Process of drawing 12F.Ave's lineup

As pasted from my logs on my art Tumblr.

Day 1

Here we have sketches of the first four. (I actually changed French’s pose a little since I took the pic). Maybe I should make everyone’s posture as straight as possible so their heights are more accurate…

Day 2

Sketches of the second four are now here!

Fixed up some of the first four’s poses to have them be standing more straight so their heights are more accurate, too. Also wow, I did not know how actually tall some of these guys were. (The final four of the house actually contain the most middle-heightened people in this group, haha)

Day 3

The sketches of the final four are complete! (Thinking about giving 2.0 & Barley some more height, tho. I dunno, yet)

Here’s how the whole lineup’s looking so far…

Also, here’s some context for the heights (that blue rectangle is a 30cm ruler, btw)

Day 4

Moving onto the lines.

Here’s the first four again. Beginning by outlining their body types.

First is for reference, next is for getting an overview of the variety (which hopefully exists, because I don’t want two characters to be too similar, haha). Also, doing this would be useful for when I draw their different outfits over them in the future.

Suppose the only two characters who I deliberately made similar in both height and body shape was Jaqui and Ben 2.0, since I’ve come up with scenarios where they’d cover for each other with crappy disguises.

Anyways, I’ve actually increased the height of Ben 2.0 a little. Here’s the whole lineup so far, again.

Day 5

I did the remainder of the first part of the line art just now.

Here’s the second four. I dunno why I added numbers to their shirts, I just felt like it, haha.

Here’s the third four. Note that these guys are all somewhere between 160-170cm, it’s just that their heads might be too big due to cartoon logic, haha.

I actually increased Ben’s height a tiny bit, here. I know he’s the youngest of the twelve (14-15, birth month December), he’s short and one of the thinnest, but I still wanted him to look like teenager. I might have to adjust his appearance later on.

Also, maybe I want to change a little bit of Barley’s appearance…

Here’s the whole house together now.

Thinking about the heights, I don’t feel like they’re the most accurate… maybe I need to adjust those too, because holy crap some of them are actually so tall. I mean, sure, they’re not the most normal teenagers in the world, and a lot of their surnames sound totally ‘alien’ and as if trying to mimic humans, but still.

(Another note about their weird surnames: some of them are pun names. Some of them are part of old pun names combined with their first names and turned into something else. Some of them were pun names and re-spelled to imitate the sounds of certain languages. At least one of them, I made up on the spot. I have been using these since 2014-2018 and I don’t think they’re changing any time soon, haha. Whatever, these guys are weird)

Anyways, that’s it for now.

Day 6

Before I move onto their actual outfits, I’ve decided to work on their base colours first (hair, skin & eyes)

Starting with the final half/six. Also you may notice that their heights have changed (everyone got a little shorter, haha. The tallest is now 196cm)

Also, I’ve made some slight changes to Ben, Ben 2.0 & Barley. Just some small adjustments so they actually look their age, a bit more.

Before, their heads were a bit big in proportion to the rest of their bodies, and compared to the other boys in the house, they looked waaay younger, even though they’re only one year younger than them, in reality. For instance, look at Eric, who is only three months older than Ben 2.0…

I mean, I know growth spurts happen, but aging doesn’t really exist in their universe (it’s a comedy), so I want to make them at least look like almost equals to Felix, Leon & Eric. At the same time, maybe Ben, Ben 2.0 & Barley were also just meant to be on the shorter end, even if they did grow up, haha.

For Ben 2.0, I also slightly decreased his height to match Jaqui’s a little more. This was done mainly because after fixing up his head-to-body proportions, I was in complete denial that he would be almost the same height as Marina/Leon/French!

(Marina’s eyes, I can’t decide. Pink (or even orange) suits her, but the blue-green really complements many of her outfits)

Also, here’s how I’m going about eye colour: because my art style doesn’t really make way for eye colour, I’m putting down what those colours would be on each characters’ socks. I thought that would be fun. But when I make their individual reference sheets, I’ll actually specify what their eyes would look like.

Day 7

I’ve continued the base colours today, and made a start to the second phase of the line art (main/casual outfits)

Yesterday, I started with the second half/six, now the first half/six is done.

Dustine’s hair colour was fun to figure out. I think I remembered how popular dip dyeing was back in the early 2010s or somewhere around that, and since I began writing these guys in the early-mid 2010s, I’ll base a majority of the world off of that time period.

 

I’ve decided to add some extra details to some characters.

On the left, is Melanie with a scalding scar on her back. In 2018, I came up with the idea that she went through a pretty bad cooking accident, and remembering it now, I decided to keep it.

