Heroes | My Site

Jackie Griffin

The hero of the story. I created Jackie in 2017 after being inspired by a model of a chameleon I made for extra credit in my science class. In 2018 I redesigned her and began to develop many key aspects of her character and story. I drew up several different designs before settling on her current one, however she's still experienced minor tweaks throughout the years.

I wanted to create a colorful character that could take on a variety of different color palettes to match the mood or scene that she was in. I also knew that chameleons in nature change the pigmentation of their skin based on their emotions, not for camouflage like many assume. I incorporated this aspect into her story by making the color changing ability a major plot point.

The rest of her costume design was inspired by popular superheroes in western media as well as the japanese magical girl genre.

Her civilian outfit and design stayed largely the same from when I first drew her. The main changes have come from my own personal improvements to drawing clothing as well as some minor color changes. While the design was accurate to what a high schooler might wear, I found myself unhappy with it midway through production. To remedy this I drew up a second, slightly older looking that design, that would be implemented later on in the comic when she was in her late teens.

Her design was recently updated, specifically her face and hair, to give her head a better sense of shape. For example her hair was previously a blocky side part while the new design looks more plausible, like it could exist in real space.

Original Chameleon concept

(2017)

Costume designs #1

(2017)

Color changing costume concept

(2020)

Digital drawing of Chameleon

(2018)

Chameleon + Jackie reference

(2019)

Chameleon + Jackie reference

(2020)

Jackie late teens concept

(2020)

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Jackie headshot reference

(2021)

Jackie + Chameleon reference

(2021)

Atticus Griffin

Jackie's father was created in 2018. I thought it would be interesting to explore father daughter family dynamics in tangent with a superhero story. His clothing design is formal and stylish and his expression is cold and distant. However the inclusion of freckles indicates a more lighthearted side while the tiredness in his eyes allude to the hardships he's experienced.

In previous incarnations of the story Atticus was uninvolved with Jackie's superhero identity at all. However this was later changed to include him in the story and to add more backstory to the plot overall.

I struggled with Atticus' design for a while, the character I was drawing wasn't conveying the character in my head nor was it a very interesting design. It also didn't help that I was lacking in experience with drawing male characters. To fix this, I gave Atticus more defining characteristics, the bright orange hair, prominent freckles and eyelashes, and the heels. I felt that these small details collectively helped make his design unique despite his clothing style being straightforward.

Atticus references

(2017, 2019, 2019)

Atticus concept sketches

(2019)

Atticus reference

(2020)

Atticus reference

(2021)

Atticus headshot reference

(2021)

Miguel Muñoz

Miguel was the last character if the trio created. Originally he was named Michael and his design was very bland and uninspired and the character didn't add anything to the story. I later redesigned him with the idea of contrasting Atticus in mind, not only are they visually opposites but also opposites in personality.

Miguel was designed to be look relaxed, jeans, comfy jacket, worn out sneakers and an easy going disposition. Miguel's design has differed little from his second iteration, the only changes being minor edits to his clothing and shoes.

Miguel was intentionally designed with my weaknesses in mind, I struggled with drawing masculine characters so I tried to create a design that was completely out of my comfort zone.

Miguel reference

(2019)

'Michael' concept

(2017)

Miguel reference

(2020)

Short animation of Miguel

(2021)

Miguel headshot reference

(2021)

Miguel reference

(2021)