Here we have some sketches I did for Free Kespa, the run-down space station that Roka and company go to in The Big Snow Job #1, Page 15 to meet with Dhama Hes about a job. I knew I wanted the station to have three prongs to it, radiating from a central hub, so the design went fairly quickly.

I thought it might make sense to have the central hub be the main docking area for ships just looking for light supplies or a bit of R&R. I imagined the prongs to be the equivalent of granaries or depots, where major restocking supplies would be kept for larger ships in need of more goods. I’m guessing at this point, those depots have been long since emptied and converted into ramshackle slums and shady businesses.

There’s probably a Starbucks there too.

The design for Dhama Hes (The Big Snow Job #1, Page 18) was a lot of fun as I wanted him to be very alien and creepy. So I played with some odd proportions (like the very high waist such that he practically has no torso) and weird textures (like the knobby hand palms and mass of thin tentacles for the lower body). And there was something about the spinal ridge on his back shell that was kinda unnerving to me, since it had the appearance of exposed vertebrae.

Looking at the sketches again now, I apparently meant to do some sort of spotted pattern on portions of the upper body shell and arms. Whoops. That’s the problem with leaving some things out at the pencil and ink stage. There’s a good chance I might forget to do those details when I actually get to the coloring stage many months later. Oh well.

Ahh, the last remnants of my MIT architectural schooling. Money well spent!

These are the floor plans I drew up many, many years ago, before I started the artwork on the first RUNNERS story arc. I needed to figure out the layout of the ship so that things would make sense once I got to drawing the interiors.

A few things to note: right behind the cockpit, the plans show a small nook with a console station. At the time I thought it would be a nice halfway station between the common area and the cockpit, but in reality, the distance isn’t that great that it would need a halfway point. I’ve since changed it to a small cot, which makes a bit more sense. Anyone on flight duty can take a nap there if necessary, but still be just a few steps away from the cockpit if any emergencies arise.

On the cargo level, I figured the freighter originally had three cargo bays: a big one towards the front, with two smaller ones behind it. Roka at some point converted one of them to a medical bay and additional bedroom. Unlike the bedrooms up top, this larger one is meant to accommodate two people, so that would be Cember and Bennesaud.

All of the Mosquito-related bits are modifications added by Roka, which includes the spacesuit storage, armory, Mosquito link, and the Mosquito itself. The standard version of the Movian freighter obviously doesn’t need the extra shuttle/fighter, so those parts were specifically added to the Brimia due to the hazardous nature of their work.

Bear in mind that this is a pretty old schematic, so I may be changing some things. For one, maybe each bedroom will have its own small bathroom. The single communal bathroom seems a bit odd for a ship housing so many people. But then I guess it could make for some nice scenes of Sky walking back to her room in a towel after a shower.

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.

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!

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.

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.

For Cember’s snow outfit, I did like the idea of the radiating flaps on the bottom (sketch #2) since they seemed reminiscent of his lower body tentacles, but ultimately, the design just felt a bit too busy. The final design feels more streamlined while still being fashionable, as per Cember’s aesthetic.

And here we have the final design for Cember’s snow cloak as well, which ended up being shortened into a half-cloak. More like a poncho, really. Again, that just seemed a bit more fashionable for Cember than a full length cloak like Roka and Ril’s. The blue clasp and puffballs added that last little bit of flair. Because with Cember, it’s all about the flair.

Additional notes can be found in the commentary for The Big Snow Job #2, Page 4.

I settled on Ril’s outfit pretty easily (I love when that happens!). Different textures are important to me in terms of adding variety to outfits, so for Ril, I thought a fine vertical ribbed pattern would be a nice way to make his outfit visually different. And, as mentioned earlier, that ribbed look was also derived from his hat, which had already been established in the flashback sequence from Bad Goods.

For Bennesaud, I wanted to give him a little something for this story arc in the form of a belt of pouches. I very briefly considered a bandolier across the torso, but quickly decided that that would be too Chewbacca. I always liked the look of military pouches across the stomach, so that pretty quickly became Bennesaud’s look.

To make Bennesaud’s belt a little more visually interesting (to me, at least), I made the pouches different sizes, so there’s one big pouch on the back, three small ones in the front, and three medium-sized ones on either side. The idea with the really big pouch is that maybe Bennesaud keeps Cember’s snow cloak in there for him since Cember doesn’t have his own bag in this arc. Not really sure the cloak would all fit in there, but that was the intent.

Additional notes for Ril can be found in the commentary for The Big Snow Job #2, Page 1.

Additional notes for Bennesaud can be found in the commentary for The Big Snow Job #2, Page 4.

Early on, I toyed with the idea of Sky having a snow cloak/poncho like everyone else, but eventually I abandoned the idea since her outfit is mostly white anyway, so she didn’t really need the camouflage. I also considered a form-fitting hood but realized the exposed long hair was a bit more feminine, which suited the look of her character more. Plus, long hair is something I can draw blowing to the side to convey windy weather, if need be.

I mentioned in the previous post that I like to use different textures, and that also applied to the fur in the snow outfits, which I wanted to be slightly different between characters. So Sky and Cember have very fine fur in their detailing, while Roka’s hat trim and coat collar are a longer, shaggier fur. For the record, the short fur is much easier to draw. I’m just saying.

Additional notes can be found in the commentary for The Big Snow Job #2, Page 4.

