With this Bonus Feature, I’ll be returning to my Sketchbook concept designs for a bit, this time focusing on all of the snow outfits for the main cast.

In the Commentary for The Big Snow Job #2, Page 7 I mention the thought process behind the ponchos. Basically, I wanted all the individual snow outfits to be colorful, but some of the crew would also wear white ponchos or cloaks for part of the story since they would want to blend in with the snowy environment while following the rustlers.

I thought it would be fun to do a camouflage pattern on Roka and Ril’s ponchos, but ultimately, it made more sense to just keep them plain white. I always meant for Cember’s to be a bit different, since I figured he’d have his own, more stylish cloak, complete with puffballs!

I actually really like the bottom design quite a bit. I imagined it as a solid piece down the front and back, about shoulder width. A connected piece on top would then form flaps over the arms. It seems pretty practical to me in that in most normal body positions, the arm flaps are down, giving the wearer the same coverage as a standard poncho. But it allows for a greater degree of arm mobility since it’s not all one single piece that would keep the arms “trapped” underneath since the arm flaps could move independently of the main body covering. And that seemed like something that would come in handy for an action-prone crew.

Not sure why I didn’t go with that design in the end. Maybe I just wanted something a little simpler since (a) it’d be easier to draw, and (b) because I could also see Roka just having the most basic snow ponchos lying around. Nothing fancy. But I like the design enough that I might use it at some point.

And here we have the last examples of the art revisions I made to the Brimia scene from The Big Snow Job #1, Page 10. This shows the new railing I mentioned in the last post and how it’s a bit more interesting shape-wise than the original horizontal bar.

The corridor to the cockpit is pretty much the same, but the wall on the left always felt really weird and flat. The new version is still pretty flat, but the grooves at least break up the surface in a more interesting way, and the continuation of the blue trim makes it feel much more cohesive.

Overall, I really like the blue and gray palette of the interior in the new version. I originally went with the tan color to make the common area feel warmer and homier, but it just didn’t register as very sci-fi to me. Changing it to gray makes it seem more like what it is: metal. But there’s also a good amount of the blue to add some color and still keep the room feeling homey.

More examples of the art revisions I made to the Brimia scene from The Big Snow Job #1, Page 10. Like the trim everywhere else, the original skylight (or would that be “starlight?”) trim was way too thin, especially for a part of the ship that transitions from interior to outer space. As it is, it’s still a bit thin and I’ll most likely thicken it when it next shows up, but it’s definitely better. I think the grate ceiling adds a slightly industrial look, which I like infinitely better than the weird drop-ceiling of the old version.

With the lower panel, I didn’t change too much. It’s mostly the railing, which was just a tad boring. I thought the central arch shape and radiating bars would be more interesting since they would break up the background in certain angles more than that single horizontal bar would. Eagle-eyed readers may notice that I also changed the grate pattern on the ramp to have the same arch shape.

I also changed the random wall console into more of the blue storage locker shapes that run all around the room. Easier to draw!

The next few Bonus Feature posts will be a little different and focus on some art revisions I made to the Brimia scene that started on The Big Snow Job #1, Page 10. As I mentioned on that page’s commentary, for this story arc, I tweaked the details of the interior a bit to simplify things but then found the new design to be a bit too simple. So I went back and re-designed the interior again to get back to a more interesting sci-fi look.

This page shows two panels from that sequence, comparing the old versions with the revised versions. As you can see, the old ones just felt a bit too stucco-y and plain. There wasn’t a lot of geometry breaking up the large flat surfaces, and the trimwork around the doors and consoles was too thin.

Just a reminder that this weekend (July 9-11), I will be set up in the Artist Colony section of ConnectiCon (a predominantly anime, manga, and webcomic show) at the CT Convention Center in Hartford. Hope to see you there!