Felix, on the right, just had a band-aid and a bruise on each of his knees, because he’s pretty clumsy. (My only reference was the one time I fell down and for some reason the bad wound ended up on only my right knee, while my left only got a bruise)

Some more: On the left, Jaqui with a small scratch on her cheek. She’s very tomboyish, so she gets into some accidents while she’s exploring outdoors sometimes.

On the right, Ben with heavy dark circles. He’s just terrible with sleep and hydration… like many introverted teenagers are.

Here’s the first phase of the lineup done. (They look like they’re dressed for a sports day event xD)

Also, you might be able to see how different the colours here look compared to the pictures I took on my screen… kinda annoying, but as long as they don’t look messed up, it’s fine by me.

Next is the second phase: I’m working on their casual outfits.

Starting with the first four again. I’m working on their first layers of clothing, so if any of them wear jackets, I’m only drawing their undergarments for now.

Fun fact: Initially, I made it a thing where Felix would only wear pants because he wanted to hide all the bruises on his legs because he kept getting into accidents. Now, I’ve decided to scratch that idea because I felt that shorts matched his personality better (and we could have some visual characterisation, too).

See, Felix is the eldest of the house who wears glasses and is themed around the colour lime/light green, and from that description, you’d get the impression that he’s a cautious and mature guy. He totally subverts that impression. So, to make it more obvious that he’s not your typical glasses-wearing character, I’ve added a little edge to his shirt and made him wear shorts instead. Now, we can see all the marks left from all the trouble he’s been in.

I skipped to Melanie because I couldn’t decide on what kind of shirt to give to Leon, haha…

Anyways, it’s kind of crazy how much an outfit can change the appearance of a person. If you remember Melanie’s body type, her torso’s an inverted-triangle shape and her muscles are quite visible. Here, she has a blouse with puffy shoulders and a casual-looking skirt which hides those details a bit. I thought that pretty interesting.

Day 8

I’ve finished the lines for many of their outfits, and at least the first layer/undergarments for those who wear jackets/jumpers/whatever. (Especially weird to see Leon without a hoodie or a parka)

You can get a little bit more sense of their personalities, now too. Some of them, I’ve gone back to what I initially dressed them up in back in their earliest designs, some others I’ve changed to suit their personalities better.

Clothing folds are hard, even in my art style, where things are drawn more simplified than reality. You can see how I’ve avoided the more realistic clothing folds to be consistent with how I draw. I guess, the goal is, as long as it looks like there’s space beneath the clothes, then it works.

Actually, half the time I was cursing at myself for designing Barley with baggy clothing.

(Also ignore the document title, which is now irrelevant because I saved it when they were just in those numbered singlets and shorts, haha)

I’ve done some colour dropping from some of my older drawings (with slight adjustments). Since many of my older drawings never really showed the waist down, I haven’t really coloured in any of their pants, yet. But, here are their upper garments, so far.

Day 9

I finished the first layers today. All that’s left are the jackets/coats/jumpers/whatever.

Her name is Melanie, so why not make the colours allude to her name’s soundalike? x’D Ironically, her favourite fruit is rock melon/cantaloupe.

It took me a while to decide what sort of thing should go on Dustine’s shirt, but I suddenly remembered one of the first inspirations to her character’s aesthetic.

Stuff like this:

Also, I wanted Eric to have more red, an intense colour to match his personality. Yellow is definitely not for him, haha. Suppose, the orange and yellow suited the vision I had for his very first concept (you’d never guess, but it was ‘happy-go-lucky’), but the brown jacket gives a little edge and kinda makes him look more desert themed (especially since I made it longer).

I took the outfit from Peter from Wii Music haha.

Anyways, here’s who’s left to deal with

And here’s the actual image:

Not gonna lie, I’ve been contemplating giving Marina one of them jeans with bell bottoms. I remember drawing her wearing those a lot, and it was quite particular to her character, at least at the time. I might make a version with that later.

Day 10

Worked on the jackets today and also updated the colours. I think my work here is finally done!

Trying to figure how hoods worked. I mean, I’ve been drawing them for ages, but I never actually took a look at how they actually were constructed. Also, I attempted to give Dustine her sleeveless hoodie, but I decided it wasn’t working out.

Here’s Leon and his parka :D it was pretty cool to figure this one out.

Trying to decide on Ben 2.0’s colours was pretty hard. Two of the colours I associate with him are indigo, purple and brown. Kind of an odd bunch, but I think I’ve made it work out somehow, and captured his essence

Unfortunately, there’s no WIP pic of French and her plaid shirt and Eric’s long jacket…

Marina with bell bottoms! This was kind of half-assed, so I’ll do a better attempt later in the future, haha…

Here’s them in their full outfits :D Finally!