Ken Capelli

Teef’s evolution.

“Q“‘s sketch development. Prior to these stages shown here, “Q” went through a bunch of old-school tracing-paper overlay refinements before being scanned in for digital iteration and coloring.

The Killa Beez villain, Dr. Fuggbucker. His vague backstory is: bent on revenge due to horrendous disfigurement from a killer bee attack. I’m pretty sure he has an eastern European accent, and liked to think that under the mask he was just a meaty skull. Not very developed, we just needed a first-pass villain image.

The hot queen bee for Killa Beez, “Q”. Fun to draw, you know.

“Massiv” for Killa Beez. The tats were a late addition, done in the same pass as “Teef“‘s scumminess to give the big guy some distinction.

This is “Teef” for Killa Beez. He went through a few revisions (which I’ll put up soon) but hit his stride when he became seedier. It’s a bit overdone at this stage but makes the point.

Character sketch for another pitch, Killa Beez. Urban bees. You know. Anyway, a rhythm-based open-world flying game (we just can’t keep it simple, can we?) where you, the bee, are trying to cause as much choreographed Rube-Goldberg-like mayhem as possible in a suburban neighborhood.

The prior Art Director and Project Lead went through a few rounds of character designs with a variety of artists without quite hitting the right note. When I came on I got hands on and hit a lot closer to the mark. None of these designs were close to final and would have gone through revisions had the project continued past the early pitch/ prototype phase.

This one is (wait for it) “Ali Bee”.

Some of the first thumbnails for Killa Beez, starting with the original silhouette of a squat, stocky bee (upper left) who became Teef, with the musculature given solely to Massiv for silhouette differentiation.

Massiv’s progress.

Ali Bee’s progress.