On some pages I did multiple passes of the rough draft stage. The first pass was just to block in the scene, and the second one was to refine the important characters and objects. In the drafts above, the red shows my first drawings and the blue shows my refined sketches. I drew the characters next to the 3D models I was using for reference, and then moved them where they needed to be once they were done.

I originally thought these two steps–rough draft and refined sketch–would both be distinct, fundamental steps of my creation process, but eventually they merged into one. Occasionally I’ll have a scene or pose that’s especially tricky that I’ll take multiple passes on, but it’s usually just the rough draft and then straight to inking now. I’ve improved to the point where I don’t need multiple draft steps. Besides, it’s quicker that way!

One reason for having both unintelligent animals and intelligent animal-like creatures in the same universe is my way of addressing the frequent question of “What do anthropomorphic animals eat?” Different furry comics answer this question in different ways. For example, Furry Experience hints that there is no animal meat, but only synthetic proteins developed in a lab. The characters in the FE universe will sometimes make reference to this substance in various forms, such as “protein jerky” or “protein noodle soup.” In Kevin and Kell, all the characters are animals, even though they’re intelligent, so some of the characters prey on one another. This fact is a frequent driver of various story-lines, and sometimes used for comedic effect (sometimes a bit dark, but never too dark). Perhaps my favorite example of a furry comic that addresses the question of predation is Doc Rat. In the story, some characters consume “wild meat” and some consume “farmed meat.” The former comes from the intelligent anthro characters, and there are laws and customs surrounding when it’s legal to hunt them, while the latter is raised on a farm and comes from unintelligent animals. The ethics of eating “wild meat” is a common theme in the early chapters and occasionally resurfaces throughout the strip. There are, of course, many other examples of stories with animal or animal-like characters that deal with this question, and many more still that simply never address it.

For me, I didn’t want my comic to take place in a setting where the already complex world of college life was further complicated by the possibility of being hunted and eaten by your neighbor or classmate. But I also wanted a world that felt like it had rules that made sense to the universe, and didn’t just sweep questions like these under the rug. Hence, I decided that in Aww, Feathers! animals and anthros are completely separate species from one another. As of writing this post, I haven’t done much with this distinction, but the possibility still exists. Even if they’re distinct species, do their similarities change their relationship with animals beyond what we experience as humans?

Well, I suppose that would be telling. 😉