When I set out to design Maeve, all I knew was that I wanted a little witch to fit in with a whimsical, magical world. On the way, her story became so much bigger.
Inspiration and Worldbuilding
Maeve fits into the same world as some characters that I first conceived of in 2017. Lita the bear girl and Mirabelle the witch were two characters I started to draw purely for fun. In 2018, I decided to use them to participate in an online drawing challenge called “Inktober,” where participants create one drawing every day in October based on a series of provided prompts. I wanted to tell a story using the prompts, and on day fourteen I created a new character, Heddwch, based on the prompt “Clock.”
Initial Ideation and Sketches
My initial idea for Maeve was simply "A little witch who lives in the woods". Along the way, I determined she would be good at gardening but not particularly good at magic, even after almost ten years of study in isolation.
The core of her story can be summed up as this: "She left a community to seek her purpose, but she cannot find it alone."
Color Testing
Refined Poses
About Maeve
Maeve Briar always knew she wanted to be a witch. She had two simple reasons: she loved magic, and she was terrified of people. Everyone knows that all witches lead isolated lives in the woods, so the decision was an extremely easy one. As soon as she turned eighteen, she packed up all her things, said goodbye to her parents, and went off to the woods to find a cottage of her own.
Unfortunately, there’s still one small problem, even nearly a decade later. Maeve isn’t very good at magic. She can do some small spells, sure. She’s gotten the hang of creating lights and making a few potions, but nothing like the powerful sorcerers of legend. She can’t even do a simple warding spell to keep the squirrelamanders out of her garden!
One day, one of those pesky garden pests runs off with her favorite hat. She chases after it, and what she finds leads her on the adventure of a lifetime...
A Defining Moment
The clock-faced girl stumbles, crestfallen and out of breath, unable to keep up with the thieving squirrelamander. She sinks onto a nearby log to catch her breath. Her sad ticking blends into the sounds of the deep evening forest.
Maeve stops next to her, equally out of breath. “Wow, you… you ran faster than I expected you would…” She says between panting. The clock-faced girl doesn’t respond.
The witch creates a flameless fire to bring some light into the rapidly darkening forest, and then she sits down next to the other girl. “I’m sorry we couldn’t catch up to it… First my hat, now your necklace. Those squirrelamanders are a real problem.” Maeve looks around, trying to pinpoint where in the woods they are and failing. “Oh… We followed that thing a really long way. I don’t… I don’t think I’ve ever
been this deep in the woods. Have you?”
been this deep in the woods. Have you?”
The clock-faced girl looks around for the first time since sitting down and realizes that she, too, does not know where they are. She shrieks in alarm, then buries her face in her hands, trying to keep herself calm.
“Oh, oh no. It’s—it’s okay! Don’t worry!” Maeve frantically looks around to see if there’s anything she can do to comfort the girl. “Hey, um, H-Heddwch, was it?” She hesitates saying the girl’s name, worried she might be mispronouncing it, but the clock-faced girl nods. “Don’t worry, Heddwch, it’s going to be okay. I’ll… I’ll find us a way back home. I promise.”