It’s nice when you have an established look for a character since subsequent outfits can just draw inspiration from that look. That was certainly the case with Bocce, whose snow outfit was heavily derived from the look of his regular outfit.

I think I pretty much covered Bocce’s outfit in the commentary for The Big Snow Job #2, Page 2.

Another convention has come and gone and that means more con sketches! Here are two commissions I did recently at the 2010 Baltimore Comic-Con.

The first one was for a “Firefly”-themed sketchbook. I find certain characters, like Mal, Zoe, and Jayne, to be a little easier to cartoonify since they have such distinctive features. Kaylee was a much tougher one for me. But I really wanted to draw a character holding some RUNNERS stuffed animals, and Kaylee seemed like the right one to do it. Later in the show, I was talking to David Petersen (Mouse Guard) and telling him about the sketch, and he quickly mentioned that it would have been funny to have drawn Jayne with the stuffed animals. And dammit, I think he’s right.

The second sketch was for a DC Comics-themed sketchbook. I basically grew up on Marvel, so to be honest, I’m not all that familiar with the DC universe, but I’m a sucker for the Batman villains. For some reason, I’ve always really liked the Ventriloquist. Something about a nebbish guy who shouldn’t be intimidating but has a psychosis and alter ego that controls him. And that alter ego being a puppet. Because if I were crazy, I would totally act out through a puppet.

Anyway, after seeing this sketch, another attendee asked for The Ventriloquist as well for a sketch card to add to his collection. So I guess other people like The Ventriloquist as well.

For this year’s Baltimore Comic-Con, I finally decided it was time to ditch my old-school PVC-pipe booth display monstrosity and go for one of them new-fangled retractable banners that everyone seems to have nowadays. I figured it would be a good time to whip up a completely new banner image as well, and the next few Bonus Material posts will show the various stages of the art process for that image.

I did a bit of research before starting the thumbnails and I found that the most striking banners I saw were the simplest. Generally, a single figure pops much more than a group of characters. But with RUNNERS, I didn’t really think that approach would work, given the heavy emphasis of my series on the motley crew of different aliens. Just showing one or two of them wouldn’t really get that across. I also felt I needed the ship in there to make sure it came across as a sci-fi series, so I basically went into the thumbnails knowing it would be a pretty busy piece of art.

For the most part, I stuck with variations of one full-body character (Roka), surrounded by all the other characters. I did toy around with a couple Drew Stuzan-y compositions (#3 & 4), but they just ended up compounding the already busy look. Ultimately, I decided to settle on one of the full-body compositions since I figured that full body would at least give the banner a strong focal point.

I really like the three horizontal bands in the background and especially liked the idea of certain characters breaking the borders of their own bands and spilling over on top of others, just to add a bit of visual flair. I also knew I wanted a good chunk of the bottom to be relatively empty of important art since that area would tend to fall below the eye line of a con attendee once the banner was set up behind my table at a show.

In the end, I settled on thumbnail #2, but with one major change, as you’ll see in the next post…

FYI, the final banner image has a very long vertical dimension, so rather than post obnoxiously long vertical images, I decided to double them up, to make the overall image more squarish. So lucky you, each week you’ll be getting two for the price of one!

Here we have the pencil and ink stages. As you can see, I went with my favorite layout from the previous Thumbnails post, but I switched Roka out for Sky as the central figure. I did it because (a) she will become increasingly important to the central story of the series as it develops, and (b) it’s always nice to have an eye-catching cute female character front and center. It definitely seems like comic fans (both male and female) love their female characters, almost as much as most artists seem to enjoy drawing them. So I guess everybody’s happy! Well, except Ril, who ended up stuck behind her ankle. Sorry, Ril.

As a compositional consideration, I deliberately wanted the character on the bottom left (which ended up being Roka) to be the largest of the background characters. I knew the bottom would be very close to the eye-line cut-off once the banner was set up behind a convention table, so I wanted to make sure there was something a tad bigger to “mark” that edge of the main image. So all the characters are visually bracketed vertically between Roka and the Khoruysa Brimia. I think if Roka were smaller, it would have felt like the art was just “running out” towards the bottom and not “contained.”

Random note: the image obviously isn’t meant to be scene specific, but eagle-eyed readers may notice that they’re all wearing their outfits from the Arqq-Olem port and the root beetle dinner scene from The Big Snow Job #1. Basically, I was in a major time crunch and didn’t feel like designing all new outfits just for this one image. And I really liked all those Arqq-Olem outfits, so I figured, why not?

Next up, resizing and color flats…

So here we have the display banner digitally tweaked to its full dimensions of 33.5” x 79.” Like I said in the previous post: very long vertical dimension! At the Resize stage, I added the logo and text to make sure there was room for everything before I started on the coloring. The two gray bars are overlay guides I used to mark non-image areas. The top bar was about 1’ in height and marks the area allotted for the logo and text. Obviously, I wanted the RUNNERS logo at the very top so that’s what you’d be able to see from across the room. The bottom bar is about 2’ and marks the area that I figured would be obscured by a table set up in front of it. So I didn’t want any essential art falling below that line, but at the same time, I still wanted there to be some kind of art there. From the thumbnails, I had decided that the best solution would be a nice space scene: nice to look at, but nothing essential.

With the Color Flats stage, I decided to make each horizontal bar a different color for easy selection purposes. I really had no idea what they’d end up being. I thought I might keep them different colors to call out the different bars of characters, or I might do something else with them. In either case, I’d worry about them after everything else…

Next up, color shading…