BONUS CONTENT: Art Process “Snow Job” #1 cover, Pt 1

by on March 18, 2010 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Blog Entries

For the next batch of Bonus Content, I thought it would be fun to show my art process. I’ll probably do this every now and then and have each installment run over several posts, with each post showing one step of the process. I figured the cover to “The Big Snow Job” #1 would make a good page for the inaugural Process content…

Here we have the thumbnails that I did for the cover. As far as thumbnails go, these are MUCH more polished than what I usually do. My typical thumbnails are really loose scribbles that only I can decipher. And I kinda have to get them into pencils within a few days or so. Anything longer than that and even I have a hard time remembering what was what. Anyway, these thumbnails are a bit more legible.

The main thing I wanted to do was showcase the cast in their snow outfits. I wanted the characters to be a bit static and very prominent since I knew I’d be using the image as a costume reference guide for myself in drawing the story arc. Plus, I figured the other covers could deal with the action. I thought a solid group shot would be a nice way to showcase the characters again after a bit of a long hiatus.

The bulk of the concepts just revolve around different angles and standing order. I briefly toyed with the idea of working in the frozen goat alien to add a little drama to the scene, but ultimately, I decided that since that was going to be the opening image of the issue itself, I didn’t want to duplicate it right on the cover.

I ended up going with a mix of #3 (upper right) and #5 (lower middle), with the characters standing by a rock wall, but without Sky standing apart from the others. I kinda felt like Roka should be the clear focus of the cover since he’s the leader. The prominence of Sky in #3 felt like it was splitting the focus a bit, so I worked her in with the rest of the crew.

Next up, the inking stage…

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BONUS CONTENT: Sky Turnaround

by on March 11, 2010 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Blog Entries

For Sky, the outfit is probably reminiscent of Princess Leia’s Hoth outfit. I can’t say I deliberately intended it to be, but that’s sometimes the problem with people like me who grew up on Star Wars. The images become so iconic over time, that you actually start to lose track of what’s “normal” and what’s been burned into your brain by repeated viewings. For instance, when I think “female snow outfit,” I think “quilted pattern.” But I have no idea if that’s actually a common look for real-world snow parkas or if I just think it is because of Leia’s Hoth outfit. The white color is most definitely not inspired by Leia though since I had already decided long ago that all of Sky’s outfits would be predominantly white since I really like that white-on-blue look.

I deliberately wanted the types of fur to be a bit different between characters. So while Roka has a bit longer fur in his hat and collar, Sky has much shorter-hair, fuzzier fur on her outfit. It just seemed like a softer, more feminine look. Of course, Cember has that same soft, fuzzy fur on his outfit as well. Masculine? No. And yet, very Cember.

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BONUS CONTENT: Bocce Turnaround

by on March 4, 2010 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Blog Entries

As I mentioned in a previous post, with Bocce, I wanted his snow outfit to be very similar in style to his regular clothing. So it sticks to the same black and white palette, with the three wraparound bands at the abdomen. I thought the alternating clasps was an interesting look to go with those three bands.

Bocce’s coat collar is a nod to Star Trek, specifically Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. I love the uniform designs in that movie and really love the jackets/coats that Kirk, McCoy, and Saavik wear when investigating the space station Regula I. The collar here is directly inspired by the collars on those Regula I jackets.

For the most part, I try to portray characters realistically as far as gun holsters and belts go. Generally, when they’re lounging around the ship, they aren’t armed, since I figure a gun belt has to be a bit clunky to wear all the time. Only when they’re headed for a potentially dangerous situation do they get strapped up with weapons. So a lot of the scenes in The Big Snow Job don’t actually show Bocce fully decked out with his gun belt, as shown here.

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BONUS CONTENT: Roka Turnaround

by on February 25, 2010 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Blog Entries

For Roka’s snow outfit, I wanted to stick with his established style of elongated vertical shapes, so I gave him a long coat with vertical banding to accentuate the length. The pouches on his belt also have long flaps to continue the motif. I threw in the horizontal bands on the sleeves to break up the verticals a little and also because I just thought it might be an interesting look to have these slight bulges of fabric between each band on the arms.

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New Posting Schedule

by on February 18, 2010 at 8:40 pm
Posted In: Blog Entries

In order to stay ahead of schedule and transition seamlessly from RUNNERS: The Big Snow Job into the next arc, I have decided to reduce new page posts to once a week, starting with issue #3. Instead of the current Monday and Thursday schedule, new pages of story will post on Mondays.

This was a tough decision, but ultimately, I decided that for a webcomic, consistency in schedule would be crucial to keeping and building a strong readership. At the current 2 pages/week rate, there would have to be a long break online between the end of the current story arc and the beginning of the next one, and I didn’t want the readers to suffer that long a hiatus. So hopefully, the new schedule will result in no interruption between stories.

And the change isn’t necessarily bad news, as I will continue with Thursday posts every week. The second weekly post won’t be story content but will be behind-the-scenes posts. The content will range from character turnarounds, to prop and ship diagrams, to concept sketches, to process documents that show my method of working. This will all be in addition to the commentary I’m still providing with each posted story page. So I hope you’ll check out both posts each week!

Thanks to everyone who voiced their comments and votes on the “Feedback Needed” thread. Your feedback was a great help!

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