Mrs. Van Doorn

I love all of the Mrs. Van Doorn designs! All of them!

Fox stoles! Dead animals on women's shoulders!

In the first one, she's a little younger and sexier than I had in mind. However, I think that character needs to be saved and kept on deck, cause she is something else!

The second round of drawings is more on track for Mrs. Van Doorn. I love the one of her alone in the drawing. That one and one in the middle on the three character page of designs are close in my opinion. Maybe the glasses from the one in the middle put on the drawing where she's alone would be perfect!

Fox Stole

Fox Stole will be a character.

Isn't there a John Waters character named Mink Stole?

Aaaah, Pixie

Okay.

I picked dress three in the first drawing and dress one in the second one you posted. I like it best by far. I'd like that - and I'd like to see for the sake of seeing, that dress with a snug skirt to the ankle.

I can totally see how the professional dresses make her seem older and some seem very, um, prairie-like. She's prettier and more stylish than that.

Hair and face - I like both best in drawing #1 in the last post of hair and faces. I like them very much in that one. The others are similar but slightly older looking and #4 looks like a different character to me.

Proportions! Oh crap! I still think I see Ruby as much curvier and shorter and I imagined Pixie very, very thin and very tall. Taller than Ruby. Almost gangly. 

Truncated Intro

It seems a shame to spend so much time on the transition in the truncated intro when you have so many beautiful images in the longer version.

I like the length but really want to see more within that time. What about a montage of shots dissolving quickly from one to another with minimal camera movement and tight on just the action? Or is it the camera movement you like best?

I'd like to see:

Alley shot opener without camera movement. We see the cat run out of the image then dissolve to:

Shot of Ruby swinging across alley. Dissolve to:

Shot of Ruby listening to guys with guy tied up:

Shot of Ruby leaning on lamp with no camera movement

Blows smoke to intro.

What do you think?

The Office

Okay, I'm behind so I have lots of catching up to do. I will start with the office.

For someone who has picked up her entire life and moved across the country five or six times, I find myself very slow about accepting change when it comes to ideas I have in my head about Ruby.

So, of course, I love the three drawings that look pretty similar to each other. They also look pretty similar to the original, just with a bathroom door.

Things I also like:

-Pixie not having a desk and sitting in the chair across from Ruby. And then when a client comes in and sits in her chair, she has to flitter about like the Pixie she is.

-I love the idea of the murphy bed right where you drew it in the other drawings and where the water cooler is in my favorite drawings. Of course she lives there too. However, I don't think she has much else that's homey. A coffee pot? Probably. A hot plate? Maybe. Did they have those? I love the potential of playing with a clothes line in her office.

-The idea of her fellow office mates. Maybe instead of the mirror bathroom they share a bathroom between them. Awkwardness potential there.

Things I like but am not completely sold on:

-The water heater in the office. What if it were something people had to walk by on their way to the office? Or if it were in the bathroom?

Narrowing in on Pixie

Since the animation will be drawn directly in Flash, I've been completing the final stages of character design in Flash. I picked my favorite, girliest hair styles. These are all supposed to be the same face, based on one of the early sketches I liked.

Right now I don't have a clear favorite. I could go for any one of these.

I also picked my favorite dress styles for Pixie and drew some new mannequins.
I'm finding it a challenge to dress her professionally, but make her look younger than Ruby. Also, these are too similar to Ruby's proportions. (You know I always wanted to make Ruby bigger. Now for contrast I have to whittle Pixie down to almost nothing. Maybe that's appropriate for her, though.)

Here's a quick go at a Ruby/Pixie comparison:

More VanDorn

I found these amazing fox stole pictures. (Fox Stole is a good name for a character) When did it fall out of fashion to wrap something with a head on it around your shoulders?


Here's a couple more takes on Mrs. VanDorn

You know what? I'm thinking this character might be a job for Robin Ator!