Art Assessment - 2026-07-09#

Palette Target#

The target palette is best described internally as a "sunlit Appalachian comic palette": bright naturalist comic color with warm cream interiors, clean sky blue, soft mint, workwear navy, coral/brick accents, leaf green, honeyed wood, warm white, and matte black linework. The strongest references are CHAR-002_jerry-collins_portrait_v02.png and CHAR-007_marlene-walker_portrait_v02.png.

Use CHAR-CORE_doug-jerry-barry_lineup_v04.png as the current default lineup for Doug, Jerry, and Barry. It preserves the v03 physical designs while moving the trio toward the Jerry v02/Marlene v02 color key. The v03 file remains useful for checking the original physical-design source, but its gray character-sheet background and muddy low-key palette should not be treated as the color target.

Update Queue#

Priority 1 - Update#

CHAR-002_jerry-collins_portrait_v03.png: Canonically useful pose and equipment, but v02 has the better series color. Rebuild from v03's practical silhouette with v02's daylight, cream wall, clear blue, and clean utility environment.
CHAR-003_barry_portrait_v03.png: Strong current Barry body and correct cyan/amber status-light identity. Needs brighter workshop color and less brown-black atmosphere so Barry reads as a funny improvised machine, not a horror prop.

Priority 2 - Consider Refresh#

CHAR-005_heather-alvarez_portrait_v04.png: Better authored than v03 for the current full-figure character set, but the tavern is dark and brown-heavy. Refresh if the character page should feel visually unified with Jerry v02 and Marlene v02. Keep curls, turquoise blouse, red apron, notebook, pearls, and grounded authority.
CHAR-006_leon-peaches-mercer_portrait_v03.png: Mostly acceptable. The daylight loading dock, sky, mountains, turquoise truck accents, and orange strap already sit near the target palette. A later polish pass could soften the concrete grime and make the scene feel more cared-for.
CHAR-008_calvin-reed_portrait_v03.png: Strong canon props and expression, but the interior leans brown/radio-room dark. Refresh when doing a portrait unification pass; use the v02 window light, cream walls, and teal file-cabinet accents while keeping the older, composed body design.

Keep For Now#

CHAR-001_doug-walker_portrait_v05.png: Keep as Doug's current standalone portrait. It preserves his software-engineer-first design, laptop bag, notebook, marker, practical layers, tired eyes, and ordinary silhouette while replacing the v04 raised-hand tavern-booth pose with a brighter diagnostics-bench stance.
CHAR-CORE_doug-jerry-barry_lineup_v04.png: Keep as the current source for the homepage/core trio lineup. It preserves Doug, Jerry, and Barry's v03 physical designs while replacing the gray character-sheet treatment with a brighter warm-cream workshop/interior palette.
CHAR-002_jerry-collins_portrait_v02.png: Keep as primary palette reference. It may be superseded by a new Jerry only if that new image preserves its clean daylight and color language.
CHAR-007_marlene-walker_portrait_v02.png: Keep as primary palette reference and Marlene's current portrait. It is the clearest example of the desired high-key, warm municipal interior.
CHAR-006_leon-peaches-mercer_portrait_v02.png: Keep as an alternate color reference for Peaches; it is brighter and cleaner than v03, though v03 has a more specific logistics stance.
CHAR-008_calvin-reed_portrait_v02.png: Keep as an alternate palette reference for Calvin; it is brighter and more aligned with the target, though the face/body age and prop read should be checked against canon before reuse.
ENM-001_cadence-rider_portrait_v05.png: Keep. It already uses bright Bellwether exterior color while allowing black/violet alien-cult contrast.
ENM-002_gravel-deacon_enemy-sheet_v02.png: Keep as the current Gravel Deacon sheet. It replaces the v01 hat and gritty beige-gray treatment with a man bun, cleaner D.A.G.G.E.R.S. armor, cultivated gravel bike, ceramic caltrops, and root-snare behavior insets.
LOC-001_randys-tavern_exterior_v02.png: Keep. It is the strongest broad environment color key: sunny sky, bright street, warm brick, turquoise storefronts, leaf green, and active but cared-for Bellwether life.

Archive / Do Not Use As Direction#

archive/CHAR-CORE_doug-jerry-barry_lineup_v02.png: Superseded by v03 for Doug's software-engineer-first redesign and Barry/Jerry grouping.
archive/CHAR-003_barry_portrait_v02.png: Superseded by v03's stronger compact body identity, unless needed as a workshop-color caution/reference.
archive/CHAR-005_heather-alvarez_portrait_v03.png: Superseded by v04's stronger full-figure continuity. It is cleaner in some color areas but more photo/airbrush adjacent and less consistent with the inked set.
archive/CHAR-007_marlene-walker_portrait_v03.png: Superseded by v02 as Marlene's current portrait and palette reference. V03 is too brown and cluttered for the standard portrait set.
archive/ENM-001_cadence-rider_portrait_v04.png: Superseded by v05, which better integrates the character into Bellwether and the Hop Collective visual language.

Generation Guidance#

For new or replacement character art, prompt for detailed comic-realist ink illustration, confident tapering outlines, fine crosshatch, flat naturalistic color, matte paper texture, clear daylight or warm practical interior light, and a cared-for Bellwether setting. Explicitly avoid muddy gray sheet backgrounds, sepia/brown dominance, gritty decay, dark tavern lighting as the default, photorealism, 3D render, flat vector style, and overloaded gear.

The files under website/site/assets/ are published derivatives of source files in art/; update them only after source replacements are chosen and the site is rebuilt.

The section-art files under website/section-art/read-last-call-at-randys/ are a separate web vignette/chrome system. They use darker navy, tavern red, and yellow accent bars on purpose for chapter rhythm. Do not treat them as the portrait-palette target, but do refresh 01.png if Doug's portrait is replaced because 01.svg uses that panel crop behind its frame.