As I was watching a review for The Rhino and The Redbill by Retro Cartoon Review on YouTube (that I requested), I came across this mugshot of Niles and remembered about his icon from my 2020 "Inktober", and realized that maybe I should've used a better ref than just my memory (The pilot hasn't been completed at the time I made that icon), and that should go to a lot of my TRaTR drawings from last year or so. I specially think his horn looked off in earlier art I did for them. His head proportions also weren't ideal, kinda making him look more realistic (like his 2018/2019 design before the Kickstarter was relaunched and he got a makeover to look cartoonier).

Anyway, now that I have proper refs, I thought I'd remake at least this icon so our muscular and visually impaired fella looks more like himself, rather than a generic "furry" art style.

Drawing unfocused eyes is a pretty difficult task, because if done wrong your character looks dumb or insane (like EVERYBODY in Fish Hooks). Niles, alongside Toph from Avatar, are some of the few blind animated characters that don't wear sunglasses (the stereotypical depiction of this kind of people), and more often than not, seem to be in a permanent "blank stare". I wonder if it's common in real life as well?

One thing I wish I could ask the creator (which I won't ATM since he is busy with his own projects, and I don't want to hold him into this particular one) is that, IF (emphasis on IF) Tales from Scorchwater Valley does become a series in the future (he never specified a series, just "a jumpstart for producing more stuff with these characters". There was no guarantee the story would continue, but it would be awesome if it did), will it be in the same way Hazbin Hotel did (picked up by a network); or if it will be like Helluva Boss, which remains a series free-to-watch on YouTube. If it's the former, who knows what kind of changes the show would get? Hopefully they don't drastically change it to the point of alienation. If it's the latter, the release schedule for episodes could be consistent, and the creator's vision intact, but it might result in a shorter run (since there likely wouldn't have "fillers" to fill in the episode order a non-indie series would have), such as the case with "Wild House", "Monster Lab", "Inazma Delivery" and "Heneral Tuna" (which I recommend watching if you haven't already), which it isn't a bad thing, but that would probably result in irregular release schedules if the episodes continue being either 13 minutes like the pilot or full half hours, since there is the need for production time and all. Also, at least they wouldn't get a redesign, so I wouldn't have to do a THIRD FCN card for them.

Rambling about a month-old pilot over. But speaking of the other webseries I've mentioned, which one is your favorite? And if it's not on the list, tell me in the comments.

Yet again, property of (I'm still waiting for the update on the PT-BR subtitles I've made for the short!)