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Are you ready for the Queen’s Scouts?

The webcomic launches next week! The first five pages will be going up at once, then succeeding pages will go up every Friday.

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Sometimes, we just have to remember to look up. 

 There doesn't have to be any answers. There doesn't have to be any epiphany. You don't even have to hope for stars or an unusual moon. 

Sometimes just looking at a big expanse of sky is a great reminder to keep your chin up instead of your head down. The universe up there is grander than the ground below. 

 So look up instead of down

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A Dance With You

To be honest, I haven’t had the best time the past two weeks and I’ve been questioning a lot of things about love and relationships, romance… partners… selflessness.

But I have to hope and I have to believe that love lives.

This piece helped me get some of that emotion off my chest. Featured here are Tris and Gaia’s parents, Dexa and Ersa. Dexa is a champion sportfighter and Ersa is as of now a sculptor of renown (but that backstory may still change).

The Queen’s Scouts is a comic about two excitable rookie agents trying their best to rise through the ranks and impress the director of their organization, which is focused on central intelligence and secret service protection detail.

For more info, you can check out my website. Also be sure to follow here for updates about the webcomic launch and you can also check me out on facebook and instagram.

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Here I used the design my buddy David developed for standard bikes issued to Queen’s Scouts Agents.

Tris is the start of a comic I’ll be releasing in April. Follow this blog to stay up to date as the launch draws near!

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Finding the Right Art Style

Everyone struggles in that quest for the ever elusive "art style".  I did too. I still do.

I've always leaned towards a more "western" look and majority of the time, my art has that Disney-esque kind of feel.

But coming from an animation background, I also understand that besides "personal" art style, there's art direction. That's basically the principles, the shapes, the look and feel that the whole animation project will embody. Think of the curves and squishy shapes of Lilo and Stitch versus the sharp, edged structures of Atlantis.

If you go through the other designs in both movies, you'll notice that they all follow just about the same principles. You can't just plant Stitch into Atlantis or Milo into Hawaii without it just breaking the coherence of the scene.

Now, there isn't really a right or wrong way to go about things. Both styles serve their purpose and both styles work very effectively. If it works, it works. If it has appeal, then you're on the right track. If the style fits the tone of the story, then you're doing fine.

Going into Queen's Scouts, I started with just drawing in my personal style, just working with the proportions and looks that felt natural to me.

And to be honest, it's already a pretty solid look. There's appeal to it and the form is there. As I put more time and work into the project, I started to lean towards a Zootopia kind of look, which fell pretty close already to my natural style.

It was to the point where I was even using their style guide for Queen's Scouts.

And the results were actually turning out okay.

I liked how it looked but I started to feel like I could push it further. I felt like there was structure and there was some semblance of contrast between Gaia and Tris. But I wanted to push it further.

What stood out at first was the blandness of their uniform. I wanted to save the red design for superiors, but as David and I started working on the actual comic pages, I was starting to think the grey uniforms would be too bland.

I started thinking about my niece and nephew, started thinking about how I could draw something that they would enjoy.

I made these illustrations and printed them on shirts as birthday gifts for my niece and nephew (my niece loves to play with slime and my nephew is super into transformers and both adore my corgi). Through making these, I challenged myself to work outside of my usual style. I played with shapes, proportions and just design in general.

That's kind of when I started looking at other styles outside of Zootopia. I skimmed over the styles other artists use when they draw animals and "furry/anthro" characters. I wanted something that would stand out but also still hold appeal and familiarity.

I started looking into Kung Fu Panda and fell in love with the flow and clarity of their designs. Their lines of action are confident and clear, their anatomy flows into each other. Lines and curves just work in sync in this simple yet highly effective way.

So from there, I challenged myself to figure out a style somewhere between the initial Zootopia look and the Kung Fu Panda look I was starting to be drawn into. I started with a sketch still very close to the previous design, then pushed myself to add more flow, then pushed myself even further.

And that now brings us here.

I won't say it's final because knowing my need to push myself everytime I feel stuck or stagnant, this might change once more in the next comic issue. But for the opening Queen's Scouts title, I want something that will look and feel this way.

