Sonic Concept Art

[Your Vest Friend]

We actually know a lot about the design process for Sonic 1 Vector, I'm more on about Chaotix Vector since we know next to nothing about the design process for changing him aside from his clothing colour motif probably being taken from his later design.

Charmy was likely made by Hoshino, in the same way Amy appeared in the Manga before Sonic CD (albeit with a completely different look for the first time in the Manga, no idea what happened there) and Sally appeared in the Archie comic first but was made for SatAM, it just took a long while to use him. Again, the Chaotix design process was probably more interesting since I have idea how they got from the two Manga designs to that.

Espio we know nothing about, except that he was designed with coolness in mind since he was going to act as a main protagonist,.

[Osmium]

3 minutes ago, Detective Reptiles said:

We actually know a lot about the design process for Sonic 1 Vector, I'm more on about Chaotix Vector since we know next to nothing about the design process for changing him aside from his clothing colour motif probably being taken from his later design.

Oh, that's interesting actually. Is there anywhere for you to point me to to see more for the design process for Sonic 1 Vector? 

[Your Vest Friend]

Well...there's not much actually on it. We have the sound test image that everyone knows, but then there's some art pieces that were seen in CVG #126 (released May 1992) that indicate them being later promotional pieces. We can't see Vector fully, but we can see him cropped off.

Reference.

That would also mean the Manga that was released for Sonic 1 was actually drawn quite early in development. Wouldn't surprise me given Sonic still has his very Japanese design and all the catgirls around.

[Osmium]

15 minutes ago, Detective Reptiles said:

Well...there's not much actually on it. We have the sound test image that everyone knows, but then there's some art pieces that were seen in CVG #126 (released May 1992) that indicate them being later promotional pieces. We can't see Vector fully, but we can see him cropped off.

Reference.

That would also mean the Manga that was released for Sonic 1 was actually drawn quite early in development. Wouldn't surprise me given Sonic still has his very Japanese design and all the catgirls around.

Oh sweet. I've seen some of those background pics before. This one in particular: 

I doubt it, but do you know where to find the backgrounds to those other two pages? 

[azoo]

I absolutely adore those background pieces, and I really wish we had some way to see them without those huge pictures of Sonic in the way.

Really makes me want to take a look at what they had in mind for Sonic before they decided it was just him and Eggman at the beginning. Everything I've seen of it just seems too cool.

[Salamander]

I'm kind of fascinated by the implications these designs have for characterisation.  Shadow's blatantly evil early designs clearly predate much of the SA2 story - I'd imagine that his design as it stands now was tightened up as the story diverged from ideas of him as simply an antagonist - while Cream seems to have been designed prior to any decision about what animal she would actually be.  It's interesting just how open things are in the early stages - but I'd wager that there's a wealth of material that's closer to the final designs, and less interesting because of it.

[Multikaris]

2 hours ago, ShroomZ said:

Oh sweet. I've seen some of those background pics before. This one in particular: 

I doubt it, but do you know where to find the backgrounds to those other two pages? 

One thing I noticed was the decisively un-Sonic-looking animals, like the elephant and the two fish. Could it be that designs were originally intended to be much more diverse overall?

[KoDaiko]

Yeeees, love to see so many concept art of the characters!

• Jet: Surprising to see he was originally a mammal. It's sad they dropped the wing-arm and claw-shoes.  Hope to see that idea somewhere in the future.
• Silver: I've heard he was originally a porcupine (top left+center & bottom left?) and a mink (right top & bottom), so nice to see more of that. Seems a mink has a thicker longer tail. Neat. The top center is still my fav tho.
• Big: Wow, he looks more like a dora-neko (alley cat? more bold and pesky) on the top. He seem to be a tanuki (JP racoon dog) on the bottom left, too.
• Shadow: NO. NO TO ALL. Well...ok, its nice to see them so we appreciate the final form more. I wonder what the yellow lens the top right one is wearing...?
• Cream: A tiger/cat, jerboa/mouse, raccoon, and a squirrel. They're all so adorable. I really wish they use her scrapped versions in some way in the future. I mean, it seems Marine was based off some of the scrapped designs (clothes from the right +raccoon from the bottom left) so...
• Blaze: Wonder what species the top center is, she has a short tail. I love how they try not to cover her feet entirely (either her ankle is showing, or she's wearing slim pants), because I hate it when they do that unless its only a few, like Wave, or a temporary costume like in Riders...Rogue? she has a different body type, and you can still see her leg shape via thighs.

