Censor Bars - 2024 Re-draw

Approximately 14 years ago, I drew a set of sketches featuring Fran holding up some censor bars to cover herself.

I decided to try redrawing those sketches to see how much my style has changed since then.

I’ve recently learned a lot of new things over the last few weeks, thanks to some super helpful advice and tutelage from a close friend of mine. Some have noticed a shift in my style, and this is largely the reason.

Looking at the newer sketches, I’d say that the main thing that jumps out at me right away is the shape of the face. The originals from back then had longer rounder faces, with the cheek fluff positioned much lower and sitting on the jawline. This had been refined over the years, but was still a fairly common feature up until very recently.

Now the face is much rounder and holds more of a cartoon-like appeal. The cheeks are higher (where they should be, in fact) with the fluff placed higher to sit with them and give the face an overall more appealing shape. While it hasn’t been demonstrated here, I think this may also allow for more squash and stretch to the face when it comes to pushing the expressions.

Another standout feature are the eyes. Fran has always had fairly triangular eyes, though over time this shape has softened and rounded out. I’ve kept that rounded triangle shape to them, but more recently understand the structures surrounding the eyes, such as how the cheek pushing up into it while smiling, or the crease that forms during some expressions. She also has a more defined shape to her eyelashes, which was a natural change in my style over the years.

For comparison where it comes to Fran’s eye shape; Sam’s eyes are typically more square with longer lashes, while Katie’s are more circular in shape with shorter lashes.

There is also more definition to the overall structure of the nose as well, in two main areas. One is what could be considered the bridge of the nose — though that may not translate quite as directly on an anthro character — where it pushes into the shape of the eye. The other is a better awareness of the length of the nose/muzzle area, and having it protrude from the face rather than sitting much close between the eyes, which tended to flatten it out. The overall change gives it a much better sense of 3-dimensionality, particularly with the head turned at greater angles other than directly face-on or in profile.

The shape of her hair has also changed. To be honest, it’s always given me some trouble to get it looking right. The original was a lot more spiky with its shape, which was fine for a while but didn’t quite feel right. More recently it’s softened out and become more rounded and natural looking (as natural as bright pink hair on a pink bunny can look).

The teeth had also changed, giving her and all of the rodent characters more buck-teeth. I believe I started experimenting with on and off this some time around 2013, but Fran didn’t fully gain the trait until 2015

And then there’s the overall body anatomy.

I used to have those shoulder tufts for the longest time, but they were eventually dropped in favour of keeping things simple and more streamlined to draw. Instead, my anatomical knowledge improved, particularly over these last few weeks. Her hips are more defined, thighs larger and more powerful while remaining shapely and appealing. More detail around the neck and clavicle, and subtle lines showing the structures of the arms. The hands are draw more accurately, and the toes are smaller to fit better with the style as it developed over the years.

While it’s not directly pictured between these two, I’ve also started correctly a habit that had developed over the last couple of years where I would often draw the torso and hips too tall, usually with too much space between them. This had been throwing off my perception for the longest time, and I could tell something was off, but it wasn’t until it was pointed out to me that I could finally push through with some of the pieces I’d been working on recently.

And yes, her butt got bigger. It just remains mostly concealed between these two, but the “cheeky” sketch in the middle is the best direct comparison there.

There’s probably more to say when it comes to breaking down the changes in style over the last 14 years, but I’ll leave it there for now.

As for why I chose to re-draw these?

Simply put, I wanted to see how things had changed, and I thought it would be funny.

You see, this actually caused a bit of controversy back in the day with some people going out of their way to edit them, or criticise me for not showing the goods. Initially I requested that people not made those edits, but very quickly found the whole situation pretty funny. Not in a mocking way at all, I just have a weird sense of humour about things, and I can laugh at myself pretty well.

So I thought “why not?”

I get to revisit some old sketches to see how they’d turn out in my current style, and I get to have a little chuckle to myself as well. Fan-service and convenient censoring are pretty fun to work with, and it’s been a long while since I’ve put Fran in such a situation, so I’d like to hope that it’s a win for everybody who’s been following my work for this long.

So yeah. A new version with my current style, along with some recent advice and methods to make things pop visually. It was nice to indulge in something like this, so I may do a few more redraws of older work, but for now I hope you enjoyed this!