Sarah was the first NPC that we commissioned art for and one of the first I wrote about. I think Bee did a phenomenal job bringing her to life and want to share the process of creating her.  When Bee told me this was her allegedly rough "silhouette" I knew we were on the same page and that I picked the right artist for the job.

After this she went through a process of iteration and revision.

I described her to Bee like this:

"Sarah is discreet, observant, and soft spoken, but not easily shaken. She doesn’t smile much, drives a hard bargain, but is kind when not consumed by her vice.
Tattooed and pretty despite facial lesions.", which I took directly from the working draft, hoping they could capture her demeanor and general vibe. 

I followed up with a more physical description, so Bee would know what she looked like, instead of just how she came across. We started with the vibe and worked our way to this:

"Give her a dingy jump suit with cut off arms and a dad hat maybe? ...nah. No hat," which was further refined by adding:

 "she has thin lips, dark hair with bangs and a messy, low ponytail. Tire but alert eyes. Large, green eyes. Thin. Sleeve tattoos"

When I saw the line art, I was blown away. Honestly, I thought that the first draft of her was adequate, at least for some projects, but Bee had other plans. The expression, particularly the eyes and lips really evoked the character I envisioned. No. Scratch that. The character that BEE envisioned was fit what I was going for more than my own imagination. I was particularly taken with the detail of her sleeve tattoo.

Bee followed up on the line art with few different color tests. Their digital art was a finished product in of itself and it's almost a shame to not use it, but we had settled on a traditional art aesthetic to go with the collages.

The only mistake Bee made was making Sarah a little to perfect, in my opinion. We had to tone down the processing of the traditionally painted and penciled final. Our flaws make us beautiful and Sarah was just too polished for the vibe of the zine. With shadows from the warp of the paper and all, we found our aesthetic.

Sarah gets by bartering favors with Retrievers, law enforcement, and anyone else who needs a pair of eyes and ears. She prefers favors to credits because she has been mugged one too many times, but won’t say as much. It's rough squatting in the shuttered academy high above Hewitt Spring. The only thing she wants more than to get high and tune out is to reconcile with her wife. One of those goals is more attainable than the other though.

Other than drugs, there are a few things Sarah wants that the crew may provide, either in exchange for service as an informant, or genuine kindness. Maybe they take her clothes shopping and make sure the store doesn’t kick her out. Or perhaps they'll go the extra mile and pull some strings to help her out of some legal trouble.

Are you the type that would help Sarah? Would you notice her? Or, would you step over her body just to get closer to your goal. There are the people you get paid to help and there are the people who really need it.