To be honest some of the the scrapped ones look like fan characters/ common design, which may be why it was scrapped. I felt that was the difference between the official and fan, they go through the same stage but in the end Sonic Team manage to go beyond. Or it's just that being made by the official staff makes it look better, I don't know.

[Osmium]

Guess I'll put this in here since no one has yet. 

Some really sweet transitionary stuff of classic Sonic to Adventure Sonic. I really dig all these. It sure is strange to see Sonic in total classic proportions with basically his Adventure spine length. The bottom right should already be familiar to most of us. 

[Cyrus]

Round torso green eyed Sonic will always be missed.

[StaticMania]

The back spine length of that top left Sonikk is ridiculous, the spine length on that one is ridiculous in general. It looks like definite pain to amateur artist: Static...and that was the starting point of the transition?

[Tracker_TD]

Worth mentioning, Shadow's concept art shows him with downward spikes; however:

That's just how they handled front-facing shots then. So logically, he'd look something like this:

...suddenly I can see why GUN could mistake him for Sonic. 

[Shaddy Zaphod]

I'm wondering now if maybe SA2's story was written before the character designs had been finalized

 

[Osmium]

I'm gonna guess that if Shadow showed up as one of those concept appearances and was supposed to be some biological chaos-ensue monster in the final game, he probably would have been permanently killed off and would have never returned. 

[Tracker_TD]

5 minutes ago, ShroomZ said:

I'm gonna guess that if Shadow showed up as one of those concept appearances and was supposed to be some biological chaos-ensue monster in the final game, he probably would have been permanently killed off and would have never returned. 

That was the idea ultimately anyway; it was only due to fan demand after his death that he got brought back in Heroes, IIRC. 

[Diogenes]

6 minutes ago, ShroomZ said:

I'm gonna guess that if Shadow showed up as one of those concept appearances and was supposed to be some biological chaos-ensue monster in the final game, he probably would have been permanently killed off and would have never returned. 

Ah, if only...

Seriously though, those proto-Shadows look kinda goofy but they do make me wonder what it'd be like if things had gone differently, if they had stuck closer to some of their earlier ideas and kept more focus on Shadow being a "dark Sonic". It's probably a bit of a "grass is always greener on the other side" thing but I wonder if things would've turned out better.

[Sonikko]

37 minutes ago, Tracker said:

Worth mentioning, Shadow's concept art shows him with downward spikes; however:

That's just how they handled front-facing shots then. So logically, he'd look something like this:

...suddenly I can see why GUN could mistake him for Sonic. 

Where is that Sonic artwork from? I have never seen it!

[Osmium]

8 minutes ago, Tracker said:

That was the idea ultimately anyway; it was only due to fan demand after his death that he got brought back in Heroes, IIRC. 

Yeah, I remember that now. I'm betting that if he had the concept design very little to no people would have asked for his return though XP 

[Meta77]

3 minutes ago, Sonikko said:

Where is that Sonic artwork from? I have never seen it!

Most likely something sonic adventure 2 related. As tails is in his running pose from the game. I am pretty sure thats the pose he is in.....

[Osmium]

7 minutes ago, Diogenes said:

Ah, if only...

Seriously though, those proto-Shadows look kinda goofy but they do make me wonder what it'd be like if things had gone differently, if they had stuck closer to some of their earlier ideas and kept more focus on Shadow being a "dark Sonic". It's probably a bit of a "grass is always greener on the other side" thing but I wonder if things would've turned out better.

Yeah, I'm honestly getting quite curious about what it all what have been like if they went with one of those Proto-Shadows myself. 

