BONUS CONTENT: Sketchbook: Roka Costume
As usual, some of the crew got new costumes for this story arc.
For Roka, his shirt and cummerbund usually stay pretty similar and basic, with most of the design work going into the long vest on top. I liked the long vertical inward-facing tabs, which gave the vest a very distinctive look, and I especially liked having the other elements (shoulder lines, pockets, and side patches) all line up with those tabs, so that design ended up being the one.
In volumes 1 and 2, Roka’s costumes were usually in the warmer color range (reds, oranges, browns), so I wanted to try him in a cooler color this time around. I kept his shirt the usual neutral/tan color but played around with a few combinations of blues for the vest. I quickly settled on option #1 since the values seemed to work best with his skin color.
For a more thorough breakdown, including sketches of Ril’s costume for Volume 3, please check out my Patreon. This post will be public, so anyone can view it without being a backer. If you’d like to back the series on Patreon for more bonus content like this one, support is always very much appreciated!
Something I just remembered I wanted to ask is if Roka is really worn down for his species/age? For example, beyond the crow’s feet and worry lines, would another member of his species that is not living a stressful life as a runner have more vivid purple skin and sharper tusks?
As for the tabs, I love those. It looks like something really functional, like they clasp to each other when closed and provide a really solid closure while the split above and below keep the garment flexible and comfortable as well as neat.
I actually don’t consider Roka physically old or worn down. He looks a bit wrinkly, but that’s more because I envisioned his race as having skin somewhat like an elephant’s (he also has elephant-like feet). So it’s more of a comic shorthand for that kind of wrinkly skin, but not an indication of age.
On that note, how old are the crew relative to each other and their species lifespans? Bocce is obviously pretty young but what about the others?
That brings up an entire quandary of how to even approximate Sky’s age. Is she the age of what she was cloned/cultured/created from? (i.e.; they made a blue near human superwoman and copied her when she was 23 years old, so all Sky iterations are 23 plus whatever) The culturing time? Time since emergence?
We find out Sky’s age is since she debuted in the first volume and so she’s under a year old.
Then we find out Cember and Bennesaud are actually like some elder trickster squid god and a rock man from beyond time. Their ages can’t be approximated. XD
Hmm. Interesting questions. I haven’t really given too much thought to the crew’s exact ages and life spans, other than them all being “adult,” whatever that means. I imagine Sky as being roughly 17-18 (typical YA protagonist range) and Bocce only slightly older, maybe 22-ish? Some of the questions re: Sky will definitely be answered as the series progresses though!
Oooh, interesting! I honestly never pegged Sky as that young? (Errr, ‘mechanically’, of course. I know if we were talking literally, she’d be around, like, possibly 2 at max if we stretch it LOL!)
I always viewed her as mechanically mirroring Bocce’s age exactly, which I’ve viewed as “Very, very recently turned 21, but no one wants to admit he’s grown up old enough to drink yet and still bar him from it”, haha~
With everyone else in my brain viewed as:
Roka & Grissom:Late 30s to early 40s
Ril: Early to mid 30s
Cember: mid 30s, (but ultimately older then Ril)
Bennesaud: Late 30s