Original Beetrice B.E Model Sheet, 1930s
A model sheet, the text reads: Beeatrice concept art. Beeatrice is drawn curtsying, holding her face with surprise, and crying. Notes on the page read “Still needs less details, reserve those for close ups” “Spiras look better when are facing different directions” “Push poses and line of action” and “Eyes are round and full of life, eyelashes are not optional”
Another model sheet of Beetrice with the text “Beeatrice Concept art” It displays beetrice singing, following a smaller bee, hiding behind a large flower, preening with pride, and a closeup of her eerie toothless smile and big eyes.
One of if not the oldest model sheets for Beetrice B.E. You can see just how early this was in her design process by the fact that her name was spelt with an A in it before they eventually settled on the official spelling. Even in a still image, these sketches are full of life and character that let you see hints of the sweet and charming personality Beetrice would eventually develop. She looks exceptionally squishy and soft here, like she's made of honey! An excellent use of squash and stretch.
It's interesting to see official art of Beetrice crying, even if these were just meant to be reference material. I don't know if I've ever seen any other Bartlebee materials where Beetrice was upset to the point of tears. As a mascot, she was of course meant to be cheery and bright, I can’t imagine it would be that appealing if the fairy selling you candies was crying over it. Still it feels refreshing to see more to her character than the same cookie cutter smile and pleasant expression, it makes her feel more alive.
*Here I would like to note that, in some of the first Beetrice related articles we ever posted to this site was a different model sheet that I labelled as "the first Beetrice". With these new materials, we were able to do more research into Beetrice's development and figured out that the old model sheet we had was actually a fake. Extremely disappointing, there seems to be way more fake Bartlebee artifacts out there than I ever imagined there would be for a defunct candy company. I'm sorry for any confusion this might have caused. We're going to be much more diligent about double and triple checking things like this in the future.