[Sonikko]

5 minutes ago, Meta77 said:

Most likely something sonic adventure 2 related. As tails is in his running pose from the game. I am pretty sure thats the pose he is in.....

Yup, I think it's from a magazine preview, I was curious since I have a huge collection of artworks.

[Treacher]

8 hours ago, Azoo said:

Fun fact for everyone here:

On Sonic Retro, there were reports once of an interview had about Sonic Adventure 2 in a gaming magazine around 2000/2001 that talked about how the game's development was coming along. Within talking about it, there was mentioned concept artwork of a Shadow with a missing eye (and some notes of missing appendages??), Rouge's original name being Nails, and a theme where Shadow was literally a Chaos-esque monster with themes based around angels and demons (with Maria being an angel of some sort??). This also probably explains why the Biolizard feels like a tacked on idea, as I don't believe it was to be the final boss!

It was all so bizarre that despite it sounding all too interesting, no one could find the source to those claims (the interview seems lost to time). So people threw it under the bridge as fan fiction and didn't think about it actually having any factual info to it... until now, where Shadow's concept art reveals him with a scarred, single eye!

So yeah, guys. Shadow was gonna be way different than he ended out. Be thankful for what you got... or not.

That instantly came to mind when I saw Shadow's concept art confirming the report. I would have looked for it, but as you said, it was more along the lines of an unconfirmed rumor/possible misinterpretation, and I didn't have the time to trawl through Retro to look for it.

Shadow turning into a chaos-esque monster, which was then possibly retooled as the Biolizard; the series touched upon angelic vs demonic themes again what with the Digital Dimension, Ifrit, both versions of Iblis, and Dark Gaia/Light Gaia/Chip, etc. But when you think about it, is it possible that Shadow's initial and more bizarre role elements were reused in Heroes & 06?:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06A03tTyIyg

Even with Chaos' (and Shadow's data) I'm sure I wasn't the only one weirded out by Sonic Team making him into a giant, flying, metal dragon as the game's final boss. His reveal, and Omega & the Shadow Androids' origin stories were very brief and somewhat ambiguous, especially before Shadow's game shed a little more light on the latter. Heroes' comparatively minimalist story just left me wanting to know the when and how concerning Metal Sonic's eventual rebellion after last being seen in a tube in Eggman's Final Egg Base, his newfound absorption powers, and just everything else about the specifics regarding Omega's creation and Eggman's recovery (& subsequent copying of) Shadow.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_2K3dpU1ms

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhBZ9Z4uENw

Let's see, has a liquid form and can contort his body like Chaos, especially with more emeralds. Transforms into an angelic/demonic being in the end, pic related is made up of summoned beings with one eye and one of his forms has undefined feet, 'stiches' on his eyes, and a missing mouth...He even acts as the purely evil counterpart with Shadow getting wrongfully imprisoned as a callback to Sonic getting arrested by G.U.N. in SA2.

Edit:

TSS: Out of all the enemy characters you have created, which would you say is your favourite (Metal Sonic excluded!).

Kazuyuki Hoshino: Although he’s not as much of an enemy anymore, I’d definitely have to say Shadow the Hedgehog.

https://www.sonicstadium.org/2013/08/sos13-kazuyuki-hoshino-interview/

So, that's three people involved with Shadow's creation in SA2. Takashi Iizuka with the concept, Yuji Uekawa for the finalized illustrations, and apparently, Hoshino, in some form. Make it four, if you want to count Shiro Maekawa, as he wrote SA2's story.

(Additional tidbit about Maria in that interview, too)

 

 

[Tracker_TD]

49 minutes ago, Sonikko said:

Where is that Sonic artwork from? I have never seen it!

From SEGA MAGA, some kind of JP SEGA magazine. 

 

[Jango]

And from where are these concepts coming from?? And why just now?

[Treacher]

11 minutes ago, Jango said:

And from where are these concepts coming from?? And why just now?

I think they coincided with the Joyopolis event for the 25th anniversary.