your character distinct is to change up the height! It can have an effect on the design! -Mod. Miko

[fini-mun]

how would you draw a sonic character with a larger/thicker beak? Like a toucan?

Fuck I’m not going to be able to sleep tonight until I figure this out—Okay, okay I got it, I think:The problem is toucans have really extreme features and it’s hard to translate that to the toonier look of Sonic characters.

At first glance this looks alright, but I don’t personally find this satisfactory. It doesn’t look like a toucan and this large shape just sticking out of the face like this also makes it look kind of bulbous. It’s only passable, not good.

This is part of why I personally consider the SEGA!Sonic style limiting- most Sonic character designs are extremely formulaic- round head, sliver of muzzle at the bottom. Sometimes, like in the case of Tails and Marine, the head might be a more squared shape, but it still almost always reduces to the same concepts.

This makes it very hard to translate some species into a Sonic styled character. My personal philosophy on how to do this is that when the Sonic formula leads to subpar results is to follow the spirit of the Sonic design aesthetic, not the exact formula.

There’s a sleek sort of aesthetic to Sonic style...

Let me try again with the toucan, starting by taking a look at what makes a toucan look like a toucan.

I’d say the features that make a toucan specifically look like a toucan is that huge beak and squared off head. So I’m going to focus on those elements in my design. If I focus on those two things, the end result ‘should’ look like a toucan.

This is the result I got. I still don’t think it’s perfect, but I think it’s better than the first try. It’d need some playing around and tweaking but I feel like it follows the spirit of the Sonic design aesthetic while not following the formula exactly. I used a Storm like body-style because it’s easier to merge that type of a body to a head like that.