The paw design I'm going for is very close to what was developed for Kung Fu Panda but the feet are closer to Zootopia. Heads are a little bit of both, and a little bit of my inherent style.

Next step is now to see how well this simpler look will mix with David's prop and background designs.

Because given the more realistic look of David's prop designs, more push and pull may be needed for either his prop designs or my character designs.

We'll see where things go from here.

But I'll say this: the best styles evolve from challenging yourself, finding the right influences, and listening to what your story asks for.

Thanks for reading, be sure to check me out on facebook and instagram for updates on the Queen's Scouts project.

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Rush Howl

These two corgos are doing some surveillance work from underground and had to come up out of the sewer for a closer look. This illustration's based on a shot from Rush Hour. Also it's part of a project I'm working on with steampunk secret agents. 

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Director-General Medea getting fitted for some new dress uniforms. She's the head of the Queen's Scouts and is arguably the oldest agent in the organization. Pretty much every agent thinks she's immortal.

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This doggo comes zooming along on her ATV, probably chasing after a suspect through burning terrain.

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I’m not too crazy about this one because I feel like the rendering and colors are a bit of a mess. Might redo this some day lol.

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The Interdogation Room

Director Medea oversees the interrogation of a suspect with evidence stacked against him.

I've been at work developing the world and am now starting to nail down the first short comic I wanna produce for this world. I'll gradually release more info as the project unfolds itself to me.

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Some concept art of Tris, the trigger-happy rookie. She's part of a furry steampunk world and is training to be a secret agent.

I have this idea that she's really into collecting and wearing some accessory. I'm torn between it being bandanas or scarves. Other options are ties or bowties.

I like the formal look of the tie in design 3 but then she doesn't strike me as a formal kind of character, so I might go for scarf instead, but I don't wanna rule out bandana just yet. I like the belt/s in 3, and kind of like the buttons/bling in vest 3C. I might still sketch a bandana version of 3 later today.

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The Chair Guy

Little Lucas gets stuff done at his desk with all his gear. This is part of my project featuring steampunk secret agent furries. You can check out a bit more about the project on my website stefidelly.com/queensscouts

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He's a tough bamf on a mission. Although he secretly is just a big softy who cries when his OTP looks at each other. Chief Minos is part of my Queen's Scouts project, which involves furry steampunk secret agents. They're some info on it on my website I tagged an old friend to help me with prop and environment designs so things should be moving along soon and I'll be able to post some of his work on this blog and the website.

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The Queen’s Scouts

This is probably the illustration in the calendar that I'm most proud of. It's just got such a nice vibe to it and I'm just so happy with how it came out. It's based on a promotional poster from Kingsman I'm still making progress with the worldbuilding and the character building. I'm not 100% final on names yet but pictured here are Director Medea, Junior Agent Gaia, Junior Agent Tris and Inspector General Oino. Director Medea is so old that majority of the organization is sure that she's immortal. Junior Agents Gaia and Tris are... sisters. And they're eternally getting into mischief and entertaining their awfully short attention spans. Inspector General Oino is a very cranky chihuahua and she is very particular about making sure the organization runs smoothly. They're part of a secret service and central intelligence organization. Furry steampunk secret agents because why not. You can check out my website

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Mission: Impawsible Doge Nation

In which this doggo agent is seriously cursing her stubby arms. This is part of a project I'm working on with furry secret agents in a steampunk world. I'm still trying to develop the world and story but it's making gradual progress. I worked on this illustration as part of a calendar I'm selling locally, but I'm open to shipping as well. For a bit more info you can check out my website. stefidelly.com/queensscouts I've also started a tumblr for it, where I'll start to post about any updates to the development of the story and characters and world. queens-scouts-hq.tumblr.com

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These two corgis are on the case! They're part of a calendar I put together, featuring furry animals with steampunk gear. Each illustration is based on an action or spy movie. This one's based on MIB. For more info on the Queen's Scouts project, you can check out my site stefidelly.com/queensscouts

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Mission: Pawsible

This little dachshund is getting the job done.

This illustration is part of a series of artworks I made for a calendar and it's set in a world I'm developing with steampunk secret agent animals. Think Zootopia meets Kingsman meets steampunk.

You can check out my website for some more info.