Explaination: the Trilogy characters have been around since I started drawing, so I thought it might be fun to post the evolution of a character (in this case, Max), and as well the evolution of an artist.


These are, most embarressingly, the first doodles I ever did of Max. Originally she had black hair and this strange white tuft, rather like Rogue of the X-Men (so I once read X-Men. Sue me.). She wore a jacket, flirted quite a bit with Grant, and had supposedly had some sort of relationship with Umber previously (ew).
(Good grief, these drawings suck. They were done about 7 years ago... so take heart, all those who think your artwork sucks: work hard and you will get better.)

... then she changed a bit, gaining goggles, losing a lot of hair and becoming an android. Yep, she wasn't always artificial. Originally she was some sort of ... I dunno, rebel fighter or something. She did a lot of fighting and bitching, and just wasn't terribly deep. Evolution... evolution is good.

I still have no idea why she became an android. I remember it wasn't that big of a deal to me then... the focus of the story was more on Umber/Grant/Owly. I still flinch thinking about that early stage of Trilogy.


Around Christimas time six years ago she had long hair again... but her personality had evolved to what it is now (this was also the time I wrote the Trilogy prelude). This particular butt-ugly drawing was from a mini-comic I made in class. Basically Max was sitting on a roof and some chap came by, playing loud Beastie Boys music. So she jumped on him.




This bears some resemblance to the final incarnation. This was drawn about 5 years ago.

 

And here she is again. Her hair is a bit shorter now, and a bit less spiky, but it's always stayed around shoulder length. This was drawn during my first year at Sheridan, three years ago. I always wanted her to have fairly ordinary looks (pretty, but not stunning), as while it made sense that attractive androids would be created, I doubt the creators would make them so stunning they'd stand out in a crowd. The idea, after all, is to use them as spies and other creatures of espionage...

Max also evolved a lot in that she's no longer a straight android. Before she had such things as wires & electronic junk jutting from her, but I decided she would be much more effective (mostly as a character) if she blurred the line between human and a created being. She's still called 'an android', but she's a special, wireless android, (a Beta, which she mentions in Remember Me). Basically, she's as human as an android can be, with blood (artificial, naturally) and tissue used to construct her, and she has no problems feeling, emoting or loving. She bears more resemblance to the replicants of Blade Runner than to anything from Ghost in the Shell or Terminator 2.

It's also my thought that she's the only one of her kind. After she took off from Britain, it was decided that the idea of a too-human android, though intriguing, was too dangerous (and ethically challenging) to pursue. No more Betas were made.

This was drawn this year, when D101 was wrapping up (in Febuary, I think) and I was thinking about other projects. One of them I decided would be to give the Trilogy characters more distinctive looks. This was my first attempt for Max, giving her shorter, slightly spikey hair, a round face and short chin. She's hard to take seriously like this, tho, so I later abandoned the look.


This is the look I have decided I like best for her at the moment. It bears some resemblance to the above drawing, but the nose has changed a bit. I was slightly inspired by Racheal Weiz's face, with the downturned nose and upper lip. I like the shorter more compact hair, too.

Will she change more in the future? Pfft, probably. I'm never satisfied. 'Tis the artist curse.

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