[For the hiatus, I’m going to be posting a bunch of the development art I made for the series. It’ll be posted in the order it was made, leading up to the week the comic resumes]

{ORIGINAL COMMENTARY} Given how many times I’ve completely changed the exterior of Foundation A, you’d think the world is capable of transforming randomly or something. In truth, I’m just incredibly indecisive.

Despite how much it would change, some elements did remain, such as the park-like area and big roads.

{NEW COMMENTARY} Eventually, I would get inspired to give FA a sort of “college campus” design vibe, which I personally found way more interesting than this second or so take at it.

[For the hiatus, I’m going to be posting a bunch of the development art I made for the series. It’ll be posted in the order it was made, leading up to the week the comic resumes]

{ORIGINAL COMMENTARY} The basic floor-plan of Foundation A.

{NEW COMMENTARY} This ref is one of the few things to have stayed mostly consistent all throughout the first chapter. Looking back, I do wish I did a little more to the actual design of the building, but it does set up the aesthetics well enough, I suppose!

[For the hiatus, I’m going to be posting a bunch of the development art I made for the series. It’ll be posted in the order it was made, leading up to the week the comic resumes]

{ORIGINAL COMMENTARY} More developed sketches of FA’s central hall from the bottom floor. I really like the little hangout area down by the base of the tree. Still thinking of ways to incorporate more greenery.

{NEW COMMENTARY} That’s starting to look a little more like the Foundation A I know! This was before I had the concept of the big metal doors and hexagonal signs.

Also of course the perspective is off and you don’t start seeing the canopy of the tree until the third floor, but hey I was still working on things.

[For the hiatus, I’m going to be posting a bunch of the development art I made for the series. It’ll be posted in the order it was made, leading up to the week the comic resumes]

{ORIGINAL COMMENTARY} The Geck are the major scientists of the universal community. Their home planet has a perfect mix of land and sea, both of which they adapted to near-perfectly.

{NEW COMMENTARY} I only made the aliens largely as background fodder – the few solarpunk stories I’ve seen rarely include aliens – but if I had all the time in the universe, I’d love to dive deep into details on them all.

I love lizard nerds, you guys.

[For the hiatus, I’m going to be posting a bunch of the development art I made for the series. It’ll be posted in the order it was made, leading up to the week the comic resumes]

{ORIGINAL COMMENTARY} Very early sketches to get a basic idea of what Foundation A looks like. An exterior shot (a cylindrical building with a terrarium top), a view straight in the front door, and a glimpse of the room Leon wakes up in (complete with a tiny table for Tecktrins to eat lunch at).

{NEW COMMENTARY} The exterior of FA changed so many times. The view from the chapter cover compared to the finalized views behind and in front of the building are barely anything like the concept sketches. It’s fun seeing how things have evolved!

I’m very happy that I made the area around the tree into a circular lounge thing. It’s way more comfortable looking.

I do regret not adding little tiny Tecktrin tables to the break room, though. I’ll be sure to add more of those in the future.

[For the hiatus, I’m going to be posting a bunch of the development art I made for the series. It’ll be posted in the order it was made, leading up to the week the comic resumes]

{ORIGINAL COMMENTARY} Also with a cloud on there too. I tried a couple different things with the coloring and shading; trees are weird. I absolutely need more practice, but it’s something I’ll be very happy about once I get the hang of it.

{NEW COMMENTARY} Since Chapter 2 is going to be done digitally, I’m going to be focusing more of my efforts into shading that way, instead of traditionally.

[For the hiatus, I’m going to be posting a bunch of the development art I made for the series. It’ll be posted in the order it was made, leading up to the week the comic resumes]

Since Key to the Future’s Fate was set to be a Solarpunk story, I needed to practice working on my plant and flower designs. The actual ones in the comic are a little more cartoony, but it was still interesting to practice something more realistic, so that way I could learn how to start making my own, more alien ones!

[For the hiatus, I’m going to be posting a bunch of the development art I made for the series. It’ll be posted in the order it was made, leading up to the week the comic resumes]

{Original Commentary} An alien species that had a very brief cameo in old Cat Comixz!

The bureaucratic cornerstone of society in the universe. They’re almost always the first ones to visit potential species to join the universal community.

They’re also almost always the first to fall in love with the potential species they visit.

{New Commentary} It’s weird to read that I originally intended them to be more cat-like, as I don’t remember that at all.

I’ve imagined their personal society to function under a form of bureaucratic anarchy, where countless clusters of unrelated Malgent organize information between each other. Not one other race encountered yet is capable of successfully replicating their system, which has served to strengthen them as a species.

[For the hiatus, I’m going to be posting a bunch of the development art I made for the series. It’ll be posted in the order it was made, leading up to the week the comic resumes]

{Original Commentary} Some examples of cats who have gone through more extensive genetic engineering. The most notable differences are the greater diversity of eye shapes, ladies having breasts, and better feet. Generally, the cats in these families are more fond of technology and modifications.

The final one is actually more of an example of the type of clothing worn by spacer and/or rebellious types. The comfortable and soft clothing styles most people wear are nice on-world, but they don’t shun practical clothing when it makes sense to have it.

I really like how these ones all came out. I’m feeling much more confident in creating characters mostly from scratch now. I was still heavily relying on reference images for outfit inspiration (and I used an awesome color-wheel thing that has helped me with color coordination), but the base characters came about super organically. I’m not worried about thinking about designs for them nearly as much anymore.

{New Commentary} Even now, designing these background characters has been one of my favorite exercises. I feel the Neo-Cat designs do a better job showing off my strengths in terms of character design.

One thing that was a HUGE help was the color-matcher I used. That and I was feeling really inspired regarding clothing concepts and patterns – this was just a fun time.

Also, I’m planning to include these characters within the comic at various points, so see if you can spot them!

[For the hiatus, I’m going to be posting a bunch of the development art I made for the series. It’ll be posted in the order it was made, leading up to the week the comic resumes]

{Original Commentary} One of the very first aliens that is encountered in Key to the Future’s Fate: The Bonic!

I’ve had a handful of alien concepts in my head for years now, and it’s so nice to finally have a place for them. Granted, the aliens in KttFF aren’t the focus, but they’re fun to design and think about.

I love aliens made of goo or something similar, but I wanted to put a slightly different spin on it. It’s weird that I’ve been thinking about the design for these guys for years (specifically their simple face/head, but the rest of their body just came to me while drawing. They’ll need lots of padding to protect their organs and whatnot, after all.

{New Commentary} Making the Bonic was fun. They’re so expressive and chunky, it makes them fun background fodder.

And I’m sure you’re thinking that it’s weird that they can just walk around without clothes most of the time. The guiding rule in the KttFF universe is that, so long as there isn’t anything inappropriate showing naturally, then no one will bat an eye.