I was tidying a bookshelf and found an old sketchbook that included some early sketches from when I was starting work on the first Laser Moose and Rabbit Boy book, back in 2015, I think. It was fun to see the evolution of Mechasquirrel – who appears in the first book and has returned in my latest book, Spidermania – so I thought I’d share the sketches here so you can see how the character evolved.
Here’s the earliest sketch I could find, and the first appearance of the character’s name.Building on the original sketch, this one keeps the same sort of helmet head, but I seem to be trying to figure out what squirrel robot hands look like.Here I’m starting to try action poses, based on squirrel photos, and it looks like I briefly considered a Cylon-like eye.Here, I’m trying different heads, jaws, and feet, and I’m leaning more into a Mechagodzilla vibe for the character.I’m settling on a final design for the character and trying various poses. The arrow at the top left is probably me letting myself know which sketch I like best.And here’s how the character eventually turned out. This is from a fight scene with Laser Moose in the first book, when Mechasquirrel was working for Cyborgupine!
BONUS: My Patreon subscribers can also see how Cyborgupine came together (and his unexpected connection to the Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll!)!
